Through the End of June

At this point the weeks are all running together,  I am working on some catch up posts this week.  Dry wall seems to have taken forever.  I know it would have been faster to hire it out, but money spent on that would have meant less for something else.  Even though it was hard, we pressed on.

During that time we had a few other events.  The gray water tank was delivered.  We opted to go with a 550 gallon tank.  We had to order it since no stores near us carried anything like this.  Gray water tanks are not common here at all.  We plan to use it to water the grass and future fruit trees in our front yard.

Since we passed our electrical inspection, we were able to have power hooked up to the new house.  Up until this point we had been running extension cords from the old house to power any tools needed.  An employee from the power company came out to see exactly what needed to be done and gave us a short list of items we needed to supply.  We paid the necessary fees and a crew came out about a week later.

Our power is being run underground from the pole to the house.  That meant that our oak tree was safe from being trimmed any more.  You can see chief supervisor Leo at the bottom overseeing the work.

We also opted to have a yard light installed.  The yard light at the old house was cut off.  We do pay extra each month for this.  With the new installation we were given an LED light which is super bright.  It really lights up the entire front yard.

An Ounce of Prevention

Benjamin Franklin said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".  I am applying this to the heating/air unit in our new house.  I live in the country, and I have chickens in my yard.  Both of those add up to the occasional creepy, crawly visitors - snakes.  I have learned to live with snakes.  If they leave me alone, I will leave them alone.

I never thought about snakes coming in through the pipes for heating/air lines until one of W's co-workers took a few days off work to get the snakes out of his house.  The 4 foot plus rat snakes had crawled in through the pipes.

The opening is more than big enough for a snake or rat to crawl through.  Rather than leave them an open invitation we opted to seal up the holes on both ends with spray foam.

I will be checking periodically to make sure the seals are intact.  I found out that sealing up the areas is not common.  I would have thought everyone did it.  Are the pipes in your home sealed?

Week 44

I decided that it is easier for me to post weekly updates rather than daily progress.  We are at the point now that it is taking me several days to accomplish anything.

Since we passed our electrical inspection, we got busy putting up the rest of the dry wall.  The bathrooms got mold resistant dry wall.  W and his dad did this which resulted in a slower process.  I started taping and applying mud when they were done.

They also built the wall around the heating unit.  We have opted to build a door rather than purchase one.  The special order door would be much higher in cost than building one will be.

Catching Up to Day 272

I did not mean to wait so long between updates.  I have actually been busy with the new house.  Here is a quick catch so we are all back on track.

My father-in-law finished the cabinet for the second bathroom.

W and his father also finished putting up drywall in the living room/kitchen.

In the meantime I have been busy taping, mudding, and sanding dry wall.

That seems to be a never ending job, and I am nowhere near close to being done.

The heating/air people came back to the part two of their work.  The installed the outside unit and also put in the heat unit inside.  If you look in the background, you can see where I primed a section of the laundry room so I could see how well I did after (almost) everyone telling me I could not finish dry wall.

We also passed our first electrical inspection.  Woo Hoo!  That means that W and his dad can put up the rest of the dry wall.  I will be extra busy finishing dry wall.  It feels good to see some real progress.

Day 247: The Tile is Here

Once we had definitely decided on the tile for the house, I started watching for it to go on sale.  When we first saw the tile and added it to our list of possibilities, I began tracking the price.  I wanted to know what the best sale price was so I could maximize savings.

Last week I saw the best price of $1.99/square foot.  We figured how much tile we would need and added in an additional percentage to cover broken tiles and any mistakes we would make.  Home Depot's website also offered a suggestion for the thin-set mortar and grout colors.  The thin-set and grout shipped free, and the shipping cost on the tile was reasonable.  The nearest Home Depot is a two hour drive one way from our home.  Having it shipped was more cost effective than driving to get it.

Everything was shipped freight, and we needed a forklift or a pile of people to unload it.  One of our neighbors has a forklift at his business across the road from our house.  He agreed to unload it for us. (We bought lunch for him and his two workers one day as a thank you.)  The thin-set and grout were delivered on one pallet, and the tile was on five pallets.  Our neighbor then loaded each pallet onto W's truck so we could unload it at our house.

We piled it in one room of the house to wait until we are ready to install it.  We had two boxes that were damaged in shipping, but overall it arrived in very good condition.  I can hardly wait to see it on the floor!

Day 239: Mud

In the end I opted to skip the trip to Mars and work on the new house instead.  I have never finished dry wall before, but I knew the basic steps.  I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube.  I highly recommend the ones by Kody Harvey.  His instructions were clear, and I liked his method of instruction.  He has videos on installing drywall from the start.  I even found a bunch of videos on ICF (insulated concrete form) homes like the one we are building.  I plan to refer to his tile videos when we get to that point.

I felt comfortable enough to start working.  I opted to start in the laundry room.  I wanted a good practice room that was not necessarily a main area of the house.  I started in the corner where the heating unit will be since that will be in a closet and less visible.

I am pretty sure my actual methods would horrify anyone who finishes drywall.  I do expect to get better as I progress through the house.  I am planning to do the closet and pantry next.  I did not tackle any corners on my first day.  I stuck to the screw holes and taping over the joints.  The pictures above are after just one coat.  I know it will be a slow process, but the labor is free.

I am Flying to Mars Next Week

Did I get your attention with the title?  Are you wondering what a trip to Mars has to do with building a new house?  I truly think that people would be more accepting of me taking a trip to Mars than they are when I say I am going to be taping and mudding the dry wall in our new house.

I typically get responses like "oh" or lectures on how hard it is and how everything has to be perfect.  I dislike the word perfect.  Have any of you seen anything that is perfect - not really good but perfect?  NO!!!  Nothing is perfect, and yes, building your own home is hard.  It would have been easier to take out a huge mortgage and sit back and do nothing.  The way I look at the whole situation is that this is my house so I am going to take care to do is as good as I can.  I do not mean that professionals would not do a great job, but even they will not do it perfect.  We do not have to satisfy a bank or appraiser as all of the money invested in this project is ours.  I plan to do a good job and start in the heating unit closet as my learning area.  It will not be included on the official tour so if it is not really good, the world will not end nor will zombies roam the streets.

From now on my standard response when asked who is doing our drywall is that we have "some people".  That is true as W and I are some people.  If they press for more details, I will just have to distract them with pictures from my trip to Mars.