Activity has slowed, but work continues on. Electric wires were ran over the past 2 weeks, as well as CAT lines and a doorbell wire. Today we arrived to find that insulation has begun. The outer walls will be spray foam, and the garage walls will be the roll-out kind. There’s a bag of loose insulation as well, maybe for the attic areas? While enjoying some nice evenings on the deck, though, we noticed that the first tenant has moved in — a bird has built a nest in the ceiling area above the deck. It’ll have to be moved eventually, but for now, we’ll let her be.

It’s been a bit since we’ve had any activity worth posting about, but today, everyone was on site! HVAC, electric, framers, the contractor, excavators, there was hardly room to park! So awesome to see so much activity! The electricians are running wires and getting outlet boxes and light boxes and switches ready. HVAC is finishing up all the vents and ducts and exhausts. The excavator is finally going to move that huge dirt pile as well as dig holes for the septic tanks and dig trenches for the water lines for the outdoor furnace we’ll put in this summer. And the framers finished the walls they needed to build around the vents, as well as built our balcony off the second story! The door is still blocked so we couldn’t step out onto the balcony, but it was still awesome to see! They also finished the stairs off the deck in the back which are exactly what we wanted! Railings still are needed but the house has come a long way!

The cement crew was on site today putting in several of the outdoor pads we need. One in the back for the future generator and AC unit, the patio was poured, the porch was poured too. They’ll have to come back to do the pad in front of the garage but everything looks great so far!

The last of the rough-in plumbing is done with the addition of water pipes and a drain for a garage sink, as well as installation of the 2 1-piece shower units. That should do it for that crew until they have to do the final work (installing sinks and toilets, connecting water lines and drain pipes, and turning on the water). The HVAC crew showed up on Monday too, and have been busy installing ducts, vent chases and insulated ducts. The furnace will be installed this week as well, so Darren had to make a mad dash to the wood burning furnace company to pick up the water-to-air heat exchanger so it can be installed at the same time.

OMG, the windows and some of the doors are currently in our garage!!! Oh, happy day!!! Hopefully soon (next week???) they’ll be installed and we can see out again!!! The plumbers also made some more progress on drains and water lines.

The frame is done and wrapped, the roof is fully shingled, and the soffit/fascia boards are up. The changes now will come slower and be less visible, but here is where some very important work gets done! Running water, electricity, heating and cooling, views!!! To start that off, the plumbers have been onsite this week. So far, most of the water lines are installed. Drain pipes likely are next.

It rained from Sunday evening through Monday afternoon, so nothing was done on the property on Monday. But the roofers were there bright and early today! We drove out to check out their work — it’s amazing how much different the roofs look with just shingles! I’m also including 2 pics from the work we did on Sunday, clearing some of the hillside behind the house. Still have a ways to go, but what a difference 3 hours makes!

The day we waited all winter for finally arrived today — sunny, 70s, and beautiful! We spent the whole day on the property, and did almost nothing! But we did gather some logs at a new burn pile for later (way too windy to burn today — we actually had a wind advisory and no fire warnings for the county), and dug out some of the culverts that had gotten clogged when the builder’s crew plowed our driveway. Mostly we just sat and enjoyed the views! On the deck, on the patio, on the driveway facing the sunset, and walked around a bit. It was a perfect day to do whatever we wanted, and to just enjoy being out there was what we wanted — I know it was what I very much needed!

The framers worked hard again today and got the deck boards on and posts and trusses for the partial roof that will be over the deck. We drove over to Brown Hill Road to see the progress, walked straight around to the back of the house, and for a few minutes missed the fact that the outer wrap around the house was cut for access to the main level deck! Oh, to step out onto that outdoor extension, to see the view we knew we’d get, to imagine a fire pit below, lovely seating all around, a ceiling fan for the stuffy nights! What a dream come true! The part that goes back to the garage and steps down to the ground is just as awesome as we’d hoped — that crew that our builder has is awesome!