And the siding continues

Today, they finished the siding, with the exception of the ceder shingle on the dormers, and got the remaining windows and vents installed.  The arches on both porches got bulked up and the front arches were sided. 

Rear exterior doors got put in, but they are the wrong doors so they will be removed and hopefully the correct doors will get installed next week.

Today they built the chimney. The plans called for it to be placed on the posterior of the roof but for reasons unknown to us, it was placed on the peak.  Since we are going to brick the chimney, we decided to leave it as is and it should still be aesthetically pleasing.

For those of you who do not have a radiant barrier for the roof, I highly recommend it.  We were at the house around 4 pm and the interior was at least 20' degrees cooler than the outside.  I was really amazed at how well it worked.

 

 

 

 

The the metal sheeting for the barn got dropped off today so hopefully they can the barn finished by Monday.

 

 

 

Additionally, Uriah and I picked out all the plumbing items (faucets, knobs, shower heads, sinks, etc.) this week.  We were lucky enough to find a big farmhouse style sink at a deeply discounted price at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, it look beautiful in the new kitchen.  The dishwasher arrived Wednesday after a long and confusing shipping debacle.

Hardy siding and windows

We were out of town for a couple days visiting Washington D.C. with Uriah's grandfather.  Naturally, we were excited to see the progress in our absence.  We rushed over to the site just after we landed.  As you can see they finished the sheathing and Tyvek house wrapping, also the roofing with the radiant barrier were done and they began installing the windows and the siding.  For those of you not from the south, we have a product here called Hardy board.  It is concrete siding with the look of wood.  Hardy boards therefor are impervious to termites and rot.  It is easy to work with but if you make a mistake or drop it, the entire piece is ruined.  The lower half of the house will be brick with a stone cap and the front of the house, under the porch, will be stone.

 

The dormers will be covered with this Hardy product made to look just like cedar shingles but with none of the maintenance.

 

 

Three arches will grace the front porch.  We only expected them to be made with fascia boards but as you can see, they are bulking them out to 12 inches to match the look of the large pillars that will anchor the area.

 

This angle provides a better view of how hefty the arches will be.

 

Remember how I explained the Hardy boards were fragile, well these two were installing rake boards on the eves, it was a little precarious, scroll down to see how it turned out.

By the second picture, he noticed us watching and photographing him and he started laughing, which didn't really help matters.

 

 

As you can see they got it installed without dropping it. 

 

 

And now Windows!

 

 

Not exactly the view I was expecting :-)

 

 

This shot gives you an idea of how big the windows are, the goal was to allow as much natural light in as possible. 

 

 

 

 

Barn floor and state approved culvert

After a couple weeks of little to no progress on the barn, we finally got the flooring poured. 

This means the siding can now be put up and once that is done, Uriah and I will finish out the inside.

 

 

 

It looks like it was just completed and still wet, but actually it was poured on Monday.  The shine is just an illusion.  Uriah was thinking ahead and had them finish it to a smooth surface since this will be his wood shop, it will make clean up much easier.

 

 

 

After 21 pages of government paperwork and forms, including areal photos, surface photos, diagrams and on-site inspections....we finally have an official, state approved, culvert. 

 

This is what most of the neighbors have...

 

 

 

And this is our new state approved culvert.

 

 

They were actually working on it when we arrived, I got the dozer in action.

 

 

The old culvert was dug out.  Stabilized sand was laid down.  The concrete tube and sloped forms were placed and covered with more sand.  Then the whole thing was covered in red clay dirt and then finally the gravel.  It still needs a final sign off by a state inspector.

 

 

 

 

End of Week 5

 

 

 

  

The framers work very fast as you can see.  Actually, sometimes they work too fast, as decisions are made on the job site, by the time we come home to research it, it's already been built and sometimes has to be redone!

By the end of the week, the framers had started sheathing the home, wrapping the home with Tyvek house wrap and started installing the soffit boards, fascia and rake boards.

Next week, framing should be completed, and siding started.  Roof sheathing should also be installed.

Also, after a few weeks of no progress, the barn slab should be poured and the barn should be completed by the end of the week.

Framing, Week 1 of Framing

By Thursday evening the framing was nearly done.

 

We have a full set of stairs.

 

After climbing up a rather wobbly ladder a few times to gain 2nd floor access, these stairs look amazing to my eyes.

 

 

You can see from this view, the roof is almost completed.  These guys are like a well oiled machine.  They work in small teams conquering each task quickly.  I'm impressed how much they have accomplished in so little time.  They don't waste much time climbing ladders, they shimmy up and down the boards like acrobats.  If one of the is working upstairs or on the roof, they give they other one on the ground the measurements, they cut it and then toss the board up to their counterpart.  They walk along the edges of these narrow beams with nimble feet, seemingly never missing a step.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Front door

We ordered our door this week.  This is not our exact door but ours will be very similar to this. 

The door is usually one of the last things to be dealt with but because we went with sidelights instead of windows, we needed to get this quickly.  Apparently for cost savings the transom and sidelights are usually ordered as windows.  Because we wanted ours to match the door, we ordered ours as single unit.  These units can be pricey but we did some shopping around and saved some money by finishing it ourselves.  I think this will look beautiful on our new house.

We also ordered our windows, almost the same as our last house, brushed bronze with prairie style lites, for large viewing areas.