I had intended for blog updates to be more regular than this when I set out to chronicle the highlights. Since the last word here, life's been full of ups and downs, trips to work, school, church and home. Somewhere in there the house is still managing to make progress.
After months of feeling like we're only gaining baby steps at our project, there's been a sudden and exciting shift. Things are happening fast! Yesterday was another great day...aw shoot, it's been a great week. I can't bear tell it all in order, so I'm gonna skip straight to today's highlight and then fill you in on the journey.
Just starting the drywall last Saturday was wonderful. Then came Wednesday and our appointment to bring measurements, sketches and ideas to get our cabinet order started. Thursday we picked up the supplies for the taper and took advantage of great sale pricing on interior doors.
Friday the taper and boarders were all here. Today we got within about 2 hours of finishing all the drywall boarding. After all the months of Dennis working mostly solo, having this much help--family members who are pros at this stuff--has made things seem to go fast. I think drywall must always be a memorable step because it changes the skeleton of studding to actual closed in rooms.
Before long we'll be painting!! I'll be making final decisions on paint colors in the next week. We're getting a first-class job of the drywall & taping thanks to brothers of Dennis' but we have to be we willing to work around their schedules, meaning that we won't be starting paint for another 10 days at best.
Now, about all the necessary things that have brought us to this point.
It’s been a very wet spring. For the last month there’s absolutely NO way we could get the necessary trucks near enough to the house to cement it now. We’ve been very thankful that the basement was cemented in the winter!
Getting the cement done cleared the way for heating and plumbing. We’ve heard of contractors saying that this mechanical stage is twice as much work when there’s a timberframe to work around. It’s certainly been tedious, but it had to be done. We're thrilled at how invisible most of it is. The only real concession we had to make at this phase is that we have an 8" heat duct running floor to ceiling in the master bedroom's walk-in closet. In all, we console ourselves "that's a small price to pay to be able to heat upstairs bedrooms." Until we finish the basement, most of the heating & plumbing can be viewed there, if that sort of thing interests you.
Next Dennis got the permit, did some more reading and wired up the house. His handiwork passed inspection first try with flying colors. Which isn't to say that it was quick or easy. There are over 100 boxes and 2500 ft of wire, much of it run through blind chases inside the styrofoam insulation of the exterior walls.
Another issue we console ourselves about is the front lawn. It`s a mess! There were already shallow ruts in the fall. Although none of our property has been damaged or threatened by floodwaters, the abundance of moisture this spring has made it challenging to schedule delivery of heavy material like drywall. We've had wild ducks swimming on the yard, pumped water off the yard several times, and once when it was starting to dry, tried the old farming technique of tilling to speed drying. Neither were successful, but we did get a break of almost 4 days without rain. The local lumberyard was able to deliver our drywall hours before another good watering added to the puddles.Summer 2012 will be for landscaping.
