progress without pictures

Not sure if this rates an entry, but we've made progress on a few fronts.

• Sunday (delayed from Friday, Saturday ... he was busy) we contracted to have the living room carpet here replaced. We thought it better to give an allowance for potential purchasers to choose their own, but recommendations from books and realtors pushed us towards pro-actively replacing carpet with something neutral, new, fresh, etc. Booked.
• Monday we started an appliance tour looking for local sources of opinions, advice, appliances, having toured the big box stores previously. We started at, and ended with, Bouchard-Pierce, who supplied appliances and cabinets for our previous kitchen and bath remodels. We ended up with a not too flashy, nor too shabby, grouping of appliances that met our wants, needs, and budget: gas range with convection oven, French door 'fridge with just the options we wanted (and no more), and microwave. Dishwasher still TBD.
• Next we visited the glass shop to book a shower enclosure for the master bath. The folks at Chittenden County Glass (a mom and pop shop, so it appears) were great to work with, and came up with a plan for our non-standard (compared to the nominal design) shower.
• Tuesday, we moved some stuff to the dump freeing up living room space.
• We committed to 3 of 4 kitchen appliances in time to qualify for rebates expiring today. No pressure.
• We visited the siding supplier to get color samples. While siding won't be installed soon, the color choice will influence roof shingle colors, which need to be decided soon as the roof trusses are expected to be installed this week.We may have chosen the siding, but we'll let it age a bit before booking.
• We made a quick pass by the cabinet supplier to add a medicine cabinet to be recessed in a wall in the master bath, important to add before the plumbers get to start filling in the space in the wall behind with vent pipes, etc. 

We are grateful we don't have jobs that would interfere with all this daytime driving around. Let's hear it for age and retirement.

PS. Yesterday on a drive-by we met neighbor, Jackie (from lot #15, we are #17), who was taking her dog (a Jack Russel Terrior?) out for a walk. She was very pleasant and welcomed us to the neighborhood. We chatted for quite a while. Good vibes.

some assembly required

This week, the house grew a 2nd story, and roofing should follow soon.

 

 

Roof trusses showed up at the end of the week.




Unfortunately for us, the builder has only put in temporary stairs in the other side. Access to our 2nd floor currently is via a steep ladder, so today's pictures are from the ladder since it was a bit icy.

We made a couple of changes from the base plan. We placed two separated windows in the rear (larger) bedroom upstairs rather than a single 9' wide and added a transom window in the closet that won't interfere with shelves. This area might be a sewing room / closet, and we thought some natural light would be nice. The back of the house is only visible to the critters in the woods, so the lack of symmetry shouldn't bother anyone.

We also went with a 6' wide window in the master bedroom rather than 9'.

Spring!

The crew has started the 2nd floor framing, most evident on the other side.

 

Partitions-in-progress on our side, not visible from the ground.

These are the laminated pieces of the long beams - 15 layers, 2" thick, 18" deep. Nail three together to form a beam.

Potential neighbors in the back, calling "Peter-Peter-Peter", Tufted Titmouse courting, taking turns fluttering their wings while perched.

We met a neighbor Eric who lives immediately adjacent to this new neighborhood, out for a walk. He was very friendly and welcomed us to the area. Nice.

some progress

I did my Thursday after-breakfast-with-friends-from-work drive-by. Craig's warming trailer was missing from the site, but his collection of ladders and the other construction trailer were there, so presumably he's still on the job. No workers at the moment though.

Sometime since Saturday there has been progress. The joists for the 2nd floor were all in, 2nd floor deck on including the 'sitting area' (computer/office space) upstairs that we added to the design but hadn't seen in any units. I'm happy to see that things we want get communicated to the crew.

Saturday check - π day

3.14.15 We went out for our weekly snoop progress check. The first floor is sheathed and wrapped, most second floor joists up, most interior first floor partitions done.






Looking from the living room through the kitchen and dining area out the front window

 and out the rear.















Making a few measurements ...

... a small bench would fit here.

This is where we would enter from the garage (from the right). Laundry to the left of Ginnie, powder room to the right.

Looking through a few walls, from the living room rear into MBR, and closets at the far end. Drywall has been inserted into the dividing wall cavity.

A few more joists to go. The framing is very impressive with these joists heading up on a 12" laminated wood beam. The beam behind, spanning a longer distance, is a full 18" high, 6" thick. 

Right behind the house I noticed a good patch of ground pine, a plant I have always liked and associate with camp.

Snow in the hole. The basement has a good snow cover. Given recent weather, that will probably last for a while. We did notice that #22 had heaters roaring in the basement to thaw things. That pair of houses are now under roof, windows and doors in, etc., ready for plumbing and heating installation.

 

Saturday check

coming in from the garage

Ginnie looked down into the basement and exclaimed "there's snow down there". The basement floor has yet to be poured. Someday the snow will melt and drain into the sand below.










hardly a lake view, but you can see it from the rear windows ... when the leaves are off

 

MBR window

framing day 7

The crew has been productive. A couple of panoramas of the front and rear. Ours is the left side from the front.

The carpenter I spoke with said they would finish the sheathing and start the interior framing Monday.

Thursday report

I drove by the neighborhood on the way home from my weekly Thursday breakfast. Unfortunately I forgot the camera.

Status:

• first floor deck is on, crew of 4 finishing framing the exterior walls on the deck, to be raised later. 8" walls front and back of the 2 story part (allows for pipes and ducts in front of insulation), 6" elsewhere.
• MBR framed for the window as we requested (6' wide rather than 9'). Glad to see these kind of things get communicated to the crew.
• Craig (it's his company doing the framing) confirmed that the adjacent unit will be the model home for the development. 
• Dakota (Craig's black lab and job-site ambassador) was happy to have someone to throw a stick to retrieve. Drill: throw stick for last time, then hop in the truck to escape before he gets back. We may have to bring dog biscuits for him and/or donuts for the crew in the future.