September 29th We have a floor!

Finally we have a floor poured. Everything has been held waiting on this step. Now the stairs can be hung, and the trades can come in and run their pipes and ducting and wires.

The framers should be in tomorrow to hang the stairs and build the walls in the garage that will frame in the utility room and the entryway.

The finished floor at the end of the day.

September 27 Rebar

Getting closer to having the concrete poured. Rebar went in. The guys actually came by later in the day on the 27th and the 28th  to get it ready. I'm seeing that there is a lot more to the prepping of the pad than I had thought.

 The first to test the pad.

September 25 Gravel Came

How do you like that? They said they'd be putting gravel in today and sure enough they did. Tomorrow should be rebar if all goes to schedule and then concrete the day after.

I'm hoping that rebar goes so quickly tomorrow that they'll have time to do the pour as well. I can always dream...

This video is for my grandsons who like all things "truck".

The gravel truck and Bobcat ready for action

Dumping the gravel

September 22 Prepping for Concrete

The concrete guys were here prepping the garage for concrete. They levelled out the dirt and tamped it flat in preparation for gravel which will arrive on Tuesday.

 Grid lines in place to determine high and low spots. Tamping begins.

 They did a really thorough job on the tamping. The floor is all level and waiting for gravel and rebar.

Trying out the new panorama feature on my iPhone.

September 21 Applied Some Paint

I painted around the trim around the overhead garage doors. I guess to be more exact, I painted around the garage door openings. The doors won't go in for a couple of weeks or so.

The concrete dudes are coming tomorrow to start prepping the garage to pour the pad. I gave up on the first contractor. he wouldn't return my calls. We should have concrete by middle of next week.

September 17 We got Walls

Yep, we now have interior walls in the suite. Once the stairs are in place then the framers should be able to complete al of the framing.

Next week the concrete will go in. This has been the toughest trade to nail down with the pargest range of prices. It's probably cost us at least two weeks of time. My goal is to finish by the end of October but delays might take us into November.

Outside the bedroom.

 Looking into the walk-in closet. That thingy hanging down from the ceiling is our sunpipe. We shouldn't have to turn on the closet light during the day.

 Another sunpipe in the bathroom.

 Looking into Nancy's pocket office off the kitchen. Note the two pocket doors for the entry.

This panorama was taken with the new panorama function on my iPhone. 

September 15 Soffits and Facia

Soffits and facia were completed. It was a two day process but they did a nice job.
I've found another company to pour our pad. They came today to measure up and I should have concrete by mid week. Finally. Concrete has been holding up all of the trades.

 Getting started.

 Underside of the roof showing the soffits in place.

Soffits and facia completed. I'll probably so siding and gutters as one of the last things to go in.

September 13 Stairs arrived

My stairs were delivered today. They'll probably get installed on Saturday when the framers return.
We're excited about these stairs because we decided to make them 48 inches wide. Most stairs in homes are only 36 inches wide or less.

September 11 Plumbing Stuff

It's been a quiet week on the site. The plumber came in and got the pipes etc. ready  so we can pour cement. Still waiting on my cement guy to commit to a day. I might have to find someone else since most everything is waiting on the concrete now and as I always say, "I am a man of action."

You definitely have to be a plumber to figure this out.

September 8 We Have Windows

The framers came today and put in the windows and doors on the garage. They were going to frame the upstairs but it is a Saturday after all  and they most likely ran out of time.

 Here the framers are installing one of the windows.

You can see most of the windows. The only other window is the bathroom window on the other side of the garage facing the house. You can also see two of the side doors that were installed as well as the trim around the closest garage doors. They used a couple of the 2x8's in another area so they didn't have what they needed to complete the trim.

September 6 A Day Like No Other

This was one crazy day. The roofers showed up at 7:30 and I immediately panicked. My framers were supposed ot come yesterday to finish framing of the overhangs before the roofers arrived. I had to get on the phone right away to my framers to get them here early.

My HVAC guy was here yesterday scoping things out and he got here in time this morning to cut holes in the roof for the bathroom and laundry fans as well as the range hood in the kitchen.

And then I discovered that the plumber hadn't come yet to cut his hole into the bathroom so I had to call him as well. He came after they had shingled over the area but they tore out a section and redid it.

Roy Oler, my electrician was here as well today. He got power out to the garage.

Oh and when it came time to drop the skylight in neither the framer nor the roofer were clear on  who should do it. My framer is very accomodating so he offered to do it. Once they got it out of the box though, they were confused becsuse neither of them had seen this style of skylight before. Although it is a 2'x4' skylight, the frame he had built for it was a little too long so he had to rebuild part of the box and the roofer had to remove some shingles and install extra flashing.

A very stressful day all around.

 The roofers begin. They were very fast.

 My framers beginning work on the overhang roof.

 Our sunpipes hanging inside. They'll be shortened up later.

 The overhang roof has been completed.

 The roof over the entryway.

 End of the day. Framers will be back on Saturday to install the doors and windows and interior walls upstairs.

Oh, and did I mention my garbage bin was delivered today as well.

September 5 Our Shingles Arrive

Today was pretty low key. No trades on sight but the shingles and roofing material were delivered. They'll get installed tomorrow.

 The delivery truck actually had to set up several feet away from the garage. You can see they have a long conveyor belt to place the material on the roof.

Taking the material off the end of the belt

September 2 Exterior framing complete

Well maybe not all of the exterior framing... They still need to frame up the entryway but we're almost there.

 The garage all framed in. It's actually taller than the house. 

A passerby commented on it being a castle. Not sure if that's a good thing.

 The opening for the skylight in the kitchen.

 The framers will be coming back on Wednesday to construct the interior walls.

Aug 31 The Tall Wall goes up

 Here's the crane truck that we had to call in to put the tall wall in place.

 Peyton and Beckett were VERY intested in the proceedings since it involved a truck.

 The tall wall being lowered into place. The wall weighed several hundred pounds.

 View from another angle.

 The plywood sheeting for the roof being hauled up.

 The trusses are almost all in place. we used scissor trusses which gives us a sloped ceiling from 8 feet on the outside walls to 10 feet at the peak. The overall feeling is that of 10 foot ceilings.

This gable end gave us an idea if we ever do a similar construction. We thought that it would be really cool to have windows designed to fill the spaces instead of just plywood.

August 30 Building the tall wall

The framers lost a day or two because of rain and they had to go finish some work elsewhere but today they were back on site building the 20 foot tall wall that will run up the south side of the garage beside the stairway.

 The tall wallwas built on the second floor. A crane will come in later to drop it into place. 

That sucker took a lot of 2x6's to construct it.

The view from the bedroom windows.