The final inspection took place this morning, and as of now, we have an occupancy permit! We'll be spending the night in the new house tonight.
Apparently, moving the furniture into the garage was not a good idea -- in Freetown, apparently, the building inspector will just walk away from an inspection if anything's been moved in. He decided to not hold that against us today, so that's a very good thing. He also tells us there's been a lot of talk in town about our house, whatever that means. While our house is larger than average for the town, it's by no means the largest, nicest, or most expensive house. We do get a lot of drive-bys (folks stopping to look at the house from the street -- we've seen as many as a dozen in one day when working at the house on a weekend) -- that at least explains those.
The only issues that the inspector turned up were not enough boards blocking the french doors (which won't have steps until the landscaper gets going, hopefully this week), too much rise on the bottom-most step on the kitchen porch (correctable with a little bit of extra soil, again something that will be dealt with by landscaping,) and a rubber block on one of the vent stacks left over from the rough plumbing inspection.
As I said, our contractor still has some items to complete, but we can finally move in!
It's been a while since my last update, as I've been trying to get the site moved to a new hosting server due to my old ISP shutting down. I'll have to do it all over again in the next week, but the <http://thevic.fallingrockcentral.org/> address will continue to work.
BIG news -- the final inspection is scheduled for Monday morning at 10AM. This means that, barring any problems (and we're not expecting any) we'll be able to spend our first night in the house in just two days! We've been living with Kristen's parents for just over one year now (actually, one year plus one week, as of tomorrow,) so it'll be good to be living under our own roof again.
This doesn't mean we're done, though. There's still a few punch list items, and one major item (the range hood in the kitchen still needs to have ductwork installed.) We may also still be having air conditioning condensers installed and the alarm system trimmed out, depending on the results of a meeting we have to go over the final numbers early next week. But there's nothing left to do of any significance, and we'll be able to settle in and be construction-free for a while.
That is, until I have to start installing crown moulding... sigh.
Finally, check out today's batch of pictures. Once we're really wrapped up, I plan on taking some higher-resolution shots of the end result.
We have countertops!
That means that the last of the long-lead-time items is in. The plumber still has some work to do, and the range hood still needs to be ducted, but that means we're now in the final stretch, with the bulk of the remaining items being little punch-list tasks, final inspections, and cleanup.
Will we be in by the 10th? I don't think so, but it's almost certain that we'll be in by the 17th.
As of today, all of our stuff has taken residence in the garage. We can't move in with it, unfortunately. The punch list is getting quite small, though. Most of the finish electrical is complete, and the only major items left are countertops and the rest of the finish plumbing. Apparently, ducting the kitchen hood will be a little difficult, but we're confident our contractor can solve that problem.
We've just spent the evening going over finances, as we're getting near the end and we're trying to tell just what our resources are to decide whether or not to hold off on air conditioning condensers (since we'll only have a few weeks of the cooling season left when we move in.) We've got a few questions, as the numbers show us with fewer reserves than we should have, despite us keeping an iron grip on overages.
According to our contractor, it's possible that we'll be able to move in by the 10th, which is less than a week away now. We're figuring it'll be at least a little later than that, but not by longer than a week.
This week, most of the electrical fixtures were installed, carpets went in, the closet organizers were installed, and more finish work, including the main staircase, got wrapped up.
We're all set to move our stuff in on August 4th, but it doesn't look like we'll be moving in with it at the moment. The current hold up is the stone countertop installation, which was promised as being two weeks out but is really longer (currently August 11th.) The finish plumbing won't occur until they're installed, but just about everything else should be wrapped up before we hit that date, with the possible exception of the second coat of polyurethane, which we're doing and won't hold us back.
There are some new pictures up today, too.
First up, a little sitekeeping: be sure to check out today's Site Update, as my web site will be moving soon.
