Rough Electrical and HVAC

This is the roughed in plumbing for the laundry room. The plumber does not have a crew....works by himself and will probably need about ten days to finished the roughed in stuff.

These are electrical wires in a switch box. Lots of this work going on now.

Master bedroom facing the bathroom area. More switch boxes.

Duct work for heating and air conditioning.

Kitchen area.....note the "pipe" for the exhaust fan over the island. There will be a 30 inch Thermador slide in stove in the island.

Lighting cans.......everywhere!!! I know I want some plugs in the floor of the great room for lamps.....it is difficult to figure out where they should go. A friend who built a house a few years ago said, "It doesn't make any difference where you put them....they will be in the wrong place no matter how hard you try."

Heating and air conditioning ducts in the ceiling downstairs.

We talked about skylights for the south deck today......we want one over the barbecue and at least another one, maybe two on the deck roof. Two will open and one will be fixed. The two that open will be electric and will close automatically if it rains....pretty cool.

Finished Portico and Lowering the Kitchen Ceiling

We had snow on and off all weekend. The high today is only 46 degrees but it is melting. We really needed the precipitation as we hadn't had any rain/snow since the first week of January.

The front door portico is finished and it looks beautiful. Rock or stucco will cover the cinder blocks and the beams will be stained.

Here's are two closer views of Matt and Pat's handiwork.

We decided to lower the kitchen ceiling to 10 feet. The pitch of the cathedral ceiling was making it difficult to find a vent hood for the stove exhaust that tall enough. We also were having difficulty finding pendant lights that would reach 13 feet.

They will have to move some of the boxes for the fixtures but it in long run, we think it will work out better.

No Electricity Update: We got an attorney and filed a complaint on Friday with the Arizona Real Estate Board. We will have to wait two to four weeks for a response.

Front Door and Furniture Lay Out Issues

We tried cutting out the dimensions of the furniture that will be in the great room......just to see if it all fits. It doesn't. One of the problems is the large oriental carpet we have (23 ft. x 11 ft.). The other problem is the two large recliners that need to be in a good spot for TV viewing.

Below is a photo of the oak table.......which seems too close to the kitchen bar area at the moment.

This is the couch......tried it several ways....none of which I love. I had hoped to put a desk or console in back of it but it seems too crowded. This is a fairly big room so there has to be a way for this all to work. I will keep thinking.....

Let's change the subject.......here is the front door portico. It's coming along nicely. Matt spent a lot of time up there today.

Regarding the electricity issue.....Randy has an appointment with the real estate broker and a lawyer tomorrow morning.

Electrical

This is Casey, the electrician. We spent several hours with him yesterday discussing where outlets, switches and lights would go in the house.

He marked each room on a set of plans. It took us almost three hours to go through each room. There will be fans in all of the bedrooms as well as the great room and offices. We also want to put two fans on the south facing deck.

The heating and cooling guys continue to work each day.

We have run into a bit of a snag. Our contract for the lot says that all of the utilities are at the lot/street line. They are......with the exception of electricity. We have been running a generator and burning 5 gallons of gas each day so that the guys can run their saws, hammers, etc. To make matters worse, the developer who owned all of the lots in this area is going through bankruptcy so now we don't know who will pay to have our electricity installed. To further complicate things.....4 other lots need to be "wired" for electricity before ours. The conduit is in the ground but the lines need to be run around a culdesac. We are asking for help from Coldwell Banker as they are the ones who sold us the lot. Sounds like a lawsuit doesn't it? How long will that take? We can't afford to pay for electricity for all of the other lots.

Meanwhile, I am looking for light fixtures.....maybe I should be looking for candles. To be continued......

Monday Deck Work and Heating/Cooling

The guys finished the roof on the south facing deck today. There will be no more work on this until we install the concrete pavers on the "floor."

The roof will be nice in the summer months. Picture this with a barbecue, table and chairs and maybe even an outside couch. I can't wait!

