Sheet rock!

We've got walls!

Master Bedroom looking into Master Bath and Master Closet

From the Kitchen to the Living Room

 

Vaulted Ceilings in the Living Room

Living Room to the Kitchen

We have a driveway!

Not much has happened in the last month or so.  We have been battling the torrential rains of the coastal winters and the house has had a tough time drying out.  For all you potential Adair homeowners, I can tell you that this has been the most frustrating part.  For the most part, Adair has done everything possible to insure the house drys out (don't get me started on the front doors) but mother nature was not cooperating.

Last weekend we got the thumbs up for insulation installation, and the insulators had a bit of a tough time with the road (or lack of).

I had to do something about the road for the drywall delivery and the finish package delivery.... so I hired Vern Wiles again to bring the road to the front doors.  Vern did a GREAT job with our access road and even through in a free rental of a couple ramps!

Looking towards the top

From the front door, looking back

Garage door

Low Voltage

So not much has happened in the last couple weeks.  We've got quite a bit of rain over the last 20 days or so, and I'm just waiting for the house to fully dry-out.  Josh informed me that his first moisture reading was fairly promising and that maybe a few more days is needed to fully dry-out the house.  This is good news considering I don't even have power into the new meter yet (thus, no heaters).  The county wanted $75 for a permit for me to run the feeder wire 30 feet into the meter base from the PUD hand-hold.. BS...  So I called asking if the original contractor could run it for me..  I would rather pay the $75 to the electrician instead of the county in "fees".

Russ and I ran 21 CAT5e drops and 6 speaker wires last night.  Tonight were going to run the rest of the speaker wires and do some clean-up in preparation for insulation.

21 drops, 2 in every room, 5 in the living room, one to each corner of the house for security cameras

We ran a LOT of Cat5e

Special low-voltage electrical "boxes"

Plumbing Plumbing Plumbing

A full weekend of house projects! 

The contractors showed up this weekend to put the finishing touches on the siding, and Dad and I brought the excavator out to connect the power, water and storm drains.

Top of the house, done!

In order to install the soffits, the guys had to build a temporary deck!

Rain drains in!

 

Tying the french drain to the rain drains to carry water out past the driveway

Power and water connections

Little vault for the PVC valve

Tyler is helping sweep the basement

Back-fill is done(ish)

We got all the back-fill done this week, now we are just waiting for the rains to compact the dirt.  Once everything is compacted down, we will need to do a final grade and push some of the excess dirt over to where my shop is going.  But at least the contractors can get in the house from the top now!  that makes them happy

Tyler approves!

 

Tyler loves the Excavator!

Back-fill!

French drain done, time for backfill!

Working from one corner to the other

Late night!

I can walk in the front door!

French Drain

More work on the French Drain this weekend (all day Sunday).  I bribed Russ to come out and help with the promise of beer and power-tools.  Little did he know, I rented him something extra special!  These little Toro Dingo's are AWESOME for hauling rock.  We hauled about 8 yards in just over 2 hours.

Russ and the Dingo

D-I-N-G-O!  Beats a shovel

Ready for a layer for filter fabric

Ready for back-fill!

Plumbing

At the last minute, I decided to run a secondary sewer pipe under the footing for a future bathroom.  The existing sewer pipe enters the basement in a weird spot, and I didn't want to be forced in to having a bathroom in a less than ideal location.  So I dug a hole under the footing from the outside and dug a trench to intercept our existing sewer connection.

Roof on, House wrapped!

Over the last week, a lot of progress has been made!

House is wrapped, and the roof is on

The hose bibs were apparently installed in the "usual" location for and Adair 1560, but somehow the plumber forgot to take in to account that fact that the house was sitting on a 10' basement.  The hose bib's are literally 12' off the ground at finished grade.  Epic fail

 

Upper part of the house

Framing Complete!

I took a quick trip out to the property yesterday at lunch to meet up with the plumber.  We discussed the routing of the sewer pipes in the basement in order to make sure they don't get in the way of my 2 post lift.  We also discussed the potential of adding a bathroom to the basement at some point.  Very helpful!

View of the bottom of the house

Front of the house

Shop door downstairs and living room upstairs

Progress

I'm leaving for 4 days for an endurance race at Sebring in Florida... so this will be my last update until next week!  The framers should be done tomorrow!

