Day 25 - More wiring - Oh brother...

Today's special shout out is to my brother Ron - another great electrician! We spent the first half of the day wiring security lights for the back of the house and garage - 4 in total. These lights will be able to be switched on/off from 3 locations. We also added wiring in the garage to allow for additional shop lights over the work area at the back.

Photos showing the view from up in the trusses while we were running wire.

 Over great room looking towards kitchen.

Special visit from a terrific friend and her son! Great seeing you today Sara and Brody! Don't forget the grass seed next visit!

Day 24 - garage walls insulated

I was surprised to see the insulators came back since it was Saturday morning and put the wall insulation in the garage walls. Looking good!

 Plenty of outlets where my work bench will be. Thanks again Matt and Zack!!

My wife has begun plotting the colors she wants. The house will be painted all beige per our contract so we will come back after and add a little color in various rooms.

Day 23 - Threw the wife a curve!

With the nice arched windows in the sun room, my wife wanted the entrance to the sun room to sport a soft (eyebrow) arch that we had seen at another builder's open house and really liked. With the header previously raised earlier this week, Bill and I headed back down tonight to fit a 2 piece arch Rene ordered online earlier in the week. Pretty slick how they do it. The arch comes pre-curved and miter cut to proper angles when you supply the 3 dimensions they need. A nail gun makes short work of installing it.

 This is going to look sweet!

Exterior wall insulation and caulking has begun.

Day 22 (June 6th) - Wiring

Happy Birthday to my wife!!

No time for Birthday celebrations though. Tonight was our night to work with a couple friends that are electricians to add some of our wiring. Wayne Homes provides 4 low voltage line (coax for TV and/or phone lines). We took 4 coax lines for TV jacks from their electrician and tonight we ran all the other coax we wanted and all the phone and ethernet lines. In the garage, we were only given one wall outlet. (plus one in the ceiling for a door opener (that we provide and install later). So our friends hooked us up for wall outlets too. We cannot tie into any of the existing electrical boxes WH's electrician roughed in. All our stuff will be on our circuits, still run to the main breaker panel, but on our own breakers.

Special thanks Matt and Zack for your help - eating my pizza. While I was paying these guys to lounge around, I ran a ton of wiring (pictured below).  They may have helped a little...

 Blue and green wiring is ours. Quite the bundle we have going.

 Special guests stopped by this evening to check out our progress. Good to see you "Brat!"
You too Tzak!

Day 20 - Header Lift

Thanks again to Buddy Bill, this time for helping raise the low header at the entrance to the sun room. Sure pays to have good tools! From the kitchen, the header blocked the view of the back wall of the sun room noticeably. The wife has cracked her whip again and off we went to make her happy.

Before Header was raised.

 After header was raided - before OSB was cut out.

 Full wall of sun room now visible from far side of kitchen. Much better!

 Can't reach the header now (I'm 6'2")

 Also cut back the half wall around the finished stairs to allow a handrail, post and balusters.

this may get cut back even further in the future pending a conversation with out FM.

Day 19-Don't "pine" for me...

Another special shout out tonight to my great friend Willy (Bill). My wife has been nagging gently suggesting I cut down the tall pine tree you can see in earlier pictures by our electric pole. Thanks to some purebred dufi, (dufum?) - whatever the plural of dufus is - that installed the water meter right in front of the pine tree, I now had no choice but grant my wife's wish.
   My buddy Bill has been wanting to try out his new chainsaw so I was happy to oblige him. As with many things, the mission did not exactly go our way as this very large tree had a natural lean (though slight) straight at the electric lines. As we attempted to finesse the tree in the other direction, it quickly became apparent we needed a new plan. As we roped the tree and used my extension ladder as a prop (quit laughing), something strange happened. What started as a small ember quickly sprung into flame and soon after a raging inferno of testerone fueled insanity as He-Man, or Tree-Man, picked up the ladder and used it to push against the tree. Mind you, what occured is in direct contradiction to all known laws of physics as it pertains to leverage, but to my utter amazement, pure delight, and complete entertainment - that monster tree started to move. I still can't believe it. It wasn't cut nearly through enough which is why it was still standing. But the facts are the facts. Bill my friend, you are an absolute animal!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you our modern day Samson. That full head of hair really helped out. Trust me when I tell you the picture does not do justice to the size and height of this tree. Notice my ladder in pieces... totally worth it!!! (plus it went back together).

Cell phone signal

This installment is a special shout out to Brian. We have a weak cellular signal at the new property so we went to our verizon store and talked over some options with "The Man". Everything he suggested to us was an "upgrade" so we thought we were building another house with the guy! All kidding aside, If you want a Verizon upgrade, ask for Brian at the Belden Village store. He'll take good care of you!