Getting Closer!

It's been nearly three weeks since I last posted...which is hard to believe! Time flies when you're working, traveling for the holidays, building a house and have a 2 year old and a newborn! I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner!

With Christmas comes the possibility of moving into our new house! Things are progressing quite smoothly, with many of the finishing touches falling in to place. I've also managed to get several of the jobs I had planned to do myself finished - though not without some late nights!

Dad and I finished up the upstairs trim over the thanksgiving weekend. We also decided to 'face' our monster exposed beam with pine 1x12 boards. The beam itself is pine...so it's really just a prettier representation of the mammoth piece of engineered lumber that supports most of our second floor. All have agree that it looks much better than if I had tried to trim in the actual beam. It just wasn't designed to be in view!

My 'cousin' finished all of the stone work...WOW! He worked the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and I even helped a bit. But the fireplace, porch columns, and front of house are complete and look great. The fireplace is really quite impressive - it is 7' wide and 18' tall - and we've already gotten several compliments on our choice of stone.

All of the countertops were installed right after Thanksgiving and also look fantastic. The color selections we made for the laminate material worked out well. You never know how that little sample square is going to look once it's spread all over your countertops! But it turned out well and the installation job looks great. Thanks Tom!

Our painters have been working all last week and this week and plan to be finished by Monday, 12/14. I can't imagine how stressed out I would be right now if I had tried to tackle that job. They're doing a great job...and certainly a better job than I could have! They are also doing the staining which is really turning out nicely. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Last weekend my buddy Tony helped me finish up a few 'heavy lifting' tasks which I had been dreading. But, having Tony around made it easier and more fun. We put up a bunch of insulation, and we got the basement walls drywalled so that the downstairs garage is cut off from the basement and so that the bedroom wall that supports the living room floor is a bit stronger. The tricky part was carrying the 10' sheets of drywall from the car, down the hill to the back door through 8 inches of snow with the same amount of MUD underneath! Yeah, we both saw our lives flash before our eyes more than once! But we made it, and hung the drywall successfully.

Tony also cleaned up my workshop for me while I unsuccessfully tried to hook up the gas supply for the workshop heater. That darn heater has given me more trouble and I now see why the contractors wanted to charge $700 to install it! To save that $700, I've put in DAYS of work by myself and with help from my dad...only to find out that the gas leaked! Frustrating...so I called the contractors and begged them to come hook it up. Gas leaks make me nervous and I'd rather leave it to the pros.

However, in the process of working on the gas line, I discovered that there were some problems with the insulation...it's a long story, but the insulation is not as expected. It does not completely insulate the workshop from the bedroom above - which is not good! I'm sure True North will get it fixed though...they've come through on everything else.

The deck is now complete with railing and all. It looks great - though now it has a foot of snow on it! I'm sure we'll enjoy it next spring!

Luke finished all of the siding and it actually looks like a house now which is good! We've gotten lots of compliments on that too. It's a bit darker than many of the other houses in the neighborhood so it stands out a bit. Luke did a fantastic job and really gave it some nice touches - like taking the time to side all the way down to the ground rather than stopping at the concrete foundation. Many companies don't do this because it takes too much time to mount the siding on the concrete. I think it's classy and makes for a more finished look.

I think that's about it for now...I'll keep you posted!

A Touch of Class...

Let me just share with you two ways you can be certain you chose the right builder. Mind you, these are only TWO ways. We've had plenty of strong indications along the way. Every once in a while, though, things really stand out.

When we started on this journey into home construction, we had planned to be moved in when we had our second child. That's because we weren't even pregnant with our second child when we started on this journey. Well...things happen and nature has a way of taking it's course. SO, we wound up having a beautiful baby boy this morning...Devin Gabriel Johnson, 9.0 pounds, 21 inches. Born at 9:21 am. Everybody's healthy, he's beautiful, and mom is taking a nap as I write this in the hospital.

Well, if you've been following this blog for very long you know that we ran into a bit of a financial crunch and that I was taking on some of the work myself to save a few pennies. You also know that we're aiming to finish the house in the next few weeks. And, while it's probably possible for those circumstances to stay the same, I think most people would agree that possible isn't always optimal. But, we were committed to our plan, and if nothing else, we could delay our move-in by a week or two if necessary. Certainly worse things have happened to people building houses.

Here's where the two way's to know you chose the right builder come in. First, after letting them know we had a baby this morning we got these delivered to the hospital....
If you can't read the message from the picture, here's what it says:

John and Carol - Congratulations on your new miracle!!! God is so good! A healthy baby, a new big brother, a new home. Life is good!!! Sincerely, True North Homes Team

Ok...that almost made me cry when I got it. Yeah, I know, I'm a sucker for sentimentality...but hey...whaddya gonna do. I mean, they didn't have to do that...they don't have to care so much about our family, our personal life. They're really only obligated to offer a professional service in a professional way. This was above and beyond...and classy. Thanks True North.

