Central Vac

The way our plan worked out, there is a utility corridor down the middle of the house that contains the air supply and return, the drain lines, the gaspipe, and now central vac pipes. You can see some of each here. The vacuum pipes were kind of fun to figure out, and are my first major contribution to the guts of the house.

Plumbing, Fireplace, and Bathtub

Almost all the drain lines are done. Here's where they all come together in the ceiling of the pantry.

Hyrum's guys were back this week, and got the fireplace and bathtub framed in. I found both for fantastic deals on KSL.com. I like fantastic deals.

Gas inspection passed

All of the gaspipe is now installed, and the system is pressurized for testing, and this morning the inspector came and passed it off. I've ordered the meter, and now we'll be able to run the fireplace and/or furnace as soon as they're installed. We probably won't run them much before we're insulated, because that will cost a lot.

Topsoil

I had figured the next step for natural gas would be after the 4-way inspection, but the gas guy on the HVAC crew told me I should order the yard line now, so that we'll be ready to order the meter when the 4-way is done. I called Questar, and found out they won't lay the yard line until we're up to finished grade on that side of the house. I couldn't believe they were really unwilling to dig a trench until I brought in more dirt, but that's what they said, so we did. We got a great deal on some topsoil from the new Station Park development over by the freeway where they've removed several inches of the farm soil and have to get rid of it to build all the fancy-pants new stores and stuff.

Major HVAC progress and Roofing completed

Jim had his knee replaced yesterday, and today the HVAC guys he arranged to replace him came and finished almost all the supply runs in the attic, and part of the trunk downstairs. It looks good.

Alan had some things come up and couldn't finish the roofing himself, but he sent Moises, and he was fast. He came Thursday afternoon, and was done by this afternoon.

Rock Progress

Getting there. We're up to the sill stones on both sides of the front door, and up as high as my eyeballs when standing on cinder blocks on end on the left side.

Cool Sunset

This is the view from our porch East to Farmington Canyon during one of the coolest sunset effects I've ever seen. It was cloudy all day, and just before the sun went behind the mountains a stripe of clear sky opened up. You can see the cloud shadow across the top of the mountains here, and the sunlight that bounced around between the solid deck of clouds and the ground was the yellowest ever.

Close Call with Electricity

I worked from home today so I could go over before dark and get some rock done. I pulled up just as the guy from Rocky Mountain Power was disconnecting our power meter. It turns out only half of the power pedestal was working correctly, and the meter was not registering. The half that was working was supplying all the power we needed, but I did wonder why our bill last month was only six dollars.

After a trip to Home Depot to buy 10 feet of replacement 2-gauge wire, a few minutes with a shovel, and a call to Rocky Mountain Power customer service, another guy came back before 5:00 and re-connected us. Thank goodness I happened by when the disconnection was happening. Otherwise I likely would have showed up on Thanksgiving morning and noticed there was no power, and no way to get it before next Monday.

Some Rock and Kitchen Lights

Here's the bulk of what we accomplished in a full day on Wednesday. Dirk stayed late with me and we got all the way up to the bottom of the window frame. I haven't done the math on how many square feet we got done per man hour, and I don't think I will.

And here are our working can lights in the kitchen, courtesy of dad. He also got the lights along the porch rigged up for working on rock after dark.

Rock on

With the decision made about where the rock will go, and with the recent revelation that it doesn't really have to remain 40 degrees for 48 hours after applying the mortar, I took a day off work today and had a bunch of help to kick off the rocking of the main house. Shown above are dad, Tad, Grant, and Dirk

And the winner is:

After a very scientific voting process, in which many votes were registered verbally, and after which we just decided what we like best anyway, the winner is elevation #3. We wanted some rock on the 2nd level to break up the siding, and Doug was right, the tower just seemed to cry out for it. We like the garage best with the rock over the door and the board & batten above that. This setup can mostly be done from the ground, and won't cost as much as some of the other options. Thanks to everyone who voted. If you got it right, give yourself a pat on the back.

HVAC and Electrical

Here are Jim and Lydia assembling the trunk ducts in the attic. This is looking from the behind attic furnace room East toward our bedroom. And here's dad wiring the light in the family room.

Doors Installed (mostly)

Our doors were installed today, except the two that we found out were back-ordered. Here's our front door.

Rock: the vote

We have had a hard time coming to a firm decision on which parts of the house should be rock (some is required), and which should be fiber-cement siding (Hardie Board). In order to better visualize the options, I've Photoshopped several renderings. Since it's now too cold to do stone, we need to order the siding and get it going, but we have to decide on a quantity before ordering. Please help us out by leaving a comment with a vote for your favorite. Write-ins will also be accepted. This may be the most important thing you vote for this week.

#1 - Wainscot Only

#2 - Elevator Tower

#3 - Elevator Tower and Over Garage

#4 - Elevator Tower, Over Garage, Jonah's Room

#5 - Elevator Tower, Over Garage, Jonah's bedroom white

#6 - Door and Single Garage

#7 - Door, Single Garage, and Over Double Garage

#8 - Two Bedrooms

#9 - Two Bedrooms and Over Garage

#10 - Two Bedrooms and Full Garage

#11 - Nursery and Single Garage

#12 - Nursery, Single Garage, and Over Double Garage

#13 - Nursery and full Double Garage

PS - There has been general public outcry against the white sections. This house was our inspiration, but their white tower is mostly windows, so maybe the execution isn't quite the same:

And here's a real life example of stone, Hardie Board siding, and a white pop-out we found in Centerville:

Water Meter Moved, Gravel Delivered

Our new excavator moved the water meter out of the driveway this week. Now we're ready for gravel for the driveway, walkway from the porch, and patio in back. We really wanted to have the gravel here before the snow hits hard so we have a place to walk and drive through the winter.

Masonry is slow

Here's my embarrassingly little amount of stone work completed. This is going to be a big job. I'm counting on it going faster when I get to the flat walls, rather than these tapered columns that are mostly corners.

Shingles Delivered

Windows!

Bridge to Nowhere

If you look closely you can see Jonah peeking out from the walkway to the bonus room down into the garage. Since the bonus room will be unfinished, and it's connected to the house by this five foot walkway, we've started calling this the bridge to nowhere.

Dad the electrician

This is us in the attic furnace room. Dad has spent several days here already getting boxes installed for outlets, switches, and lights, but that kind of work is hard to show in pictures.

Drying in the roof in the wet

Allen came this morning to start drying in the roof, but before he could get it all done it got too wet to stay on the roof. He'll be back next Saturday.

Sawyer on the Wildcat

I borrowed Randy's Bobcat to prepare the front yard for gravel and topsoil, and Sawyer came to help. He kept referring to it as a Wildcat, undoubtedly a reference to High School Musical.

Framing Substantially Complete

The roof is now ready to be dried in, and that is scheduled to begin on Saturday. Ironically, the weather may be bad enough to prevent weather-proofing. The windows should be done the middle of next week, and the doors by the end of the week. Once we can lock things up, then we can start pulling wire and running copper pipes.

Before and After

When they first put the fascia on the porch, Hyrum's guys left the tails on in front of the gable so we could see what it would look like. We decided to remove them, and we think it looks much better without. It was one big, long line across the entire house before, and now it's broken up a bit.

View from the office window

Porch trusses set

Floor Plans and Elevations, per request

I couldn't figure out a way to post .pdf files, but I did figure out how to convert them to .jpg. If the detail isn't good enough to see, I can email better versions.