The window installation crew from Tappe came out this morning and accomplished all they could given the crappy conditions. The openings in the “bay” at the front of the dining room were the only ones dry enough to accept windows today. The installers made all sorts of preparations through out the rest of the house and plan to be back out in the morning to continue installing windows.
We have had non-stop rain from since about 2:30 yesterday afternoon. The National Weather Service reports .24” yesterday and .91” today (so far). When added to the 1.8” last week it makes for a soggy mess in and around the “L” Shaped House. After another tough night manning the pumps at the basement walk-out door Paul called in the JLM landscape guys who braved the slippery mess in a tracked skid steer to dig a proper trench outside the door. The first photo shows the new trench from the driveway.
The next photo shows the new trench from an upstairs window. In it you can see the improved sump basket (a galvanized garbage can) sitting further from the back wall and the dirt (mud?) moved up the slope.
The last photo shows the view out the basement walk-out door. The new water reservoir and sump are now 12’ from the doorway and the grade has been lowered about 2’ below the basement floor. It looks to me like this will finally put an end to the water wars!
The National Weather Service radar at 3:41 pm this afternoon. This storm has been “parked” over Minneapolis/St.Paul for more than 24 hours. The conditions outside have stopped everything (roofing, windows, siding, etc.). Fortunately the roof is “dryed-in” making it possible for the heating/air-conditioning guys and the plumber to work.
Oh…how I hope the rain ends soon!
The heating, air-conditioning, and plumbing folks all showed up and are hard at work fitting their systems into the “L” Shaped House this morning. In addition Scherer Brothers dropped off all of the windows and the roofing guys keep plugging away. The first photo shows a bunch of the heating and air-conditioning supplies stacked up in the dining room. They have cut most of the holes for heat registers and cold air returns and will start work in the main “chase” to the second floor adjacent the dining room wall soon (seen in the second photo below).
The third photo shows the bath tub we selected for the kids bathroom out in the yard next to a pretty big pile of PVC pipe that will be turned into plumbing drains and vents shortly.
Next is a photo that shows the new windows delivered this morning stacked in the living room. We decided to use W00d-Ultrex series double hung windows from Integrity in almost all of the openings. A crew from Tappe Construction is scheduled to start installing windows tomorrow morning.
The last photo shows Gill Riehm installing the roof venting system at the first peak (of many) on the roof. There is rain predicted for this afternoon and all day tomorrow. Hopefully Gill and his crew will get a run of good weather later this week and be able to get the roof finished up soon.
With the framing completed (a few little details remain) a series of photos taken from the top of the dirt pile in the front yard seems appropriate. Starting at the bottom with a photo of the new footings together with the existing foundation, moving up to a photo of the first floor framing, and finally to the top with a photo of the “L” Shaped House in its current form, this “postcard” celebrates three important milestones in the construction process.
With the backyard water troubles (hopefully) behind us I think a few panoramic basement photos are in order. The first one is taken from the fireplace corner looking toward the crawl space entrance on the far end. From here you can see the walk-out door, the stairway, the bathroom, the furnace room, and the storage room at the far end of the basement. When I showed up right after lunch yesterday there were six guys working in this space. A couple of the saws and stacks of materials had to be setup outside the walk-out door in the mud causing the floor to become an unholy mess! Its a good thing there weren't any Moms there.
The next photo is taken from the front wall of the storage room looking back toward the walk-out door. In it you can see the storage under the stairs, the walk-out door, and the guest bedroom at the far end. It’s really amazing how different this space feels with the framing in place (and the floor dried up).
Next a a shot taken from the far side of the walk-out door looking back at the storage room.
And finally a photo from the back corner of the storage room.
Paul’s battle against the rain water has finally turned in our favor. The rains finally let up around noon and the JLM landscape guys showed up to lend a helping hand. Paul and the crew drained the big pond, dug a set of water channels, set a plywood dam, and got a bucket sump working. The first photo shows the battlefield with the bucket sump and plywood dam protecting the open doorway.
The next photo shows a close up of the water channels and the sump bucket outside the walk-out door. The third photo is a shot showing the newly installed drain tile sump after Paul pumped about 10” of water from the basket. It’s nice to see that the system works although I was hoping not to have to use it this early in the home building project.
The last photo shows the view from inside the basement walk-out door. Paul and the guys spent a fair amount of effort cleaning up the basement floor after building the defensive perimeter. It certainly feels good to have a couple of lines of defense in place in case we get another onslaught of rain!
It rained all day yesterday. By the time the framing in the basement was completed it was really coming down. It then rained most of the night and has been raining on and off all day today. The weather service reports 1.55” yesterday and it looks like at least another .25'” today. The “drying-in” of the roof is holding up fine but all the window openings are all pretty wet (especially on the North side). The biggest problem is at the basement walk-out doorway. Paul has been waging an ongoing battle with the water just outside the door through last night and all day today. He’s kept things mostly under control and now has a pump set up just outside the doorway and a plan to monitor things over the weekend.
From: Tuesday, June 22, 2009
To: Thursday, October 1, 2009
It’s been 100 days from (what I call) the start of the project to today.
Or 3 months and 8 days.
The Tappe guys moved down the basement early this morning. By noon they had pretty much the whole lower level framed and the stairs in place. The first photo shows the basement stairway with the doorway to the bathroom on the right. On the far left we catch only our second glimpse (in 152 blog entries) of our camera shy construction supervisor…Paul Winters.
The next photo shows the South and East walls of the storage room with the water meter and sewer main at the bottom right hand side. Here you can see the insulation and joint taping just behind the wall framing. The end wall is only insulated in the section where the outside wall is exposed. This allows us to “crowd” the wall right up the the block wall where the furnace will sit.
The last couple of photos show the walls adjacent the basement walk-out door. The first shows how the framing is set up to provide a contingency for recessed cabinetry in this wall down the road. The last one shows how the wet conditions outside keep trying make it inside the “L” Shaped House…Yuck!
One of the more interesting aspects of building a new home is being a part of the interactions between the people involved. Everyone working on The “L” Shaped House up to this point has left their mark on the place and everyone has been a good sport putting up with my obsessive attention. I have enjoyed watching and working with everyone immensely.
Mike Kloti and I started meeting to discuss our new home 10 months ago (long before it was called The “L” Shaped House). Mike is passionate about the project and has a specific vision for how it will look. Details that most of us would ignore (including me) sometimes inflame those passions in Mike. Photos on this blog of the eaves on the “L” Shaped House got Mike’s attention and stirred him into action. After about half of the boxed eave returns were installed as “Pork Chop” returns we had the Tappe guys rebuild them all as “Kloti Chops” (see page 202 here).
Thank you, Mike…both for your passion and attention!
