PHactotum Wheneverly

Came by & took pictures, lots of huge dirt piles in the yard
Large ruts in the yard from the cement truck
Footers & drainage in place

No new work done that is noticable except maybe a larger pile of gravel in the yard
Large ruts in the yard now have water in them (it's been raining a lot lately)

Concrete walls for basement have been poured with steel supports around the concrete.

Schumacher sign is in the yard

Steel supports around basement walls are down

Basement windows are in place

We still have a "lake" view - lots of standing water near our backyard, ducks love it

Basement being waterproofed & insulated
Plumber in to do the rough plumb in the basement

Basement is waterproofed & insulated

Rough plumb in basement looks to be finished

Several bundles of wood & other materials have arrived

Trey really enjoyed "exploring"

Dumpster has arrived on location

Concrete in basement has been poured

Gravel in "garage", ready for concrete

Alexa got to explore a little tonight

Time for our first "draw" on our construction loan

Concrete in garage is poured

Temporary electric box is in except for the meter

More lumber has been dropped off

Gravel is filled in by "front door" (what will be the "stoop")

Lots of dirt on the road

The floor above the basement is being put in

They have started framing the garage walls!!!! (@ 1pm)

They have actual garage walls up!!! (@ 5pm)

Electric meter is installed

We have first floor interior wall framing!!!

Garage walls are up (except one window is framed, but not cut out yet????)

Obviously, the first floor sub-floor is in

Meter reads 5 KWH used

They've backfilled & rough graded

Piles of dirt are gone in front

One huge pile left in back

No new work done, but it was neat to be able to walk through the "skeleton" of the house since I didn't go yesterday (the boys went after Cub Scout Day Camp)

They must have worked this morning!

The outside walls are up on the first floor!

Most of the windows are cut out

There are temporary stairs going up to the non-existant second floor!

9 KWH used on the electric meter

Lots of tiny baby frogs out by the meter, too

Now able to start visualizing how rooms are going to look (first floor flows really nice!)

I got to go down into the basement today. (Everyone else got to Saturday, but I didn't because of the kids.)

There's now a second floor! Perry & I went up the stairs to stand on it.

They've been working on the second floor outside walls, too as several are up there with windows cut out, just need to be put up. (It was very windy today, so that's probably why they weren't done today.)

It's starting to really look like a house now!!!!

The outside walls on the second floor are up!

The interior walls are framed in!!!! Perry & I spent about an hour just walking around upstairs checking out the layout. It's very exciting to finally see how it's going to look.

There's some Tyvek on, on the second floor.

Trusses are up, so we can see the roof lines now, too.

First day of Summer & the house is looking good! Drove by this afternoon (after Toddler Time at the library). They were working on putting OSB over the garage (roof).

Most of the roof OSB is on now. Just a little left to do.

We had storms & some of the Tyvek has come off the back side, puddles on the first floor.

The exterior doors have arrived & are in the garage waiting to be put in.

The shower/tub for the kids' bathroom is also in the garage waiting for installation.

They've marked for the ductwork & some other things. Not sure what all of the colors mean (blue, green, yellow & orange).

They've taken down most of the wood support pieces for the walls & windows.

There's tar paper on the roof, with bundles of shingles stacked up there, too.

They framed in the attic accesses in both the garage and in my closet.

The fireplace area is boxed in, as is the hearth.

Some of the final trimwork is around some doorways (like the garage) and along the roofline.

They have more Tyvek on the house.

They framed in the walls around the first floor stairway.

They put in the basement stairway & framed the walls around it down there.

They've also put up a metal support post in the basement, with the others down there waiting to be put up.

Water puddles on the first floor are gone, but still puddles in the basement. It's rained nearly every day this week (usually a heavy rain in the afternoons).

They cleaned up the place, too.

Trey & Alexa had fun seeing their rooms for the first time. We walked them through the whole house & told them what each room was. I think everyone's excited about the new house!

Perry talked to Mike, our builder, and on Wednesday they both are going to meet at the house for an "inspection". Since Bluffton doesn't have any building inspectors, they are going to do their own to make sure everything's looking good. Also told Mike about the dryer vent needing to be on the right, instead of the left as currently marked, as per our pre-con discussion which he remembered us talking about. And had him note that there weren't any markings for the fan in the WC (in the master bath) when we walked through yesterday, but it's on the plan. Those were the only "problems" that needed to be addressed so far. Everything's looking good. Mike said they ordered our windows a bit late & they planned on putting those in this week, but they won't be here until the first of July. So, instead they're going to start putting in the mechanicals & do the windows when they arrive. Moving right along......

The roof shingles are on.

Our furnace is in place in the basement.

They cut out the ducts in the floors & added most of the air flow tubes & metal air chases.

Today was our walk-through inspection with the builder (Jeff - Regional Manager), so we didn't go over this evening.

Had a chance to express some concerns & he answered some questions we had.

HVAC guys were there. They should be done tomorrow - except for the final touches - registers, etc.

The air conditioning unit was in place. When doing the inspection Jeff asked one of the HVAC guys if they were going to put the AC unit just to the south of the kitchen windows. He said yes, and then had us look out Trey's bedroom window, where we saw that it was already installed.

They were putting in gas lines for the dryer, range....

Windows should be here tomorrow!

Framers should be done tomorrow.

Windows are in!!!! (Except for one casement in the kitchen which we knew about.)

Exterior doors are also in!!! (Except for the large garage door & the door to the house from the garage.)

No locksets on yet, though - which is good, since we forgot to take our key with us.

2 windows need to be changed. The 2 side-by-side windows in the family room are vinyl on the inside, when all of the others are wood on the inside. Also, one of these two windows is a low-E and all of the others in the house are clear. Quite noticable right next to each other. (The window in the master bath is also low-E - supposed to be? OK either way as it's the only one in the room & we'll be putting something on it to make it a frosted look for privacy.)

The framers furred out a few walls that needed it.

The dryer vent is on (where it's supposed to be!).

All of the things we pointed out at the inspection yesterday have been taken care of & they cleaned up the first & second floors!!!

The only MAJOR concerns we saw - There was up to an inch of water covering the entire basement. It may have been due to the storm that went through yesterday & they just didn't pump it out? Maybe they've been pumping water out each time it rains & we just don't know about it? Also - it appears that someone was burning what appeared to be styrafoam & cardboard packing materials on the lot in front of the house. Could have been the window guys, but there's a dumpster right there? Perry called Mike & left a message (after hours) just to let him know about these issues & about the windows, so we'll find out more tomorrow.

All in all, we're very pleased with everything.

Today we have an electrical walk-through to decide on what we want and where we want it.

Electrician was very helpful in trying to decide how many light fixtures were needed & he had some of the same ideas we did, so it went very well. Unfortunately, we DID forget a few things, so when they're there on Monday to do the rough electrical we need to stop by & let them know.

Tonight we went to Lowe's and bought our dimmer switches. The electrician said we could save about $10 per switch if we purchased them compared to him suppling them, since he's a third party.