Days 16-20: R-Value, AC, and Hot H2O

At the end of Week 4, the guys have installed our new AC unit outside (it's a little big - we'll need to do some tricky landscaping to mask it). We have a shiny, new hot water heater in the basement that's all hooked up to the gas line now. On Thursday, they put in all the new insulation upstairs, with some fluffy, yellow sound proofing on the interior walls, and high R-value stuff on the exterior walls - so we have lots of comfy & quiet nights ahead. We passed all our remaining West Chester Borough inspections, so they are ready to start drywall on Monday! Max seems thrilled about his new room; he spends much time in there jumping and dancing - how fun to see!

Days 9-15: HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical, Oh My!

The house is starting to really take shape on the inside now. We have fully framed walls and completely roughed-in electrical, HVAC and plumbing. They have the new heater installed in the attic, and lines ready for the AC unit outside. In the past week,the crews removed our old furnace and oil tank, freeing up tons of space in the basement. At the conclusion of today's work, we found an installed bathtub & 2 Solatube skylights, too! 

Below, you can see the recessed lighting is ready in our master bedroom and downstairs in the living room, the clever way they'll hide the new sewage lines in our 1st floor office & closet, the location of our future "throne", and Max' good fun in our new tub (when it was in the living room). There was an inspection today by the West Chester Borough inspector, and everything passed! We're expecting some drywall next week... stay tuned!

Day 7-8: Completed Exterior! What Up?

Monday, September 22 - Tuesday, September 23

In just 8 days, the crew did a complete tear down, exterior and interior framing, roofing, siding and trim.  Amazing!  Up next, roughing in utilities. 

Day 6: Soffit and Capping

We are now starting week two. Roof and interior framing are 100% complete, and we're half way through the soffit and capping. If things proceed as planned, we should see some siding up by tomorrow afternoon. The weather is great, it's cooperating as if I paid it off.

Day 5: Finishing Framing & Shingles

Friday, September 18, 2009
No strong visuals for Day 5, the crew finished framing the interior walls and the vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom. They also completed the roofing and flashing on the outside. Essentially, there was much prep work to ready the house for next week's big events... plumbing, electric, siding, and anything else they can fit in.

Now that the house is taller, it became quite clear that some branches needed to be trimmed on our big tree - they were hitting the new front windows. So we took care of that this weekend. Also, Steve (architect/general contractor) let us know that we need to select our bathroom tile and tub color. Our first visit to a showroom - exciting!

Day 4: Shingles, Windows and Rooms

Day 3: We Have a Roof

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Another early arrival ensured that the guys would have time to build a bit before the first rain arrived. By lunchtime, it was obvious that they had framed-out much of the roof, but the rain had started, so the big tarp obscured their progress. By the end of the day, they had actually built the entire roof, put the tar paper down, and installed 3 of the windows. The house is really starting to look like the architect's rendering.