Wednesday was a great day.  Dennis & his brother installed the last 3 windows!  All 21 pieces of the window & door package are in!  They finished just before dark.

It's amazing how this step made the project look so much more like a home.  Until yesterday, I thought of doorknobs as "finishing details".  Dennis points out that it's reasonable to start heating enough to make working comfortable, but being able to keep the doors closed would be beneficial.  We'll have to decide on the doorknobs soon.  Wish we knew what color the siding is going to be!

Then today (Thursday), in a mix of  yay!! :-)  and yuck :-P ", a less exciting, but equally important event (drum roll please):  installation of the septic tank!

 

A few good days

"How's your house coming?"
"One nail at a time."

Today we are 52.4% done installing windows & doors!  Well, Dennis is making progress.  All I do is count the results.  Eight windows and three doors, totalling 11 of the 21 are done.

The only picture I have right now is of the first 2.

Long time, no update

Sometimes it feels like progress has been slow, or worse, not at all.  But, then I took a look at the pictures I'd uploaded in early Oct to update this blog "the next time I have nothing to do".   A lot has changed.

So I haven't told you that the SIPs are all on.

The house is shingled.  All shingled!

 

I uploaded the above 2 pics, and then we had what seemed like a pause to catch up on some pre-winter yard work.  

So the condensed version of the progress since then would be like this:

• Cover all the window & door openings with poly.  Initially we had some very wet, windy weather.  That's changed to snowy, cold & windy.  Real windows = very good, but for now, covered windows = good!
• Shop around for our window & door package. Finalize opening directions, sizes, etc. This post has been so long in coming that we've had time to decide, order, wait 5 weeks and the windows were delivered today.
• Bring hydro from the pole to the new house:  trench dug, unusual amounts of fall rain pumped out of trench, line laid, water pumped out again and trench filled.

   

• Light fixture sale!!  Got lights for most of the main & upper floor rooms. 

• 
  Basement floor:  existing water line re-routed to utility room and back to current house.  If you have a private water supply and pressure system, you can feel our anguish (and shortening tempers) when the late evening we were doing this phase, we broke the water line, had to drive to the Big Town for parts, repair the leak...and then prime the pump before we could sleep.  Yeah, part of the huge patchwork of memories we'll associate with building our house. 
The above-ground loop is insulated & heated so the supply to our current home doesn't freeze solid
and stay that way until April.
 

Sewer lines installed for the basement bathroom and vent stacks where they will be below the floor level.  Styro, poly, rebar & floor heat lines in place.  Inspection passed.  We can pour cement when we're ready. 

• We've laid the tongue & groove 1x6" boards for the ceiling of the main floor. They are one of several steps to building the second story floor.

• Since these pictures, we've bought two bathtubs.  It feels strange to be doing that already, but we thought at least one might need too large to get through a door later.  And we found what we wanted at the right price.  So we bought now.
• While waiting for windows, Dennis got a start on framing walls on the main floor.  Our house will be divided into rooms!  So far just the master bedroom, it's ensuite & closet are framed. 

So, there is progress.  There's still so much to do, but there have been a number of great momnets when we see glimpses of the next step or the finished product.