Roofing…Wrap-Up

With the roofing at the “L” Shaped House complete it seems like a roofing wrap-up post is in order…We start with the details of the shingled roof over the main house. The first photo shows the roof over the West side of the bonus room taken while Gill Riehm was installing the roofing system. It it you can see the sheathing, underlayment, flashing, and shingles. We used a Timberline Natural Shadow shingle in charcoal (black).

The next photo shows some of the materials used in the roofing including the ice & water shield from Tri-Built and the GAF Timberline shingles. We have installed a GAF Cobra ridge venting system on the “L” Shaped House. The system includes an open ridge covered with a mesh exhaust vent capped with Timbertex ridge cap shingles.

The next two photos show more of the metal flashing details included in the shingle roofing system. The first shows the valley flashing, drip edge, and step flashing coming together at the valley between the master bedroom and book nook roofs. The second shows one of the metal flashing “kick outs” where the bedroom dormer roof meets the book nook end wall.

The last shingle roof photo shows the drip edge that helps support the asphalt shingles at the end of the (Kloti Chop) eave. The whole point is to direct water away from the house walls. The metal soffit materials will slip up under and behind the roof flashing as the siding is installed starting next week…we hope!

The front porch of the “L” Shaped House has a standing seam metal roof. The photos below show some the installation and flashing details of this roofing system. The first step is an ice and water underlayment. The first photo shows the wall  flashing and drip edge pieces screwed to the sheathing to make a cavity that the metal roofing can slide underneath. The metal roofing material is held with galvanized clips that are bent over the standing seam and finished with a cap.

The next photo shows the details at the outer edges of the porch roof. The front edge gets a flashing piece that will accommodate the half round gutters; the ends get a drip edge flashing. Once again the siding folks will bring the metal soffit materials up and under the roofing system.

The last photo provides a closer look at the details at the outer edge of the porch roof. Here you can see how the end of the metal roofing material is trimmed and then bent back on itself  to form a “sealed” edge at the end of each section. The cap that covers the standing is also visible in the photo. It “snaps” into place and is trimmed and folded at the end to form its own seal.

 

Oh…and by the way…Happy 200th posting!

Home Automation…Day 3

The Sure-Lock-Homes guys finished up the home automation rough-in this morning. They will be back after the sheet rock is hung to finish their work on the A/V system and install the security devices. The first two photos show the A/V connections to the wall above the piano in the music room from the lower cabinet in the living room. We are running two co-axial cables, an HDMI cable, and two cat-5 wires. The TV will mount to the blocking added in the wall and will be powered from the electrical outlet already installed. The 2” orange conduit is currently empty to allow for most any contingency imaginable. The conduit runs out the bottom of the cabinet to the ceiling above the center channel surround sound speaker in the basement.

The photo below shows all of the home automation cabling as it exits the utility room ceiling. The left hand bundle is network and phone wire. The center bundle is co-axial cable for the cable TV system. The right hand bundle is security system and home control wiring. All of the wires will eventually terminate in the cabinets we will mount to the basement wall.

The sketch below shows most of the components included in the networking and in-house audio systems and gives a general idea of  how they will be placed in the 19” rack. It is likely that we will install some of the video and phone distribution components on a panel placed in the 19” rack as well. I think the home automation systems in the “L” Shaped House will be very nicely organized and accessible using this system.

Home Automation…The Plan

The home automation system in the “L” Shaped House will be laid out as shown in the sketches below. All of the structured wiring is terminated in basement utility room. There will be a 4’ x 8’ plywood panel attached to the basement wall with a 19” rack mount for the computer network and in-house audio systems. The cable TV, phone, and security systems will terminate into boxes attached to the same plywood panel. The central vacuum system will attach to the adjacent wall opposite the furnace. The first sketch shows the basement with the home theatre and surround sound speakers.

The second sketch shows the first floor layout. We plan to have one television mounted on the music room wall above the piano and a second in an open cabinet above the kitchen desk. A cable box, DVD player, and game system will be housed in a base cabinet on the end wall of the living room. The in-house stereo system is controlled using wall panels in the living room and kitchen. A music player (i-pod or Zune) can be connected to the system using a dock on the kitchen desk. Cable TV signals will be distributed throughout the house from the automation panel in the basement. The main security panel is inside the breezeway entrance. There are three central vacuum hose connections on the first floor and one KickSweep inlet in the kitchen.

