NEW DUNBURY

No, not the house. The wall and well. And there’s a picture in the Exterior album.

There are also more pictures in the drywalling album, including a new one for the kitchen.

“Developing” them brought some surprises. You see, when we visited, it was near sunset and the lower level was pretty dark, especially in the newly drywalled basement bath. I took flash shots, but figuring out what you’re looking at under those conditions is even worse than seeing what’s what during a lightning flash. When I got the shots onto the computer, I could see that the tub had been emplaced (and wasn’t just hiding in its box as it had been) and the pack-out wall to snug it all up had been built. How about that?

I was on site this morning to meet with our soapstone guy to make sure he understood the placement and sizes. We got that straightened out. He’s a new re-hire at the quarry, having worked there during the Tulikivi days and gone on to be an independent fabricator. Now he’s back and handling construction orders under the new “investor” regime. He’ll be handling the cutouts rather than the lithic boys. They trust him, apparently.

At that point, the only other person on site was the lead stonemason. His guys are still sick. One tried to work yesterday and went home with a fever that hospitalized him. Not good. Anyway, our mason started the retaining wall on the other side of the patio today and is expecting to work tomorrow. I think the sickness sufficiently delayed the expected completion that he’s trying to finish out work so they can get on to another job next week.

As I was leaving, the drywall team showed up. They definitely don’t work the same hours as the stone, framing, or concrete guys. What fun it must be to run the scheduling. This means that even more walls will be walls soon.

Tomorrow we go to pick up our toilets. Tote that barge, lift that bale. Yessiree, too much fun.

No Comments »

Well, not really everywhere, but they are a-goin’ up.

This lunchtime’s visit, in the company of b-i-l Eric (who was there to see the “wall and well”), revealed that the basement aisle and stairwell are up, as is part of the basement bath. The master bath (picture in album) is mostly up along with the exterior wall of the closet. The utility room (picture in album) and the kitchen (picture not in album due to fault in memory stick) are up. Chuggin’!

The aforesaid wall and well is still not done, due to illness among the stone crew.

The propane tank as been connected to the house and is undergoing a pressure test.

Don’t expect a report tomorrow, as I will be on the road. Of course, that just means even more to be reported on when I get back.

Saturday is scheduled for collecting our toilets, which have arrived at the warehouse. Sounds like some heavy humping fun.

On a separate note, anyone know what a reasonable price for swing-out, carriage-style garage doors might be?

No Comments »

Liz missed her chance to get over to the site last night, so we went over at lunchtime today. Thus, in daylight, we got to wander around a mostly empty site. The framing crew was not present and the stone guys were busy with dumping a small load of stone. Most puzzling was that the promised drywalling crew were nowhere to be seen. We wandered around the main floor a bit wistfully and a little puzzled. The timbers that were being worked on yesterday had not been emplaced, but stacked neatly in a corner. Liz admired the framing for the fireplace (see Interior photo album) but the drywalling we’d hoped to see was not in evidence in the quiet house.

Then we wandered into the basement and what to our wondering eyes should appear but drywalled framing! Yippee!

Much of the work on the game room and my studio had been done. Nothing finished off, of course, just the main setting in place of the sheets. There are pictures in the new album, appropriately titled “Drywalling.”

Outside we looked over the continuing progress on the wall and well. You can see the pictures in the Exterior album. It really is looking close to done. Really.

We also checked over the now-buried septic system. There are pictures of both yesterday’s moonscape and the current condition in the Mechanicals photo album.

There are a few other pictures in the albums, mostly mechanicals but there is a shot of our brandy-new garage slab as well. In the Garage album, natch’.

So today’s big excitement is the walls. Real, space-defining walls. That’s something to make this project look scarily like a house.

No Comments »

The septic field.

Yes, yesterday there was action out in the field. And there had apparently been some while we were out of town. I arrived to find an empty heavy equipment trailer in the street, which in the past has meant heavy equipment on site. That was the case: the excavator’s backhoe.

The site was revisiting its incarnation as a moonscape. There were mounds of dirt everywhere out back and on the west side. Three trenches had been dug, the infiltrator system laid down and covered with filter fabric, the tank and distribution box emplaced, and connection made to the house and to the garage slab, and the inspector was awaited. He arrived and we “passed with flying colors.” Before I left the site, Buddy and his backhoe were backfilling the trenches. Yowza!

Inside, work was proceeding on the last timber bits to define the dining room and to frame the stairway. Drywalling is expected to start on Tuesday, which is to say, today.

The retaining wall and well were still being worked on but are very close to completion. The crew will shift to the lesser wall on the other side of the patio next. This will be easier now that the waste line is completed.

All minor issues reported from the last visit have been resolved, except for patching the hole left when the gas guys moved the connector down to the brick where it was supposed to be in the first place. The patch awaits the return of the stucco guys.

I had intended to post this report on returning from the site, but I got involved in working on the window seat design and time slipped away. Said design still has a few kinks to work out.

Anyway, this morning the skies are clear, so the framing crew will likely be starting on some of the exterior decking. We’ll see on the trip over later today.

I’ll post some pictures when I get time to make the “panoramas” to show off the “moonscape,” which was too wide to fit in a single shot.

No Comments »

As mentioned earlier, the gas company came and went on their first round. Turns out that they punched through the house wall “in the worst place possible.” The exterior connection currently comes through the stucco (not the brick, the going through of which was why we sited the location on the south wall in the first place), clipping the top of the lower trim band. They even had to hack a chunk off their copper flange to make it fit. Ugly. Michael says that they’ll be coming back to fix it. Some refer to the putting in the gas lines as “plumbing the gas,” so I guess we should have expected that the gas techs were a species of plumber, those creatures to whom no structure is sacred because the plumbing must go through.

On our stroll through the house after having acquired the medicine cabinets for the guest and basement bathrooms, I noticed something odd. The sconce locations for each bath were not the same distance apart in both locations as I specified. In the basement, they were way too close together to fit the cabinet, in the guest bath, they were just a little bit too close. I’m guessing that when I told the electrician that the cabinet would be about 24″ wide, he heard set the lights 24″ apart. That doesn’t explain the different arrangement in the basement, though. This too will be fixed. Fortunately I spotted the problem before the drywall went up.

I also caught a window that didn’t get its foamed-in seal. That will have to be handled with the old “can o’ foam”.

On my morning visit, I saw that the painting team and the stone team were on-site today. I’m guessing that the wall will be finished before Turkey Day, but maybe not. We’ll see.

The front stoop is finished, although it’s covered up in plastic to allow the concrete to dry a little more slowly. I’m anxious to see it in all its glory, but must possess myself in patience. Must possess patience. Must, must, must.

Shortly after the visit, Michael called with the word that our plan to include the geothermal unit on the emergency generator circuit would require upping the generator to about twice the capacity (and twice the price). Yowch! With that constraint, we’ll be relying on the gas fireplace for emergency heat. Looks like we were prudent to select one rated as a heater.

This afternoon’s call was to give us the name of a fellow at the soapstone quarry to work with and to urge us to get together with him soonest to pick out slabs. We’ll be seeing if we can manage to do that before we leave town for the holiday. He was already gone for the day when I called.

That ought to be enough for one day. I probably won’t post again till we get back.

No Comments »