The second reason I know we chose the right builder is because of the contractors we have working on the house. From the start, I expected them to do good work. They all have. But this afternoon I got an email from Kristy at True North letting me know that our trim carpenter had heard about the baby and offered to finish the trim on the main floor by the end of the week for $750. I had planned on doing it myself to save some money...but $750 is quite a bargain for ALL of the first floor trim. We took him up on it without a second thought. I mean, sure, he's looking for work just like everybody else in that business and he saw an opportunity. But, what a class act to have the compassion to realize that I would be pressed for time and that he might be able to help. I tell you what, I don't care what you hear on the news or read in the paper...there are a LOT of really GOOD people in the world. And if you need any carpentry done...I would recommend this guy higher than anyone else. Just contact True North Homes and ask how to get in touch.

Ok...now you have my two-bits. Here's a little of what's been happening at the house.

Here are the stars of "Tom and John Trim Carpentry" (that's dad and I, who did the upstairs last week)

Here's a little of what we did!

Here's what the pros did...yeah, they're better than we are...

This is what our backyard looks like from the living room window. Notice the absence of a big pile of dirt and mud! Our finish grading is done!

There's dad and our assistant! I think he's feeding grandaddy some goldfish crackers....

Caught a pretty cool rainbow out the front window the other day...Alex was fascinated!

Here's a night-shot of the "Smith Deck and Patio Annex" - named for its financial supporters! I would have taken a picture in the daylight, but I leave for, and return from work in the dark now...ick...

Thanks for keeping up on the blog! We like to know that people are reading! Things are happening fast now and I'm not able to keep up on all the pictures, so be patient and I'll try to keep it nearly up to date! Right now, I'm kinda caught up in the fact that I have 2 boys and they're both healthy and perfect!

Light Switch

There is something deeply satisfying about stepping into the house you have dreamed about, toiled over, lost sleep over and poured your heart into and flipping a real, honest-to-goodness light-switch for the very first time. I know - it's weird and I'm not offended by the fact that you're laughing right now. But it hit me last night when I stopped by the house after work and stepped inside the dark house with my flashlight - which I've been doing since Daylight Savings Time took away the afternoon daylight (one of the great injustices of western civilization) and found that the electricians hand installed lights and switches! It was strangely like the first time I saw the skeleton of the house when they were framing it. It was just so REAL all of a sudden.

Anyhow, that's just a small part of what's been going on. Hoekwater's came back and finishedthe grading. The house looks so naked without piles of dirt surrounding it! But they did a great job. The front and back-yards are just how we envisioned them. Especially the backyard. They were able to grade a lot of fill and topsoil out in to the woods so that we have more backyard than we did before. It's really a nice spot now and I'm sure the boys will make full use of it as they get older.

Our garage doors have all been installed as well as the openers on the front 2 doors. They look REALLY nice. And they used good solid angle iron to mount the openers which looks a lot better and should be a lot stronger than some of the other opener installations I've seen on some houses.
The cultured stone has been installed all the way across the front of the house and it looks AWESOME! Scott, his boss, and their laborer (who is the little brother of a high school buddy of mine) did it all in one day and they really did quality work. Just how I had envisioned it. Thanks guys!

All of the doors, cabinets and trim material have been delivered...and let me tell you...that's a lot of stuff! We're having the pros install all the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms. They are also building the staircase and mantle, and they are trimming in the 3 big arch-top windows we have. My dad and I will be installing the rest of the trim throughout the house and have already started working on it. It's all pretty straightforward but we're slower than the pros and
there's definitely a bit of a learning curve to matching their quality and technique. Unfortunately, making the precision measurements and cuts is the easiest part. The hard part is dealing with inconsistencies in the drywall where it meets the doors and windows. There are a lot places that need to have the drywall hammered down so the trim will lie flat. There are other places that need shims and spacers. Finding studs is tough too. But the worst part is attaching the door and window trim to the door and window jams. There's only about a 1/8th inch target there and if you miss you either send a nail shooting through the inside of the door casing or you miss and the nail doesn't attach the trim to anything. Needless to say, painter's putty will be my best friend!
There will be a lot of hard maple trim around the staircase. We had planned to use poplar since it's usually cheaper and looks almost as good as maple when it's stained dark like ours will be. However, these days, maple is cheaper than poplar! So we get a nicer wood at a lower price!

The siding is going up too - with only a minor setback. When they were grading the back yard, the bulldozer driver snagged the neighbors cable line that was strung across the trim guys ladder and pulled the ladder over. Fortunately there was no one on the ladder, but now the ladder looks more like a giant DNA helix model than a 40 foot extension ladder! Oh well...no one was hurt, that's the important thing.


