Checking off the Punch List

Let me catch you up on our latest house projects . . .

We installed ceiling speakers in our living room in August. This will eventually be connected to a surround sound system, but for now we have our CD player and/or computer hooked up to it. It has a great sound and looks much better than wires sticking through the ceiling.

In September we hung shelving in the back porch closet – this officially completes all of the closet shelving in our house!

The lawn mower has been relocated to our garage, making the back porch much cleaner.

Adam finished the trim around the front door! He cut the curved top piece and routed the top and side trim to make it completely custom. We were also able to finish the base boards – I think it looks great!

I spent a long time finishing the caulk around the trim – caulking baseboards to walls, baseboards to tile, trim to wall under the granite . . . lots of places. Here’s my work station in the hall.

Here’s the largest gap I had to caulk. It had been driving me crazy, but it’s all pretty now. This is the door from our kitchen to back porch and the gap was almost half an inch. This picture was in process, before I smoothed out the caulk.

The last fruit from my garden was this watermelon. The garden hadn’t produced anything in awhile, so we ripped everything up and discovered this small melon. This was by far my biggest one, but it still wasn’t big enough – inside it was solid white. Oh well . . . I don’t think I’ll do watermelon next year.

We mounted hooks in the nook off the garage, so it makes this space much more functional. Eventually, we will build a bench with storage for shoes underneath and shelves with hooks above. But, this works great for now.

Our latest project has been transition strips. Here are the doors going to the two bedrooms off the hall.

This is my favorite – makes the transition almost invisible. This is the Living Room to Hall.

Here’s the Foyer. The far two sides are done and the closest one isn’t yet. We have to special order that side because it is longer. We still have a couple transitions left, but we're covering up the last bit of concrete one strip at a time.

We bought this table and chairs for the Breakfast Nook off of craigslist last weekend. It’s very nice to have something in that space now.

We installed a rain sensor for our sprinkler system – now it won’t go off in the rain. :)

That’s it for now. We're plugging away at that punch list and it’s a great feeling to check things off.

Playing Catch-Up: December

Despite my long blog absence, we have made some progress on the house. Here is a recount of the going-ons of the Harris home since December . . .

Our Family Group from church surprised us with a wonderful gift at our Christmas party – Rocking Chairs from Cracker Barrel! We were so surprised and very thankful for the thoughtful gift.

Christmas morning, Adam and I enjoyed hot chocolate and sweet rolls from our new Rocking Chairs.

Adam’s Aunt Alice & Uncle Stan also gave us a wonderful house warming present – 3 beautiful bar stools. They are very comfortable, sturdy and the perfect style. Thanks so much!

Our Christmas gift to each other this year was a stainless steel grill, sorry I forgot to get a picture. We have enjoyed steaks and hamburgers on it so far and look forward to perfecting the art of grilling.

Drywall is Installed!

We passed the insulation inspection and drywall started April 14th; it’s just about finished. Let me show you how it looks.

The Family Room with fireplace.

Looking into the kitchen and breakfast nook from the family room.

The master bedroom, looking into the bathroom.

The master bathroom – this drywall is green because it’s mold & moisture resistant.

The drywall after a bit more finishing – the great room.

The office looking in from the foyer.

The bar looking into the kitchen.

We painted the front porch today, two coats of the field color. We’ll paint the trim white tomorrow to match the rest of the house.

The front porch finally matches the rest of the siding. You can see the machine used to do the ceiling texture in the front yard.

The knock down ceiling was sprayed on today. They painted the ceiling white and then sprayed the texture on in only about 4 hours, start to finish for the entire house. The product already contains paint, so we don’t even have to paint the ceiling!

The walls are going to be sanded tomorrow and then it’ll be ready for paint. We hope to have a painting party next weekend. We ordered all the tile for the house today and it will arrive next week. We are finalizing paint colors and will pick it up this week. Casework should arrive in 2-3 weeks and we’re picking out the granite this Tuesday. Things are moving along well, it’s so exciting to see everything take shape.

Countdown to Drywall . . .

The house is ALMOST ready for drywall. Let me show you everything we’ve done . . .

This is the back porch ceiling before.

And after the vinyl soffit was installed.

The front porch ceiling.

The front door with the trim – it still needs the clear coat and finishing. You can also see the door bell wiring sticking through on the left.

The siding is now complete for the entire house! No more house wrap is showing through. :) The siding is installed and caulked, the only thing left is the painting.

Here’s the door bell on the inside of the house, it’s mounted on a wall in the Great Room.

We covered the garage floor with ¼” sheathing for protection.

We cleaned up the house to get ready for insulation & drywall – it looks so clean now!

We installed the last hose bib.

The exhaust vent blends right into the brick. We passed our framing inspection on March 30th.

The batt insulation was installed in the walls and under the bonus space upstairs (noise barrier). This is the garage.

The office and hall bath.

The bonus area upstairs looks all cozy. The foam insulation is underneath the batts.

The dormer bonus area, which is doubling as a storage space so drywall can go in.

We installed both tub surrounds, they’re ready for drywall.

Drywall was delivered to the house on April 5th. They used a boom truck to deliver the drywall to the 2nd floor, so it’s already up there whenever we decide to build it out.

The drywall material – everything’s ready. We just need to pass the insulation inspection.

The drywall is spread throughout the house. They ordered 4x12 boards instead of the typical 4x8 for residential. This should give us a smoother finish so you can’t see the seams.

The insulators missed something and should fix it Tuesday next week, which means an inspection on Wednesday. If that goes okay, drywall starts Thursday – it should take one week. Can’t wait for that!!

Ductwork, Wires and Front Doors . . . Oh My!

There has been plenty of progress going on at the house . . . let me catch you up.

The ductwork was finished around Christmas and we passed the Mechanical Rough Inspection. Here’s some of the work.







The booster fan for our dryer exhaust.

The refrigerant and control lines that connect the air handler to the condensing unit.

This is where our condensing unit is going.

We finished running the electrical wire between the circuits. Then, we pulled all of the wire to the panels. There are two panels; the second one has a transfer switch that will be used for a future generator. We passed the electrical rough inspection last week! We still need to run the feeder wire from the meter to the panel, this should be done in the next week.

The panels before wire was pulled.

Wire in our Master Bedroom.

The wire going to the panels, before going through the panel tops.

The wires are now pulled through the panels and ready for drywall.

The power.

Adam wired four copper grounding rods and drove them into the ground. These rods are connected to the electrical meter and panel to ground our house.

We installed the front door. This past weekend, we installed the trim around the front door and started on the siding on the front porch. It is wonderful to cover up the house wrap once and for all.

The front door when as it arrived, before being stained.

Staining our fiberglass door.

Adam and his dad installing the front door.

Doesn't it look great?! We still have to touch up the stain a bit and then put the clear coat on.



The curved trim is installed on the top of the door and the side trim was installed today (no pictures, sorry). The siding is up on half of the porch.

So . . . what do you think?

There are still some punch items on electrical that should be done in the next week. Then we have the framing inspection, followed by insulation and the insulation inspection. Then, it’s drywall. Adam is getting prices for drywall now and we expect it to go up in three weeks.