NEW DUNBURY

Much better than the last couple of chillers. We survived by finally managing, with no thanks to the instruction manual for the boiler, to get the radiant heat in the rental turned on, thereby staving off the sudden ice age.

On this beautiful last day of October, it looks like the blocks are all in place for the garage foundation. The concrete guys are installing the last of the brick iron and starting to lay out the brick itself for installation. It’ll give them something to do while the garage slab gets poured, I reckon.

Meanwhile:
The stone crew has laid the dust for the patio and are installing the first row of patio stones.

The framing crew has set and reinforced the guard wall for the loft, set in ceilings for the closet, bedroom-bath hall and guest shower, set up the last upstairs HVAC chase, and built the niche.

The HVAC guys have done the vertical component of that last run and set in the return that’ll run under the shower bench seat.

Yup, the change order is in on the guest bath. It’ll cost us, but it must be done or Crick will never forgive us.

We also did the final planning meet with our cabinet designer and signed off on the plan. Time to pay and set the woodworkers in motion.

We also pulled the trigger on the propane installation. Though, much like a matchlock musket, there’ll be a delay between pulling the trigger and having the gun fire. They’re supposed to have us set for a Nov. 14 propane rough-in. There’ll be a 250-gallon tank buried back of the house and a Rinnai tankless water heater on the south wall in the unfinished space. That’s not our preferred location, but there are issues with venting and code-required placement of vents. Other options required punching through the stucco, or being very visible on the front of the house, or conflicts with other services coming into the house, or some combination of the above.

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Well, the project got a schedule setback today. In working up the plans for the guest shower, I had failed to take proper account of just how much head space would be lost to the timbers and the covering over them to protect them from water in the shower. I didn’t realize this until last Thursday when I stood on the upper subfloor in the space where the shower was going to be. I barely fit. Not good.

So we are going to swap the shower and toilet areas in that bathroom. Unfortunately, this means ripping up the subfloor and re-doing the plumbing arrangement. There are HVAC considerations as well. And, of course, it will cost more. The change looks feasible but will be time-consuming and troublesome. But nowhere near as troublesome as that tiny, cramped shower was going to be. A change order will be issued and we will miss the planned rough-in inspection that was targeted for this Friday. That means pushing back the insulation guys, who can’t come until after the inspection, and they may or may not be able to make a short time-shift back. Arrrgh.

Work continues, however. On Friday I competed with the painting crew as I taped timber to protect it from the insulation guys while they sanded timber and ceiling boards. Liz and I were back on Saturday to finish the taping job. We didn’t, and I went on Sunday for the last bit. Only it isn’t the last bit. Michael thinks we need some more spread on the overspray protection. Guess I’ll be going back to do that sometime soon.

The concrete guys (can’t call them stucco guys any more since they’re the same crew that lays bricks and sets concrete block) are laying the blocks for the garage foundation. The first course is in. They finished enough of the brick on the back for the excavation crew to get in and finish up for the stone crew to start on the patio.

We signed the change order for the bedroom deck. If we hadn’t, the first step out the french doors would have been a long one.

The framing guys have gotten up the stub walls in the loft and were struggling with the upper part of the gallery wall when I was there. Turns out it doesn’t quite line up with the purlin above. There’s going to be some fancy work to set that upper wall.

And today the box fairy brought the kitchen sink. Not that we have “everything” yet, but at least we have the kitchen sink. Also on the ordering front, I pinged one of the suppliers to ask where half the order was. They said the items was no longer being made and they had, therefore, not included it in the shipment. Wonder when they were going to get around to telling me? So I’ve got an order in to another supplier who may have some. I was also told that we have no word yet on where our exterior doors are, but our interior doors have arrived at the local yard.

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I got a bunch of pictures up into the exterior, interior, mechanicals, and wildlife albums. The latter are all bugs, but interesting bugs. The turkey I saw on our property didn’t wait for me to take his picture and I didn’t have a camera on me when one of the guys evicted a small snake from the basement.

I also added an “artsy” shot to the “this land” album.

And below is the current state of the house. It’s “under wraps.”

I haven’t seen Michael for a couple of days, but the guys are still beavering away. Plywood continues being laid upstairs. The sleepers have been reinforced for where the gallery wall will be, and they’ve started cutting and setting the posts for the railing. Outside, they’ve starting setting brick. Excavation supporting that and the retaining walls continues. With all the cooks now heard from, we’re slightly modifying the wall program. (Yes, Eric, there will be stone for you to play with. I know you’re excited.) That’s the painting crew in the picture above. They’re patching and repriming today. Hope it’s not too damp for this kind of work.

Yesterday I took a collection odyssey. Riding my trusty steed Uhaulrentaltruck, I traveled to distant Richmond to collect the windows we bought on Saturday. Since I was there, I bought another one. And some wood to support the library shelves. And a concrete bench for the garden, or maybe the woods. Wherever it ends up, it’ll be nice.

When I got the truck to the site, there was another truck, a bigger truck, already playing around in the space in front of the house. It was delivering a dumpster bin. Once it was out of the way, I was able to get and and unload the loot. The storage trailer has a new lock, one that doesn’t leave any space to get a bolt cutter in on the locking arm. The site also has a new lock. The frontloader is getting parked accross the driveway at night now.

