Victory

More freakin' inspections this week! It seems there is someone inspecting every single week on this project. Not sure I understand why, other than the company, local city and county inspectors need something to do. Insulation: As I posted last week, the ceilings were insulated, and inspected. This week the walls were insulated with a different blown-in insulation. No one seems to be able to explain why they just don't use the same insulation in the walls as they did in the ceilings, but the conversation drifts to the point that the builder thinks this wall insulation is better. I guess well see over time with the heating and cooling costs they are quoting. The process consists of blowing the foam into the studs,  rolling them, and then applying a stapled "skin" of gauze to hold the stuff in place. We do like the fact that they have balanced the airflow throughout the house pretty evenly with distributed heating and cooling with different HVAC systems, so maybe this t...

This week the house passed all of the inspections for plumbing, HVAC and electrical. (Whew! 😅) On that note, we're ready to start insulating the walls and ceiling, which is awesome, because after that comes drywall! We are now off to the races, with roughly half of the work done. We also found a couple of small problems that needed to be corrected. We had a laundry window that was seated too low, which meant that we would be looking at about 5" of washer and dryer sitting up over the sill. Not too appealing when you're at the front door looking at the laundry room window. We resolved that by moving to a smaller window that sits higher at the base.  Wine Cooler: The other, more critical problem, was the rough opening before drywall of where the wine coolers will sit. The opening left by the framers was too narrow to allow for coolers, drywall/mud thickness, and a small air pocket for airflow circulation (by about 2"!). They resolved that by expanding the opening, at ...

This week was more of the same, but thankfully we've passed what I would consider "the first trimester of the birthing of a home".  This pic is symbolic of me doing a Pre-Drywall Inspection Tour with our building supervisor, Jennifer, this week. This entailed her explaining each and every light switch, outlet, plumbing fixtures, HVAC outlets and cold air returns, etc., etc., etc. If it was on the plan, we discussed it. This is a major point in the build before they foam (insulate) the walls and attic, and sheetrock the walls and ceiling. So the idea is to check everything, and double check everything, before it becomes a "cut a hole in the wall" problem.  We did find a couple of problems, one which could have been a serious problem. The window in the laundry room had been framed too low to accommodate a washer/dryer with pedestals. Thankfully, Jennifer had it in her notes that we initially discussed it in our preview meeting. She acknowledged it, and ordered a s...