Power Up

Ah, lights, refrigeration, hot water, internet... Welcome back!

I jokingly blame Anthony for our three days of indoor "camping". I seem to remember a previous post where he might have dared a hurricane to show up. Our new house held up well.

First big storm in the new house

Irene was windy and blustery, but overall not too damaging in our area. We did lose power Sunday afternoon, and it was finally restored this afternoon (Wednesday). The fence between our yard and our northern neighbors also fell down, but it was going to be taken down this month anyway. Since it was mostly high winds and very minimal rain here our new loam stayed in place. (We had placed straw bales strategically on the hillside, just in case.)

Temporary lack of fence between our house and the neighbors

& our some of our erosion control straw bales

The storm did delay our landscaper another week though. However, I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

-J

Show and Tell and a Little Rant

A gratuitous house picture and then let's start with the rant.

The siding was 'pre-primed' in grey. We haven't actually decided on the exterior color yet.

Yesterday I went over to the house to check out what has been happening. While touring the upstairs quarters I noticed a bath fixtures box. Having spent a whole day picking out something I thought I could live with (in terms of style, functionality, and price), I was excited to finally see our fixture installed. But as I opened the box I realized that this was not the one I'd chosen... Although Anthony wasn't with me at that moment, I know he can envision what my face must have looked like: a combination of bewilderment and disbelief that morphed into - dare I say - rage (a similar thing happened when we cut into our wedding cake).

It seems that we're suffering from a growing trend of the people we are paying suggesting alternative 'arrangements' for sinks, toilets, walls and doors that don't take the whole house (or budget) into account, coming up with their own solution without telling us if there is an ambiguity in the plans, or simply ignoring the plans (and not telling us). Dealing with fixture selection and sourcing has been especially difficult. We've continuously been told to pick stuff out as soon as possible (as we're on a schedule) but then told that our selection was either not 'good', or that they have access to a "better" one for some unknown $. Look, I would love to have recommendations and suggestions as long as we can have final approval.

Anyway, after taking some time to cool off, we contacted "the John" via email (it was quite late by then) and asked that he ensure the correct one be installed. In today's trip next door we noticed the offending fixture box had been removed, so hopefully all has been restored. After fighting for these, now I just hope I'm actually happy with them once we're actually living with them.

Despite all that, there are some exciting things happening. An insulation guy was hard at work today putting up the attic vents in preparation for putting in insulation.

Anthony excitedly points out the day's work while Natalie appears bored.

More metal is showing up. Some of it is to make sure the stairs stay where they're supposed to and some of it is to make sure the house stays where it's supposed to.

Metal strapping, complete with way too many nails, connects the landing to the floor joist above allowing the open space and light of the living area (where the picture was taken from) to flow all the way down into the basement

Giant, 50-bolt straps from **** and...

7 foot long threaded rods tie the main floor decking and main floor walls down to the foundation. Again, we'd not going to dare a tropical storm, but...

In addition, the electrical, plumbing, and gas tie-ins (outside the house) continue to be planned for and put in. These have brought up some odd compromises. Since the boiler vent has to be more than 4 feet away from the gas meter, which has to be more than 4 to 5 feet away from the electric meter, which has to more than 6-7 feet above the water line, not all of these can fit on the right front corner of the house (where the wall is ~10 feet long) as we'd prefer. At least one has to be placed on the opposite (south) side and come across the house inside. So much for saving money by placing all the inside utilities close together...

- J

Someday We'll Watch Storms From the Porch

But today we'll stay inside and be thankful the the roof is on the house. This is being typed at the end of a long windy, rainy day. But we'll show what happened before that.

Day three of the porch saw the addition of our little triangle that makes a normal shed roof into a little something else. As with all the design ideas that will (or are supposed to) add charm to our house, Jody has laid claim to the triangle concept. Triangles must be harder than rectangles though, because it took a whole day and a lot of measuring to put on that piece of charm yesterday. Apparently the stairs are still my idea...meaning that the jury is still out. If only we could figure out where to put the lightswitches for them...

