Better late than never... the final inpection

Little late in sending these out, but attached are some new photos. 

The deck and stair rails were finished before our occupancy inspection on 5/11.  Seamless galvalume gutters to match the roof were put on – if you look there are 5 people holding a 100’ long piece of gutter when it was installed on the backside.  Driveway is rocked up to the concrete aprons.  Standing seam shower surround is finished (glass wall panels will be installed this week).

The final inspection was 5/11/12, Jason was up all the night the night  before the final inspection tying up loose ends. Things came down to the wire the day of the inspection with cleaning and sweeping, oh and waiting for GIANT stainless steel countertop to arrive and be installed, and the plumber to show up and plumb the kitchen sink. We were not sure if we were going to make the final inspection but with fingers crossed, tears cried and prayers said we went in to the inspection at 10 am hopeful but worried.

I was never so excited as to hear Steve give us the final OK, and know that we were really moving, for the final time into the wonderfully awesome home that Jason had put some much of his heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears into for the last 9 months. So this is the end of the building of the house at Belleau Bend and this is the beginning of the adventure of a lifetime...

The end is getting closer all the time!!!

Electric trim out started this past week and we have permanent lights and receptacles in some areas.  Plumbing trim is 50% and HVAC is complete.  Painting and decking were delayed on Sunday due to weather.  Doors are set on the 1st and 2nd floors.  We were able to dig the deck piers on Saturday afternoon just in time for the rain to turn everything into a sloppy mess.  We strategically left the holes open and the concrete bags next to them so everything would be pre-wetted.  We also wanted to practice building a lean-to keep the rain from ruining the finish.  Partway into the rainstorm the wind blew the lean-to’s over so I enjoyed the opportunity to get outdoors and re-secure them in a downpour and witness a lightning strike blow a tree in half about 150 yards from me.  (Don't you just LOVE Jason's sarcastic sense of humor...)

Siding Finished AND painted!

Cabinets are all complete!

Siding was finished on Saturday afternoon – finally!  Painted some more on the outside, set the kitchen and office cabinets, and the deck was framed. 

A colorful Sunday night update...

Jason's notes: The entire inside of the house was painted over the weekend. Emma’s room is bright blue and Logan’s room is bright orange and both of them were ecstatic with how they turned out. Also, all of the outside lap siding was caulked and some parts were painted in the evening this past week. The deck is still on wheels (the rain didn’t allow for it to be installed so it’s still sitting on the trailer). The siding at the 1st floor is complete, just need to finish up the 2nd floor front side next weekend.

Sarah's notes: the green color in the house is the same throughout, it looks lighter in the office pics, but its dark like the paint in the front hallway. LOVE the paint. I brought out alot of the lighting today, Mark will be installing lights this week. The cabinets come Wednesday and the appliances come Friday. Jason clear coated all the interior doors today and painted the metal door frames as well.

Jason's notes: Drywall sanding is complete. Spent Sunday afternoon and evening vacuuming up sanding dust and scraping joint compound off the floors. Siding is 90% - need to put the flat stuff on the 2nd floor front side and have a few hours to finish up the laps above the front door. Exterior caulking was done on Sunday in preparation for the painting to get done next weekend. Interior painter starts tomorrow night. Doors are in the basement ready to be installed as soon as the painting is complete (Richard). Cabinets arrive in STL on Monday. Garage door needs some special track to clear a soffit so it couldn’t be put in on Friday, but should go in this week.

Sarah's note: Sunday cleaning of the floor was nasty work in my bare feet or I was tracking mud all around... Kiddos did great entertaining themselves for about 3 1/2 hours playing in the sprinkler, sliding on the rock pile, building forts in the barn and lining up nails... (Logan's work).

Sunday night update

I think I skipped a whole weekend from last week! We have been super busy on the house and the drywallers came last weekend and got all the drywall hung. Ian, Jason and I spent most ALL DAY Friday hauling out more than 6000 of trash materials out of the house.

From Jason: Carport retaining wall was built, fill was put in and finish grading was done around the house. More siding was put on and the drywall was hung in the basement. The tapers have 1 coat on everything throughout the house. Base course of gravel was put down for the driveway.

Sunday night update 3/18/2012

Framing and MEP rough-in inspections are scheduled for tomorrow. Assuming everything passes the drywallers will starting turning the inside white. Wasn’t a Sunday night update last week because I just finished a 22 hour all night roofing marathon – the last 4 hours of which were spent in the rain finishing up the ridge cap. Basement level windows / doors are set now and some of the siding is up. Since last week the roof has made it thru 2 torrential downpours without a sign of a leak which isn’t bad for a bunch of guys who’ve never put on a standing seam roof before. If a leak shows I’ll call Kyle plumbing to make up a catch pan and run it to the nearest drain because I’m not renting a JLG again to get back up there. ~ Jason

Sunday night update from March 4th...

So busy with projects, keeping up with the kiddos, ect that I forgot to update the blog for a few weeks, YIKES!

Jason's update: The perpetual roof project continues, but is getting closer to completion. Couldn’t work on roofing Friday due to rain and high winds so we set pocket door frames instead. Good progress on plumbing and HVAC rough-in - heat pumps are set and getting hooked up and all of the plumbing was pressure tested on Saturday. Monumental stairs and temp treads are in-place. 2nd floor siding is finished at the back of the house.

Sunday night update...

via Jason: After a muddy start on Friday we are a little further along little further along. Put all the windows and doors in on the 1st floor & 2ndfloors, finished the soffits, and even put up a couple pieces of siding on Sunday afternoon. Geothermal field was installed on Saturday with a directional boring machine. The Craigslist roofer is working OK after I conducted a few installation seminars. For future reference an F-150 cannot pull a JLG out of the mud (a loaded boom truck could barely do it).

The never ending story...

Worked on cedar soffits Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to get ready for the roofer to start on Monday. Used a 65’ lift to get up to the top level. We were going to try and do the roof with the carpenters on the weekend but it rained last weekend and there are too many other things to do so we will subcontract it out. Had a roofing crew on Friday that didn’t know anything about metal roofing so I sent them home after 2 hours and hired a different roofer an hour after that. Unfortunately it’s supposed to snow tomorrow so there won’t be any roofing by anyone!

Sunday night update...

Spent all day on Saturday and Sunday morning putting on 1 roof panel and the edge trim. Put the rest of the panels on in 3 hours on Sunday afternoon. Logan’s room is sheeted, the small strip of roof in the middle of the house is framed and sheeted, and Emma’s windows are framed and sheeted.