We're getting really close, now. Our contractor's finish carpentry crew will wrap up this week, as will the electrician, if the rest of our lights are delivered. The kitchen appliances were delivered yesterday, most of the kitchen cabinets are now installed, and all but one cabinet mistake has been corrected (the manufacturer unfortunately made the same mistake a second time with one new cabinet, but that won't hold us back.) I'll have wrapped up all of the data wiring by tomorrow, and Kris will be done applying stain to the interior trim, leaving us with just a few doors to be stained and a whole lot of polyurethane to apply.
So, what's left?
On the outside, not much. We have to finish paint the exterior doors, there's a decorative panel to be installed on the front garage gable end (under the window), and both gutters and my exterior speakers need to be installed.
From a mechanical perspective, the heating and cooling system needs to be hooked up, including A/C compressors. We're still waiting for a LP gas bottle (to supply fuel for the rangetop in the kitchen) so that the supply line can be installed, and the well system needs to be tied into the main plumbing. The electrician is still in trim-out mode, but we're still waiting on some lights (for bedrooms and baths) before he can really be complete.
On the inside of the house, kitchen cabinets are just about done, aside from the crown moulding, which will be held up a little waiting on one upper cabinet (the remaining manufacturer error.) Countertops, which are the last long-lead-time item (due in about 2 weeks) would then go in, followed by appliances and finish plumbing (sinks, toilets, bathtubs, and so on.) There's still just a little trim work to do, and the garage firewall need to be drywalled and plastered for code. The only other big items are carpets, which go in on Wednesday this week, and the main staircase balustrade, which happens Monday.
Of course, we'll still be busy polyurethaning trim even after we're in.
At any rate, we're moving our furniture and other belongings out of storage the first Saturday in August, provided I can rent a truck. We'll most likely be moving ourselves in at the same time. We would have moved our "stuff" in the previous weekend, but it would have been difficult to get help.
We finally got the right boom lift this weekend, so I spent the weekend getting a little too much sun while painting trim 20 feet in the air. Kris, with help from my aunt and uncle, got some more interior trim stained and painted in the rooms still accessible after the flooring sub came in this week and started finishing off the hardwood.
This week, we have the polyurethane going down onto the hardwood floors, linoleum being laid in the kitchen, and the telephone company coming to run our phone line to the demarcation point on the side of the house, so I can tie it into my network panel. Kris will be working mostly outside the house, although we do have a few pieces of still-to-be-installed interior trim that she can work on if the weather is nasty.
We have power! After several weeks of trying to make sure that everyone had what they needed, N*Star showed up today to connect the house to the grid. We even have a few functioning lights in the house (in the cellar.) I finished trimming out the audio system last night (I was at the house from 8pm until midnight working on that.) Everything works, and I put all the holes in the right places on the first try (what's that old adage -- "measure twenty-five times, then cut once?")
A few minor problems with the kitchen cropped up this week, but somehow one mistake allowed us to correct the other one (thanks, Bob!), so, other than a little wait for a replacement cabinet or two, no harm, no foul.
We also have a finished macadam driveway, courtesy of Larry Torti Paving. I'll be posting photos of that this weekend. Larry's quite a character, to say the least. He has actually done two driveways for This Old House, which is about as close as we're going to get to Norm and Steve for our little project.
Looks like the hardwood flooring finisher will be starting tomorrow, judging by the enormous belt sander in the middle of my master bedroom. If the weather cooperates, I might finally get the high trim on the house finish-painted this weekend, too.
More in a day or so...
The window aprons are wrapped up, and the wainscot in the dining room is under way. One way or another, the hardwood floors are being finished the end of this week, so interior work has to take a little break to let the urethane dry.
We've been busy too -- I spent a few nights after work and most of this weekend trimming out my network wiring panel and the first half of my audio distribution system, and Kris has been busy painting. All the rooms now have two coats on the walls, and she's gotten started staining the woodwork on the second floor, with help from my aunt Janice and her dad. The woodwork is going to take a while, although I think that putting on polyurethane will go faster than applying the stain.
The electrician was also in this weekend, starting their trim-out. Hopefully, we'll get the rest of our lighting order in soon, so they can really wrap up.
