Electrical, Plumbing and Central Vac is done!

We have been extremely busy these last few weeks and have been unable to find time to post new pictures.
The house is amazing - this has truly been one of the most satisfying projects. We must give a huge shout out to our builder, Danesh Furoughi with Stonecraft Construction - he has been such a delight to work with (and he puts up with us being so involved)
-The roof has been shingled - we decided to go all shingles instead of doing metal around the porches like the plans had suggested
-Stairs to the "man room" are finished (Jim is thinking dart boards, air hockey table, large t.v, etc)
-Rough in plumbing is finished (complete with outdoor shower and hot/cold dog wash!)
-Rough in electrical is almost finished
-Rouch in central vac system is finished (i'm SOOOO excited about this!)
-We ran the speaker wire for the whole house audio system last weekend (Thanks to Dad Tyson for your help!)
-Front and Side exterior doors have been primed (thanks to Mom Tyson for your help!)
-Garage doors were installed (they look amazing!)
-Fireplace is installed - the vent sticks out onto the side porch, so it turns out we get a porch heater too!
-HVAC should be done by the end of this week

Hopefully we'll get our framing inspection next week!
Next step? Built-In Shelves in Dining Room, Sheet rock, porch ceilings, exterior siding and stone!

Pictures coming soon (sorry our current house is for sale and the laptop is in the closet :-)

Windows have been installed!

I think the pictures speak for themselves!
click here to see all recent pictures

It's a house!

Things are really cruisin' along now! The framers have pretty much completed all interior walls (including the stairs) and the roof. The windows are scheduled for delivery on Wed.
We also got the slab poured in the garage this afternoon.
And without further ado....more pictures!

Raise the roof!!

We made a lot of progress this weekend - it finally looks like a house! Today the framers completed the roof and started framing the 2nd floor interior walls. We met with Danesh after work today and expanded the second floor to include some otherwise wasted space. Bedroom 2 now has a large "computer nook" and bedroom 3 now has a "toy/play room" and large walk in closet (adding about 200 extra sq ft to the house). We'll try to post more pictures tomorrow.

P.S. The view from the second floor is amazing - we can see the Tennesee River and Huntsville city lights! We'll post more pictures soon.

We have rooms!

Our first floor is pretty much complete. On Saturday we spent the whole day up on the mountain with Danesh. All first floor windows have been cut and most of the first floor interior walls have been framed. It was definitely helpful for us to be up there because we were able to make some minor changes and head off some small potential errors.


Some changes that were made:
1) the windows on either side of the fireplace are now centered on the walls (the plans had them off center to make clearance for the t.v niche cabinet doors)
2) we eliminated the pocket doors in the family work room
Apparently this house is a little more detailed than the framers are used to, so it was beneficial for us to be up there to clarify the many questions that they had.

Perhaps the best part of the day was spent helping Danesh mark the placement of all windows and using the "new toy" he purchased to cut them in the SIPs (think half chainsaw...half circular saw!)

What's in store for this week??
The framers should finish the first floor and hopefully get our second floor system and walls going.

Click here to see all pictures from this weekend: Framing Pics

Big Day

Wow, yesterday was BIG. I don't even know where to start. First off, ALL of the exterior walls are now up. The process of putting up the SIPs started off fairly slow, but ramped up to a feverish pace by the end of the day. Louie S. from Fischer SIPs showed up early to help us get going. He left around 2:00 PM, once he saw that we had it under control. I know all of you want to see pictures, so without any further ado.





And how about some video




It really was an easy process once we got into a rhythm. And yes I do mean WE. I was in the mix getting dirty too. Come on, did you really think I would just stand by and watch all day. At our best, we had two crews putting 2x4's into the panels, one crew installing the panels. I was using the plans to find the next panels, locating them and saying what went where.

And finally the finished product.


Not bad for one days work.

Stay tuned for more.

Finally...

We seem to be making some progress. The floor system was delivered last Wednesday and of course it just sat there for a few days. The good news is that the framers showed up at 8 O'clock on Saturday morning to start work. Of course I was there bright and early too. It was a pretty cool process to watch. The other cool thing was to watch our house start to grow out of the ground.

The SIPs are scheduled for delivery tomorrow, Tuesday, and Louie S. from Fischer SIPs will be here Wednesday to oversee the installation process. The house will take form over the next few weeks, and we hope to have framing done by the end of February.

I will post pictures and video of the floor system being installed as soon as I can.