Builder 1, Inspector 0.

Well, maybe builder -32 (up from -33), inspector 435 would be more accurate, but we'll still take the win. I'll spare you the dramatic build up...our house finally passed inspection. But, as per usual, even try #3 was not without its own drama.

With Natalie at "school" for the day, Jody and Zippy spent Monday, inspection #3 day, out of the house to accommodate a visit from the town. She returned mid-afternoon to find a cryptic note on the permit where the signature should have gone, saying only "thermostats not programmable?" Hearing of this at work from Jody, I relayed the news to John the Builder via a phone message. In truth, I also though it might be good to have fancy thermostats. We started with programmable thermostats, but they didn't work, as someone installed the wrong wires during rough in. Last week the plumbers replaced the non-working ones with old school dial thermostats. Apparently, with radiant floor heat, dials are just as good...so there you go.

10 minutes later John called back, hopping mad, and read me the appropriate line from the current edition of the Mass. State Building Codes that said programmable thermostats were required with forced-air systems, but made no mention of other heat sources. He followed up with some choice words about the inspector's level of competency. The next morning at 8am, he was at town hall to figuratively - and perhaps literally, I don't know, I wasn't there - throw the book at them.

Relaying the conversation to me later, John said that both the inspectors and the building commissioner insisted that programmable units- at least one per house they said- were required. Sliding his copy of the building code across the counter, John challenged them, "Show me where it says that." Apparently the office effectively shut down for some time, as the group of them searched the very code they are supposed to follow for something they've been requiring for years.

Finding nothing but the line John read to me over the phone, they quickly signed the permit and shuffled him onto his next stop.

So, what remains? A signature from Conservation -which could get interesting- and finalizing the loan paperwork, but occupying the structure is no longer an issue.

Stepping back for a moment, it's been surprising to me how much the events of the last few weeks have seeped into our daily lives. Yesterday I caught Jody and Natalie playing a game I now refer to as Building Inspector. They had set up little fabric block buildings on the floor (see below) and as Natalie would knock them over, Jody would call out things like "No permit for you!" or "Failed! This railing is an inch too low." or "Your bottom step is not at grade!"

Natalie playing building inspector with mom. "The roof on this one looks a little loose!"

-A

The Beginning of the End

As both of our readers must surely know by now, we've had some issues with our floor. Over the past 4 months these issues have at times prevented us from knowing what types of wood floors could be installed over radiant heating, prevented us from planning the stairs and stair railings, and preventing us, our builder, the stair guy, the floor guy, the other floor guy, and the other floor guy's installer from having an enjoyable time talking about this process. I've not even mentioned the poor girl from Home Depot that we put through the ringer.

So, when a pallet of boxes containing 1400 square feet of lightly-stained, eco-core, engineered tongue and groove hickory arrived at the house yesterday morning and were quickly opened and utilized...it was very exciting.

Thankfully, the flooring installers did a great job: showing up early, leaving late, finishing a floor a day. Below are some pictures of the job in process and finished.

Anthony the Plumber

Putting together manifolds...or voguing

This past week I've been spending a bit of time installing the tubing for the radiant floor heating system. When I say 'a bit' you should know that I'm actually modestly understating the vast amount of time I've sunken into this aspect of our house 'project'. This system was one of the core items we wanted to have in our new house. However we knew that to do it and stay within our budget, sweat equity would be required.

A lot of measuring and a lot of cutting to finish the tube returns.

We were most plumber's worst nightmare: unsatisfied with both the cost of full systems they were quoting us and the energy efficiency of their options, and armed with a neighbor across the street who is a local expert on radiant heating after doing this for his house. It took some time to find a plumber who was willing to cut the job in half: I would handled the tubing and manifold installation (significant labor, low skill) and he'd handle the supply lines from the mani's to the boiler itself (significantly higher skill).

So, with this arrangement I have ended up spending 'a bit' of time planning for the installation, ordering parts, convincing the plumber to do 'research' on the best boiler for our house and explain to me the efficiencies of everything from mixing values to indirect water heaters. Personally, I'm surprised that he hasn't walked away from the job yet. Our first plumber did.

