Nov 1st -3rd - update & photos (Final Set)

Stairs - well here is a story to tell..potential disaster, which actually does not bear thinking about! When the upper main flight of stairs (from bedroom level to attic) were being installed they were accidentally dropped. They fell all the way to the ground floor..damaging, miraculously, only 1 tread on the main stairs below, and majorly damaging itself. At over 600 lbs in weight had anyone been standing in the hallway they would for sure have been killed!! The damaged tread has been replaced and the upper flight have been rebuilt in situ. They look fabulous I have to say, and the hallway has a really nice open feeling to it.

Attic- all mechanics now installed. the mechanics room, walls either side of the stair well and door frame will now be framed. Flooring to be extended to front of house. Safety balustrading to go at end of floored area. We certainly will never lack storage space in this house!!

Stucco - final coat, which contains colour, almost all on now..just the west side to finish applying. Very happy with the result!

PHOTO DESCRIPTIONS:

1. Main flight of stairs, from ground floor to bedroom level

2. The rebuilt attic stairs.

3. Two thirds of the attic - now awaiting framing.

4. Final coat of stucco - rear view of the house.

5. Final coat of stucco - east end of house. Scaffolding left up in order to
install bird proofing on the chimney pots.

Nov 1st - 3rd - update & photos (Set 2)

Other activity this week:

Garage floor - photos show floor on Monday....prepared ready for concrete on Nov 1st, then with concrete floor poured and polished (Nov 2nd)..and finally the side porch floor..poured but not polished, as flagstone will be lain on this step to match the other porches.

Basement Shower - do not fear..the green is only protective film..the shower itself is white. Shown here in relocated position - allowing for wall space for towel ring to left of shower, and bath robe hook and open shelving for towels to the right.

Holiday Lights - photo is proof that the holiday light package has been installed (see yellow wiring)!

Central Vac System - almost totally installed, as of Nov 3rd (1 outlet outstanding). No photos to post (yet!)

Nov 1st - 3rd - update and photos (Set 1)

The main activity of this week at 3086 Merlin Rd has been the excavating of the septic field, and installation of the tanks. The system has now all been tested (with I believe 800 gallons of water) and inspected, at each critical stage, by the Chester County Health Dept. The seal of approval was granted on Nov 3rd. The septic system will now be buried, leaving just inspection covers allowing access to the pump and for emptying the system when required. This area will be back filled tomorrow with top soil, and afterwards sown with grass seed. Before long the only evidence of what lies beneath the "front lawn" will be these photos (& several others I took!).

Here are a series of photos of the process..just to confuse you they are posted in reverse order..so if you want to follow the "story" (I cannot imagine anyone other than Ian & I will have the slightest bit of interest in our sewage system!!?) start at the last photo and work upwards!!

October Photos

Photo Descriptions:

1. Top half of front of the house.."Shutters or no shutters?"..that is the question!

2. Fall Foliage fom our porch..not yet at it's peak but begining to turn.

3. Siding paint colour sample No. 1......rejected!!

4. View of the front of the houes..2 paint splurges by now..neither of them right! How come paint swatches are never truly representative?

5. Mud Room Shower installed.

September Photos

Photo Descriptions:

1. The "West Side Story" - base stucco application in progress. Siding on dormers

2. Rear of the houes..all of the base coat of stucco applied

3. Basement stairs installed

4. First Core Gin Club Party (thanks to the Macartneys for the champagne & pasa palos) - note how we grouped togther..the "fun size" folks to the left..the taller ones to the right!!

5. Washing machine plumbing.

"Neglected" Blog!

Not even going to go in to the many reasons why the blog has not been my No. 1 priority this past couple of months..that would take a blog in itself!! Apologies to Ian who has become very frustrated by the lack of reporting.

I am very sad that one of the major followers of the blog died in September.... Ewart (Lisa's Dad) was always an inspiration to try to keep things up to date because I knew that during his illness he logged on regularly to see how progress on the "massive place" was going!!

In fact progress has been slow this past 2 months....for various reasons. Frustrating..but no amount of stress will change the situation. As a consequence of that, and the fact that I have been travelling for about half of the last 2 months there are not that many exciting photos to post, but I will post the best in a series of blogs. Thnaks to Alan for those he sent me in my absence.

Seems pointless to go in to detail on what has been done when I will just update things as they currently stand.

Plumbing all plumbing in terms of pipework, drains etc now installed.

Electrics- all in except a few bits and pieces in the basement. In fact some of it has been installed twice, thanks to the kindness of a vandal who decided to come in to the house late Septemeber and cut all the electric wiring (a grudge act against our builder we believe, as that sort of thing is very rare in sleepy Chester County!!) Police were involved and suspect questioned..all of which has caused delays.

Siding - majority was installed weeks ago...final pieces will hopefully be put up before the end of next week. It can then be painted. I have had a change of heart on the original colour selection so justmay be the delay here has happened for a reason?

