March 2012 – On ErikaRS' Mind

Dirt-moving and Inspections

Posted on March 28, 2012June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

Not a lot of interior work was done last week. Rough-in is nearly finished, so time on site was filled by inspections and corrections. Outside, more siding was added, the decks are closer to being finished, and dirt moving for landscaping was started.

More electrical work was done — in theory, but not in practice, the last of it. The electrical panel was labeled, and the connection to the main service is nearly ready to go. We asked for a small correction in the media room, and a larger circuit put in for the kitchen for an electric-powered stove. Temporary circuits need to be added for space heaters to dry out the interior before drywall. This will all happen this week. However, the electrical inspection was approved, along with most other rough-in inspections. Mechanical required a small correction around the fireplace, but everything else that was ready has been approved. The only remaining inspection is for framing, which requires some work from the insulation installer this week.

More siding was installed on last week, including the lower south side, the north side of the garage, paneling around the stair tower door, and some paneling around the living room windows.

Nicer weather provided an opportunity for more progress on the deck. The living room deck was evened out, sanded, and is now ready for the finishing stain. The upper deck was completely finished, including staining. The wood has darkened and is a richer color now. The finish looks uneven in the picture because it was still drying.

The most important work last week was dirt-moving. The entry-way was filled in with dirt and can now serve it’s stated purpose of letting people enter. The driveway was smoothed out, so it can now support a concrete truck pouring the slab for the garage floor. The front yard in general has been leveled, and prepped for hardscape and landscape. The area between our house and the neighbor’s is being prepped for landscaping (which has been designed). Finally, our backyard has been smoothed.

The camera wasn’t pointed quite low enough to capture the dirt being moved, but you can see the movement of the excavator. The end of the week shows the finishing work being done on the rooftop deck.

Poplar has been delivered for the windowsills, which will go in soon (before the drywall). Fire breaks (to keep fire from spreading in the walls) need to be put in this week, then the framing inspection can happen. Now that the entry has been filled in with dirt, the entrance through the garage can be sealed up, and a blower can be put on the front door to find and seal any leaks in the envelope of the house.

Siding and Wiring Conduits

Posted on March 19, 2012June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

Last week mostly saw work on the exterior siding for the house. The electrician came by for just a bit to work on some of the last details. However, a few more questions came up, so the electrical work wasn’t quite finished last week.

Quite a bit of the lap siding was installed, including the north side, upper level on the east side, the north-west side, the upper south-west side, and the upper south side.

We acquired the exterior wall washer light we’re going to use on the west side of the house at night. We tested it out one evening after dark, and it should do a good job highlighting our house.

The last major piece of wiring (I believe) was getting conduit for future cabling run. The endpoints are in the living room, kitchen, office, master dressing, and second bedrooms. These run down into the crawlspace, except for the office, which runs directly into the server closet. The server closet then has a single conduit that runs into the crawlspace. The media room has a conduit that runs from the closet up to the projector mount to send video up there.

I spent some time exploring the crawlspaces under our house. The crawlspace is quite generous, and there are plenty of pipes, ducts, and wires running under there. The space is large enough that we added some stub points for lights. Under the garage you can follow the electrical wiring back to the central electrical panel.

The timelapse shows the siding installation (the work later in the week was covered by a blue tarp to protect from the rain). You can catch a brief glimpse of snow falling Tuesday morning.

Next should see more work on the siding. We are hoping to have the inspections finished up soon; maybe this week if we are lucky.

Electrical Wiring, Exterior Finishing

Posted on March 13, 2012June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

This week saw more good progress on both the interior and exterior. The electrical wiring is nearly complete. Some exterior finishes, including siding, exterior soffits, and the rear deck all saw work done on them.

For electrical wiring, the interior line voltage work (lights, switches, electrical outlets, and a big, beefy cable for an electric car charger in the garage) is nearly completed. There might still be a few details left, but not much at all. The majority of the data wiring was completed, with Ethernet, cable, phone, and low-voltage for security or home automation run throughout the house, and speaker wire plus a bit of subwoofer coax cable run in the media room. There is still some wire that needs to be run for exterior lighting and electrical outlets, and then a few conduits for future data wiring and media room wiring need to be run. Those should be complete within a few days, and then the electrical inspection can be done.

The fireplace and gas connection on the back deck were installed this last week. The fireplace has been mostly covered up to protect it, but since part of the cardboard was detached, we took the opportunity to get a picture of it.

Some ductwork for the HRV unit was added.

Some of the exterior finish work was started last week, too. The HardiePlank and HardiePanel siding was delivered Monday morning. The panels were put up on the stair tower during the week.

It is not painted, and there may be some other details in the channels between the boards to do, but it is starting to give a feel for what the finished house will look like. The HardiePanel is being used for the lower exterior soffit, and the bit of that was installed. The upper exterior soffit was installed using a knotty cedar.

The flooring of the back deck was laid down on Friday. It isn’t fully finished, but looks quite nice already, especially when it gets wet.

We finally moved the camera to a position right in front of the house. It should be able to capture all the upcoming work on the entryway, siding installation, along with all the general activity of people moving around during the day.

Next week should see electrical finished, and some inspections done. Once all the rough-in inspections are done, insulation can go in; but we don’t expect that to happen this coming week. Siding and/or deck work will probably continue on the exterior. The next big piece outside will be getting the entry foundation backfilled and the driveway filled in for better support. Once you can actually walk in through the front door, the missing panel in the garage will be filled in, and the house can be sealed up and tested for leaks. Then the garage can be cleared out, and the cement slab poured in there, which will allow installation of the hot water heater. We’re not quite sure on the timing of all that, though, because a bit of landscape design needs to be done on the north side of our house (south side of the neighbor’s), so that all the dirt-moving can be done at once.

Lights and a Deck

Posted on March 4, 2012June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

This was another exciting week of work on the house. Electrical was started, including a lot of the lighting layout; and the rooftop deck was framed and finished.

Electrical wiring was started on Monday, and a lot of progress was made. One of the first steps was placing all the can lights so we could approve the positions before they were wired. We’re using 6″ cans in most of the house, and 4″ cans upstairs (they have better sealing than the larger ones, so they won’t lose as much heat through the roof) and in a few places downstairs that we want to highlight. The electrician started placing mount points for lights such as pendants and sconces, electrical outlet boxes, light switch boxes, and tying it all to the central electrical panel.

On the exterior, the deck part of our rooftop deck was built this week. The frame for the bench and under-floor was put together earlier in the week, and then the batu planks were put in place at the end of the week. There’s probably still some finishing (sanding, weatherproofing/oil/sealant of some manner), but it already looks really good!

The timelapse video has a few interesting points: first the bench frame above the garage goes up, then the garage window followed by the master dressing windows are installed (the final windows in the house), and then the batu planks on the deck wrap around the bench.

The monthly summary shows the vapor shield and foam being installed, along with the windows and upstairs doors.

More wiring will be happening next week, maybe including data wiring. The fireplace was delivered, and the space has been prepped for it, so that install should happen soon (it has to be installed before the gas inspection can happen). The knotty cedar for the exterior roof soffit was delivered. The rest of the siding should be delivered soon.