Windows to the World!

Things aren't moving quite as quickly as we had hoped.  The original "finish-by" date was mid-November.  Perhaps we should have asked, "What year?"  I am predicting that we'll be in our house by mid-February.  Tony's pessimistic prediction is July 4th.

October 18, 2018

The floor beneath the entrance stairs has been poured. This should make a nice wine cellar!  The ladder that had been here had to be moved to the front of the house until the concrete dried.

October 19, 2018

The floor of the Elevator Shaft was poured.

We met with Terry Hill from Atlantic Companies to discuss the low-voltage wiring, security system, cables and wi-fi.  With concrete floors, we will have to have wi-fi access points on each floor to be able to get ot the internet from every floor.

Concrete was added to the roof to smooth out some of the rough areas in anticipation of waterproofing.

This is the area on the roof where the A/C unit and generator will be.

October 24, 2018

The stairwell from the garage to the 2nd floor was framed in.  We discovered that it will impede the entrance to the wine cellar, so be sure to duck when we send you down to get a bottle of wine!

Uh oh!  There is a beam above the stairs that tall people will hit their head on!  You can see there are only a few inches above Tony's head.  He is 5' 8" tall.  We contacted the builder.  He checked on it and found that the stairs weren't framed correctly and would have to be redone.

October 24, 2018

Furring strips have been added to the joists in preparation for sheetrock.

We got out the plans, a tape measure and some chalk and marked out the kitchen so we could get a better idea of the space.  It is going to be a nice big kitchen!

October 28, 2018

The stairs from the garage to the 2nd floor had been removed.

The windows were delivered. We chose PGT windows.  

October 29, 2018

Window installation has begun!  These 3 are the kitchen windows.  You can look out on the beach while you are washing dishes!

These little windows will be between the countertop and the upper cabinets.  The countertop will run all the way into the windowsill.

The stairs from the garage level to the 2nd floor were rebuilt to the correct specifications.  Now nobody but maybe Shaq will hit their head going up the stairs!

This new set of stairs blocks even more of the entrance to the wine cellar.  Be careful!

Framing is in place for the garage ceiling.

Framing has been placed around the garage doors.

We believe the elevator has been ordered.  We were asked whether we wanted the solid accordion gate or the scissor gate.  The builder's wife advised against the scissor gate because you would be able to see the unfinished parts of the elevator shaft as you travel. Tony wanted the scissor gate but I wasn't sure until I visited my friend Margaret's house to see her scissor gate.  I liked it so that's what we ordered. 

October 30, 2018

Framing is in place around the front door and the door to the elevator.

Most of the windows on the 2nd floor have been installed.

HVAC Ducts have been run.

October 31, 2018

The dome arrived that will go on top of the elevator shaft.  We're hoping that once we get the white stucco on the house and the blue dome, it will look like some of the places we saw in Santorini!

November 1, 2018

Graston Roofing started doing the roof waterproofing

The Eligius Metal Works truck was at the house too.  We're not sure if they were here to take care of the metal work that will run around the perimeter of our exterior decks or to quote our floating stair frame.

November 6, 2018

I sent a note to the builder to ask about a metal box that is in the 2nd floor master bedroom wall, and also to find out what is next!  I'm trying not to be too pushy because I want it done right but it's so hard to be patient when we aren't seeing much progress.  Here's his response:

"That is a jumper for return air, we need to have a way to allow return air to flow back from that area to the unit. I have already talked with the AC project manager about doing something different for that.

The window installer installed all but one window yesterday, I will have the last one installed today. My roofer has started last week, got rained out on Friday. Before he started he did tell me he had something on his books for this week and he will need to pull off for a few days. I spoke with him this morning and he thinks he will be back at the end of the week.  

The plumber is in schedule to start, he is just backed up. I expect him anytime now.

The exterior doors are a problem I’m dealing with. I ordered the doors the same time as the windows, months ago. My supplier placed the window order but somehow did not place the door order. I did not know this was a problem until the windows arrived and I did not get the doors with the delivery. I have been talking directly with the door manufacture and they are expediting our order thru the system. Normal lead time would not have me the doors until mid-December. As of yesterday it sounds like I might have the doors next week.

My immediate priority is the plumbing and roofing until I can get the doors installed. Once the doors are install I can start on the stucco.

I also need to get the stair figured out. I have met my metal stair fabricator onsite but have not received a quote yet, hope to have that very soon so we can get going in the right direction there." 

That's all for now!  Hopefully we'll have more to report soon!