On tap for this week, Kris will be at the house doing more woodwork, and I'll have to spend at least one more night on the audio system, putting in the last two keypads and the in-wall speakers. The kitchen cabinets should also get wrapped up, along with at least the dining room wainscot (wainscot in the kitchen and baths may have to wait until the tile floors are installed.) The floor finishing starts on Wednesday, which closes the house to the other trades for the rest of the week.
Interior millwork is moving right along -- all the doors are cased, and the windows are complete except for the apron. That leaves some wainscot, shoe moldings, the kitchen cabinets and the main stairwell. Then we have a lot of painting and staining to wrap before the flooring subcontractor (who is one of my old Scoutmasters -- small world!) gets in. There's a new batch of pictures up, too.
We've signed off on our flooring choices for the rooms that didn't get hardwood, so there's only one or two more areas where we might go over allowances. All told, we're only about seven percent over budget, which isn't bad at all.
I spent tonight punching down my data wiring onto my patch panel -- got about half of the Category 5 done in about 2 hours. I have to get that done before the phone company shows up to install our line on the 2nd of July. We haven't scheduled the cable company yet, nor do we have power as of today (still waiting on the electrical inspector to fax in proof of our inspection to the utility.) If I work a night or two this week and next, I can probably have all the voice and data stuff trimmed out without difficulty.
We've got the hardwood floors being furbished the last week of June, and the other floors being installed July 1st and 2nd. Finish plumbing and kitchen appliances and counters happen after that, which puts us on track to be in mid-July (yes, the date keep slipping.) But the end is in sight now.
Once again, we ended up spending the weekend without the boom lift. Since there's still tons to do, we were busy regardless. We got a good start on the finish coat on the first floor trim, painted the porch balustrade assemblies, and got some detail painting on the porch posts done.
Our contractor has been busy too. All of the strip oak floors are laid, the remaining interior doors are hung, and there's a good amount of base molding and some door casings finished. Things are looking very good on that front, although Kris and I are dreading all of the trim staining we need to do.
Our current estimated move-in date is "sometime in the first week of July." Getting closer...
I actually found time to write an update...
Plans changed a little on the interior work. Rather than installing the kitchen, some time was spend assembling the porch balustrade, at least to a point where we can paint the assemblies prior to installation. Inside, we have the plywood subfloor for the linoleum and tile, and installation of the hardwood floors and some of the interior doors started today.
Kris spent the afternoon with my aunt putting second coats of paint in the downstairs bath and in the master bedroom, which is now a more muted yellow than the French's Yellow Mustard-esqe color that was first put up in there. That doesn't leave too much for interior walls to be painted, but there's still a lot of trim that will need staining.
We ended up having to postpone the boom lift for the weekend, until next week, due to very inclement weather. This turned out to be a good thing: we made great progress on the interior painting, with a lot of help from friends and family (thanks again, everyone!) Every room got at least one coat of paint (except for the living room, for which we haven't yet picked a color) with the kitchen, utility room, two baths, and the far-too-high foyer getting two coats each.
We also talked with our contractor about the interior trim and flooring. We're still waiting on a few final prices, but they're ready to start installing stuff. Kitchen cabinet installation starts on Monday, and the hardwood for the floors will probably get ordered as well. We have to arrange for delivery of the finish plumbing and electrical items, appliances, and chase down our utilities (we've already called to set things up, but things seem to be taking too long.)
The next few weeks will probably involve evening painting, so I'm probably going to be a space cadet given that and the day job. Probably no updates until next weekend.
The front porch deck got wrapped up today, and it looks like they're set up to pour concrete footings for the steps. There are also big mounds of fill in the driveway, in preparation for the paving contractor, who's supposed to get started soon.