As you may remember, a few weeks ago, we brought in some slave labor to help me install the wood strips used to separate the runs of tubing. Later in the week, while I went to a meeting in Santa Barbara, my mother-in-law continued to work on the system, screwing down some 400 aluminum heat transfer plates (about half of the total amount used). Personally, I'm surprised that she didn't walk away from the job. Our daughter must be really cute.

So, this past week the time came to install the tubing into the tracks, attach everything to the manifolds, and pressurize the system so that we'd know if the tile installers, or someone else punctured a tube while working. I spent Wednesday evening (5pm to 2am) installing the 5 tubes that will heat the top floor (each floor has ~950 ft of tubing on it). Aside from the first one when I was quite nervous about cracking, breaking, bending, or stepping too hard on the tubing, actually laying it went really well and only took ~2 hours. Cleaning the floor beforehand took about 5 hours. The same was true this weekend for the main floor, cleaning 5 hours, tube install 2 hours.

Upstairs tubes in place

Installing and pressurizing the manifolds, what was to be the final step for me task-wise, has become a grey area. We'd like the tubes pressurized before proceeding, but it turns out that I'm a terrible plumber. For the life of me I can't get all the manifold fittings taped and on such that the systems hold a constant pressure overnight.

Upstairs manifold, or "mani" as Jody likes to call it. Once the plumber installs the supply lines, the mani will actually move down and the tubes will fit in their respective slots.

After a night of spraying soapy water on the manifolds, looking for bubbles and tightening and retightening, I'm fairly certain that it is a manifold problem and not a tube problem. But I finally had to give up and call the real plumber in early. I'll try to not ask too many questions this time, and hopefully, he'll spend a bit of time finalizing the installation.

- A

Resolved

In a flurry we were able to metaphorically nail down our floor. It's going to float, of course, so by that I mean we picked it out, half-paid for it, and arranged for it to be delivered and installed.

After the Great Floor Fiasco of last week we re-explored a couple more of our options until they either fell apart or panned out. In the end there was one business in town left standing when we told them our budget and our wishes. Now our only wonder is if we had told them a lower budget, would they have met us at that price-point as well?

The important thing is that we got the floor we want at a price we're comfortable with (as comfortable as two cheapskates can be...) and in the timeline we need.

Meanwhile, kitchen cabinets are beginning to take shape in the living room of our rental house, the trim and doors are being hung over at our new house, and our minds have moved on to trying to figure out what we want the stair railings and balusters to look like (or how to get them to look the way we want and still meet code).

A busy place

- J

Gas, Trim & the Great Floor Fiasco

I have to be honest. It's May and I'm starting to really feel the timeline slipping away. I think I'm nervous about it because of a few slightly major decisions that are still left in the "to do" column. One of these is the real floor that will go over the radiant panels . To our credit, we've been attempting to figure this out for months, but have been dancing in a "two steps forward- three steps back" kind of routine. Flooring people have either been decidedly unhelpful, unknowledgeable or just plain full of misinformation. For example, we thought we were close to choosing a certain floor this week. All along the representative had assured us it was okay to float over radiant. Today we learned that the company says that it's not. And so we start again.

As far as things that are getting done, we picked up the bathroom and mudroom tile and ordered two of our toilets on Saturday. Anthony also completed the rest of the radiant floor panel lay-out over the weekend.

Anthony's weekend project: Grand Central Station

The indoor trim is being installed and is really classing up the place.

This trimmed-out window currently has a view of the porta-potty.

Our gas line was also put in on Tuesday.

Things are happening, but figuring out that floor piece would really move everything along and make me feel like it would be possible to finish before the summer.

- J

And Then There Was One

Anthony had to go to California for work this week. I headed back to school. Natalie was back at day care and my dad had to return home to NY. That left the rest of the radiant panel installation to my mom. What a trooper!

The main floor radiant subfloor is near completion. Laying the plywood strips and aluminum plates happened fairly quickly. It was filling in all the nooks and crannies that ended up taking forever.

