Sheetrock and Texturing Finished

The walls and ceilings are all finished and ready for paint.  We're narrowing our color selections down, hoping to finalize tonight and buy the paint tomorrow.  I've borrowed an airless paint sprayer and plan to use it for most of the walls.  Even on the rooms I'll end up painting by hand, it shouldn't take long compared to painting in an existing home.  No flooring, furniture or trim to worry about.          

Our vinyl siding was delivered on Wednesday and Andrew and his brother Bill start installing the facia and sofit today.  The house is looking better and better every week.

Sheetrock And Doors On

It's been a good past 5 days.  My parents visited over the weekend and my Dad helped me install the two remaining, and most difficult, exterior doors and knobs.  I'm too embarrassed to say how long we spent on those two doors but I'm happy to say they are on and look great.  I'll admit much of the fault is mine since I bought the door opening the wrong side so we switched the hinges.  It looks like pine in these pictures but it's alder.
  All of that was so the city utilities would connect the city electricity to our house.  They require all the exterior doors lockable and the sheetrock hung and mud and taped.  I guess they gave me an exception.

The sheetrock guys finished hanging yesterday morning (Tuesday).
They've now begun taping, mudding and then texturing.  They "should" finish next week.  Time to pick out paint colors!

Fireplace In Place

Our fireplace was delivered and installed this week.  We decided after the framing was done to pull the box out from the wall a little just for a visual change.  It should give some character to the room.  It took longer than I expected to re-frame around but I think the finished product will turn out well.  The angled ceiling was really fun to frame up to.  (not really)

The sheetrock guys started this week too.  Ed has three sons and one daughter and they are his work crew.  Two of the sons put up all the ceilings and some of the upper room's walls already.  With me putting in my remaining two exterior doors this weekend, I'll be able to have the electricity put into the house by the city.  That will be a very nice improvement.  The requirement has been sheetrock on the walls and all the doors on and lockable.

Ready For Sheetrock

We finished all the minor changes and adjustments we had to do and cleaned up the house in preparation for the sheetrock starting this week.  It wasn't until after the framer was done and gone that we decided to add a closet here, make attic access points there, and build a hearth for the fireplace to sit on.  So I did all of that, plus some other things, over the last couple of weeks.  It feels very final once the sheetrock goes on.  Like nothing can be changed.  Of course, I don't want to change anything but I'm learning more and more that Bonnie and I are picky and specific in our tastes and decisions.  I think I do better to deal with what I have than to start from scratch.  I guess when there are soooo many options, I feel that I have to make the best possible decisions instead of simply doing the best with what we have. (Like in a pre-owned house.)

So here are the "before" pictures before the sheetrock starts.  I'll update with some "during" pictures tomorrow.  The tape, mud and texturing should be done at the end of next week, so they tell me.

                    

Still Moving Forward

I've been slacking in my writing duties as of late.  But nevertheless, work is being done.  Most notably has been the digging and installing of the ground-source lines, septic system and the insulation.  We had planned on digging the trenches along the hillside but the digger quickly found bedrock and couldn't dig the 6 foot trench as needed.  So, they went down the hill and into the field below.  This turned out to be fine because all the digging and backhoe driving helped to flatten out the field and get rid of a lot of scrubby bushes and weeds growing there.  We plan to have someone flatted and shape that area for us after the house is done so we can make it a usable area for gardening and play.  There should be plenty of room.  The Septic system was also put in just a little ways below the house in the backyard.

The insulation company finished all they could do before the drywall goes in, which was a lot.  I can already tell this kind of insulation is a lot better than the traditional fiberglass.
             I feel that I "dropped the ball" on getting some things scheduled ahead of time.  Namely the vinyl siding installation.  I got focused on getting other things done and didn't plan ahead enough.  I probably feel it worse because the builder who is building the house across the street from us is just about finished.  Granted, that's all he does and the house is half the size of ours but, . . it makes me feel slow.  Oh well.  We'll finish when we finish.