Sunday was a day for celebration… early Dad’s Day times 2 and birthdays times 2!  Since June was going to be a difficult time to get together, we all decided to squeeze our celebrating into one day and it was lots of fun.  Thanks to Dave and Shirley for hosting, by the way!  The Cummins cousins had a great time playing in their yard while the rest of the fam chowed down on good eats.  Then it was time for Dad gifts for Dave and Papa; birthday gifts for Matt and Erin.  Fun all around!

Check out the Let’s Celebrate Photo Album and feel free to download your faves.

Finally… we were able to make it down South for some much needed R&R with our beloved friends, the Leever clan!  We missed Emerson’s 3rd birthday (throwing up in the car while driving down got in our way) and all our subsequent attempts to visit (sick sick sick!!).  So we couldn’t let a sour tummy get in our way this year (glad you’re feeling better, Emerson!).  We all had a fabulous time and can’t wait to get back together again.

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This week was pretty simple as the sheetrock crew continued to mud and sand the joints and each evening looked a bit better than the last.  You could almost tell where they left off each day as they worked their way around the house and by Friday they were ready for texture. By that evening the whole house was textured and setup with fans to help dry it out over the weekend.  It looks great and should be ready for primer come Monday morning.  Not much else to write about other than it is pretty amazing how fast the guys work... the end result was that we pretty much have new sheetrock over 60-70% of the first floor walls, new sheetrock on all ceilings and obviously the whole second story is new and they were able to get the whole job from bare framing to finished texture in two weeks with time to spare.  Pretty impressive...

The surprise mid week was that the porch was built which we didn't expect until the following week because the carpenters were at another site until the sheetrock was done but they were able to free someone up to come back and build that out.  It turned out great and is just what we imagined.  At the end of the week was exterior paint since the weather report looked good and we are clearly running out of good weather as we approach October.  The painting crew showed up Saturday and within one day had the whole house painted with the main color minus a few small areas that weren't ready yet.  It was great to be able to take advantage of good weather which should help later as the rain rolls in during October and greatly reduces our number of painting days.

Check out some of the photos we took during the week in the Week 12 photo album!

This week was pretty simple as it was mostly focused on drywall.  The carpenters were around Monday to clear out the house to make room for the next couple weeks of drywall activity and to help make sure any final drywall needs were met but they don't plan to be around much for the duration of the drywall phase.

The sheetrock crew showed up Monday morning and by about 8am there were about 8-10 guys running around measuring, cutting and hanging sheetrock.  It was impressive how fast things were moving and by that evening almost the entire house was sheet rocked.  We have been planning for a few weeks for this date but it was a little stressful to actually be here because if we missed something, it would be considerably harder to fix after the walls were covered up.  We worked pretty hard over last weekend to make sure wiring and insulation was done and actually walked around the house doing nothing but looking for any missed details for about an hour Sunday night but didn't really find anything.

By the end of the week, most of the house was tapped and had at least one coat of mud on all the joints and the house was heated to around 70 degrees to help ensure the drying was consistent.  Unfortunately, the furnace has been running quite a bit as the attic hasn't been insulated yet but it is worth the heating bill for the week to ensure we stay on schedule from this point forward.  The weather has started to turn to fall so with the rain and dip in temperature, it would be risky to leave the house unheated and hope that everything dried on schedule.  We are looking forward to hopefully finishing the drywall this week, getting a coat of primer on everything in the house and then start to see the millwork get installed.  It is moving pretty quickly now and as you can see in the pictures the interior is really taking shape now with the drywall on to help clearly define the different areas.

Check out some of the photos we took during the week in the Week 11 photo album!

There was quite a bit of action this week to push for drywall to start next week.  Mostly wrapping up smaller items but they all add up to a fairly long to-do list.  The week included final carpentry to prepare for sheetrock, final framing inspections, ceiling insulation for soundproofing and delivery of sheetrock.

The main focus of the builder this week was inspection and making sure we could stay on schedule to start drywall next week.  There were several small setbacks but by Friday we were ready for drywall on Monday morning.  The main issue of the week was realizing that we needed to sheer the upstairs wall for engineering strength and make some minor changes to ensure the first and second story walls were connected where they were sheered.  This was a key element of the engineering plan to ensure we have protection from earthquake given the wide open entry and lack of many walls in the front have of the second story.  That meant some quick work by the builder but within a day or so it was back on track and the final framing inspection passed with flying colors with only a few other very minor issues along the way that were fixed near real time.

One issue that came up was a failed nail plate that as the family room wall was sheered with OSB, it failed and allowed a nail to puncture a water pipe.  No damage to the surrounding area as it was quickly shut off but it meant a small repair for the plumber.  Usually nail plates cause the nail to bend once it hits it but in this case the plate failed and allowed the nail to pass through into the pipe behind it.  It is apparently pretty rare but does happen from time to time.

A cosmetic addition this week was the front porch posts.  They also help hold up that part of the roof and replace the temporary posts from before with the final product which looks better and allows us to start getting a feel for how the porch will look.  The canned lights we added look great and should provide better lighting than something similar to the sconce light we had before.  The focus on the inspections and being ready for drywall caused the porch itself to take a backseat but we are looking forward to having that built out in the coming weeks.  We plan to paint it similar to our back deck which matches the house colors.

Just by chance, Amy and the kids came by the house during the delivery of sheetrock this week.  Unfortunately, she didn't have the regular camera so our pictures of that are from her cell phone.  The builder removed one of the upper windows and built a walkway over the entry inside the house to make delivery to the second floor easier.  It was pretty interesting to watch and of course Ethan loved every minute of it, running around and watching the truck boom delivery the bundles of sheetrock.

The big job for Hart this week was ceiling insulation.  All walls and ceiling exposed to the outside were insulated by the builder but We really wanted to create some soundproofing under the kids bedroom floors and under the multipurpose room floor.  It was quite a project but we found a great deal on 10" batting so made the choice to use that instead of much thinner batting.  We'll see how the final house sounds with carpet and furniture but even at this point you can tell a big difference between areas with and without ceiling insulation.  We also finished a few ceiling speaker wire runs to prepare for drywall and built in boxes to keep the insulation off the speakers.

Check out some of the photos we took during the week in the Week 10 photo album !