Saturday, November 08, 2008

We have windows!

Every day at the site seems to bring lots of progress, there are tons of guys there working on all sorts of stuff.  The framers have been moving along and the tinners and plumbers are both about halfway through.  The building is mostly wrapped and about 3/4 of the windows have been installed.  The masons are supposed to get started this week, so at least the outside will start to look finished.

Click on the picture below to load the movie.  You’ll need QuickTime Player to see this movie, visit The Apple Website to get it.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Framing Movie to Date

Framing has been slowly progressing over the last two months and I was hoping to be able to wait until it was all done to post this movie, but I just couldn’t wait any longer.  There’s still quite a bit left and it’ll be a couple of weeks before they are all done.  While it has taken some time, I cannot praise the framing contractor and his crew enough for the wonderful job they are doing.  They are very meticulous with everything they do, trying to make sure it gets done right the first time, a quality that I find highly admirable.  Everything looks fantastic, we are just eager to see what our new house is going to look like.

Click on the picture below to load the movie.  You’ll need QuickTime Player to see this movie, visit The Apple Website to get it.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Engineered Lumber

We decided that we should use engineered lumber for all of the framing in the house.  The main reason is because it is more environmentally friendly, but also the engineered lumber is straighter than standard lumber so it just makes a better house.  Made from small-diameter or lower-quality trees or from waste from wood-processing operations, engineered lumber is a combination of wood that is peeled, chipped, or flaked and then glued to produce a durable panel, stud, beam, or joist.  That’s the good news.  However, most structural engineered wood is glued together with binders that contain phenol formaldehyde, a product with minimal off-gassing, but it does off gas.  That’s the bad news.  Also, it is somewhat more expensive than standard lumber, but we decided that given all the positives of the product that we would use it.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Geothermal Wells Drilled

The contractor was out today to start drilling the geothermal wells and install all the piping.  It turns out there will be 5 wells total, each drilled to a depth of approximately 210 feet.  The piping runs out from the furnace room to two manifolds near the wells, one for the inflow, one for the outflow.  Each well has a pipe loop in it and one end is connected to the inflow and one to the outflow.  As you can see, the framing has just barely started, so it seems a little early to be installing the wells.  The heating contractors are the first ones in the house once the framing is completed, so I guess it makes sense that they want the wells in.

Click on picture to get a larger version.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Foundation - The Movie

This movie took almost three weeks to make and in fifteen seconds it shows a sequence of the various elements of the foundation being installed.  First there is some final excavation, then the pier footers are drilled and the cement is pumped into them, the forms are then installed with tons of rebar, the concrete is pumped into them, the forms are removed and the foundation is then damp-proofed.

Click on the picture below to load the movie.  You’ll need QuickTime Player to see this movie, visit The Apple Website to get it.