Not only that, but when Anthony did return on Thursday he suggested they go over and work after dinner...which turned out to be until midnight!

Mom's always liked puzzles, so we just kept telling her it was one big puzzle that she got to put together. We're just lucky it wasn't great biking weather this week, so really, she had nothing better to do.

- J

Laying It Out

Saturday brought a happy mix of Anthony, my parents, and our friend Kevin over to the house to work. They managed to get pretty far, but there was still plenty to be done on Sunday between church and Easter dinner.

Talking through the rest of the installation. With most of the wood strips down, the details of filling in the holes become important...

and Carol takes a little lie down. (She later reported she wasn't lying down- she just couldn't get up.)

"The Perfect Board" scrawled on one that easily lay nice and flat.

We still used all the others of course, twisting the morning's reading and convincing ourselves that the board the builder cast aside could become the subfloor of our radiant floor warmth.

Don't come near me...I've got power tools!

Zippy also got to experience the doorbell for the first time.

Notice how he's ready for it before it even rings:

Poor guy.

- A & J

What Two Can Do

The mom and dad crew continued to slave away yesterday on their own. They managed to complete all three bedrooms. So what if they can no longer stand up straight? At least they know that this winter they can come back and lie down on an all-house-heating-pad-of-a-floor.

My parents pressing and screwing aluminum panels into the plywood tracks.

Yes, we're putting even more metal into this house!

Anthony returned home in the late evening, and then sometime in the middle of the night got worried that it would rain on our plywood. He entered into a crazy can't-find-the-tarps-solution-seeking fiasco that eventually involved him single-handedly moving all the plywood and then covering it with shower curtains. He was quite disappointed when he woke up this morning and it wasn't raining yet. But then you could just hear his inner voice squeaking "I knew it" in delight when the rain started up mid-morning.

- J

Let there be light!

Lights on in the stairway going into the basement

Yes, light- along with a kitchen in boxes, outside trim painted, insulation in the attic, and radiant panels in the floor.

It was certainly a busy day in and around our little house today. At one point my mom counted 12 people besides us working! So let's back up...

The house was spray primed inside by the painters yesterday.

It was also a marathon day for us at Ikea where the kitchen was finalized, purchased, and loaded into two vehicles (thanks to my parents for meeting us there). I'm so glad we did this on a Wednesday evening. I could not imagine trying to brave a giant purchase like that with the throngs of Boston weekenders.

Checking off our five carts of kitchen cabinets

Lumber delivery

Good old Falmouth Lumber delivered our plywood this morning. Our crew (Anthony and my parents) began cutting strips to create our radiant panels. Zippy also got his spring haircut by my mom in the morning.

An electrician and painter share the yard for prep work as Anthony and my parents cut the plywood strips that the pex tubing will run between for the radiant floor heating

The electricians came and busied themselves. By mid-afternoon the house was powered up, the lights on, and our temporary power supply pole was taken down. Zippy doesn't know this yet, but we now have a working doorbell.

The lights in the kitchen are on!

The insulation guys blew some more into the attic. I thought of our across-the-street neighbor when I saw their truck pull up. A couple of days ago she remarked that she had seem them come and insulate our house, and then it seems like they keep coming back and doing more insulation. Yup. That's the idea with this house. I only want to feel the breeze if I'm sitting on the porch!

Insulation being blown into the attic hatch from the upstairs bathroom

The painters came and worked on the trim. By this time, the sunshine, their radio, and the vast amounts of people around made it seem like a beach party. I guess it is spring break.

Painters working on the trim on the back of the house

By the afternoon our crew had joined the inside ranks. They worked hard laying out the pieces of the radiant floor puzzle upstairs. And to think that they'll work for Cape Cod Potato Chips and granddaughter giggles- we're pretty fortunate! Two rooms upstairs were laid out and secured by dinnertime.

Anthony and I went back and started a third room after dinner. The plan was to continue tomorrow, but the ocean called Anthony away so we'll be on our own without him to supervise. Yikes!

- J