The third sketch shows the second floor layout. Each bedroom gets an A/V panel that includes co-axial and network cables mounted in the wall opposite the beds. The book nook has six network connections, a hard wired phone jack, and the second security panel. Three central vacuum hose connections round out the automation systems on the second floor.

The last sketch shows the bonus room and Garage layouts. Each has a central vacuum inlet connection and network wiring. The garage also includes a hard wire phone connection and provides the entrance point for the phone and cable systems.

Home Automation…Day 2

We’ve engaged SLH Home Systems to install a security system, and central vacuum in the “L” Shaped House. They are also installing the home networking and audio/visual wiring. Don Hains and I met to talk about home automation way back in January. After more than six months of thought we are still not exactly sure how much automation we are going to add to the “L” Shaped House and decided to try to “future proof” the house by installing a combination of structured wiring and conduit race ways. The photo on the right below shows the telephone and cable television wiring as it enters the garage adjacent the main electrical panel. There are six co-axial feeds for cable (two for terrestrial cable and four digital satellite feeds) and the Qwest phone line running up the right hand side of the garage window.

The first photo below shows the main bundle of structured wiring heading down the back wall of the kitchen toward the basement utility room where the main phone, networking, and security systems will be terminated. The second photo shows the basement family room ceiling with three of the speaker mounts for the home theatre surround sound system installed. Two of the orange 2” conduit race ways are also visible in this shot.

The conduit is being installed to provide an easy way to add wiring between the utility room, basement home theatre, and first floor audio/visual systems in the music room. The sketch below shows the conduit layout in the basement. There is an additional 2” conduit running between the stereo cabinet in the living room and the wall mounted television above the piano in the first floor music room.

There is a stereo system installed on the first floor with speakers in the ceiling on both the living room and kitchen/dining room sides of the house. The stereo receiver (AM/FM radio etc.) will be housed in the networking rack on the utility room wall in the basement. Controls for the system will be mounted in the kitchen and living room. A music player dock in the kitchen desk will allow an i-pod or Zune to be used as the source. The sketch below shows the wall behind the desk area with all of the home systems identified. Many of the first floor walls are going to be very “busy”!

Electrical…Rough-in wrap up

The Wire-Rite guys are wrapping up the electrical wiring. In the first photo below the rough-in inspection tag hangs from the service entrance on the back side of the garage. The second photo shows Adolph’s basement service panel preliminary labeling.

The next photo shows one of the outlet boxes that Deb has requested in the front porch ceiling for Christmas lighting…I can’t believe I'm allowing it!

The last photo shows one of the exterior outlet boxes on the front porch.

Insulation…Day 1

The insulating of the “L” Shaped House started yesterday morning. The first step is spraying closed cell polyurethane insulation on the rim of each floor at the inside ends of the open web floor trusses. The photo below shows the insulation applied to the rim above the back wall of the kitchen.

 

The next photo shows the insulation applied to the wall between the living and music rooms. Here they have extended the insulation below the open web trusses because the ceiling in the music room drops to 8  1/2 ft (from 9  1/2 ft in the living room). The video shows the insulation spraying process.

Standing Seam Roof…Day 3

The roofing crew showed up this morning and finished up the porch roof late this afternoon. I took this photo standing in the middle of Cottage Lane. The standing seam roof shows up nicely from the street and should add to the farmhouse feel of the “L” Shaped House.

A second photo showing the newly installed standing seam roof over the front porch taken Monday afternoon from the top of the dirt pile out front.

Mechanicals…The Utility Room

This photo of the utility room in the basement makes a nice “weekly progress” shot. All of the mechanical services are represented here. The electrical service panel for the West end of the house is visible on the insulated wall to the left. The newly installed water heater sits in the middle, and the furnace ducting in the ceiling and gas lines under test are on the right. The electricians, the plumber, and the HVAC guys have all made a lot of progress this week.

