Scrooge here...

Leigh and I just got back from the house -- it's Christmas Eve and we're getting ready to put our elf caps on...but need to get this quick update in. Lots of photos here of the great work that Ed and his crew have been doing over the last couple of weeks. The plaster guys are almost done -- just one last touch up. It looks great. Hector has been working installing the floors upstairs and in the kitchen (hope to get cabinets in next week. You can see in this photo that we're saving the original floor but Hector repaired the far side by patching it with new white pine.

It's Amazing how the house is coming together -- it's almost just finish work left to be done.
Here's the living room...Hope to see the mason next week to finish his part of the project...

Looking into the master closet

Looking into the small bedroom on the second floor - paper down over the floors so they aren't damaged before the finish.

Ed has had Imar's crew at the house to get the siding done quickly so that the house is fully weather tight. We really appreciate that he brought in such a good crew to get the job done quickly. They took care of all of the clap boards and you can see some of our handy work - we're doing the shingling.

Today we got half way up the right side of the house and started on a little section by the left of the Kitchen door.

The place looks great -- we're so happy with Ed and his crew -- they should be proud of the great work that they've been doing -- Merry Christmas!

Extreme Makeover - Home Edition

We'll not really done in 7 days but close right? Just a quick update -- Leigh and I worked all day Saturday and into the night...we got this part of the house sided -- on this particular wall we had been getting a bit of water in the house during driving rains and wanted to be sure that we avoided that going forward. So we worked until about 6:30 with headlights and halogens...good fun. We're hoping that we can get our part of the siding job done by the end of Christmas week..we'll see What we didn't have time to photograph is the interior which has been transformed by a skim coat of plaster! It looks great. This coming week (we'll the first two days of the week) should mean some floors start to go down - maybe kitchen cabinets...we'll see!

The other thing that we are contending with is lack of heat in the house -- that will be fixed when we get floors in but for now we are using heaters that get the house warm during the day and then are off at night - so as a consequence we're having tons of condensation inside the house -- and it freezes at night...not great for the wood windows. Hope to get that heat in soon so that we can keep the temps consistent.

Been a long time coming...this is a long one

So, it's been far far too long since I've updated this blog...lots has happened and we're about 3 weeks away from moving in. We're not going to quite make Christmas but better to get it all done right than rush to get into the house. More or less, I'll just illustrate the photos -- not that they aren't obvious enough. This is a good break from wrestling with lighting fixtures which I am ordering right now... In this photo you can see the kitchen has been insulated, the low voltage recessed lights have been installed and in the top right of the photos you can see a white piece of plastic where the speaker wire will be secured for the in ceiling speakers (which will go in later as budget allows). Leigh and I did all of the wiring for the whole house audio -- so we'll see how that goes. There will two speakers in every room of the first floor.

Here you can see the vaulted ceiling of the kitchen -- the off white things between the rafters are Styrofoam vents to bring cold air in from outside to keep the roof temp cool.

This is the insulated living room. The coil of yellow wire to the left of the windows is the speaker wire. You can also see some primed clapboards on the floor. Leigh and I spend days and days priming these pine boards. They were milled for us by Rand Lumbar Yard in Rye NH.

Living room looking towards the kitchen...lots of insulation.

This is the living room fireplace -- we left coils of wire so that we can decide where we want to put the sconces once the living room is finished.

Upstairs looking towards the back of the house.

Here is our super efficient gas heater and on the left the 45 gallon hot water tank.

Ed and the guys installed plywood where the cabinets will be installed.

Blue board in the dining room, waiting to be plastered. Imar and his crew had the blue board one in only a few days and are now in the process of plastering the house.

Most of the house was insulated using traditional insulation but we insulated the roof with closed cell spray foam insulation only 4 inches has an R value of 30. We did this so that we could keep the vaulted ceiling exposed. Because we used spray foam we do not have to vent the roof.

Blue board in the study.

Here you can see the master bedroom with the plaster on the walls...looks great!

Master bedroom looking towards the closet.

Hector and Mike have been doing the clapboard siding -- they're doing a great job of lining the boards up with the bottom and top of the windows. We're hoping that their part of the siding will done by Tuesday next week so that they can start laying the floors which arrived on Tuesday. We have to let the wide pine acclimate to the house for 7 to 10 days before installing them.

