S-L-O-W but Steady Progress

Front elevation and drive.

Two of our grandsons, Malory & Bryce, visit the construction site.

Tim, the finish carpenter, installing the kitchen cabinets.

Well drilling.

Our well is 200 feet deep.

Our mailbox.

For the last two weeks, it's felt like this is that period during construction when everything seems to come to a screeching halt. Our cabinets were delivered on Tuesday, July 5, but sat in the kitchen unwrapped for about 10 days. Tim, the finish carpenter, was busy working on installing them today. Backfilling continued last week and our driveway was installed but there is still more excavation work to be done. Today North Kent Well & Pump dug our 200 foot welll. The water will be tested tomorrow. We hope to move our coach to the site later this week so that our new address will be official.

Continued Excavation, Primer & Roofing Surprise

Stan & Kathleen pose during excavation

Kitchen area after primer

Area above stairs after primer

Master Bedroom after primer

Living room after primer

Dining area after primer

Backhoes at work

Pond grows deeper

More and more sand

Pond is as much as 17 feet deep so far

The excavators worked this past week deepening the pond and starting to contour the front and side yards. The drywallers are all but finished and the walls are primed. It's amazing to think that all of this progress has taken place in two months. We met with our builder on Saturday, July 3, to brainstorm about trim details. We were delighted when we were informed that cabinets will be installed this week. On a less than pleasant note, our builder provides us with a sworn statement on the first of each month. We learned that there was a miscalculation on the roofing estimate which resulted in a $1.8K overage. We agreed that the cost of the error would be split four ways. 25% by the roofer, 25% by the CAD company, 25% by the builder and we'll swallow the last 25%. Hopefully this is the last miscalculation.

Drywall and More Excavation

View of entry way

Backhoe

Dining room ceiling

View from landing

Kathleen on stairs

View from kitchen area

Kathleen & Aaron

Drainfield

Kathleen by sandpile

View from far side of pond

East side of house & door to lower level garage

We just returned from a family reunion in Georgia and were pleased to see that our drywall is coming along nicely. We selected a custom ceiling treatment. Outside out excavator has been busy deepening the pond and piling up more sand for additional fill.

Structured Wiring

Now the fun part. Laying out distributed audio, home theater, Cat 5e, Cat 6, Security, HVAC control, and video surveillance sounded like fun, until we started drawing up the wiring. That is where Jeff Dekker, owner of Custom Video and Sound, came to the rescue. What made Jeff different was his ability to listen and interpret what we ultimately wanted to accomplish. His work so far has been excellent, and his prices reasonable.

HVAC Design

Almost everything in this house is designed with energy efficiency as a top priority, and the heart of the home in this regard is the HVAC system. We debated geothermal extensively with our HVAC contractor, Northern Heating in Holland. It all came down to not being "trapped" using only one fuel, a drawback with geothermal. With the government having the potential to levy heavy taxes on electricity in the future, we wanted the option to decide on two different fuels - that's where Kevin came in with a great design.

There are 4 different stages of heating for the home. Stage one and two are handled by a high efficiency heat pump. Stage 3 and 4 are handled by a high efficiency boiler and furnace. The heat pump and furnace can be adjusted to bias one over the other, in response to higher prices for either natural gas or electricity.

In addition to heat, the system regulates humidity through a steam humidifier which is controlled at the keypad.

The air conditioning is supplied by a five ton, two stage system.

Our Builder, J&J Concepts stated, "You'll be able to heat this place with a candle!" We won't hold them to that, but computer simulation of the structure showed it to be 34% more efficient than current requirements, the highest ever built by J&J.

Roof On - Windows In

Rear view from the pond.
The house is almost sealed. It was a busy week inside with AC and electric installation as well as structured wiring.

Rough Framing Almost Complete

Here's an image of our fireplace. The area behind the fireplace is our master bedroom. On Friday, our framers rough-framed all of the arches and niches.

Roof & Electrical Walk-Through

Here is an image from mid-week when the roof was installed. We insisted on a 18 inch overhang instead of the more common 12 inch. We're delighted with the effect.

On Saturday, we did a four hour walk-through with our builder and made decisions on electrical outlets, fixture placement and Cat 6.

Our roofer began installing shingles on Friday.

Staggered Wall Concept

The exterior walls are different on our home, designed to minimize any exterior noise and maximize energy efficiency. 2x6 lumber is used for the top and bottom plates, but 2x4 finger jointed studs are utilized between the plates. The studs are staggered so that one stud is flush with the outside edge of the plate, and the next stud is shifted so that it's flush with the inside edge of the plate. So each stud has only interior wall sheathing or exterior sheathing fastened to it, but not both, thus reducing sound transmission through the studs and eliminating a great deal of thermal transfer. This makes for a lot more wood in the wall. We selected finger jointed studs because the quality of wood today is suspect at best, and we don't want warping/twisting problems in the future. From the outside in, you have the exterior siding, house wrap, OSB sheathing, staggered studs, 1.5" of spray foam insulation, blown insulation, vapor barrier, and finally sheet rock. This process was more expensive than conventional walls, but will pay us back in energy efficiency in the years to come.

Backfilling

View from the bonus room. Third level (unfinished space) which will be used for storage.

Rear elevation.

Today the excavators moved as much sand as possible before they resume digging our pond.