Vicki and Eric's House Build

[eric]

We love our plan, and the way it's coming together.

Every build has its ups and downs.

Keeping track of them.. that's what this page is for.

[eric]

And we're off. The footers were dug out today, and 40 tons of rock spread out.

To make the day even better, our Kubota tractor was delivered.

[eric]

While we wait for the plumber and rebar to be set sometime next week, Vicki and I marked out the approximate wall locations for our main open area for a combined kitchen, dining and living area.

Its smaller than what we had in our new builds in TX and AZ for a combined kitchen and great room (both had formal dining rooms), but the 44 x 12 covered back porch certainly makes up the difference. We will use that far more than we used either dining room.

Meanwhile, the rain and wind this week brought down a 70+ foot pine tree, which took out a bunch of large branches and another tree... always something to do.

[eric]

Plumbers showed up today to lay out all the under-slab piping and drains. The electrician was here two days earlier to lay out the in-floor electric outlet for the living room and the chase between the kitchen wall and the island. Still hard to tell this will be a house in a few months...

[eric]

Our septic tank was set on September 12th, made much easier to do with the drain pipes from the house being set in place.

Today, the field itself was dug out and set up. Went quicker than I imagined. Hopefully we remember where all those plastic chambers are set...

[eric]

Normally, I would be a little bit upset with a 0445 wake up call. But its Slump Day.

Concrete pumper truck woke us up, and about an hour later, four trucks came to be unloaded and put into the slab.

This feels more real than just looking at the form work. Also really glad that the septic field got finished the day before.

[eric]

Framing crews are now done...

Materials arrived on the 24th, and crews arrived early on the 25th.

On the first day, almost all of our walls were up, with the exception of the fourth bedroom. Apparently they were short some lumber that they had to go pick up to complete that room.

By the end of the second day, all of the roof trusses were in place.

On the third day, all of the windows were in place, and by the fourth day, the exterior doors were hung.

With the roof open, it's still hard to gauge the final size, but having the stud walls in place does set some expectations a little better.

And the porches... The front porch isn't bad either, but we're going to live on the back porch with its added size and the view of the woods.

[eric]

Metal crews arrived on the 8th, and were done with the roof and siding by the 9th. It looks like a real house.... because it -is- a real house now.

[eric]

Painters arrived.... we contracted with a recommended supplier to come in and do the stain on the porch as well as our mahogany doors.

We could have tried to do this ourselves, but having some professionals come in and do it over a two day period was simply too hard to pass up. They had the right tools and the expertise to get it done fast and correctly.

[eric]

We now have electrical and plumbing roughed in

[eric]

Time for spray foam.... crew arrived on the 19th, but ran into technical issues. Their sprayer was broken, and it took them about 12 hours to finally get it running.

By that time, they asked if it would be OK to sleep in the shell, which we couldn't really say no to. Brought some extra sleeping bags and blankets out for them, which they gladly accepted.

By the end of the day on the 20th, everything was pretty well coated.

[eric]

The drywallers came on Thankgiving week.... November 25th to be exact.

Day one, they were short green board. Both bathroms and the laundry room were done with normal sheetrock because they only had enough to do the kitchen.

December 4th... yes, nine day later, they showed up to do the mud and taping.

December 8th.... they're still mudding and taping. And our kitchen cabinets arrived in the middle of that. The guys unloading place those in the main room as well as the bedroom. We frantically tried to cover everything with plastic, because with the mudding and sanding, there's drywall dust floating everywhere...

December 13th, they say they're done.

All in, they took 18 days to do what should have been a three or four day job.

[eric]

The fireplace.... we selected a wood burning fireplace. Unfortunately, it was nowhere in the paperwork that our PM was relying on.

On October 23rd, four weeks into the above ground build, our PM asked us to confirm that we were supposed to have a wood burning fireplace or if it was a change order, because it was nowhere to be found in the spec sheets...

So... we looked at the contract. Forwarded a screenshot of the contract page that says "wood burning fireplace" and the PM confirmed that, yes, indeed, that's in the contract.... Finally, things start moving. Or so we thought.

It wasn't until November 13th that the fireplace was finally ordered. On December 22nd, the installer arrives with it.

Only two months on this little adventure... but it didn't really delay anything because of all the other issues going on.

[eric]

The kitchen... that's been fun as well.

December 8th, the cabinets showed up, but drywall is still not finished...

December 15th, a week later, the cabinet installers show up, and we discover that the vent opening for the stove is exactly 12" in the wrong location.... so the vent hood doesn't get installed (and is still sitting on the floor two months later).

December 27th, countertops arrive... and they're the wrong color for the kitchen.

January 5th, the correct countertop arrives for the kitchen, but they didn't correct the pantry. We throw our hands up and take the wrong color for the pantry because we're sick of the delays...

[eric]

After the framers were done and the metal was up on the roof, we found a small pond in our living room.

Or, more correctly, the spray foam installers found it and brought it to our attention on November 20th.

We could see where it was running down the edge of the fireplace and dripping down onto the chimney supports and doorframe into our master bedroom.

And it continued. Each time it rained....

When the fireplace installer was out in early January, he noticed that some of the insulation in the attic near the chimney was damp to the touch. He also saw that a piece of the zip system tape used to seal up the flashing was not actually attached to anything, and still had the backing paper on it. Fixed it on the spot.

A week later, our newest PM came out, and went up into the attic. Didn't find anything damp other than an insulation batt which had been removed by the fireplace installer, and presumably what he found as being wet.

So far, as of January 12th, it hasn't returned. Maybe it all came down to a piece of tape that wasn't installed correctly, which is a bit frightening on its own, but once the chimney gets faced, we'll know for sure.


Fingers crossed.