Stucco - base and 2nd coat been on for some weeks. Final coat now on all relevant exterior walls, bar the western side of the house. Windows blend in perfectly.

Audio and Security Systems - all relevant wiring in place. Looks like big bundles of spaghetti..or extruded macaroni in some instances! Speakers still to be finally decide upon. Ian's dept!!

Sorry seems to be a glitch in the system..blog is not allowing me to upload photos tonight. Will try again tomorrow!!

Poco a poco!!

Friday did see some, but not a lot of, action at the house. The scaffolding went up, in order to start the stucco, and they started to apply the tar paper and wire mesh which goes beneath the layers of stucco, at the eastern end of the house. I believe that some of the security system wring was also installed.

Hoping for some more obvious progress over this coming week..but it is only a 4 day week here, as it is Labor (or as it is spelt in the Queen's English..Labour!) Day tomorrow, so I don't suppose it will be significant?

Labor Day officially marks the end of summer (what a hot one is has been here! We will take some of the blame/ credit...we planted a sapling in May, which has suffered but is still alive!). All students are then back in class in school/university ..if not already there. Absolutely glorious weather all weekend.... all Hurricane Earle caused us was a welcome breeze. I am excited at the prospect of the Fall..quite my favourite season here! The view from our house of all the foliage in the Autumn/Fall is stunning!!

Here are a couple of photos of the scaffolding etc!!!!

Not much to report

Things seem to be going at slower pace up at the house..not sure why exactly, but I will put it down to the hot weather we have here again this week. Disappointing for Wiliam & I when we went today to find apparently no progress....yet the scaffolding was supposed to go up today in order to start the application of the stucco?? We did water Ian's tree however, and restaked it as some of the twine had snapped. Hopefully it will be fine now for the impending windy Saturday that we are forecast to experience.....a by product of the hurricane travelling up the north eastern coast of the USA in the next couple of days.

Rick and I met up at the house very early this morning for an hour and a half.... a very useful meeting during which we resolved a number of outstanding issues.

Below are a few photos taken over the last 2 days.

Photo Description:

1. The basement framing started 2 days ago. Photo taken from basement door.
2. Basement framing. Shown is the gym and bathroom, and door
through to the service area of the basement. Photo taken from the bay window
3. Drainage pit 2 filled in.
4. Drainage pit 1 filled n. The pipes shown will be cut down and will then be
capped.

End of the month!

Well here we are the last day of the month already....so that is almost 5 months of the project "under our belt" Progress this last month has seemed a little slow, but I am confident that the pace will pick back up again soon.

The last few days a bit more of the siding has gone up (the sub is clearly working on more than one job...fortunate position to be in these days!); the HVAC is installed (as far as I can see), drainage pits filled back in; basement walls insulated and the framing in the basement started today

Another 2 1/2 hours spent with the lighting designer this morning.....good job he is such a pleasant man, and a delight to work with....otherwise all these hours he & I have spent together would have been a real chore.

Sorry, just a couple of photos..the ones of the framing of the gym and bathroom in the basement did not come out well..will retake tomorrow

Photo descriptions

1. A litte bit more of the siding completed on the front of the dormer windows in William's bedroom

2. Basement walls insulated and being framed ready for drywall

Labour of Love

This truly does feel like a labout of love tonight.....have been meaning to update the blog the last 2 nights but have bottled out due to exhaustion. Ian is getting impatient for updates (which I quite understand) so despite feeling really tired and having a 8-9 hour drive to North Carolina tomorrow I kind of feel obliged to get this update done. So with out more ado..here goes.

What has been happening since the last update? The main action has been that the 2 drainage pits have been excavated,lined,pipes installed inspected , refilled with stone and dirt. This work really has hindered other work as the driveway became inmpassable with stone and piles of earth,

Electrical work, including installation of the recessed lights and exterior sockets/outlets; plumbing; heating and air conditioning systems have all but been installed. Siding began again today with the sides of all the dormer windows now clad. The siding installation will be completed tomorrow. Stucco should start next week.

Besides work at the house several more hours have gone in to lighting ad ceiling fan fixture selection, cabinetry hardware final choices etc etc. The list of selections seems endless!

Ian made the decision to go ahead with prewiring for an audio system..so before the dry walling happens in about 3 weeks the audio and security wiring, phone cabling, central vac and wiring for holiday lights have to be installed. At that stage (priort to drywalling)the next set of inspections have to happen.

Anyway I am truly runing out of steam here..and the eyelids are feeling very heavy..so "Good Night!"

Photo Descriptions:

1) Pits almost concealed
2) Drainage pits in progress
3) Dormer windows almost completely clad with siding
4) A quite tame version of what much of the house looks like..switch boxes, outlets/ socket boxes...wiring, plumbing etc etc all over the place!

137 days later...

