House Painting

Now we can reveal the colours we chose for the house and you, esteemed reader, will get to see the final result! It was a bit of a race against time for the painters to get it done in the window of clear, but cold, weather at the beginning of the week ahead of a winter storm warning. But the effort was successful.

Well here's the cliffhanger from the last blog in terms of the options:

And the decision goes to...drumroll... the colour scheme on the right under the window. Sage green with Asian Jute (creamy-beige) trim and Beeswax Candle (orangy-brown) accent. The painting team duly picked up the 15 gallons or so of paint required and began work:

The sage green paint for the main body of the house is applied using spray equipment and here it is being applied under the eaves:

The painter is wearing all over body protection and a face mask:

At the back of the house they are working on preparing the trim by hand:

And here is the final result:

We are very pleased with it. As Julia said, I LOVE the paint colour, although it is on that slippy side between gaudy and tasteful. It just seems warm and friendly to me. Initially, I thought I would prefer a colour scheme that was more sophisticated and contemporary but as it turns out, we wanted something that felt more welcoming.

And then it snowed:

Although the furnace has now been installed, it isn't connected up, so Richard has some space heaters running to keep the inside from freezing and affecting the drywall. Here's the furnace:

So now we need to decide what colour to paint the front door. Should we use the accent colour, beeswax candle, or should we go for a wood-like finish? Let us know what you think!

That's all folks.

Dry Wall & House Colours

With the outside looking like a real house, it was time to do the same for the inside with the installation of the dry wall, which, given this is an international blog, is also known as plasterboard, wallboard, gypsum board, sheetrock or gyprock. Whatever it is called, it's heavy; here's the delivery truck:

Using the crane to save time and effort:

And to avoid having to carry it upstairs:

Apparently we have personalised installers "J & J" drywall - I wanted the T shirt but couldn't persuade him.
Here's the guys beginning the install in the master bedroom. I was curious how they achieve the cut out holes for the recessed light cans with such accuracy. They measure the location prior to pinning the drywall in place and then use a thin router with a smooth tip that allows them to use the side of the light can as a guide to make the cut-out perfectly round.

Here's a later and more complete view of the master bedroom:

Here's the drywall ready for install in the laundry room and then how it looked post install:

Below is the master bedroom and behind the bath (and above behind where the washing machine and dryer will be) the drywall is blue which I believe is a water resistant coating used in wet areas around baths, showers and sinks:

Here's the guys working on the ceiling in the garage:

It was also time to decide on the colour to paint the house. This is certainly the most difficult decision we have had to make. We spent a lot of time looking at other houses to get an idea of colours we liked because it is very difficult to know how a colour will look on such a big scale and in different light settings when you are looking at a 3 x 2 inch colour swatch in the paint shop! We narrowed it down to three basic colour schemes which we then applied in sample form on the front of the house to try to make a decision.

Underneath the window are the two colour schemes that made it to the final. Weather permitting, painting will begin next week, so watch this space to see which colour scheme we chose!

That's all for now!

Siding and Insulation

This week the focus was on installing the siding on the outside and the insulation on the inside. The siding consists of horizontal boards made of a fiber/cement combination and is installed over the top of the Rain Drop weather barrier. We had fiber/cement siding on one of our previous houses and it performs very well remaining stable through significant temperature variations.

The edges of the building and window frames receive a treatment of cedar trim which is integrated with the siding and then finished with a silicon seal.

The gutters have also been installed:

And here's the house with the siding and trim work completed:

Inside the house the R-38 insulation was installed. The R-value reflects the ability of an insulation material's ability to resist heat travelling through it. Energy Star recommends the level of insulation needed in different geographical areas of the US and that insulation map can be found here:
http://www.energystar.gov/?c=home_sealing.hm_improvement_insulation_table

There are two types of insulation being installed. On external walls, the R-38 has a paper vapour barrier while the insulation in interior walls has no vapour barrier. Here's the external variety in Julia's studio:

The internal insulation is primarily for soundproofing. Here the sound insulation is in place around the upstairs bathroom and laundry room to protect the sleeping ears of those in the bedrooms:

The insulation installers were using some novel equipment to make the process more efficient!

With walls, roof, windows, siding and insulation in place, the whole structure needs to be thoroughly dried out before fitting out the interior. Industrial fans and a dehumidifier are being run 24x7 in order to speed up this process:

That's all for now folks...

Windows and more Plumbing and Wiring, and the Sock Monkey.

Greg and Stan installed the windows this week. The green Rain Drop building wrap was therefore also installed for the areas around the windows. Here's the view of the front with Richard the builder looking out through the front door-to-be:

The building wrap is a weather resistant barrier that prevents rain getting into the wooden house frame while allowing water vapor to escape from the inside. The little black vertical lines on the Rain Drop wrap are crush resistant to ensure there is always free circulation of air. Our house in California didn't have this feature probably due to the different climate:

Now the windows are in, we can begin to really appreciate the views. Here's the view from the living room out to the oak grove at the back:

And here's the view from the back bedroom. Good job we like trees!

Roger the electrician is shown here wiring one of the ceiling light cans for the living room/kitchen area.

And here's where all the wiring comes together at the circuit breaker box in the garage:

Plumbing for the sinks in the master bath is now in place:

And here's the plumbing for the washing machine and dryer in the laundry room.

Metal nail plates are used to protect pipes in vulnerable areas from an errant nail (for picture hanging or other similar purpose). Here's an example from the staircase:

The alcove in which we plan to hang our largest picture turned out to be an inch too narrow for the purpose. Fortunately, Gregg and Stan were able to expand it's size by a couple of inches to accommodate the picture - one of the advantages of wood framing and helpful framers! Here's the alcove which is in the dining room
:

Finally here's a view of the exit vent for the central heating which is situated on the landing at the top of the stairs:

And what is that above the vent?  Yes, it rather looks like we have a giant sock monkey in the attic:

Plumbing and Wiring

With the roof now completed, the plumbers, Jeff and Todd, could continue their work along with Roger the electrician who has begun wiring the house. Here's a pile of pipe fittings to be getting on with...

Molly wanted to check out how things were going:

Here's Jeff in action installing the waste pipe from the second bathroom:

And here's Todd and Jeff installing the soaker tub in the master bath:

 The pipework is more complex than I had imagined for a regular bath due to the requirement for a thermostatic mixer valve (TMV). This device blends hot and cold water that supplies the hot faucet so as to reduce the risk of scalding. It is the valve at bottom left of the picture below:

And below shows the bath installed beneath the window. Originally the window was six inches higher, but we had thought it a bit too high so Richard and Gregg suggested we lower it (rather to our surprise)! One of the advantages of frame construction is that these kind of alterations are manageable.

And we now have a window in the second bathroom also. Someone appears to have left it open...

Here's a view from the master bedroom through the wall studs showing both the second bathroom including the bath/shower to the rear, the laundry room to the fore showing the installation for the washing machine and dryer, and the wiring for the master bedroom routed through the wall studs:

Here's the switch box that controls the lighting for Julia's studio:

That's all for now!