Insulation and a Re-Inspection

Insulation went in this week. Got a picture of my guy hard at work. Would have preferred a picture on the stilts (love those things) but he worked so darn fast. Good thing I checked my contract, because he didn't do the sound batts in the bathrooms, so I called my sales guy and he said sure enough it didn't get transferred to the ticket. So he came out Friday morning and finished up the job.
It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but the insulation really gave definition to the rooms. And boy is it so much quieter.

Now, for the re-inspection story. As my last entry said, the inspector was out on Tuesday and failed us for not having all the wire pulled. I had called that same day to schedule the re-check for Thursday afternoon. When I spoke to the secretary she asked when my last inspection was, and I told her 15 minutes ago, which explained why she could not find my paperwork in the office. However, she assured me that she could still schedule the re-check. So Wednesday came and went. And Thursday I headed out to meet the inspector. Who never showed up! I called the P&D office only to be told that our re-check was not on the schedule. I was pretty frustrated and asked the secretary to have the inspector call me tomorrow when he was on his way. Fast forward to Friday morning, my phone rings and it's my guy who says he's confused, why we are on his schedule, when he was just there for the re-check. Now I'm confused. When? The next day, after the original. Oh boy, he was there and no one knew it?! He says he'll meet me again anyway, so I head over and of course, the first thing I look at is the permit. Sure enough, it's signed off on (Wednesday's date). He arrives and we have a chuckle about how he snuck in and nobody noticed. I'm still annoyed because had the Thursday re-check made the schedule, he would have called me yesterday with the same confusion and we could have avoided the additional drama. But the important thing is...He Passed Us. He did point out where there were still some wire pulls missing, but nothing that he was too concerned over.

Insulation is in. Drywall is scheduled to load on Monday. I've notified my septic contractor that we are on schedule-so he can come next week too. I've notified the sider-so he can come back next week too. Let's keep this thing moving!

As an added bonus, the tile guy has been hired for the master bath. He's got the durock down, the heat flooring coil laid and the leveler poured. He's framed the shower pan and should be back this morning to pour that as well. Tile should start being laid on Monday.  We've also selected the tile for the boys bathroom and the guest bathroom, because those were throw -in's for the tile guy to do while he waits for master bath stuff. Gives him full days instead of half days and the price couldn't be beat.

Of all the things

Love seeing this truck, means my inspector is on site!

Today we had our Rough Framing, Electrical and HVAC inspections. The inspector is getting to be quite the buddy of mine, whether we like it or not. I was a bit worried about the framing and HVAC, but certainly didn't think not having the wire pulls fully complete would be the thing to fail the inspection! Wires can be seen after the walls are on, so I'm not quite sure I get it.  In the end, he said we could still proceed with the insulation and just have him come back out in 2 days when the wire pulls would be done. So technically, not a fail. But not a pass either.


For the record, he did leave me one of those dreaded correction tickets. He said it was proof to his boss that he wasn't just on a long lunch break.

Wire pulls & Sub Floor work

Part of the negotiation with our electrician is that we would help with wire pulls, mud rings, and trim out on our job. So, this past few days we have spent helping with the first 2 things. As an electrical apprentice here's what I learned:
1) How to use Fish tape: A piece of round flexible metal wire that has a loop hole on both ends. You push the tape through the conduit and connect the wires to end, you can then pull the wire through the conduit so easily (vs trying to push it up through the conduit)
2) Wire pulling lubricant: I call it Butter. This is another fantastic trick to make the wires go through the conduit. We didn't use it very much, mostly on the longer runs.
3) White=neutral wire
4) Orange, Yellow Or Blue=hot wires used for ceiling lights/fans
5) Red or Black=hot wires used for outlets
6) Brown=wires used to make 3-4 way switches
6) Green=wires used for grounding-used for the bath fans

The other project this weekend was the 2nd layer of subfloor Here's a picture of my "crew".

Alex and Tom measuring and cutting

Mary Beth working the paslode

Plumbing Rough in Inspection

I don't have a picture to go with this post. I thought I might be funny and add a picture, from the internet, of a plumber's crack. But alas, even the most flattering pictures on-line are not that flattering. And it wouldn't really be fair to my plumber, because I never even saw his crack this entire time (thank god).

However, I am happy to report that we had our rough plumbing inspection on Friday and we passed!

"Same day" stain takes 7 days

When we ordered our front door I had found out that we could have our door come pre-stained, for an additional $801.72, or we could order the stain kit for $59.98. So, last Saturday begun the process of staining our door. Note, I've never stained anything before, let alone a $2000 centerpiece of our new home. But I figured how hard could it be, when the kits says it only takes one day!