The finial is now up on the turret roof, and we're hoping that the gingerbread will be installed sometime this week. That will leave only porch and rear steps, the panel beneath the garage window, and the porch rail for exterior carpentry. I've got a 40-foot boom lift being delivered this weekend, to get the finish coat on the high parts of the trim. Since the plasterers wrapped up last Wednesday, and the painter doing the primer and ceilings will be done tomorrow, we've started recruiting for the weekend to do some major interior and exterior painting. Once we've got one coat up on the interior, trim carpentry and flooring will happen. The kitchen cabinets have been on-site for some time, as has the balustrade for the main staircase. Just about everything else (plumbing fixtures, lights, and so on) has been ordered for quite a while, and is pretty much just waiting on a phone call for delivery.
There's a whole slew of stuff that will be happening in the next three or four weeks -- with luck, everything that's left. According to our contractor, we're still tracking to be in by June 30th. Of course, that will fill our summer with landscaping, but we've been expecting that.
Now that the weather's warmed up, and we're at the house working more often, we're surprised by the number of people who drive by slowly 4 or 5 times, or just drive right up to say how much they like the house. We've been getting an average of 4 or 5 different groups dropping by just about every weekend. It's a nice compliment, although I do hope the pace slows a bit once we've moved in.
Finally, we had our first theft from the site this weekend -- some mahogany decking, mostly scrap pieces, walked away from our front porch sometime Saturday night. I don't think that any of it was really needed, but it's annoying, just on principle. I suppose if that's the only theft problem we have, that's not bad.
Work on the interior is moving along at a good clip. The plasterers only have the foyer to do (and two ceilings to correct), so, assuming the weather stays relatively cool and dry, they'll be priming the walls by the end of next week. Our general contractor's crew has also been working on the porch, and both the beadboard ceiling and the deck are pretty close to done.
The appraiser from the bank will be by sometime tomorrow to check on progress for our next draw, so we can get some of these bill paid and get our lighting fixtures ordered. That, along with setting some nails and puttying the holes, is our job for the weekend. We're hoping that we'll be able to do the finish coat on the exterior Memorial Day weekend, so that we're completely done there and ready to roll on the interior painting when they're ready for us.
The last week was pretty busy. Insulation wrapped on Monday, the blueboard is pretty much all installed, and the plasterers are in this week and should be done by Thursday. Work on the porch got started today, which made for one of the last big pushes to get exterior trim painted this past weekend before it went on the house. Still have posts, spindles, and rails to do, plus the finish coat, but we'll be done soon. Just in time to paint the interior.
I've thrown up a few new pictures, but the interior shots are going to be tricky given the fairly limited field-of-view of my DV camera.
The HVAC system is pretty much done, so that crew has moved on to the furnace and oil storage tank, both of which are installed if not yet connected to everything they need connecting to.
The insulation sub also got going on Friday, and, if their progress so far is any indication, will wrap up in less than a day. Blueboard is scheduled to be delivered on Monday, so we'll start seeing real interior walls soon.
All of this translates into more pictures.
While we've taken the weekend off, paint-wise, we've been looking at lighting fixtures. Looks like it's back to painting soon, though -- there's another load of trim lumber at the house, probably for the porch, that i'm guessing we'll have to get to soon.
More work on the HVAC system, which will likely be finished tomorrow, went on today. The "metalbestos" flue for the oil burner went through the roof today, and, as promised, is not visible from the street. Our garage doors were also installed, which will allow the house to be completely secured.
The siding is now complete, with only a few gaps around the porch that can't be filled in until the porch is complete. That will happen after the plasterers are done, to help avoid the decking being damaged by folks carrying plaster in and out of the house. We've got a little bit more painting to wrap up on the gingerbread items we've bought, so we can have those installed.
Since I've heard nothing to the contrary, tomorrow should see one last waste trap installed, the gas line for my stove run, the low-voltage conduit to the network Node 0 panel installed, and insulation should get going. I believe that our copper roof finial will also go up. All that should translate to new pictures over the weekend.
There has been quite a bit of progress over the last few days.
Framing inspection passed today, most of the exterior siding is done (and the remainder will be wrapped up tomorrow), shingles are fixed up, the front door is installed, and the first-floor work on the HVAC system is done. If all goes well, insulation begins on Thursday, which puts us on track to start interior finish in about two and a half to three weeks.