All in all, things are going well - we were hoping to be in by Christmas but it looks like we'll still be in the house ahead of schedule. Tomorrow we make some decisions about trim...I'll try to keep the blog updated on a more regular basis...no promises though.

Here's a quick look at the septic system -- it's a gravity fed, drive over system -- this means that the pipes in the ground are schedule 80, not schedule 40 so they are twice as thick.

Here's the finish grade...the driveway will be fairly close to the fence and we're thinking of using the rocks that you see by the tree as the base for a stone wall...

Hope that Ed and crew will get the last of the windows in tomorrow...

Mechanicals..

It's all about the mechanicals this week -- plumbing, septic, electric, gas...lots of fun stuff but not lots of worthy photos...We're moving right along -- we got the septic system in under the wire and the boiler got fired up for the first time today! Here you see the electric panel with the outgoing sewer pipe...we ran into a small snag with the septic -- it turns out that it is 5 inches higher than the sewage pipe that leaves the house -- oops. So, no big deal, right? WRONG....we have to install a double pump with a 100 gallon storage tank to pump the sewage out of the house and up into the septic tank...which is a gravity tank.... ($4000) which we didn't plan for...ouch. So instead of going on vacation, for the next three years, we'll go into the basement and look at the pump. Sure beats the BVI. When we have this pump installed we'll be sure to post some photos. (Family if you are reading this, you'll understand why there will be no Christmas presents this year...instead you'll be welcome to use our toilets anytime...)

Back to the good stuff. Here's the plumbing for the powder room on the first floor. The rough in is complete and inspected -- signed off on by the plumbing inspector.

Here's the guest bathroom upstairs.

We also started Eclectic this week...lots of progress there -- we should be done with rough in by the end of this week so that insulation can start.

Here's one component of our Contender boiler -- it's small and super efficient -- 93% actually.

Water tank, boiler -- orange tubes are for heat, blue for cold water and red for hot water...

Lots of photos today...

It's been awhile so lots has happened...work has been progressing nicely over the last week and it seems like we're close to a milestone -- almost all of the walls are framed, plumbing is going in and windows should be in soon so that the house can be closed in completely. You'll be able to see from these photos that the rooms are starting to take shape and we're not too far off from installing sheet rock...maybe last week of November. Cross your fingers! You're looking at the Kitchen here with the breakfast nook in the corner.

As mentioned in another post, we've been using and electric plane to plane down the tybeams -- just want to take a moment to say that we couldn't be happier with how the bedrooms are coming out. Ed really went above and beyond when he was doing the second floor -- instead of taking the easy way out he really showed his commitment to restoring the house when he decided to replace the roof using traditional post and beam construction. The outcome is magnificent....and we don't have to worry about snow weight on the roof -- in most houses the safest place to be during a hurricane is the basement -- not ours -- come on over and enjoy our second floor if you need a safe place!

Here you can see the upstairs hallway looking back into the guest bath on the right and the smaller guest room on the left.

This is the non-working fireplace in the front of house guest bedroom.

Last Sunday we painted exterior doors...here's the main door that we will be using.

We're getting down to the details now -- Ed and crew finished up some tricky interior work this week and tackled the bulkhead (which I think looks great). They also had to re-frame some windows because of the previously mentioned window problem and they started to finish the front of the house. Ed thinks that they have a couple more days until the House is totally closed in and about three weeks until we start with Sheetrock -- WOW. That puts us towards the end of November for interior painting. Plumbing will start this week. In these photos you can see the shingles that Leigh and I put on on Saturday. Because of time constraints and budget, we've decided to reduce the amount of the house that will have shingles and revert to the original plan of clapboard on most of the house and shingles only on the parts of the house that originally hand them. Ed and crew are going to do the clap board installation and Leigh and I will do the shingles.

So it's a busy week at the house and unfortunately Leigh and I won't be able to be there very much but we are looking forward to seeing what it looks like at the end of the week!

Ed and the crew is scheduled to start a new job by the middle of November so we're hoping that means that we'll be pretty much done at our house by then except for electric, plumbing, sheetrock and trim...

Just a quick look back

As we're getting ready to re-frame the front entry I was looking back at some photos to give to Ed so that he can reproduce it well and I thought it would be a good time to contrast the new house with the old house! Here you can see where we are -- with the addition, windows, getting ready for siding and below you'll see what the house looked like last March...