Too Many Foremen Spoil the Lighting!

Electrical, Hvac and  plumbing have started.  Not such a fun stage to be honest.  Seems to take forever and you can't really see any progress... except for the bathtubs in the bathrooms. Our master bathroom tub is awesome.  It"s a two person air tub.  The girls could swim a few laps in it.

     Here is some more advice to future home builders. Make sure your draftsman puts in a real lighting plan not just a random plan (for permit approval).  We could just kick our guy.  We don't know how many times he said, "your builder will go over that with you".  Better to have correctly it on paper from the start. Taking the time during the planning stage will be worth your efforts in sanity and cash.



We have had a number of different foreman on our lighting job since we started. Bad idea... really bad idea.  No one feels they are responsible for getting the job done right. You tell one foreman something and then he is not back for a week, and of course it doesn't get done. You then get to tell someone else and the process starts all over again. We picked the foreman we communicated with the best and asked that he be on the job all the time. I hope everything will work the way we think it's going to. If it doesn't, at least  we will know who to call.

The audio wires have been run throughout the house, and Rand's band room has been wired.  I will elaborate more on that stuff when I understand it.

Getting stoned...

It seems like there is a lot of progress on the house in little ways.  We now have steps up to the porch, which means no more jumping up and down. Yeah!  We also have the cedar tongue-in-groove on the ceiling of the porch - plus more progress on the siding.
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The siding is making progress.

 The stone on the house has started.  This has been very enjoyable part of building the house. We love our mason, Acey.  He has let me help every step of the way.   I can now say I helped lay the rock on our house.  I have put up one piece of stone, grouted maybe a whole line, and even used the brush to clean up some grout lines.  I now have some skills and can seek employment as a mason if ever the need arises.

The first area of stone going up - still needs to be grouted. We picked a grey grout after a little trial and error.  We had originally chosen a brown color and didn't like it.

 The stone looks beautiful.  This section is all finished with the grey grout.  Yes, also the part I did in the upper left hand corner.

Because of the cold we have to tent the house and heat that area so the mortar can dry. Honestly, it's the warmest place around.

This deck material is only on the master deck.  I thought this was the finished product, but came back the next day and he had covered it over with a new layer. He must not have liked something about the way it turned out.  We will have to wait until spring to see it completely finished - it should look something like this.

Progress is happening all the time.  Before we know it, the house will be done and we will look back on all of this as a fun, happy (nothing ever went wrong) adventure in home building.  Maybe they will make a movie about it.  Raiders of the Lost Subcontractors.

Roofing

The roofing has finally gotten started. Stacks of roofing tiles have been lining the road up to the house for over a month. They have finally made it up onto the house.  This is good news - the insulation and sheet rocking can begin because the house is watertight.  It drives me nuts to have snow and water in the house. 

A little progress on the roof - some tiles have been laid... others still waiting.

Roofing has taken forever, and still is not done.  I would say that the roofing debacle has tried our patience. Our job must be the last on the list as far as priority goes with the roofers.  Hopefully it will be done before we move into the house. 

Roof still not completed months after it was started.  Little piles of tile in places.  Still waiting for the metal roof that goes over the covered porch.