Roof is finished ...

We have our roof completed, we think it looks nice, but the shingles are different enough from the original roof, that it is very obvious what we added. We are getting estimates to redo the entire roof. Seems a shame to have such nice work, be called to attention by unmatched shingles.

The other comment, I've been meaning to make, is that of progress. There has been someone working on the job since we started. While this doesn't sound a like a big deal, from what we have found out from others, it seems that we are the rarity, not the norm. Kudos to Steve for keeping the project moving.

Hopefully they get the windows we are missing this week. They plan on starting the insulation this week, then HVAC, then the inside walls ... getting closer.

Our goal ... Halloween

This has little to do with the construction, but I couldn't help myself. These are the costumes that Kate and Jaci will wear for Halloween. Steve thinks we will be very close to being complete for Oct. 31st.

White paint, blue roof, doors and grading ...

The last couple of days have been full of activity with much visual progress. We are delighted with how things are turning out, the progress we are saying and our overall experience.

There is a base coat of primer on the addition, it was applied with a roller and helped to show any imperfections that needed to be addressed, it also helps to seal the block. To us, the nice immediate benefit, is that it helps to tie things together and makes the whole thing brighter.

The doors are in, the windows (mostly) as well ... we are still waiting on a few more, but you start to see what the whole thing will look like.

The roofer is getting closer and closer to being done. It is a very nice job, with a great deal of detail, that most will never realize. We are fixing some leaks while up there as well. We're trying to figure out what to do with the chimney color ... we are thinking of painting it blue (like the roof).

The other nice event, is the "clean-up" of the area down the south side, it really looks great to have all the old brush out of the way and to have the grading completed. We will likely put up a nice white PVC fence.

Some windows and our new front door ...

Also making good progress on the doors and windows. They put in 3 windows in the addition (more tomorrow we hope) and have installed our new front door. This one is 5" taller than the previous one. We think it looks really nice.

New fascia and old damage ...

Today they replaced the fascia on the entire house to match that of the new addition. It is a synthetic material (plastic), that has little to no maintenance. It is also about 1" wider, which gives it a nicer look.

During this process, they uncovered some old termite damage and some water damage which they repaired. The biggest problem was in our garage, where they had to rebuild 2 sections. They found water damage in several places on the house.

Playroom playhouse ...

We are getting closer and closer, and have now started thinking about what goes into the playroom and other parts of the house. I spent a bunch of hours this weekend with the kids coming up with a model for the playhouse that we will build in the playroom.

It's a little basic, but we like that. We have a 2 story dwelling with a large window (for playing puppet theatre, store, etc). Ample room inside for the babies, the kitchen and a table. A large loft for the bedrooms and all the animal friends.

There is a "secret" door into the closet and a few other surprises. We will do all low voltage, low heat (LED) lighting with controls for the kids. There will be a doorbell and maybe a built in whole playhouse sound system (might get vetoed on this last one).

Colors to be decided soon.

The bathrooms ... decisions ...

OK, so we have to go from picture 1 ... to something like picture 2,3, or 4. What kind of fixtures? Tiles? Cabinets? etc ...

The biggest decision right now seems to be what type of shower to put in the pool bath. This is important now, since the plumbing has to be done in the walls. We're thinking of a 2 option. An overhead (from the ceiling), "rain" type shower head and a "wand" that is on the wall. This would allow you to have a "relaxing" shower, yet still be able to clean your feet (it is a pool bath after all), and other parts with fervor.

Data cabling ... at least the conduits for it

Steve had one of his people come over on Saturday to help me with the "low voltage" part of the project. I guess low voltage is the designation that they give to anything that is not connected to the panel.

The job itself wasn't hard, yet the planning and decisions required a bunch of thought. In the end, we chose to install conduits to several locations in the project. We will pull cables in these conduits as needed. This way we can upgrade the cabling part of the house as technology and needs demand.

The hard decision was location, and the amount of cables that could be run. In the end, we placed at least 1 drop on every wall, 1 in the closet at the bottom, and 1 in the closet at the top. The ones in the closet provide us with options to put equipment in there. I envision that I will put an access point in each closet.

In the office we installed about the same, as I expect that much of the future will be wireless.

We ran 6 - 2" PVC conduits from the addition to the main house. These allow us to run cabling from the addition to the data closet without needing to crawl too much. Hopefully it is "future proof", at least for the next 5-10 years .... after that, who knows.

The electrician have been here for the last 3 days, and we expect them to be here for another 3. They've got much of the new wiring done.

This was a difficult task, primarily because we had to decide the location for everything. We have been putting lights around the building temporarily on extension cords to ensure that they provided the lighting that we wanted.

In the end, I think we have done a very nice job to light the project. We've moved away from track lighting and are using 3" cans with halogen bulbs. These have a brushed nickel trim and a nice modern look to them. They are also small and adjustable.

The lighting in the bathroom and closets are on motion sensors, which will turn them on when someone enters the room and then off after a preset amount of time with no motion. This will hopefully stop leaving them on .

Every circuit of lighting is on dimmers and we are using Inteon automation controllers (http://www.smarthome.com/_/INSTEON/_/23b/land.aspx) to be able to set scenes and control everything from any location. There are also 4 "wired" keypads in the rooms that allow control of anything.

We aren't doing the soffit "down lights" at this time, but have put in circuit for security floodlights at the major corners.

I am really looking forward to seeing all of this at night.

Our inside walls are also complete, as is all framing on the inside of the building.

In the playroom we have a walk-in closet and a powder room. Both have pocket doors on them to maximize space. The playroom also has a "tray ed" ceiling that goes up on an angle. This rook our ceiling height from 8'9" to almost 11' making a big difference in how large the room feels.

The office has a walk in closet and access to a full bath. The bathroom is also directly accessible from the outside, making it a very convenient pool bath. We have also added a tray ed ceiling in this room to maximize the space available.

We are very please with how this turned out. Steve suggested the tray ed ceilings and the costs for them was less than $1k to the project. It really does make a huge difference.

They are going to put a base coat of pain on the addition and will be installing windows and doors shortly.

The roof ... 1 on, the other soon

Sorry for the lack of posting, a bunch of stuff happened in the last couple of weeks and I haven't been very diligent about updating this. That is not to say that construction stopped ... nothing could be further from the truth. Progress has been great and we are very much along.

The roof is finished, at least all the framing. The first roof (we are installing 2) is on. This is a "rubber" roof that is about 1/8" thick. It is glued to the plywood and creates a waterproof barrier. This alone could act as a roof, but in our case will act as the first, with the shingles going on top.

Should we loose any shingles, the underlying roof will protect the structure ... great idea ... and in out opinion well worth it.

We have had a hard time matching shingles, but have finally decided on one that is very close and still widely available. This way, we will be able to match shingles for the other phases of construction.

You can also see the new fascia installed on the addition. This is a "plastic" product, that requires no maintenance, will not rot, fade, corrode, etc ... we will replace the fascia for the rest of the house to match.