Over the last three months much has been afoot on the house build. Although a lot of work still remains, I was able to finally close off the rough framing tasks with completion of the closets, soffit over kitchen sink and in the foyer, as well as archetectual arches in the few spots. The rough plumbing is also approaching completion, leaving only the rough electrical and fire sprinklers to finish prior to calling for combo frame inspection. There’s been a lot of smaller activities going on as well. I’ll try to touch the highlights here.
In late December, I hired a deck contractor to install a waterproofing layer for the upstairs patio deck. The contactor applied a waterproofing membrane, then expanded metal lath and several coats of a special waterproofing thinset. He topped it off with a cream-colored sealer. There was a small issue with the patio door pan not sitting flush, but they were able to correct that. Overall, I am happy with the finished product. It doesn’t leak!
The clay roof tile was delivered in late December and the roofing contractor loaded the roof a few weeks later in early January. They were able to load 35,000 lbs of tile in a single day!
The stucco contractor arrived in late January and began placing the building paper and wire lath. I was initially planning to have them apply the scratch coat as well. However, upon consulation with the County building inspector, he said that first the drywall needs to be installed inside, since installing the drywall could damage the placed stucco if the walls are 2×4. So, as it stands, the walls are waiting for stucco, as soon as the drywall is hung inside.
It was a little discouraging last year to watch (feeling somewhat helpless) as tens-of-thousands of dollars of lumber was exposed to rainstorm after rainstorm. I’m thankful that God held off the rain until the house was almost completely wrapped!
In late February, I set the tub valve and plumbing upstairs. Setting the valve at the correct distance into the the wall was challenging because it must fit thru the backer board, motar, and tile and still have some space for the handle flange, but not too much. Once everything was ready, one of my co-workers brought his little boy and spent a morning helping me set the enormously heavy tub. It was a big help! If you’re reading this post, you know who you are. 🙂
A few weeks ago, the HVAC contractor began installing the HVAC system. Ultimately, I chose to go with a Samsung ducted minisplit for the upstairs and ceiling casettes for the the downstairs.
My main focus over the last three months has actually been odds-and-ends of interior framing that still needed to be done prior to drywall. A short wall section missing here, framing for a closet there, soffit here, backing for drywall there, et cetera. A couple things are still remaining but I finally finished the last major task, the kitchen soffit over the sink, last week.
It took a long longer to do all this than it should have – partly because some of framing was purely architectural and there were some design decisions that I felt were difficult to make, not having a lot of prior experience. In the end, plans called for soffits around the kitchen and living room and I choose to eliminate those (after they were partly built). In some of the areas, I used cardboard to mimic the finished wall, which I thought was helpful for making decisions.
Well, that’s all for now folks! I’ll try to update more regularly in the future. We’re looking towards a combo frame inspection towards the end of next month. I still need to complete the fire sprinklers (I submitted plans to the County for those last week.) and then rough electrical before that.
Before honor is humility.
Prov. 18:12
