Santa Likes Me

Tried out my new toy tonight. We got 10 inches of snow on Christmas, so I decided finally to buy a snow blower. I bought a 12 HP 33 inch w X 23 inch h beast. 6 forward gears and 2 reverse. It's way overkill for the current drive, but will come in handy for the new house.

It was delivered today. Some minor prep setup required. Just in time, I got it ready. We got another 8-10 inches today.



It took a little effort getting used to the controls, and how to avoid getting a facefull of snow when I turned into the wind. Once I got used to it, things went pretty quick The snow gets thrown up to 40 feet. I took it out to the street to try some heavy compact stuff. Didn't slow down at all.

We had a nice dinner for Christmas. Missed the folks back in Chicago. Mom and Dad had a houseful, sounds like. Lori likes her new warm-up suit. It matches the one she's wearing, but the new one is better. Thanks Mom.



New House Update: Texturing has started, and in fact the upper level is already done. Haven't been there to see. They will start placing the "sleeper" boards on the floor, and place the heating tubes between. The floor boards get nailed to the sleepers.

Drywall

The drywall is up. The next step is texturing, basically covering up the screw holes and heads, taping the spaces between the drywall boards, and smearing plaster over everything. I went through the house today to find outlets that were mistakenly covered. I had gone through the house already and took about 150 pictures of all the wiring, vents, pipes, etc so when these mistakes got made it wouldn't take too much figuring to locate the covered item. However, the house looks a lot different now that everything is covered and it took some 3 dimensional thinking to remember what wall every picture was of. I found several covered outlets. No covered vents as far as I know.
On top is the great room as viewd from the entry foyer.





Vew into the kitchen from the hall/formal dining



View of the kitchen area from the great room.


More pictures at Flickr. Click on the pictures for more info.

Christmas Potluck at the Office

The office had the Holiday decorations in place for the interclinic contest. Word is pending on the final judging. Great job!
We had a potluck with a gift exchange. Alcohol seemed to be the gift of choice, giving and receiving. I think the gin, tequila, and Baily's all were traded 3 times.



Click the link for a slideshow at Flickr.

Too Many Trees on that Course!

Mike sent pictures of what a golf course looks like (almost) east of the Mississippi. Hope he takes a lot of extra balls with him ;) . More pics at Flickr

Happy Thanksgiving!

Phoenix Redux

Scott, Bob, Chuck and myself took another long weekend trip down to Phoenix, Nov 10-14. We stayed at an Embassy Suites on Stonecreek golf course, where we had breakfast every day (and better than my usual powerbar), watched a lot of football, relaxed in the great weather, and had a good fun round of golf. I don't have to talk any smak, the scorecard says it all for me and Chuck. Scott and Bob made a good run of it with the last holes. I think the heat was getting to the winning team, but in the end we held on for a solid win.


View from our balcony



Nuff Said


A view of my office and what greeted me after I got back. The boxes are records of only 2 different cases that I had to review.

Coloradohouse at Flickr has the rest of my pictures, and I'm expecting more from the rest of the guys.

Insulation

Since the last post, inspections were done. Some adjustments were required but everything passed just fine. This involved several assessments. The rough plumbing was checked. All the pipes were pressure filled with water and had to sit for several days to show that there were no leaks. Gauges were place on some of the strategic areas and all the pipes for faucets etc were capped. Electrical wiring was checked, fuse boxes, external hookup etc. The electric meter is in. Finally, framing was reviewed.
The insulation went in over the last week. For all walls that border to the outside, we chose blown in fiberglass (R-20 I think). A nylon net is stapled across each section and the fiberglass is then blown in. This turned out really nice, with good fill and it's tight like a balloon. This was then covered with plastic for a moisture barrier. The drywall will go over it all. Frequently, rolled fiberglass "bats" are used. With the number of wires we have running through the wall, a good tight fit might have been difficult.





Click on the pic for a larger view. Each of the sections between the 2X6s was filled.


The ceiling has some rolls fitted in (R-38). Once the drywall is completed, additional fiberglass insulation will be blown in through the whole attic area. The upper floor has the vaulted ceilings filled with the rolls. I'm not sure why they selected certain areas, possibly due to possible difficult access once the drywall is in.



Kitchen is top pic, great room bottom.

In the basement, the whole ceiling was insulated to help keep heat down below and for sound insulation. Additionally, the walls around some of the bedrooms, and the powder rooms were insulated for sound control. Can't have bathroom noises audible to everyone.

On the left in the above picture is the mudroom wall bordering the outside, with the blown in fiberglass. To the right, the yellow is the fiberglass rolls insulating the bathroom wall (for sound).

