We're going to be nice and warm

This week was 90 percent plumber and 10 percent electrician. The plumber spent the whole week working on the radiant heat floors, with a brief visit on tuesday by the electrician to put in the floor outlets. On monday, it looked like this...... it's hard to see, but these are the main supply lines for the radiant heat.

The rest of the week was spent going round and round and attaching the floor tubing to the rebar base........

On friday, we were very excited to see an official looking guy in an orange vest stop by (the inspector!), who prompty passed the floors! The plumber continued to work the rest of the day to button up the manifold supplies for the heat, and now it looks like this........

Today, he'll be back to put in the water supply lines for the bathrooms and the kitchen, and on tuesday we POUR!!!! Concrete!!!!! All over the whole thing. We've already met the framers. They're itchin' to go. The next step will be the arrival of the SIP panels. We've been told that the factory rep will be here with the panels to supervise the installation. We're starting to figure out that this is kind of a big deal. This weekend, we're off to seattle to shop at a couple of salvage places for stone for the countertops on the built-ins and possibly the laundry countertop. The new rugs for the studio arrived yesterday, and they're going to be great. Big things happening next week.......stay tuned!

A very productive week

This week started with the return of john, the digging plumber. He finished digging and put in all of the drains. Things really started to come together a bit, because you can start to see where everything will go.

After a successful inspection on wednesday, the contractors returned and started to put down the insulation that goes under the radiant heat floors. It made the whole thing look so clean.

Next up, the metal grid that holds everything together, and they also did some cutting in the insulation for floor outlets in the great room and studio, and spray painted the location of the walls, fireplace and other misc areas. I'm not sure if it looks really big, or really small now!

We also got our dragonfly tiles, lighting for the laundry room, the faucet for the laundry tray, finished up with the window folks and the plumbing supply, and thanks to a great sale on overstock.com, rugs for the studio will be here soon.

The BEST thing that happened this week?

BUH-BYE!! Next week, the tubes for the raidant heat will go in, that will probably take most of the week, and another inspection. The projected date to pour the final floor is the 29th, right after memorial day. Then it's on to SIP'S, a roof and who knows what all!

progress!!!!

After what seemed like forever of watching the rain and more rain and concrete dry, we made some great progress this week...... Monday we were still watching the concrete dry.......

Tuesday brought us a passel of contractors, and tools. They started to put in the drainage system around the foundation and insulate the inside.

Wed. brought us a backhoe and driver.....and 16 truckloads of dirt to fill the foundation. They dumped and pushed dirt around, and dumped MORE dirt until the whole thing was just about full to to top.

On thursday, they dug the holes for the dry well and cistern. (which yogi promptly fell into AND jumped back out of - that doggie can JUMP)

Friday, we met John the digging plumber. He came and dug out the trenches for the drains. It's pretty cool because now we can start to see where the bathrooms and the kitchen island go.

This week, we also got the light fixture for the office, and spent some time looking for other light fixtures as well. Next week, they'll put abs drain pipe in the trenches and Steve the electrician will be here to put in the in-floor conduit for the outlets and island, then it's on to the radiant heat. We're expecting to have walls in about 3 weeks. Oh, and by the way, the plumber dropped a little bombshell today. The contractor is hoping to get the house on the master builder tour of homes in August. Better get going!

progress (sort of)

At the beginning of the week, we had some footings and a foundation frame. Then we had to wait for the inspector, and wait......and wait........Finally, on wed., everything shook loose. The inspector showed up, as well as the full foundation crew. The forms were inspected and finished, and, about 3pm or so, a giant concrete truck and pumper drove up.

They poured all the forms FULL, and then left for it to dry.

Thursday, everyone came back to remove the forms. (we set a record for rain that day. YUCK), and we were left with the foundation walls. We're a little unsure here, because the foundation is so TALL. We keep telling ourselves that they know what they're doing and it'll all work out, but......it'll be interesting to see HOW it all works out.

The next step will be to backfill the foundation, and then the plumber and electrician will come in to do the infrastructure work that goes under the slab, then they'll fill that with sand, and the floor heat will go in, THEN, another pour and we're off and running. This phase is expected to take about 3 weeks and hopefully will start on monday. (fingers crossed!) We also took the time yesterday to finalize some details. We met with the door guy and upgraded the interior doors to single panel shaker wood doors. The original ones had been very "apartment complex", and well, just weren't very nice. We also took him the template for the doggie door and made a few minor changes here and there. A square lockset for the entry door to match the windows, a flat panel on the doggie door...... After that meeting we went shopping for lighting. We found an awesome, huge fixture for the entry that was priced very reasonably. No pics, just a giant box. My tile samples came too....I'm still working this one out. What do you think? For the kitchen backsplash.......