Yesterday also saw the ordering of the fireplace and the toilets. it was a busy day that left me really bushed, on top of having my sinuses react to the weather front coming in. I pretty much crashed yesterday evening.

The box fairy has renewed her visits. In fact some have just arrived. Gotta go see what. Bye.

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Sunday we decided to visit the site, only to discover that someone else had had a similar idea. Unfortunately, that someone else was definitely a member of the forces of chaos and anarchy. The lock on the chain was cut and so was the one on the storage trailer. Some tools were taken, but at least there was no vandalism on the house. The police came by this morning to make a report. Not a fun start for the week.

It puts a damper on the good news that, on Saturday, we scored some windows for the garage at a significant savings through Habitat for Humanity. I’m renting a truck tomorrow to go pick them up.

Things get better.

My headline implied Good visitation(s) and, indeed, we had one such today. The power company showed up and emplaced the power line. The house is now live!

Outside:
Over the weekend we made a choice of color for the trim. It’s called “shaded moss” (not that the name really matters) and is a medium dark green. It’ll be on all the soffits and trim boards as well as on the board-and-batten trim-out areas near the roof.

Excavations are in place on the west and along the front for the brick.

The stucco guys have completed phase one, all the way up to the chimney. The pump jacks are down and will soon be on their way to someone else’s job.

The roofers are fitting the last of the gutters as I type. The rain chains won’t be going up just yet, as the boxes that will tie them to the drain system aren’t yet in.

Inside:

Also over the weekend, we seem to have settled on the final appliance suite. Well, almost. The exact model of washer-dryer is still floating a little. But the important part is that, overall, we’ll be coming in on our projected budget — and getting some cool stuff.

We also had a session with our tile designer, updating the plans and dealing with the fact the one of our previous choices was discontinued. Picking tiles, with the billions of choices, ain’t easy. Picking suitably matching grout may be harder.

All the stud walls are up in the basement. Soffits still need framing.

The plywood is being laid for the upper story and Michael is laying out the first room.

After a consultation with our cabinetry guru, it looks like we’re going to get another “charming feature due to fitting modern conveniences into an old timber-frame house.” In order to get the double oven cabinet in, and clear the nearby window, part of the brace on the kitchen-utility room timber will be within the upper section of the cabinet, visible when the door is open and occluding some of the space within. Charming. No, really, I mean it. How much room do we need for trays anyway?

Tomorrow probably won’t see a lot done. Our builders are having a company-wide meeting in the morning. Michael is expecting to use the opportunity of “being in town” to check on where our exterior doors are. The suppliers are just down the street from the construction office, but you old New Dunsbury hands knew that from the Adventure of the Window Ordering.

That’s today’s news. As usual, I’m sitting on some progress photos. They’ll take a couple days to get processed on the current program. Stay tuned.

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It’s not been a quiet day in Lake Beaverbegone. Things have been hopping.

I was on site at 8 AM to meet with the electrician for a walk through of switch, outlet and fixture locations for the main floor. I got assigned some research work, needed ASAP, of course. Then it was answer some questions for the plumber. Followed by a little quality time with Michael and some paperwork.

My return trip in the afternoon delivered the research stuff. While there, I got to see the pour for the garage and front stoop footings. Alec showed up and we followed up on the morning discussion about retaining walls and grading. Plans, they are a-changing there. Currently, the western retaining wall will be our very own local stone. The others will be sandstone. The eastern wall is actually two. The upper one won’t be as tall, which is to say the grade will be lower along the front part of the house, since it turns out the conduit access on the electrical installation there needs to be above grade or in a well. (No wells, darling. No wells.) So, more brick will show on the east foundation. The lower retaining wall will define a hemispherical adjunct to the patio with a clever bluestone cap to the drainage box where the rainchain meets it. It sounds like it’ll be cool. There’ll be a low southern wall at the patio edge at about sittin’ height to retain the edge of the ground sloping from the SW corner and still provide enough ground to bury the foundation drain. All this hardscaping talk has a timing component as it’s time to start with the brick AND the Lithic stone team is available for the next month but after that they start on a “really big job” so it’s sort of catch ‘em while you can.

While we were hanging out in back, the septic field maples got their death sentences. They pose too great a danger to the field’s performance.

Since I last reported, much of the plumbing drains and vent piping has been laid in the basement and first floor, rising into the second floor. I believe it awaits the second floor wall framing to run to the roof. Rough in of the first floor electrical is underway. The basic partition walls for the main floor are in and, although some details of the master end need finishing, the guys started working on basement walls today so that the electricians can get work down down there. They want to get plywood down onto the sleepers soonest so they can frame the upper story walls, the last barrier to getting the trades to finish roughing-in.

Meanwhile plumbing fixtures are starting to roll in. The “missing” rainchains have arrived. Ordering of stuff continues while trying to catch our tile advisor to set up a finalization meeting.

Oh yeah, and there are a bunch of new pictures in the first four albums in the gallery.

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