Lots of little things

Well sorry about the long delay in writing. They have been working very hard but at this point it is stuff that would not show dramatic changes in pictures. That is because they have been working on getting all the new electrical and plumbing in the house. We have basically replaced 90% of the wiring in the house and a similar amount of the plumbing. The nice thing about this is we got to lay out where every switch and every light went. I say this with great joy because the lighting in the house before was terrible. But that has been fixed!

Last week we had the electrical, plumbing and building inspections completed which are huge milestones - now they can begin closing the interior up. Additionally they have most of the roof on the house which is great since the weather has been pretty bad - the weather people said we saw 6 minutes of sun last week - no kidding.

Anyway, the other major thing last week was they began to insulate the house. We are using a foam isulation in the majority of the house (you can see it in the photos below). It fills every little gap and the house is so tight it is amazing. On the side of the house that sits on the propery line (right side if you are looking from the street) we have to use a fire retardant insulation so that cannot be the foam - they will put this up this week since we need another inspection for the insulation prior to them plastering the walls.

I think from here on out things will go quickly so we will post more often. Cheers.

Finally - some outside work!

They guys have gotten a good weather window to do some work outside. They have been working on the trim detail which is needed prior to putting the new roof on. Once the new roof is on we can take the tarps off for good!

Progress!!

Let there be light! It was amazing to return from a 3 day trip to Detroit and find a home full of new windows and new lights galore in our home.

David worked closely with the electrician and Ray to insure that all of our rooms will have ample light with logical switching system.

Pictured above is our new friend Luden. He's worked on many aspects of the house from carpinetry to advance work for the electrician to insulatin removal. Hello to his family and friends in Guatemala!

Other enhancements this week include:

- old floors removed upstairs and subflooring completed in the bathrooms.

- pocket door casings are in "my" walk-in closet, the master and between the mudroom and kitchen

- David's 46 inch flat screen Sony tv arrived and David quickly commissioned it and we are LOVING Blue Ray HDTV. We have watched Casino Royale and Cars already!

10 Day Review...jacuzzi anyone?

A lot has happened since our last post! The crew has been busy roughing in new bathroom floors, framing for a built-in bookshelf, the guestroom closet, plumbing, electrical and the most exciting thing of all -- a deep soaking tub with jets to alleviate those aches and pains!!

The project is an endless stream of decisions- location of vanities, lights, etc. We are having a ball and love to see progress every day! We can't wait for all you friends and family to come for a visit.

Happy New Year! - Almost

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thought I would would quickly post before the end of the year. So we are wrapping up 2007. Amazing. So I went back to see when we started this whole process. Feb 2006 was when we had our first meeting with Craig Bosworth - our architect. So nearly two years ago!

Anyway - we were hoping to have everything ready for the plumber at the end of last week but that just did not happen. We ran into some issues with the outflow for the toilet in the master bathroom. To allow us to have the toilet where we want it (not directly in front of you when you walk-in) we had to basically remove the existing floor joist that span both bathrooms and re-direct the joices. Here is a good photo - this is taken from the second floor and you can see the new bedroom on the second floor and the mud room on the first floor. The old joices ran length wise in the photo but the new ones will run left to right.

The other major thing this week is that they have taken down the chimney in the front of the house. This is a HUGE benefit. The chimney had no working fireplace and currently only was used to vent the hot water tank (it was originally used as a flew for a pot-bellied stove). We are switching to a tankless water heater and will not neet to vent out a chimney so we are able to remove it. The chimney really divided both the living room on the first floor and our bedroom on the second floor. Here is a before and after of the chimney removal.

Let the excitement continue...

Last week we discovered a pantry (6 ft by 3 ft) hidden behind a tall kitchen cupboard and the fireplace in the kitchen. We are excited about the "bonus" space and currently calling it Ella and Ollie's bedroom. :-) Our plan is to use it to house stereo, TV equipment and for a pantry.

Yesterday, we received a less pleasant surprise -- the news that our master bath was designed without considering the direction the joists run which presents some construction challenges because it isn't koshur to drill through joists (not that that stopped previous workmen in earlier work on the house...). The crew pulled down the ceiling of the kitchen giving us a temporary
"sky light" in the first level and a sneak preview of the 2nd floor. They are working to come up with solutions to facilitate the plumbing work that will take place over the next few days.

Snow Storm in Marblehead

Well this week was the week for storms. We are now in the second worst December on record for snowfall - of course we would do construction in it (-:

However the house is for the most part weather tight, but we still have a large tarp over it because the siding is not on the house and the final roofing is not in place. Also there are no windows yet. So they were still able to keep working like mad on the inside. They have most of the rough walls in place upstairs and they are begining to remove the chimney at the front of the house. We have permission from the town to take down the current chimney but we have to replace it with a fake chimney of brick since we are in the historic district.

So here is a nice shot of the street we are staying on with all the snow.