View from the top section.  I need to backfill up to the black stuff, but the front door is on the left where the yellow ladder is.

View from the West side of the house.

 

2 stories from the bottom!

We have 2 stories!

Second story framed!  Windows have not been cut out yet.  Roof goes on tomorrow.

 

Me, standing at the front door!

 

My shop!  1562 sq ft of concrete!

Resume framing!

The beam structure was approved by the county and delivered today!  Were back on track!

Framing Drama

Framing started on the basement on Friday and, much to my surprise, the contractors were on-site Saturday as well!  I spent a few minutes talking to David and his crew and went back to installing my Delta Drain.  Well a couple hours later, David walks around the corner on his cell phone and tells me that Josh (from Adair) needs to talk to me.  Josh informed me that David had made a rather large mistake in assuming that the floor joists would sit INSIDE of the concrete foundation, instead of ON TOP of the foundation like I had requested.  The whole purpose of the 10' walls in the basement is for me to be able to A) have a 2 post lift in the basement while it acts as my shop and B) have 9' finished walls once we decide remodel it.  I feel like both Josh and David were fishing for me to say "yeah, that's ok"...  I don't think so.

Long story short, the exterior 2x6 walls are all 9.5" too short and Josh is now looking for a way to fix it without tearing everything out and re-doing it.  There is a potential for a 6x10 beam to fill the gap all the way around the house, and the joists would sit on top of that... but we need engineer approval before we can proceed.  Josh has assured me that it will be fixed, and that it will not affect the overall budget of the house.

More delays... :(

That "Rim" should be installed ABOVE the foundation wall, not level with it.

Delta Drain 6000 Installation

Last night was pretty rough...

Not only was it raining, dark and muddy... but my poor dog was apparently afraid of the .22 shells we used to sink the nails.  Long story short, he ran away and it took a good 2 hours to find him.  Thanks again Russ for sticking with me while we looked for my little buddy.

OK now on to construction!

Russ (once again) volunteered to help me out with the Delta Drain 6000 installation.  Armed with some concrete powder pins and a nailer, we trekked off to Toledo to "get er done"!  That was the attitude at the beginning of the project... "how hard can this be?"...  the answer to that was sadly "really hard".

Because of the rigidity of the plastic, and the odd shape of my back wall.. we had a hell of a time making the corners and getting the drain board to "snap together".  The nailer also had a bit of a learning curve, as you had to angle the shell down before you hit the back of the handle, otherwise the .22 shell would dislodge and you would ruin it.  ugh

Here are the first 3 sheets we installed.

I decided to roll from the top to bottom instead of from one side to the other.  More cutting, more nailing, a LOT less waste.

Not bad for a couple city-folk

Windows!

Hit em with a Hot Mop!

For the last couple weeks, I have been soliciting advice from builders in the area on how best to prevent water from entering my basement.  With 10' walls in the back, and living about 30 feet from a designated Wet Land, I am going to have water issues... period.  After researching all the recommended products to "waterproof" my basement, I decided to throw everything out.. and buy something no-one had used before.

Enter Delta Drain 6000

This stuff is awesome!  It's main purpose is keeping water out of commercial buildings and civil engineering projects (think bridges and tunnels).  It was NOT cheap, but if I am going to use the basement as livable space, I may as well make sure the water will not create mold... mold is bad m'kay!  The Delta Drain system is designed to use in conjunction with a french drain and basically is a waterproof barrier between the foundation wall and the backfill dirt.  Water hits the geotextile fabric and flows down the drainboard into the french drain.  What the best way to make something waterproof??  Make sure that no water gets near it.  Tyler and I took a road trip to Eugene to pick it up (thanks Leo) and it's ready to go as soon as the damn rain stops.

The salesman at Masco who sold me on the Delta Drain system said that most of his contractors do not do any "damp proofing" behind the drainboard, they simply nail it on and call it good.  I wanted some sort of back-up just in case the french drain ever got clogged, so I bought 30 gallons of Henry 101 Unfibered Roof & Foundation Coating and a few 3-knot brushes.

Delta Drain 6000 and Henry 101

Mop Brothers

The wall after 2 coats and a few beers!

View of the construction site from about half-way through the wetland