Standing Seam Roof…Day 2

The roofing crew is out on Saturday morning installing the standing seam roofing on the front porch. the first photo shows the roofing in the area between the front bedroom dormers. The roofing panels slide up and under the flashing they installed yesterday and are fastened to the decking with metal tabs. The second photo shows the guys preparing the ends of the next two panels before they are installed.

The photo below shows the first few roofing panels in place from the the middle of the front yard. The roof is going to be just barely visible from the street level but will (I think) make the house look very nice from the other side of the pond.

The roofing crew finished a little more than 1/2 of the porch roof today. This photo (taken about 6:15) shows the progress. They plan to be back in the morning to try to finish installing metal before the next round of rain predicted for early next week…Aarghh!

Central Vacuum…Day 2

The Sure Lock guys are busy installing the central vacuum system in the “L” Shaped House. The first photo shows the vacuum outlet in the garage and the PVC pipe heading toward the utility room. Each of the outlets has 110 volt power and a switch that automatically turns on the vacuum system when a hose is plugged in.

The next photo shows one of the outlets in the upstairs hall outside the book nook. There will be four outlets on the second floor, three on the first, two in the basement, and one in the garage (10 total).

Standing Seam Roof…Day 1

The installation of the standing seam roof over the front porch started Thursday afternoon. The roofing guys set up a scaffold across the front of the porch and have most of the drip edge and flashing installed. The first photo shows the scaffolding in place and if you look really close the drip edge.

The next photo shows the roofing materials staged on the front porch. We chose to do the roof in black.

Plumbing…Rough-in

With the plumbing rough-in complete Anna decided to try out the bathtub in the kids bathroom. She thinks the 6’ tub is going to be really nice!

Electrical…Day 7

Curt and his Wire-Rite crew passed the electrical rough in inspection this morning and jumped right into wiring up the service panels. The first photo shows the 125 amp sub-panel on the basement wall that will feed the West end of the house. The second photo shows the 200 amp main panel on the garage wall that feeds the East end.

the next photo is a wider shot of the main service panel in the garage that also shows the work area beneath the stairs. We are installing an abundance of outlets and switches throughout the “L” Shaped House.

The first photo below shows one of the central vacuum outlets installed this morning. Curt and the guys have power wired to the boxes. The folks at Sure Lock in Burnsville will install the PVC piping system and low voltage switches over the next few days. The last photo shows the high tech communication system Curt and I developed to make sure we are all on the same page…

Plumbing…Day 13

Jeremy (from Steinkraus Plumbing) finished up almost all of the plumbing today. We need to make decisions on a couple of details before he can complete everything but for the most part the plumbing is done. The first photo shows more of the PEX tubing and PVC waste lines in the crawl space trusses.

The next photo shows the water feeds and waste line to the first floor bathroom sink. The compression sleeves on the PEX fittings are visible as well as the “bend supports” that provide protection against kinks in the tubing.

The last two photos show the bathtub in the kids bathroom as Jeremy finalized the plumbing connections. The first shows the overflow connection on the end of the tub and the back side of the faucet and shower head fittings. The second shows the bathtub drain connection and PEX feed lines from the underside.

Mechanicals…Electrical, Heating, & Plumbing

The Electrical, Heating, & Plumbing guys are all moving along nicely. The plumbing inspection is complete and the electrical and heating inspections are scheduled later this week. Most of the photos below contain elements of all three mechanical services. The first shows the water distribution manifold just beyond the meter. The main supply for the house goes straight up. Supplies for the irrigation system, 3 silcocks, and the “hard water” feed to the kitchen are to the left. The next photo shows the upstairs laundry with electrical outlets on the wall, water feed and waste lines in the floor, and the gas line. We are setting the laundry up to accommodate either a gas or electric dryer.

The next photo shows one of the 3 gang electrical switch boxes in the dining room and three PEX water feed lines running to the second floor in the wall.

If you look closely in the last photo you will see switch, ceiling, and outlet boxes in the bonus room. We are also plumbing a gas line to the far end to provide a contingency for a separate heating system in the future.