Drywall Going Up - Days 77, 78, 79, and 80

Office/Downstairs Bedroom

Office/Downstairs Bedroom

Great Room Ceiling

View of Great Room into Kitchen

Bonus Room

Great Room View from Foyer

Upstairs Landing Looking Into Bonus Room

Dining Room

View of Dining Room and Foyer 

View into Bedroom Storage Area

Great Room Ceiling from Upstairs Balcony

View Into Camden's Room from Upstairs Landing

View from Camden's closet into Attic

View from Cam's bathroom into bedroom

Cam's Bedroom

Bonus Room

Bonus Room Bathroom

Stairwell

Drywall started to be hung on June 24 (day 77).  The crew has now worked four days on drywall.  Today on day 80 they started taping and mudding the joints. It is exciting that the walls are taking shape.

The Garage Floor - Days 76 and 77 - June 23 and 24, 2011

View of Our Three Car - One Bobcat Garage

The end of the week saw the crews prep and pour the floor of the garage at 100 Yorktown.  Doug elects to pour the floor to allow the drywallers to finish the high garage ceiling easier.

Window Sealing - Day 76 and 77 - June 23 and 24, 2011

I really grappled with the best approach to seal between the framing and windows.  Low expansion foam sort of scared me when I read all the stories of window framing bowing.  We experimented with backer rod and caulking, but caulking all the window openings is a significant effort for a solution whose permanence is debatable.

Through online research, I found gap gaskets that are made from a foam originally developed in Sweden and marketed by Resource Conservation Technology of Baltimore, MD.  They are reviewed favorably and seemed to be a good solution.  So the window openings were measured on Monday June 20 and gap gaskets ordered.  The delayed delivery had me biting my fingernails.

On Thursday June 23, I installed all the gap gaskets with the help of my father in law.  Installation became more efficient as we worked through the house.  The only drawback was most of the drywall sheathing had been staged in the house earlier in the day and it was a challenge to work around.

We called it a night around 11 PM just ahead of an approaching thunderstorm.  With the drywallers coming on Friday and the family weekend trip to the Homestead, I had to get up at 6:00 AM to get to 100 Yorktown to wrap up the windows in the keeping room, kitchen, and laundry room.  I was able to finish these and even caulk the bottom of each window in the house in a couple of hours.

With the drywallers moving in for better or worse,  my extra weatherization efforts are pretty much over at 100 Yorktown.

Insulation and Weatherization - Days 72 through 75

Brabble Insulation crews insulated 100 Yorktown. I took some extra time at the house to seal up penetrations and caulk gaps to keep air out.  We also wrapped the hot water pipes in pipe foam and plumbing in the garage.
It was hard to stay ahead of a 3 man insulating crew.  We had Brabble add insulation around the bedroom walls to keep sound down from the Great Room.

The Windows are In

Construction Week 12, Day 62 - Saturday, June 4, 2011

I am posting backwards to make sure, we don't miss a significant milestone that occurred on this day.  The framers worked a rare Saturday to install all of the windows @ 100 Yorktown.  Boy did that start making the house look real.  Since the Brier Patch Community Yard Sale was also occurring we were able to watch as the windows were added one by one.

Keeping Room Window

A Room Full of Windows Waiting to be Installed

View of the Kitchen Window

Construction Week 13, Day 67 - June 10, 2011

Framing Wraps Up

Today marked a milestone at 100 Yorktown, our framers have wrapped up work minus a few windows that had to be reordered and will be moving to their next job.  Led by Owen Lilly, the crew did a great job crafting our home one board at a time.  Owen's company is Top Notch Construction, which pretty much sums it up.  What a great bunch of guys!

The electricians also were back in today.  Our weekend homework assignment is making some final decisions on outdoor locations of receptacles and lights as well as the garage.

No photos today.

Construction - Week 13, Day 66 - June 9, 2011

Add now we have doors


Another exciting milestone happened today as the front entry and rear patio doors were installed.  Neither is painted yet ofcourse.  So far they look good, but know they will really pop once they are painted.

In addition to the doors, the framers tackled a few of the straggling interior items the last few days.  This work included framing in the master bathroom shower, framing Jackson's dog room off the laundry room, adjusting some door framing and lots of other odds and ends.

The HVAC crew from Appalachian Heating put in another full day in the hot attic.  As exciting as HVAC can be, I was happy to learn that they had constructed separate air returns for each room upstiars.  They also seem to be putting in plenty of registers.  The topic is really a whole post in and of itself.

Dad also continued installation of the low voltage cabling for phone, cable, security system, and home audio.  Today the structured wall cabinets were set.

Front Entry Door is Therma-Tru Smoothstar.  

Patio Door from keeping room onto screened porch

Front of the Appleton Chase now with windows and a front door

Construction - Week 13, Day 65 - June 8, 2011

A Lot of Catching Up to Do


How the last few weeks have flown by, there have just been too many things going on to take time out to keep a blog up to date.  Camden's year in Kindergarten finished up the first week of June.  I fought off skin rashes due to some sort of allergic reaction.  I also headed to DC to talk up clean water.  On top of that, 100 Yorktown has checked into the next phase with work taking place on the interior.

The roofer finished on 6/7/2011.  Here are some photos showing some of the completed roofline.