Some downstairs areas need to be finished, not much from what I can tell. An inspection is next and they should be able to start the drywall once it passes.

Heating system

The horses from the ranch next door came to the fence to check us out. Actually, we bought some horse treats at a ranch store nearby, and now they know that they have a good chance of getting some tasty apple/oats cookies. It's enjoyable watching six horses come running!




This is the control center for the heating system. The tubes run under the floors and will be divided into about 10 zones for different heating on different parts of the house. The boiler in the bottom picture is really pretty small. Water will run through the tubes at about 120 to 130 degrees. The floor feels warm, and the heat will rise. There is no central fan to circulate the heat. For the upper floor, the tubes are laid out and then covered with gypcrete, with the would floor covering. The basement concrete floor already has the tubes running through.



The joists under the deck got stained as well. The color looks pretty good. This should be a nice protected area.

New Rails, Deck and Paint

The decking was placed. Before they did this, a lot the beams underneath had to be replaced because they were warped. They were then stained. We decided to stain all the wood to match the stain of the front door, fruitwood stain. The final stain on the door will have a more "finished" look than the other rougher wood. The garage doors got the same look.
The gutters and face boards are painted to match the window frames. This is a dark brown bronze.





The deck railing also was placed. These are solid pieces of hammered steel. The finish is "oil rubbed bronze" and they are powder coated for outdoor protection. Turned out very nice. The columns will get finished in the stone.
On the inside, we're waiting for inspection and then will begin insulation. We're doing spray in fiberglass. The wall will have an R-22 insulation rating, compared to an R-19 with the fiberglass rolls. The spray in assures good fill in to all the nooks that rolls might not get. The Attic/ceiling will have an R-38 rating.
Foam insulation already is in, place around all the windows and electrical outlets that went to the outside. It's a neat process, with the foam injected in. It hardens to Styrofoam consistency.

What's new?

OK, so far:
1: Air exchangers in.
2: AC units and duct work in. Need to have a few vents moved
3: Electrical mostly in. A few adjustments to make, and coordinate with the sound/alarm/video camera/phone line guys
4: Sound/alarm/video camera/phone line/computer lines mostly in with adjustments to make.

These don't make for good pictures, and I'll get around to explaining later. I'll try to show the duct work from the ac units which are in the rafters. Looks like something from a sci-fi movie. In the meantime, some pics from around.

From the back yard. I liked the background colors.



I saw this guy driving up to the new house. There were a couple of his buddies off in the grass.





Publicity shots of our back yard.

Two Showings

We had 2 showings today. It's already a hassle, last minute cleanup and clearing out. We went to the house the first time. The second, I went and Lori visited across the street. Her Mom is visiting, and she had to move faster than she has in a long time! I went to the house and saw this guy hunting mice. He was about a six footer.

House for sale

The house is up for sale!

Still a lot of work to do, though. We're doing a lot of cleaning, touch up, and clearing out.

Retaining wall complete

The wall got finished up (mostly) and looks really good. This should shelter the back yard well. A path will go down the upper level from the patio/deck to the back yard instead of stairs from the deck. Capstones will go across the top level of the wall. These will match what will sit on top of the columns.
I met with the heating/ventilation contractor last weekend to discuss placement of the AC, ducts and vents. We are also put in air to air heat exchangers. Since the house has radiant heat and is sealed, there is no outside air coming in as there would be with central forced air. The exchangers allow in fresh air without losing a lot of heat in winter or cool air in summer.
The roof is still not done. There seems to be a problem with the metal to fit over the entry. No leaks though. This can be frustrating.

Chapman seems content, however, to stay in the same yard.

Retaining wall

New for the week is the retaining wall. It starts at the end of the concrete foundation retaining wall where the door was cut for a "shed", and goes about 25 feet down past the deck. It will be about 4.5 feet for the lower section, with a second wall above it and set back a couple of feet which will be about 4 feet high. Eventually it will be filled in behind with dirt to allow a pathway from the patio to the back yard.
So far this is about 4 days work. We don't know how many guys are working on it but they do have a little bobcat loader. Should finish up this week.
The roof? Hasn't been touched further. The metal for the entry was dropping off. I guess it has to be aged first.

Max's New Friend

Max was busy running around when this guy announced his presence.



He sure made a lot of noise with pretty loud hissing. Mean guy, not like our friendly ones in the backyard here. It's a bullsnake, and was about 2.5-3 feet long. Max seemed smart enough or scared enough to stay away and leave him alone.
There are lots of mice around, and the snakes should help keep that under control! Lori says as long as they do it from outside!