Day 1: Prep by taping all the windows, all the edges, clean the door with mineral spirits. Apply first coat of stain. Easy enough, right? Wrong. The confusing part was in the directions it says "use a cleaning rage to achieve the desired shade, wiping in the direction of the grain. For lighter shades wait a few minutes, then rub off the excess stain. For darker applications, first allow the stain to dry 2-4 hours, then apply additional coat or coats." So, we thought, apply the stain and let it stand for 2-4 hours, since we wanted a darker shade. We thought wrong. It meant apply the stain, rub off excess. Then let stain dry for 2-4 hours and then apply additional coat(s). So on Day one, the outside was completed.
Day 2: Apply inside coat. Wipe.
Day 3: Apply additional coat on outside and inside. Wipe both.
Day 4: Apply 1st layer top coat.
Day 5: Apply 2nd layer top coat.
Day 6: Remove tape and add handle/lock.
Day 7: Clean up windows (not done yet...but here's a picture anyway-don't mind the hand in the window, it's just someone saying hello).

Looks pretty good, if I do say so myself

To conclude, if you know anyone who needs a staining job, I am now for hire. It will only cost them $800 (that's giving my $1.72 discount)

Updates full of baseball metaphors

The front door is hung. Should get stain this weekend. I'd say it's a homerun (Go CUBS!), but that's because, for those of you that have visited our current home, it will look very familiar...

Our architect came for site walk through, which was part of our contract...though I was not sure at this point what he could to tell us. Structurally nothing can be changed.  However he pointed out a handful of framing items that needed to be done before our rough inspection. I guess it never hurts to cover all your bases (Go CUBS!) and have another set of eyes on the project.

Our lumberyard contact has been out twice, once to look at a couple of the windows that weren't closing correctly and then again when we had trouble installing the sliding door handles/locks.  He fixed both. This was good b/c when he sold us on the Hurd windows part of the pitch (Go CUBS!) was that he was the certified rep for them and would be available to address any issues.

The Electrician is plugging away, he finished the 2nd floor and made it most of the way through the first floor. A couple of curve balls (Go CUBS!) came up with lighting placement, but nothing we couldn't overcome.  Once he knocks out the basement and garage, which should be a breeze, then it will be time for us to start doing wire pulls. ETA for pulls to start is Wednesday.  All in an effort to get everything ready for an inspection on Oct 20th. By the way, no pictures of "electrical work", as I didn't think any of it was that interesting yet. But prepare yourself, soon enough you will be overloaded with pictures of lighting fixtures b/c I've been on a shopping spree!

The plumber has also been back now that the water line can be hooked up. He ran water through the system today and only one small error (Go CUBS!). The finishing touches should happen Monday-Tuesday and then...time for inspection! The plumbing inspector is actually one of my favs. He kinda just seems to want to hang out at The Triple V.  He showed up for the last inspection (on the outbuilding) which doesn't even have plumbing! Maybe I'll try for a selfie with him...if he passes our inspection. 

HVAC was also back today and set the basement furnace. I was able to finally catch a break and contractor will not charge me to cut in 2 register to supply/main trunk. I wanted these added just in case we want to make the basement a bit more "comfortable" for anyone (I wonder who?) that might be playing down there. 
Monday the upstairs unit goes in. I also got coached (Go CUBS!) a bit about running the system during drywall work.  We will take some preventive measures to keep all the dust out of the system, and keep a close eye on the filters each day.

Shiny, right?

Let's see, what else...I spoke to the Insulator who will be back next week to do all the fire caulking (foaming?) of penetrations made b/w floors by other trades, which must be sealed prior to rough inspection. He's also "on deck" (Go CUBS!) for Oct 21 assuming we get a home run at inspection.
Tile guy isn't returning calls, might have to go back to the bullpen (Go CUBS!) on that one soon.
Concrete guy is coming tomorrow to put in window well ladders, drain caps and take final payment.
Drywall guy is "in the hole" (Go CUBS!)

And finally, hubby is back after being gone all week. I missed him! It's been a busy week and we are much better as a TEAM.

We have a full weekend planned, starting with laying the second layer of sub flooring (oh yeah, I ordered that this week too). Phew!

Chestnuts Roasting

This fireplace gave us heartburn. We had to figure out the size we wanted it, the materials we were going to use to cover it, so that we could frame out the opening to the right size. We had to insulate and drywall the inside of the chase. The inspector had to see the chase before we could order an install.
At long last, it is in. And I think it looks fabulous. Obviously once the ledgestone goes on, it will look entirely different, but I thought a progress picture was in order.

