Wiring, Ducts, and Vandelism!

The siding is up on everything except the porches and the front entry posts.  The rough electrical wiring is almost done.  

We had to see the lighting supplier to make selections on a couple of fixtures so the electrician would know where to put the boxes.

The railing around the stairs is starting to take shape.  That framing along the bottom is to allow for space for the required (by code) outlets.

When we got to the house yesterday I noticed a little discoloration on the siding outside my office window. Hard to see as anything but a smudge which was what I was thinking.   As I got closer, it became clear the house had been tagged! Initially, I thought it was a college frat sign, but when I was able to look at the photos it became clear what it was.

The good news it was on the siding before it was painted, and it was done in felt pen, so hopefully it should be able to be covered.  Then, I found that one of our new impact resistant windows had been broken.  Only one layer of glass, but it will need to be replaced.

 I've filed a police report.
Here's a better look at the house.
You can see that most all, except the porches have been completed.

Rough Wiring, and More Siding

Exciting past couple of days!  Over the weekend we met with the electrician to go over placement of lights, receptacles, switches, etc.  Then his crew started with the rough wiring.  Fans and cans (the rough parts) are in place, and the little blue boxes are getting placed and wired.











We also met with the cabinet guys.  No pre-made cabinets in this house.  We met and drew out the cabinets in 3D; putting marks on the floor and walls; working with the space to see how things will fit.  It was a good day, and since this was one of the things keeping Alese up at night, she was excited to have it worked out and, as it turned out, to be such an easy process.  The cabinet guys will also make all the vanities and the bunk beds.

The exterior folks are working on getting the siding up.

  The back of the house is almost done.  There's one window that is in the wrong spot.  It's just a matter of moving the window.

They put a window that doesn't open where one that does is supposed to be, so they need to pull out the one that doesn't open, put it where it belongs, and put the other in it's place.

Critter Report

Ray's frequent posts about the progress on the construction aren't the only things going on in life.

We have critters to enjoy.

On the drive to our dawn meeting with the builder last Saturday, we glimpsed a quick gray fox race across the road in front of us.  Too quick to be documented for this blog, here's what they look like.  Note this is a stock photo, not one we took.  Ours was much blurrier and with less color — it was pre-dawn, after all.

Below is a photo I actually took alongside the house's foundation near the front door.  Our first snake.  A friendly little checkered garter snake, probably scouting the neighborhood for what sounds like Gulf Coast Toads who hang out near our ponds.

We have sweet little chirping frogs at our current rental property that I hope we'll also have on the island.

  

We see MANY birds in our neighborhood each day and night on our visits, even more than we realized now that we have such a great aerial view.  They're all special in their own ways.

Ray took this photo of my favorite, my eastern meadowlark.  Its beautiful song floats over the neighborhood with such a sweet sound. Plus it's my favorite color. Because I prefer to bird by ear than sight, it tells me it's there even when I'm not looking.  

Here's a nicely done VIDEO to show off how gorgeous and charming they are.

Progress, just not so visible.

There's action, just not quite so visible these days.    They've started pulling wire for the phone, TV, ethernet, and security system.  They also put the plywood on the walls in the garage.

And, if you didn't remember there's another porch above the one on the third floor, here's a reminder with a couple of the guys getting set to come down.....

Here's the back site, with most of the windows and siding up to the third floor.  And, yes, it does look huge, but in part that's camera angle, coupled with the fact that right now, the house is on a pad, and where I'm standing to take this is about 3 feet below the foundation.

Movin' on Up, Second Floor: Siding and Windows

View of the back, and garage side of the house.  You can see the 2nd floor pop-out, the 3rd floor pop-in (kitchen porch) and the 2nd floor balcony (which overlooks the driveway.)

Not all the windows are in on the second floor when this photo was taken.

The color is not the final color that's basic HardiePlank.  Our color, as you saw on the previous post is a bit yellower.

View of the front and Gulf-facing sides.  All the 2nd floor windows are in, and open.  A few of the 3rd floor windows in the living room are in too.

Windows and Siding!

Tyvek, is going up.  Tyvek is the water barrier paper that sits between the sheathing, and the exterior siding and you see it on houses under construction.

All the first floor windows are in.  If you've been following us for a while, you know that none of the first floor windows open, and since they are hurricane impact windows, very difficult to break.

The siding is going up and may be completed by weeks end.  Siding is HardiePlank.  It's a cement fiber product.  I was not familiar with it in Massachusetts.  It's heavy -- basically putting a thin layer of cement on the outside of the house.  When we were in Austin and considering residing options for our house there, HardiePlank was one of the options, but we were warned that the added weight of the HardiePlank on a structure not initially designed for it, and older might result in structural damage.  So, we went with vinyl siding then.  HardiePlank for the beach!

We were testing colors, and the set of three, reflect our current thinking.  The lightest color for the house, with the darker brown being an accent color for the pop-outs and inside wall of the porches.  The red for the doors.

Just where is this house?

My son asked for a detailed location of where this house is.  I thought others might also be curious, so this is for you.