I think that's about it for now. I'm short on pictures because I'm always there in the dark and we only recently got the lights. I'll post more as I can take them!

View from the upstairs hall...all those boxes are cabinets!

Trim workstation in the master bedroom

Looking down the upstairs hall...that's Alex's room at the end!

Looking down at all the trim and cabinetry...LOT's of work!

Garage Heater Installation...took dad and I a LONG time...but I'm glad we did it!

Looking into the entry hallway...the door frame stays, but the actual door is just a temporary

I call this one: "A Living Room Full of Work"

In case you were wondering...

We are, in fact, still building a house! Things have been nutty, so I've let my blog-vigilance slip a bit. I'm even behind on my pictures, so the ones I'll post below aren't the most recent. I'll take more tonight and get them up soon.

It's been 2 weeks-plus since my last post, but you really haven't missed a whole lot. The weather has been holding us up just a bit. The cold and dampness was keeping the drywall mud from curing as quickly as it should have, so that put the drywallers behind schedule. Getting the furnace hooked up and working has helped. So has nicer weather. At any rate, they were supposed to be done last Friday (halloween) but they weren't. Then they were supposed to be done Monday...but they weren't. Then they were supposed to be done yesterday...but they weren't. Now they are supposed to be done this morning...if you see a pattern developing you'll see why I'm a little skeptical. The delay might actually work out in our favor in the long run though...more on that later.

I finally chickened out and decided to hire a painter to do the inside. I haven't really been totally healthy since I spent a few late nights working on the house and only getting 4 hours sleep and the stress of not being around Alex and Carol is wearing on me and them both, I think. Anyhow, we got a bid from a second painter that was significantly less than the first bid we got. He comes very highly recommended and is very flexible. He'll even knock off some of the cost if I help out a little. One of the things I was going to do was all the prep-cleaning after the drywallers were done. I was all set to do that over the weekend...then Monday...then Tuesday...So my builder talked the drywallers in to doing/paying for the clean-up since they are the reason we're so far behind schedule...so that's good news.

Anyhow, since we've decided to have the house professionally painted I have to say I'm a LOT lest stressed. As easy as painting seems to be, it is perhaps the most noticeable aspect of the inside of a new house. As much time, energy, heart, and soul as we're putting into this house, a bit of money for a pro paint job makes me feel better. I'm sure I could do an adequate job...but the cost in time and stress and health was beginning to outweigh the financial savings.

So, now the priming is supposed to be completed today/tomorrow. The trim materials, interior doors, kitchen cabinets, etc... are supposed to be delivered tomorrow, and we'll start installing trim on Friday...hopefully. Dad and I are doing the upstairs, while the trim carpenter will do the downstairs, cabinet installation, and stairway.

Last weekend, my 'cousin' Scott and I started installing all of the cultured stone veneer on the front of the house and on the fireplace. I use the quotes, because he's technically not my cousin. He's the son of my brother's step mom. And, my brother is technically my half-brother, even though he has always been a whole-brother to me. Don't bend your brain thinking about that too much. Scott's a great guy, a talented mason, and he's cutting me a great deal on the work he's doing. We got all the wire mesh hung, and all the concrete plastering is done. Next we start sticking the stone to the walls!

The siding is started too. Luke, who is doing the siding is actually a True North Homes employee. He does all the siding work as well as a lot of the loose-ends, running around, miscellaneous odds and ends. He's basically pulled in as many directions as there are houses being built by True North. The progress on the siding has been slow as a result, but the quality is VERY high...so I'm not worried about the speed. What he's done looks fabulous and I empathize with him immensely for having so many different tasks to deal with each day. He's remodeling his own house on top of that... and I know how that goes!

All that being said, with any luck, we'll be in before Christmas! That would be really nice...we're getting sick of our apartment and REALLY excited about our new house!

Here are some pictures. Like I said, I'll have more up-to-date ones soon
Ready for the driveway...as soon as it stops raining! (taken 2 weeks ago)

Fall colors...in the rain...looking through the deck door off the dining area

Our furnace...which is hooked up and running!

This is an ERV - Energy Recovery Ventilator - that takes the heat (or cool) out of stale inside air and puts it into cold (or hot) fresh outside air. Our house is so airtight, we need this to keep the interior air quality at a healthy level without sacrificing energy efficiency.

Siding going up on the back of the house!

All the drywall is installed and starting to get tape and mud (taken a couple weeks ago!)

Drywall then Driveway

Here are some pictures of the drywall now that some of it is up. The rest of it will be hung today and they're doing all the joints and screws this week and will be done completely early next week. The guys working on the drywall remarked at how square the house was and said it made their job a lot easier and that the finished product would look really good because there was no funny business going on in with corners and stuff. That's good news to me!

