Clean out, Electrical, Siding . . .

Time to play some catch up:

Back on June 22nd, Adam dug down and added a clean out to the sewer line. It wasn't required by code, but the inspector wanted it . . . so we had to add it.

Adam dug down about 4 feet to put the clean out in. But, thanks to our many pictures, we dug in the right spot first try.

July 4th, we put up the trim around the garage door opening.

We used screws to attached the painted 2x10 boards.

We finished putting all the electrical boxes in, including those in the ceiling. We also mounted all the recessed can lights.

Here are the can lights in the kitchen.

This is what the fan-rated boxes look like. They're really compact and mount right under a truss.

Our next door neighbors had a wedding back in July, so we moved the dumpster around to the side and cleaned up the front yard.

Adam put the bricks on a plank and tied it to his truck to tote to the back yard. It was really helpful to have the truck haul the load.

Here's our cleaned up yard.

Philip and Amanda visited our house on July 10th - thanks for stopping by, it was fun to have you!

Adam ran all the low voltage wire (TV, internet, phone, speakers).

Here's the wires going through the trusses.

Here's the coax and cat-5 wires going to the outlets above the fireplace for our future tv.

On July 14th, we put the disconnects in for the condensing units. Adam also drove the copper grounding rods into the ground - you can see one sticking about a foot out of the ground here.

On July 21st, Adam started putting the hardie board siding on the back porch.

Here you can see the trim around the windows.

Last week, Adam just about finished the siding on the back porch. Like the color?

This is hardie board. It is a fiber cement prodect. It is great on the exterior of a house because it doesn't hold moisture or attached termites (like wood). We bought the primed boards and painted it ourselves.

Another view of the back porch. It sure is going to be cozy!

So, there you have it. That catches you up on the Harris Residence. Next up: garage door, insulation and ductwork.

Trenches, Shower & Soffit

This week at the Harris Residence, we've been up to a few things. Adam added a shower pan membrane to the master shower and tested it for leaks. It passed, so we are ready for tile (that'll still be awhile).

Here it is. We stapled it to the blocking at the top. Tile backer will cover at least six inches of the menbrane down the wall. We also had to double up the membrane and cut a hole for the drain.

Adam and Brian put in a soffit in the garage for the dryer exhaust. Now, the exhaust duct has a direct route out of the house, which is good for the dryer.

Here it is in the back of the garage.

Another view of the soffit. It's not very deep.

Earlier, Adam dug out the 4" sewer pipe from all the dirt that had washed in during the rain. He made the connection for our house to the sewer line.

The connected sewer line.

Yesterday, I helped Adam fill the trench back in (and by "helped" I mean I shoveled a little bit then got tired in the heat. So I took the wimpy job of spraying down the dirt with water to make sure the pipe is packed down tight.)

We put a yellow caution line in about a foot below the line, for future digging. This way, no one cuts through the pipe accidentally (hopefully).

And here it is all filled in. We'll make it perfectly level with we grade the yard.

Adam is set to pick up the electrical stuff tomorrow and we should be wiring the house this week.

Plumbing Top-Out: done.

We passed our plumbing top-out inspection on Friday, June 5th. Here’s some of the things we completed in order to pass:

We had to insulate the supply lines going to the future bathroom upstairs.

We had to fill the pipes and bath tubs with water to test for leaks. The wet-vac was hooked up to suck the water out of the pipes.

Adam had to get the hose on the roof to fill the sanitary line through the vent.

Here’s the completed bathroom upstairs. It’s gonna stay like this for a few years, before we build it out.

Other than plumbing . . .

We also got the correct front put on our fireplace.

Adam’s Aunt Alice & Uncle Stan cut our weeds for us – THANK YOU!! You can see the difference in height in this picture. This is not all of ours – the property line is to the right of the white pipe sticking out of the ground to about 10 feet to the left of the fence corner.

Can’t wait to have a backyard!

We had to uninstall the whirlpool tub, so some people could come out and fix the leaks. It is now fixed and reinstalled.

We’ve been installing electrical boxes (they’re blue)

More blue boxes.

We framed the opening for the medicine cabinet – you can see the cabinet up-side-down on the floor.

We sheathed this wall because it is a shear wall. This is where the tv will go.

Yesterday, Adam mixed concrete for the master shower, to create the right slope for the shower pan.

Doesn’t it look good!? Also, notice the blocking put up around the edges. There will be a rubber membrane that will wrap up the sides of the shower, to make it completely water-proof.

So, that’s what we’ve been up to on the house. Adam is ordering the rest of the electrical material today. We need to add a clean-out to the sewer line by the road, in order to pass our water and sewer inspection – we’ll probably do that this week. Things are coming together.

Finishing up plumbing

We are going to have our plumbing top-out inspection on Tuesday. We have been finishing up our plumbing the last couple weeks.

We finished up the hose bibs. Don't they look nice? We have four around the outside of our house.

We put the floor drain in the master shower. There is a test cap in there, to test the sanitary line for leaks.

We finished up the upstairs bathroom and put in the toilet flange with a test cap. We also stubbed the lines up for the future bath/shower.

We tested the supply line with water and found a couple leaks in the shower valves. We just had to tighten them a bit and they were good. Today, we brought the pressure up to 100 psi.

Here's the pressure gauge. The pressure held, which means our lines are great. This is part of the inspection on Tuesday.

We did some cleaning yesterday. The house had gotten pretty dirty with mud from all the rain. Not to mention the sawdust and pvc shavings . . . We also moved the cut table out of the living room and onto the back porch. This makes the room feel so big now. It's nice having a clean house.

We started filling the sanitary with water today, but found a couple leaks in some test caps. We fixed everything and will fill the entire line with water through the vents on the roof tomorrow. The top-out inspection involves filling the entire sanitary line and vent system with water and making sure the water stays at the same level, showing there are no leaks. We're excited to be finished with plumbing and moving onto electrical. We plan on drilling holes in the studs tomorrow for the wiring. I hope you are having a great Memorial Day weekend!

Scrub a dub dub

Adam's sitting in the tub!

For the last couple weeks, we have been putting in two bathtubs and a whirlpool tub. We also finished the plumbing for the future bathroom upstairs. And here's some pictures to prove it.

This is the bathtub in the hall bathroom. You can see the shower valve is installed and piped up.

This is the back of the hall bathtub. You can see the overflow piped up to the back of the tub. The pipe in the wall closer to the camera is the vent. You can also see the protective liner over the bathtub.

This is what the shower walls are going to look like. We didn't install them yet, but you get the idea.

This is where the tub is going in the Jack & Jill bathroom. The waste and overflow pipe are in place and a wall still needs to be built behind the tub.

The tub is in place in the Jack & Jill bath. You can see the hot and water pipes coming into the sides of the shower valve and the shower and bath water coming out the top and bottom. The wall is also built around the pipes.

Behind the Jack & Jill bathtub.

And, here's our fancy pants whirlpool tub. I think it's quite large. We don't need a hot tub with this around. We're still working on building the frame around it.

There are two shower heads in the master shower.

This is the plumbing for the upstairs lav (sink) and water closet (toilet).

This is below the upstairs shower/bath.

And here's the upstairs bath from upstairs. You can see the toilet flange on the floor - we plugged it up temporarily.

Here's the work crew taking a break on the porch.

The fireplace is installed with the correct front, but there is blue plastic over it to protect it.

The backyard. Clint and I cleaned all of the wood that was out there, so it's now a nice view.

It's been fun to see some fixtures go in. The house is really coming along.