The outline of the porch roof triangle, and perhaps an afternoon nap?

We had a few days of nice weather, and they alternated between framing the inside, and continuing to finish the exterior. The windows are all in, and with the porch on, only the siding and doors will alter the view from the exterior.

Hopefully the siding will made the house look less like a can of Coors.

However, wind and rain came with vengeance today, actually blowing some of the rigid foam, not yet fully secured, around and off the house. Work continued inside as well as under the roof of the porch. We've picked a bead-board ceiling for the porch, which went in today. Jody has suggested that we go ahead and buy the porch swing now on the off chance that they'll install it for us as well.

Porch Ceiling

Despite the rain, the brain trust met today in the basement to discuss plumbing. With joists running the opposite direction that the drains have to go and few interior walls on the main floor, our plumber went through a number of plans before we settled on one that might work best. Although I've gotten the impression that "better" might just mean "easier for him".

We'll have to see...

The basement bathroom, outlined in dirt.

Weather dependent, the pour might take place this week.

Head Design Chief

Apparently, Zippy had some questions about the wall locations yesterday evening when we were over for a short visit.

- A

Hurricanes Shmurricanes

The extra hardware going into the house is amazing. Someone made a comment to make sure we get hurricane clips on the roof. Well, we've got you beat. We have 1" diameter threaded rods that are anchored in the foundation, that are connected to wood beams via ginormous plates, that are connected all the way up to those hurricane clips with metal strapping.

These brackets (~2' long) screw into the 1" diameter threaded rods in the cement wall and connect to the vertical beams with a 'large' number of nails.

And this is after we removed a window from the back wall so we wouldn't have to put structural steel in.

Speaking of nails, they are going through nails like crazy. The new Mass building codes require nails (a certain kind of funky ring and spiral shank nail) every 3" on all sheathing edges as well as additional nails every 6" (I think) on the interior of the pieces.

A view of the exterior wall at the junction of two pieces of plywood. Got nails...?

Thus, there are corners of the house where multiple lines of silver dot-like 'coins' (the nail heads have a coin-like pattern on the head so the inspectors can see, from the outside, what nail was used) all come together.

...We do. Lines of nails mark the corners of the house where plywood pieces meet. I'm not going to dare a hurricane to show up... but I don't expect the walls to fly apart all 'Florida-style' either.

And our mortgage appraiser didn't think a new house was worth anything more than a 50 year old one...at least we have more metal.

-A

Like a Hollywood Movie Set

We have a facade.

Both 2nd floor ends up, with some trim and exterior insulation already installed.

It's hard to believe that 10 days ago, we had a couple of cement walls. Now for the first time, we can see the full height of the house. It seems huge, particularly from the back where it is 3 stories.

It was a snow day for Jody and Natalie- interesting (but to our benefit) that the folks that work outside didn't have a snow day. The faithful builders spent a good hour today clearing snow from the house, yard, and lumber. I'm just not sure why they didn't do the driveway of the rental house as well.

- A & J

An Alphabetized Recap of July (So Far)

Agonizing decisions

Big baby belly

Cankles

Driving weekly to Boston (sometimes on dirt roads in an attempt to avoid summer traffic)

Everything at once

Floating in the ocean

Gear breaking

Hot and humid

Inching. Forward. Ever. So. Slowly.

Jumping, jabbing Flippy kicks

Kiddie pool- best gift ever

Lots of sunscreen

Mali visits

Negotiating for cars sucks

Overheating

Plans nearing completion

Quiet? Not our dog (especially when the mailman comes)

Rusting frame...why not now?

Scorching heat

Thumbs of fury (watching Mali text)

Up in the air about everything

VERY hot (have we mentioned this yet?)

Windsurfing instead of waffling at times

Xander? Still looking for viable name suggestions... (comment box below)

You'd think this house would go faster- considering the size

Zoning submitted?

- A, J (and a little bit Mali- in between texting)