In order to make things easier to navigate as the galleries multiply, I combined the first five galleries into an archive gallery page.  No pictures were taken down, I just put them all on one archive page.

Also, added pictures to the “AC, plumbing and electrical” gallery and added a new gallery for “Insulation, drywall and paint”.

On my computer Explorer doesn’t always show the updates until I “refresh” the page.  Keep this in mind no matter what your browser is.

Hard to believe more than a month has passed since the last update.  It have been a busy time.  During the last month the electricians have put in all of the wiring and panels that get hidden in the walls.  The Air Conditioning crew installed the air ducts and drain lines, etc.

I installed a lot of custom wiring for home networking, video surveillance, television, surround sound and alarms systems.  The house will have three closets where all of the equipment is operating.  the cables run to these areas.  Out in the living areas there will be a minimum of cables, wires and ugly stereo, computer or networking equipment to see because it is all hidden in the walls and closets.  Just the TVs and speakers in a nice clean installation.

Also, this month the insulation was installed.  We are using a special insulation that sprays on the bottom of the roof.   That way it insulates the house and the attic.  There is no fiber insulation between the house and the attic except in the garage.  This keeps heat from the garage from going into the attic and heating the house.  This is the best insulating solution for many reasons and will save a lot on my electric bills.

Recently the drywall was installed.  We are currently waiting on a county inspection before they can “mud” the drywall to prep it for painting.  Now that I have finished my wiring project I have begun painting the outside of the house with primer.  This will be a lot of work.

Things have been very busy to say the least.   The metal roof is in.  I made a major update to the slide show on the roofing page.

I added a new slideshow page for “A/C Plumbing and Electrical”.   The plumbing, air conditioning and electrical systems have been in work for the last couple of weeks.  All of these items need to be in place before the dry wall goes up.  At the same time I have been busy designing and installing wiring for surround sound, networking, television, surveillance cameras, alarm and more.  There will be more than a mile of these cables along with patch panels, etc.

Enjoy the new pictures!  Remember that some browsers don’t update well.  Be sure to hit refresh when you come to this page to see any new updates!!

The massive garage doors have been installed.  These are insulated, storm rated and 18×8 feet.   Added pictures to the Windows and Doors gallery.

The plumber has been putting in rough-ins and drain stacks.  John (my builder) insisted that all of the vent stacks exit through the roof on the back side of the house, so the house will maintain the clean look from the front.  Also, they combined as many vents a possible to keep the penetrations on my metal roof to a minimum.  Once the plumber is done, the air conditioning and electrical will go in the walls.  Also the roof can go on and insulation under the roof.

Added a page for windows and doors.  The front door didn’t get installed because they sent the wrong type door!  The replacement will arrive next week at around the same time the garage doors come in.  The garage doors are 18 feet wide by 8 feet tall instead of the usual 16×7, so I will point out that the garage is actually bigger than it looks…

Added a “roofing” page with picture gallery.   The roof is watertight now with the peal and stick installed.  This is used in place of the old black felt paper that was used for years.  The actual metal roof will be installed in a few weeks, but at least now the summer rains won’t soak everything underneath.

Added pictures into the “Framing” gallery.  The boards for the roof and all of the interior walls are up now!

Added a new page for the framing.  Click the link above to see the pictures.  If you have problems seeing any of the updates, remember to hit “refresh” on your browser.

Also, added a page for videos and put a link to the first video.

I am still learning how to use the website editor.  I found a much better way to do the slideshows, so I deleted everything and started over.  Click the links above and look at the pictures again.  This time they will be nice and big if you open your browser full screen.  When you get to the picture page, you may have to hit “refresh” depending on your browser settings to see the latest version.   Watch for captions below some of the pictures.   They were there before, but are more visible now.

The block work is complete.  Added a second picture slideshow to the “Block Walls” page.  Click over to that page and scroll down to see the new pictures.  Notice the two extra large garage doors, the doggie door, the large back porch with block structure and the front of the house including entrance doorway.

(Update:  Added pictures to the block walls gallery!)

The building is well under way.  The block work should be finished by Monday Aug 5th.  Next they will down pour the block with cement.  After that a crane will be brought in to lift the trusses in place.

Dirt and Slab:

This section took place over the course of months.  Once the old house was removed competely it was really apparent just how poorly done the original dirt and leveling was.  First of all the house was sitting on pure sand instead of compactable soil.  Also there were many hills and valleys that cause puddles during storms and prevented proper drainage.   This was remedied by pushing the sand into the low spots around the yard and bringing in 50 loads of good soil.  The yard was then leveled and graded to provide a good base for the house and good drainage to the ditches front and back.

The slab itself was poured extra thick to supply a sturdy foundation that isn’t going anywhere soon.  It’s six inches thick instead of the normal four and the footers are massive at 24 inches instead of the typical 18.  Extra re-bar was added too.  Weather hampered the slab installation, but after a weekend delay the slab was installed on a beautiful day.

Block:

The block mason has enjoyed great weather (hot though).  Everything seems to be moving smoothly.  I’ve learned a lot by walking around and watch their work.  This is a time where errors would be serious, so everything was planned and measured multiple times.  The dimensions of windows and doors were written right on the slab so there is no question when it is time to lay the blocks.

Welcome to my webpage.  In the coming months I plan on adding some pictures and who knows what else.  To start with I will use this site as a place to keep my friends and family up to date on the status of my house building project.

I don’t do Faceb@@k so this is all you get!

If you don’t know who I am then you don’t belong here.