The rest of the concrete will be poured today - the driveway, back patio, sidewalk and front porch. I'll take some pictures tonight and post them soon!

No pictures...but a lot going on!

It's not the kind of action that we saw with the framing - where there were huge changes every single day - but there is actually a lot going on. Inspections, drywall, measurements for doors and cabinets, more selections, and check writing (that part is no fun!)

I'll have some pictures soon, once the drywall is finished, but in the meantime here's some details about what's going on.

The insulators came and did a lot of work last week. They sprayed everything with and adhesive foam that seals any air leaks or voids in the exterior of the house. That makes the house nearly airtight and requires us to have an air exchanger in our heating and cooling system so that we have adequate fresh air coming in from the outside. They followed that up with NuWool cellulose insulation that is made from recycled newspapers. In fact, it's manufactured less than 5 miles from the house! We could very well have newspapers that we recycled insulating our new house! Anyhow, the R-value is very high and it's also an excellend sound barrier. Dad and I supplemented the work of the insulation crew with rolled pink fiberglass insulation between the master bathroom and one of the boys' rooms and between the laundry room and the other boys room for sound proofing. We also insulated the garage - that will soundproof it for my late night forays into carpentry and auto maintenance as well as keep what ever heat there is inside.

Late last week we also had our plumbing, electrical, HVAC and structural inspections. I won't say we passed with flying colors, but the problems were minimal and easily fixed. Our builder quickly called the right people to rectify the issues and we weren't significantly delayed. To me, some of the issues seemed a little petty, but on the other hand, I'm glad they caught some of the things they caught.

Drywall started yesterday...and I'll never understand how and why those guys do what they do. For a task that is nearly universally despised by anyone who has ever had anything to do with home improvement there are an amazing number of people out there who are absolute artists with the stuff. For someone who is used to 1/2" thick, 4'x8' sheets of the stuff, it was pretty impressive to see 5/8" inch thick, 4'6"x16' pieces of the stuff...just how do they get those things on the ceiling? Anyway, they are flying through the house with the stuff and I truly don't know how they do it...but I'm certainly glad they do.

We were supposed to get a driveway and finish grading last week, but the weather hasn't been right for that kind of work, and it continues to rain daily...so we'll have to wait a while for that, I guess.

That's about it for now. Like I said, I'll post more pictures soon...it's really taking shape!

Thanks for reading!

Lack of Sleep...But Lot's of Satisfaction

OK - I haven't pulled hours like this since I was an undergrad and driving limousines. Between orchestra rehearsals every night last week, concerts Friday and Saturday, and SOLID days of work on the house all day Saturday, Sunday (9am-2am) and Monday (6pm-2am). Oh, and at work I hosted a workshop for 34 teachers on Friday and another 34 today (Tuesday).
"What is wrong with that guy?" You might ask. "Does he want his wife to divorce him? Does he want his kid to not recognize him?" All reasonable and not unwarranted questions. But, I kind of didn't have a choice. We needed the money from the orchestra concerts to pay for the house and the work I'm doing on it, which had to be complete by this morning so the electrical inspection could take place and insulation/drywall work could begin.
It's all good now though. Once I catch up on a little sleep, I'll be a father and a husband again and life will return to semi-normal for at least a while.
I should point out that my dad has been an determined and dependable source of help despite a minor knee injury from his last trip up to help (see picture of wrecked truck below). There is absolutely NO way I could have gotten everything done on time without his help.
So, here's a taste of what we did:
1) Ran all of the low-voltage wire for cable TV, telephone, internet, and a few speaker locations. There are network and cable connections throughout the house now, and the wires run neatly to the utility room where they'll be installed in a proper box. There's about 1,200ft of low-voltage wire now).
2) Ran plastic conduit from the mainfloor to the attic to accomadate future wiring needs.
3) Ran conduit across the bottom of the inside of the fireplace so that wires could be run back and forth easily in the future.
4) We added a couple of walls in key places in the attic, etc...
5) We extended the master bedroom bath tub deck so it was better positioned under the windows.
6) We planned out the method of attaching the deck to the house - we're using some aluminum brackets rather than traditional techniques to isolate the house from the noise and moisture from the deck
7) We adapted the spaces around the garage doors so that it could be more easily and attractively drywalled.
8) We hung up plywood in the utility room to make easy places to hang up the electrical panel, etc...
9) AND we swept the house top-to bottom...THAT was a back breaker.

I'm told that insulation and exterior doors are coming in the next couple of days, followed closely by drywall installation. Keep your fingers crossed!

Once those things are finished, I'll have to start working on the house again...cleaning, painting, flooring, fireplace stone, etc...That will be another busy time, but I don't have orchestra rehearsals or workshops to deal with, so that's good.

Thanks for reading!