The roof and posts will be stained in the near future.

The heating guys worked today....lots of new duct work and a fan in the master bath.

Downstairs heating/cooling work.

Next up.....front door portico and the west facing deck.

More Deck Work

Check out the intricacies of the house framing. Can you count the number of pieces or saw cuts?

We were amazed at how complex "simple" house framing is. Our builders spend a lot of time thinking about how to put this puzzle together......then they cut.....and things usually fit.

This is a photo of the south side of the house before the deck work.

Here is the same side with the deck and roof framing. Part of the deck will have shade and the other section will have sun.

The guys walk around on rafters like they are on the ground. I wish I could do this!

Cooper and I enjoyed soaking up some sun this afternoon. It was 15 degrees this morning but warmed up to 60 degrees by mid-afternoon.

South Facing Deck

The guys spent yesterday working on the deck that faces the south. It looks strong enough to hold a herd of elephants.

It needs to be strong enough to support 18,000 pounds of concrete tiles. (I wonder how much it is going to cost to ship those tiles??)

Half of this deck will be covered to protect us from the summer sunshine. We plan on putting two skylights in it and we will have fans mounted under the roof.

Pat is preparing a post to set on top of the piers that will support the roof.

February 9th Update

It's difficult to chronicle the house progress via photos over the last several days. The guys have been "backing" which allows the sheet rockers a place to nail the sheet rock. This is a photo of the beams that will support the south facing deck. The jousts and some temporary plywood should be completed by tomorrow. Temporary plywood will remain until the house is almost completed, and then we will install two foot by two foot pavers which will replace the plywood.

The two rectangles on the lower portion of the house are the guest bedrooms with a bathroom in between. The windows on the top are the master bedroom and bath.

We put in our window order. We had to purchase special glass for the south facing windows to get the best solar effect. This glass lets the winter's sun pass heat into the home. It blocks 70% of the sun's UV rays. While blocking out the cold and UV rays, it lets the daylight stream in more than ordinary low-e glass. It's called high solar gain glass.

Cooper is great. We have our first obedience lesson tomorrow with Lori Chandler who owns a company called Leader of the Pack. He is teething and when he works on one of these bones, he loses a tooth or two.

He has been staying away from the cats although he really wants to play with them. He is so good about not chasing them.

Last night Buster decided that it might be nice and warm to sleep with the puppy. They stayed like that until I had to put Cooper in his crate for the night.

Granite Slabs

We went to a granite warehouse in Tempe to choose the four slabs that we will need for our kitchen. We looked at other slabs but decided we still liked our original choice......White Springs.

It has gray, cream, black and a bit of rusty red. It is a granite with "movement" which we love.

Here are the four slabs that we chose. We might have enough left over to do the laundry room which would be nice.

We also nailed down the roof color (we originally wanted a metal roof but it is three times the cost so....) and the trim as well as the stucco and siding. It's pretty much a dark gray with white trim and a red door. I have always wanted a red door.

Cooper Update

Here's Cooper in his crate. He is getting more confident and comfortable and has gotten himself into some trouble.....chewing on the ottoman, for example.

We got Cooper another bed so he could be comfy and watch the news with us each night. Guess who decided this was the best bed in the house?

Cooper had a "play date" this weekend with Abby. She belongs to some friends we met who have lived in Payson for five years. They are originally from San Diego.

They really had a great time rolling around in the grass and tackling each other over and over again.

Cooper was exhausted after Abby left.

We take Cooper out to the build site each day. He enjoys walking around and smelling the elk, javelina and other wonderful scents that only a dog can smell.

It was cold and windy today but Matt and Pat got some of the plywood on the roof.

It looks more like a roof from the inside now. It's supposed to be really windy and much colder tomorrow. I'm not sure they are going to be able to work on the roof. We'll see.

Matt is coming over tomorrow morning to discuss outside house paint and window colors. I keep changing my mind.....I'll be glad when it is decided.