I've put up a few new pictures today as well.
I don't know how my contractor pulled it off, nor do I care, but the electrical inspector is now satisfied and will apparently be signing off on the rough-in tomorrow. The damage is done, though: the insulation sub, who was supposed to begin today, now can't get started until next Wednesday. Sigh.
Some more siding went on the house today, on the back gable of the garage and on the door side of the garage. That leaves only the front gables (which also need some shingle work) and the turret. We have a few more clapboards to paint, apparently, so at least some of that will end up on hold until early next week, since neither Kris nor I have time to paint until Saturday.
Well, it's official -- we're stuck until the electrical inspector re-approves the service trench, so the insulation crew has been postponed from tomorrow.
There's still a few days of exterior siding to do, so at least something can proceed, but this new delay on the interior could hurt. My general contractor has asked the excavator to contact the electrical inspector, to see if we can get this taken care of without a huge delay (not to mention the extra cost to the contractor of re-digging the trench.)
Finally got my videotaping of the rough-ins done today, so that's one more task down. The plumber has also been in, installing the waste traps.
The electrical inspector has been by, and, although he had no major qualms inside the house, wants the service trench dug back up again to be sure there are no rocks in the trench. I'm honestly not sure why, given that everything was run in PVC conduit, but the way inspections work in Massachusetts, he doesn't really have to give a reason. Hopefully he'll let things inside the house proceed on schedule, given that his issues seem to be only with the outside work. Guess we'll know that soon.
Did you ever have the feeling that someone didn't want you to do something?
There were only a few things left to do on my "before the insulation goes on" list -- pulling the speaker wires for the outside speakers through the exterior wall and videotaping the rough-ins, to avoid putting a nail through a water pipe when hanging family pictures down the road. I had planned to do that this past weekend, but ended up quite sick instead. I even left work early today to get it done, and ended up in standstill traffic instead (my main route home was actually completely closed for a little while to clear up a major accident.) I finally got the speaker wire done, but I'll have to go back tomorrow to do the videotaping.
Fortunately(?) we're still waiting on an inspection or two before the insulation process starts, which is now scheduled for Thursday, so maybe I'm just being a little paranoid...
Doesn't look like the inspection of the rough wiring has happened yet, since there's no signature on the appropriate spot on our permit. Given that the electrical inspector for the town of Freetown is part-time, this isn't too surprising.
As far as completed work, it looks like the HVAC sub was busy today. The second floor duct work looked finished, and the outside setup for the air conditioning compressors got done as well.
Three 12-hour days, 3000 feet or so of cable, and various and sundry staples, cable ties, and other esoterica, and my telecom pre-wire is done. The electrician also finished up today, and the inspection was due to happen tonight (although as of 6:30pm, I still hadn't seen the inspector.)
The plumbing inspection was yesterday -- that passed with no problems. Work on the heating and air conditioning system is well underway, and the alarm system should be wired by Friday. At this stage, it looks like we're on track to begin insulating next week. That should only take a few days, and then we'll be ready for blueboard and plaster.
In terms of other work, the cellar finally dried out, so the steps were installed today. The pocket door got roughed out, which pretty much completes framing. Work on the last bit of non-porch exterior painting is on hold, since Kris is spending the last half of her vacation very ill (and I'm trying to avoid catching what she's got.) More exterior work is scheduled for next week, so hopefully we won't slow up anything if we're unable to get more painting done for a little bit.
It's been a busy weekend.
Kris spent the day Friday and Saturday painting clapboards -- she's about half done with what still needs to be painted. I spent Saturday pulling the Category 5 cable we're using for our computer network and telephones with my future brother-in-law (who, lucky for me, is a licensed electrician.) We managed to get all of the Category 5 for the first floor run, which amounts to 13 home runs, probably about 1000 feet of wire. That leaves about 10 runs of Cat 5 on the second floor and into the garage, about 12 runs of coaxial cable, and some speaker wire. I'll be taking some time off to get that done this week.