Siding installation---who knew

Last week our siding was delivered.  The specific brand, style and color we chose is: Certainteed Monogram Dutchlap Sterling Grey.  And we are going with oversized window trim and corners (in White).
So I learned something new, apparently it is not a good idea to start your house siding before the drywall is delivered and loaded into the house. That is b/c the weight of the drywall may cause the house to settle some and thus affect the hanging of the siding. Therefore, it will be a few weeks yet before I can post pictures of the house siding progress. In the meantime here are a couple shots of the Outbuilding progress.

far end

close up of frieze around porkchops and my oversized corners

Wells are deep and have water-Part 2

The well pump was installed on Monday 9/28 as scheduled.  They left the water pumping into the yard all day Tuesday to flush it out and chlorinate. They came back Wednesday morning and hooked up the tank in the basement.

 

Déjà vu - Outbuilding Rough in Inspection

 Déjà vu, from French, literally "already seen", is the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced, has already been experienced in the past, whether it has actually happened or not.
<sup>This past Wednesday we had our Rough in Inspection for Framing and Electrical on the outbuilding. My electrician was well aware the inspection was happening, as we had talked about it on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. However, on Wednesday, he was not there.  And the inspector failed the electrical for the reason "install bonding bushing & jumper". Now this gave me a sense of Déjà vu because that was the same reason we had originally failed our Service inspection. Back then after talking to the inspector he passed us, so that we could energize and have electricity on site. So, since the electrician was not there I had the inspector show me exactly what he was looking for. And put it in the simplest terms so that I could show Jim. I felt ok about the inspection because the framing passed (remember, we built this thing ourselves-Go Tom and Alex) and I felt that I could explain to Jim what needed to be done. Not to mention that it seemed we could start storing a few items out there (to get the current house ready to go on the market).
So I left a voice-message for Jim and on Thursday morning 6:30 I got his return call. He disagreed! So I told him that I would meet him at the property and we could discuss. Upon arrival he marched me over to the OB and headed straight for the rear, where the electric meter is. I stuttered, "Jim, the inspector showed me something on the inside panel..." He proceed to snip open the ComEd lock and remove the panel and say "Do you have your cell phone? Take a picture of that." Well, of course I have my phone, it helps to have one, maybe he should think about getting one (I did not say this aloud, I simply took the picture). He tried to explain to me that since the OB did not have any copper (plumbing) that he grounded to the outside. The inspector hadn't opened the outside, so I could understand now how this picture was needed. So after asking Jim if he could just go ahead and do the requested work, since it wouldn't hurt anything and would satisfy the inspectors request, and him basically saying no (he was upset b/c "the code doesn't require it"), I proceeded back to my car. I emailed the picture to the inspector and then called his number, hoping to catch him before he headed out for the day. I got lucky. He reviewed the picture and even ran it past some others there before calling me back to say that the requirement was still needed. I asked him to put it in terms that I could understand, which were something along these lines....bonding and grounding are different. Slightly. The request was to have all metal parts connect and go to neutral. When I went back in the house to tell Jim, he said that the request "made sense electrically, even if it wasn't required per code." He would take care of it.
Fast forward to 4pm. Alex was now at the site afterwork, so I had him ask Jim if I could order the re-inspection. He say "Nope, he's sending his guy up there to talk to them." What!?!? I was confused, what had changed from 8am? So I picked up the phone and called the inspector again. And got lucky again, that he was back from his day of inspections and took my call. I told him how my electrician was getting ready to send someone up there tomorrow to discuss the requirement and I would just rather handle it. That the electrician was disputing where this was in "the code." And if he could just point me to the code, I would give that to my electrician and we'd be on our way. As he looked at the picture again and hemmed and hawwed, he then said we were "fine". What did this mean? My comments to him, were "even if we are fine, per code, if it is your professional opinion that doing this would make the electrical system safer, please let me know". I have always felt the inspectors are there for the homeowner's behalf. I certainly didn't want him to just get steamrolled. He asked if he could call me back (which I took to mean he was getting a second opinion). When he called me back he said that we were "100% good to go." "Are you sure?" "Yes." We talked a bit about the house, having the same problem, but I guess we will cross that bridge when it comes.

On a final note, I took a picture of the back of Jim's truck. Just because I was impressed with how neat, clean and organized it was. Don't see that much in trades. P.S. From what I've seen it translates to our job.</sup>

^{The End.}