Update at Last!

Many, many thanks to Mom and Bill for coming two weekends in a row to help out with home construction projects. It's been a busy time since I last blogged, and most of our effort on the house was cleaning up some errors Aaron Holmes (from Cornerstone Building Services) and crews he hired had made. There's still more of that to address, but we're making progress there. The rest of the time was spent moving various projects forward. Much of what we did is barely noticeable, but are important details.

Here's some of what we accomplished:

- Carried 165 sheets of drywall into the house, that 84 Lumber delivered in the yard.

- Measured and ordered paperless drywall for the bathrooms, as required by EarthCraft for the top-level certification (Aaron ordered greenboard, which is not permitted under the EarthCraft certification program top-tier)

- Met with two drywall subcontractors to obtain quotes for installation.

- Prepared PVC pipe for rainwater recapture tanks.

- Corrected framing mistakes (e.g., changed framing so the range hood exhaust can be centered on the wall the way it was supposed to be).

- Installed new framing around the TRV ducting and return air grill ducting in the guest bathroom and the master closet.

- Corrected the range hood vent ducting so it is now centered on the kitchen wall.

- ARS installed the fresh air ducting to the TRV and insulated the ducting in accordance with EarthCraft requirements.

- Nailed in electrical boxes in three areas where Tom from Creager Electrical left wires hanging for future electrical components.

- Mixed American Clay Loma and Porcelina plaster in buckets.

- Photographed all of the framing, plumbing, and electrical wires and noted measurements for each of these so that we know where they are hiding in the walls once the drywall is installed.

- Ordered copper-to-pex fittings to connect the pex tubing with the radiant floor heating system.

- Stained the cedar trim boards TW Perry delivered, which is for the house siding. (Aaron had not specified enough cedar when he gave us the requirements to order more, so the siding work has been on hold until all of the cedar come in. This was the first of three kinds of cedar we ordered again through TW Perry.)

In addition to helping with these projects, Mom and Bill brought us a wonderful lunch and homemade shoo-fly pie for Saturday, and fresh eggs and bacon from Pennsylvania Dutch country for breakfast on Sunday.

Sorry, no photos this posting.