The electrician and mason were also in on Saturday, so the chimney veneer is applied and the rough electrical is closer to being done. The well system also had work done this week, but as it's not yet tied into the plumbing of the house, there's still work to do there.
Sunday turned in to an impromptu showing of the house -- we had intended to bring my Grandmother by, along with my folks, as she hadn't been by the house yet. Two of my sisters, their husbands, and their children tagged along, and while we were there, one of by best friends and his wife (my cousin) and my uncle stopped by as well.
If all goes well this week, the plumbing inspection will occur, the exterior will get wrapped up (except for the porch), both the electrician and myself will finish rough-in work, and the HVAC rough-in will be complete. Assuming the alarm guy gets in early next week, we might even have insulation and blueboard up two weeks from now.
The service trench is now filled in, so once the cellar dries, it should stay that way.
By the end of the day tomorrow, the electrical rough-in should be done, the well system should be mostly installed (and we should be ready for the rough plumbing inspection), and Kris will have painted even more lumber (the school system she works for starts its spring vacation tomorrow.) Those cellar steps might even get installed.
That leaves alarm pre-wire, my data and telecom rough wiring, and the rest of the HVAC ducts, and we'll get to see what this place looks like with solid interior walls within the next few weeks!
It's been a mixed week. We've got a cellar full of water, we just found out we have more painting to do that we expected, and tonight, we got to move a 400 pound bathtub. On the plus side, the patterned shingles are going up, the main staircase (less newel posts and balusters) is up, and we finally have windows in the master bedroom. Like I said, mixed.
The water in the cellar isn't really that big of a deal, yet. For anyone who hasn't been paying attention, New England got a massive amount of rain (4 inches in an afternoon at our house, 6 inches at Kris' folks house.) Unfortunately for us, the trench for the well line and the service conduits was wide open, leading to holes that had already been drilled in the foundation wall. Long story short: rain filled trench, trench filled basement. We've spoken to a few of our future neighbors, and no one has ever had wet basement problems in the decade-plus that some of them have been there, so no real worries yet.
The unexpected painting could be some of the clapboards. We ordered clapboards pre-stained, and that's what's gone up so far. But there's a catch: when you order clapboards this way, you're not guaranteed specific lengths, and we need more long boards for a few areas. That leaves us two options: order potentially far more clapboards than we need, or, order some just primed, which allows us to get them in specified lengths. Since the first option seems wasteful (not to mention pretty costly) we're going to go the paint-it-ourselves route. Fortunately, it's a standard (and matchable) stain color, and we're not talking about a huge amount of lumber, either.
Since there has been more progress on the exterior, I plan on taking more pictures this weekend.
So far, not quite as much as I expect to happen this week has, but there has been quite a bit done.
More siding has been applied on the rear of the house (the house itself is completely sided in back, and the garage is in progress.) The plumbing rough-in is nearly complete, and we have air returns throughout the house and supply ducts in most places for the heating system. Very little of what we painted last weekend has been used, though, and we still don't have installed interior steps.
Other stuff has happened, though, mostly outside the house. Our driveway is currently about 6 feet deep, and the well line has been run into the basement of the house. The chimney has gotten what looks like a scratch coat to serve as the base for the brick veneer, and we've met with the electrical subcontractor to go over his rough in, which he expects to get started on soon.
According to our contractor, we're still tracking to be in the house around the first week of June, which will put the project duration at 13 months. Here's hoping we stick to that schedule!
Word to the wise: people over the age of twelve should not spend an entire day sitting "Indian Style." Ouch.
A lot more clapboards went on the house this past week, and rough-ins continued. At this point, the rough plumbing is getting close to done, and HVAC is well on it's way on the second floor. The main staircase is on-site from the millwork company, and should be installed early this week, minus the balustrade. We're also slated to meet with the electrician to walk through for fixture, switch, and outlet locations, and we'll be picking out garage doors as well.
