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...