I now have proof that there was no way that they could have built Rome in a day! Here we are 137 days in to single family home build, and we are not anywhere near being finished!! This is in no way a criticism of our contractor, who has been fab. There has been great progress made, which is plainly evident when I look back at the photos I took on Day 1 versus now. We are actually slightly behind the original schedule (which in my opinion was possibly over ambitious anyway..says she who has never built a house before... so who was/am I to judge?) but nothing to get concerned about.

Obviously it is "Le Weekend", and no one was working at the house, that I know of, yesterday or today. There was some talk of possibly the base coat of the stucco going up, but we had some heavy rain showers this morning that may well have put paid to any such ideas.

The end of last week the excavation of the drainage pits started, electrical wiring and installation of the plumbing continued, and the primed siding began to be fixed on to the house.

Photo descriptions:

1) Siding going up....the primer is grey, but the finished colour is not.
The final painting wil be done once all the siding is on the house.

2) The beginning of the excavation of the drainage pit..taken from the porch roof.

3) The Pex system is now being connected to the pipes. Photo shows the plumbing
for the vanity unit in the guest suite.

4) The front of the 3086 Merlin Road, as it looks as of August 22nd 2010.

Hello.....is anyone out there??!!!

Undeterred by the total abstinence of comments, I will make today a "Record Breaker" (who remembers that kids programme? R.I.P. Roy Castle. Thanks for some fun memories.) and post 2 blogs in one day!! This 2nd one will be short though..well probably will be!

Progress to report today:

1. Well item 1 is actually old news..the large excavator returned to the lot yesterday in readiness for the drainage pit excavation to start tomorrow (I'll be there camera in hand....how sad is that?! Well maybe I will depends how early I feel like getting out of bed) It was a young lady who returned the excavator ..I was impressed! The drainage pits are having to be larger than on the original drawings as we have more impervious cover than at first calculated. Larger pits means more $s of course, but Rick assures me that he has negotiated well!

2. Electricians still beavering away.

3. Met with holiday light man..and all agreed there. I opted not to have the red bulbs thoigh, as I decided that if we cannot afford the swimmng pool I will seek more conventional, even if not as exciting, means of earning those funds!

4. Central vac now been demonstrated and outlet locations, in principle, agreed, so that is another box ticked off. Phew!

5. Date stone font and wording agreed - tick another box!

6. Siding started to be put up

Still seems to be some soffits to be put in..and more plumbing, HVAC etc but we are making progress.

More tomorrow.....hopefully. Very excited as Rebecca & I are off wedding dress shopping tomorrow! The camera will therefore be put to much better use ..so much more fun than taking photos of soffits, wiring etc etc!!

If you have read this it would be great to hear from you!!!!

Photo descriptions:

a) HVAC equipment in attic
b) Fuse boxes in basement
c) Pex system - project in progress
d) The soffits - look fab (especially against the beautiful blue sky!)

Return of the blogger

After a couple of weeks away fom blogging..prepping for "vacation"(??)..away on "vacation" and then recovering from "vacation" I am now trying to get back up to speed on the house build (& life in general!).

After 12 days away Sam, William & I were excited to go to see what progress had been made. Consequently went up to the house as soon as we got home. From the exterior no change (other than racking on the rear of the roof for the solar panels), which was a bit disappointing, as when we left there was talk of siding and possibly base coat of stucco being done in our absence). However, internally the electrical sockets ('outlets' in American!), switches, light fittings, fuse boxes, meters etc have been wired and most of the pipes for the plumbing and 1 bath tub have been installed..and the HVAC system is almost all in..at least the venting!

Both the electical and plumbing guys are still working away at 3086. The plumbers are installing the Pex system and the soffits were being installed yesterday. The electrician (whose wife is British, and is a Jelly Baby fan..so I bought her some back!) needed answers from me on things like where we want outside outlets (had to madly think ..where will we want to put up Christmas lights (Not easy to think Christmas when it is 88 degrees and sunny), electrics in garage, switches for security floods etc. In fact, I am woman much in demand at the moment..by sub contractors that is!!!! I am being chased in all directions for decisions..all quite overwhelming..I am trying to stay cool calm and collected and deal with each request in a logical manner..but not always easy to stay as cool as a cucumber with everything else going on in my life, as well as the house!! I will get it all done...one day!! As they say in Venezuela "poco a poco"!!

On Tuesday morning I spent 3 1/2 hours working some more with the lighting designer on choosing fitments..or at least coming up with a short list, as final decisions will of course be made with Ian. I have however delegated to the boys the task of choosing the lights and ceiling fans for their own bedrooms and bathrooms.

Today the siding starts to go up.....and tomorrow the drainage pits will begin to be excavated.

I am off to house now to meet with some one else (???..it is all a blur!) and to go over some stuff with Rick (our builder)

Hasta luego!!

Photo Descriptions:

1) Racks on the roof at the back of the house ready for the solar panels to go on in a few weeks. Note how the copper roofs are mellowing beautifully!
2) The first bath tub..in the guest suite
3) Wires and switches everywhere!!
4) The 2 electricity meters