Kris and I spent the entire weekend painting again, and we're almost done (we still have 2 gross shingles to dip, possibly a few more if it's determined they're needed.) The exterior is really starting to shape up, though, as you can see in the latest (large) batch of pictures.
There's been a lot of progress over the last few days - many of the plumbing waste lines have been roughed in, a lot of siding is on the building, and the HVAC supplies are on site to be installed. We also have more trim to paint and shingles to dip for the weekend.
Even though we aren't completely weather-tight yet, we're close enough that people should be able to work through the rain predicted for the remainder of the week. On the down side, though, that rain translated into a need for us to be looking for a new car for Kristen... sigh. Hopefully, we won't have to cut into our construction buffer to make that happen.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Our house is even wearing a little green today -- check out the pictures.
In addition to having quite a bit of trim and some of the clapboards on the house, the tub and shower fixtures (except the clawfoot) are on site (these are installed right up to the rough framing as part of the plumbing rough-in.) The main staircase will probably get wrapped up this week while all the rough-ins happen. The first 2500' of wire that I need for my network and audio wiring arrived, with more coming next week. Guess I should start writing the code for the digital audio server...
The lot is a swamp right now, but things are still happening.
As of this afternoon, we now have a cellar floor, and the septic system has been inspected and covered over. We also have met with the HVAC subcontractor, and it looks like we'll be able to get all of those mechanical components where we wanted them. The only bad thing is that we'll still end up with a metal flue protruding through the roof (we're spending a good amount of money to hide another such flue) but this one should be almost completely hidden from view (from the street) by the massing of the house itself.
Rough-ins should start in earnest now, although the house isn't yet tight to the weather (the last of the windows won't be in until the first week of April.) The plumber starts laying pipe tomorrow, and the HVAC sub gets started next week. Electrical rough-in probably won't happen until the house is tight, though. I've also spent some time ordering all the components for the whole-house computer network, telephone system, and audio/video distribution, so that I can get much of that wired up after the electrician has wrapped.
Since this weekend's snowfall didn't start until late this afternoon (just in time to turn my commute into a 3-hour ride) more work progressed both inside and outside the house today. The septic system got it's storage tank and its first inspection, and a temporary support wall in the master bedroom came down. There's still a single brace in the master bedroom -- looks like we may still be waiting on a custom bracket to support the end of one of the roof trusses. The cellar bulkhead door was also installed today, and a few new holes were dug for footings for one or two more support columns needed to help hold up the master staircase.
We're painting tomorrow, and next week will probably see the house get weather-tight (finally!) and the cellar floor get poured. Of course, all this assumes that the seven windows we're waiting on arrive, and that the weather doesn't take yet another wintry turn.
We initially thought this would be a dead week as far as work on the house goes: we were supposed to get vast quantities of snow from the Nor'easter that hit New England for the first half of the week. Fortunately, most of what fell on Freetown was rain, with only about 4 or 5 inches of snow landing late Tuesday.
So some work has gone on yesterday and today. A dumpster was delivered yesterday, and the interior of the house tidied up some. We're also back to having gargantuan holes dug on the site, as work commenced on the septic system today. A little more work was also done on the main staircase, with the platform for the turn-around getting installed.
We're apparently slated for more snow again this weekend, starting tomorrow. We're scheduled for more painting and a final delivery of trim lumber, which hopefully won't get derailed, as this is the next-to-last weekend that we have access to the facility where we've been painting and the house isn't quite weather-tight yet.
While the windows aren't quite done yet, work progressed today on the framing for the main staircase, the attic drop-down steps, and the interior chimney chase (which consumes some of the closet space from the back bedroom, but there wasn't much we could do about that.) The master bathroom framing has also been finished.
On the outside of the house, some soffits were installed, and more work was done on the exterior chimney chase. Right now the chase just looks like, well, a box wrapped in Tyvek, but once the brick veneer is applied to the exterior, it should look like a full masonry chimney.
I'm hoping to get some pictures up over the weekend of both the mantel surround that we've purchased as well as the progress on the house.