Before Landscaping

We decided to hustle this weekend and knock out a long awaited project. A truckload of sod is coming tomorrow at 8am to take this yard to one of the ugliest on the block to hopefully the best looking on the block. We've been working a few nights this week to strip the old grass and weeds and a dump truck load of 20 yards of topsoil just arrived. Luckily I have the day off today and a bobcat to make quick work of it. Should be a great before and after shot tomorrow! Unfortunately we picked the hottest weekend of the year, but better to knock it out now than wait until the end of the month when it's the middle of summer.

Ready for drywall

We finished some odds and ends stuff this weekend to get 100% ready for drywall. We framed around the fireplace mantle so we could hang a TV above it and run all of our wires for ceiling speakers down to the basement where the electronics are stored. I'm not sure what we will end up doing with the look of the mantle, but we still have a couple of months to decide. The drywallers will hopefully start next week. The yard started getting torn up (again) last night. More on that tonight and tomorrow, but the sod is coming on Saturday so it should be a pretty dramatic before and after!

Inspections and insulation

It was a good start to my 5 day Memorial Day mini vacation. We've been hustling to get all of our electrical, plumbing, and mechanical rough-in finished so we could get our drywallers in to do their work. Today we had inspections on all 7 of our open permits. Not sure the county inspector was too happy with me scheduling all these permits at once, but we passed everything and I got the OK to insulate. A few hours later I got the basement insulated and ready for our next inspection tomorrow. There's not too much to look at right now, but looks like we will be cleaning everything up this weekend and getting our drywallers rocking in the next week or two. In another month we should have the makings of a mostly finished house... can't wait! One of the things I'm looking forward to is having a toilet on the first floor again. Oh, and hardwood floors and no more extension cords and maybe some nicely decorated rooms and closets to store stuff and a big TV to watch and less dust and... well, you get the point. 

Ready for Inspection

Another weekend of rough-in work but we're nearing the end now.  All the electric and plumbing is done and we put in the firestopping so we're ready for inspection.  We used Roxul again for much of the firestop between the basement and first floor and while it's still relatively easy to work with, I also still maintain that it is not itch-free, no matter what the advertising says.  At least this time we weren't insulating entire rooms so we were only working with it for a few hours instead of a few days.  Then we firmed up the steps by adding 2 x 8 risers.  We also framed in the outside door, which turned out to be trickier than expected.  We needed to build a bulkhead to hide the drain pipes while still leaving enough room for the door to open fully.  Then we had to come up with a way to build the side walls as there's not enough room for trim.  The solution was to use 1/2" birch plywood to create a frame similar to the window boxes around the whole door.  There wasn't much, or any, room for error but we got it done.  Finally, Brian framed up the post in the basement and now we're ready for drywall...just as soon as we pass our rough-in inspection.  We'll have the inspector out this week so hopefully we'll have good news to share next weekend!

Stairs before

Stairs after

Bays with Roxul

Door without framing

Door with framing

 

Boxed in post

Still roughing in

We are still plugging away at the rough in list. The plumbing is completely finished and the electrical is almost done. All of the old electrical is officially replaced. Only new wiring exists in the house now. I'm trying to remember how much wire I've used and I'm pretty sure it's over 4000 feet. I think I'm on my 3rd 1000 foot spool of 14/2 wire and 2nd spool of 12/2 wire. All that wiring and I still have yet to  electrocute myself so that's good.

It's so much easier using PEX plumbing for this kind of remodel over using copper pipes. It allows for greater flexibility in the install and the ability to shut off water to each fixture easily is a huge time saver. There was one pinhole leak in the PEX tubing that we ran months ago that I had to replace, but that only takes a minute to cut out the bad section and crimp on a new one.

We still have some fire proofing to do this weekend and hopefully call for all the rough in inspections next week. Then on to drywall and back outside for sod and finish landscaping.