Electricians almost done

Looks like another day or two for the electricians, so not much worthy of new photos. But we did do a little test painting on some siding pieces to check some potentials colors for the exterior.



The lighter shade of green to the left would be for the vertical siding (the board and batten) and the darker shade to the right would be for the horizontal lap siding. The colors seem a little too grey to us, so we'll probably try some greener shades. The lighter piece in the middle would be the trim color.

In other news, the double front door and the side door to the deck have been delivered. If you can look through the glass, you can also see behind them the double doors that go next to the garage doors.

All the Hardie Plank siding is on now

You can now get a good idea what the exterior will eventually look like. Of course the siding will be painted (one color for the horizontal lap siding, another for the vertical board and batten parts, and a different color for the trim). We may do some experimental painting this week to nail down the colors. All the green parts that are still exposed will be covered with stone.
Front View, with master bed & bath to the left, Great Room to the right.

Garage side view, with guest room to the left, master bath to the right.

Back view, guest room and bath to the right, Great Room to the left.

Deck side view, with framing for screened in porch/

HVAC rough-in done, electrical started, siding ??

It doesn't have anything to do with the new house, but we got a light dusting of snow last night and it stuck nicely to the trees and made a nice pictures from the driveway of our rental house this morning. Click on photos for a larger view.

Meanwhile, over at the house, things continue to move along.

The siding seems to go in fits and starts. The crew has mostly finished the left side of the front and started the right side before moving on to the side of the house for some unknown reason.

Here they have partly finished the back, before apparently losing interest and moving elsewhere. We're pretty sure there is some good explanataion, we just don't know what it is.

After abandoning the front and rear, the crew is now happily working on the deck side of the house. We'd ask them why, but they don't speak English.

The electricians started their rough-ins today.

The monster is the basement is in place. The heat pump has a propane-assisted furnace, a humidifier, an electronic air filter, and to the far left you can see the Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) which brings in fresh air to the otherwise almost air tight house.

Feb 9 - Siding Update

We went by the house on Saturday and found the siding crew hard at work.
Here one crew works on the front side. They have finished the horizontal sections on this wing of the house and have started putting up the vertical board & batten pieces around the window sections. The siding is HardiPlank and is unpainted at this point. The lower floor of the house will be covered with stone.

Another crew is working on the rear. They have finished the lower section which is all horizontal siding and have started working on the upper board and batten areas. For some reason, it looks like they moved to the wing on the left before finishing the wing on the right.

Infrastructure Developments

These pictures are probably not very interesting, except to Norris, still out of town.

We have a new furnace, with air filter. The installer was hooking up the ductwork to the unit so I didn't get the best pictures, trying to stay out of his way.

More infrastructure - I saw this the other day and Norris couldn't picture what I was trying to describe, the kitchen floor, under cabinets between the refrigerator and the sink:

And now the returns - master bedroom, as planned:

But they didn't manage to fit the return in the guest bedroom in the hall-niche - they used the master bedroom closet, but it's the "dead" corner I think we can work around, though I wouldn't want to see the whole thing boxed in with 2x4s.

And last, here's a shot of our new windows from the inside. Through the protective film, several tall trees are visible even close up like this, and despite the fairly dramatic slope of our front yard.

Windows are in, siding going on

Norris is away on a business trip, so I had to take photos and post this update for him.

Although there were a lot of people working on the house today, much of it was not particularly photogenic. A new group was putting up siding, the Heating and Air conditioning crew was working, and I think I saw the framers pulling away as I drove up.

First is a picture of the house as it appeared when I arrived - all the upper windows are installed and some of the siding and trim is already up -

Here's a view of the back of the house from the garage side -

The shingles actually went on last week, but we didn't get a photo when we went to the site on Friday. We had had no power since the middle of the night and we had an appointment with the electrician at 7:45 am. We were barely able to get the garage door opened (propped up with a step ladder and trash can). In the confusion of trying to get out of the house by candlelight, we forgot the camera! (We had already planned on a backup generator for this house.)


Lastly, this is the new view of the front door. Not very interesting you might say: well the point is these are not our doors. Norris had seen doors on a brand new house that had been scratched and gouged and had paint spilled on them, so he requested the supplier not deliver our real doors until the construction process is nearly over. So this photo is for him. The door to the deck is a similar unfinished slab, not our "real" door. Request granted.