In some photos you can see our nearest neighbor, Port Royal Resort.  I did meet a couple of folks from Port Royal at a meeting Thursday, and heard there was a lot of speculation at Port Royal about our house as the folks at PR were watching it go up.

Of course, none of the satellite views on any of the map programs have done fly-bys in the past week, so all you can see on this map is our lot between the two ponds.  The pond to our West, is on the property line, but the one on the East is more than half ours.  The pad, about where the house has been placed, is clearly identified between the two ponds.


And as a reminder, from the living room (3rd floor) this is the view of the Gulf with our pond in the foreground.  If you're good at photo interpretation you can figure where the other two ponds shown above are in this photo.

There weren't dramatic changes yesterday.  They've put in most  of doors, got the moisture barrier paper on all the the roof elements, and added more tie-downs holding the framing together.  

Windows have arrived.

Our windows arrived yesterday.  Alese doesn't think all the windows have arrived.  We do have a lot of windows.  Now that most of the exterior sheathing is up, you can see, in the photo below, our third floor and see most (not all) the window locations.

This is the living space with -- from the back to front -- porch, living room, dinning room, and kitchen.

And, they've been adding more ties, connecting sills and headers and framing with additional metal ties.  They haven't yet tightened the rods running from the foundation to the top of the third floor.

Still putting up the sheathing.

The house doesn't look too different today.  The crew has been filling in sheathing, covering over window framing that they'll need to treat with the Saws All, to open up again.  So, I thought I'd show a couple of different views.  Below is a 90 degree panorama view from the kitchen deck.  The 2x4 is a temporary support for the jacks.

Photo on the left is the telephoto view from our nearest neighbor, the Port Royal Resort.






But the photo below presents a better scale view of how we appear.  Wide angle rather than telephoto.

Outside Walls! The House is Taking Shape.

 Now it looks a lot more like the architects drawing over on the right.  Exterior sheathing was going up this past weekend.  It changes how the house feels

 Some of us really like it!


The breeze is really fantastic on the third floor, and you can see, even without the sheathing, that the East view in the living room is basically windows.  That's a door and three windows (from left to right).  And, on the front wall there's another window at the corner of the house. (Look at the first photo.)

Though they've covered the door to the 

2nd floor balcony, the rafters are there. 

They will cut the doorway and a window 

that got covered over.

We have something new for you!

We have a Roof

This is a test.  You've just seen my first Animoto video.  The free version only allows for a 30 second video and that limits the number of photos that can be included.

This post is blended -- a combination of an embedded Animoto video and traditional photos.

Feedback and reactions welcomed.

 This is the big open space, looking from the porch toward the kitchen.  In the far corner, is the Kitchen porch.

The living room has a 12 foot ceiling while the kitchen and dinning area have a nine foot ceiling.

And, here's the view from closer to the Gulf looking at the porch end of the house.

Look closely and you can see Alese dancing with joy.

We have a roof! Well at least the framing.

 This is a different view, it's the view from the entry to Mustang Island Estates Drive.  And provides a nice view of the framing for the roof.  It also provides a view of the "pop-out" on the back of the house.  In this view the front "pop-out" is not as visible.

Yesterday I mentioned the system to hold the house down to the foundation.  The crew was installing those (I don't know what they are called) things.

 It's hard to see them in this photo.  This is in the garage, where they only go to the top of that wall, elsewhere they go all the way to the top of the third floor walls.  They haven't put in the stairs to the third floor yet.  Probably in part to avoid liability issues with uninvited visitors checking out the house.



The final photo shows the rod connected to the j-bolt.  They can (and will) tighten this whole system down so the walls don't move.

3rd Floor is Framed!

Yes!  The crew framed the third floor.  Because there are not many walls -- it's basically a big open room -- it was easy to frame, but harder to hold together.

This is the view looking at the porch side.  The first floor will have bunk beds for visitors and will look out to the pond from those end windows.

 If you were concerned about the house holding together during high winds, you can see the metal strapping that is being installed to hold the framing down.  There will also be a lot of tie-down rods that run from the foundation up through the framing to the top and are tightened down to hold everything together.  (Photos when they are in place.)


Stairs to the third floor were not in when we visited, so you'll this is the view of the top two floors.

Second Floor Walls...

Action!  The framing for the second floor was done yesterday.  And that pile of lumber in the foreground is for the roofs.  I think it looks like a jigsaw puzzle.

 It looks like a bit of a maze, especially with the diagonal braces making it impossible to walk along where we will be walking, but we can go into each room, and get a sense of it.  On the second floor, in addition to the master bedroom are two smallish bedrooms and a full bath.  The two bedrooms will become our offices.  Alese has the one to the West (left most window) and Ray's is the window approximately in the middle of the wall.  (Yes, it is hard to pick them out without the sheathing, but you can see them on the elevation drawing on the right.)

Notice we're starting to get the third floor flooring!

We went to a meeting in Port A on hurricane preparedness.  It was interesting.  When a hurricane is coming we will evacuate and head to Austin to stay with Alese's sister and her husband. (Betty, you've been warned!)  After the meeting we got to the house just in time to watch the sunset from the second floor.  Though it's not there yet, there will be a balcony porch there so we can enjoy many more of these.