End of the Summer Update 1 - Inspections passed, sheet rock started

 

This summer has been a whorl wind of work. We go from day jobs to nights and weekends working on the house. 

It leaves very little time for anything else so I keep getting behind on updating the blog. Bear with me as I catch you up on our continued progress. I will need to do two back to back posts to cover it all.

It is hard to believe that this time last year the dome company had just left and we finally had more than just a pile of dirt. We were attempting to find and check all our buried conduit and drain pipes. We were stuck using just photos and videos we had taken before they were buried by all the concrete off spray.

Zoom forward a year and we passed a few more milestone inspections!

1. Rough framing everywhere but the master suite wing (we will build that area after we move in). 
2. Rough electrical in all but the kitchen cabinet area and the master wing (these need to be done later for several reasons)
3. Rough plumbing in the kids wing. As part of our plumbing inspection we had to pressure test with air. 

Now that those three things are passed in the kids wing, we have full rein to sheet rock and soundproof. We installed rock wool as soundproofing in our two walls that separate main living space from the bedroom wings.

We used staggered 2x4's in a 2x6 wall so we could weave the insulation.

Our inspectors did let us start sheet rock on one side of the walls prior to a complete sign off due to plumbing supply delays (we started in areas without plumbing). For some reason we had trouble getting hot water pex pipe. There have definitely been not only continued increased prices but delays in many supplies.

We got our kitchen cabinets! They were originally supposed to arrive mid August but just arrived about two weeks late. Without them we couldn't do any of the "rough in" in the kitchen area. Rough electrical and plumbing will run behind the cabinets. Now that they are here we can begin things set in the kitchen.

We still haven't completely unwrapped them yet and you get a little sneak preview of my next post in this photo.

We make the inspectors come out way more often than a builder would (for kids wing rough in work they came four times). Sometimes it is just to ask questions and get their opinion on things. We have found it is easier to have them tell you what to do rather than to do it incorrectly and have to fix it.

Our questions this time were:

1. Smoke detectors : We weren't sure about the location for the kitchen CO/smoke detector (the other rooms were straight forward but the nature of the large open space and curved walls made this one a head scratcher). In the install instructions you are supposed to locate them at max 12 inches from the ceiling. But.... what is ceiling and what is wall? We had our own thoughts on the matter but in the end it is about what the inspectors think not what we think is correct. It was best to have them out and have them tell us where to put it before pulling wires.
2. There were a few code questions about how we wire in the electrical panel in the house because the main panel is in the barn and it also has a generator switch. The inspectors took photos and we are still waiting to hear what our requirements will be. 
3. Before constructing the last stud wall between the laundry and utility room we wanted to ask if they required our water heaters (one for domestic and one for the radiant floor system) to have drains or pans. There is a floor drain in the laundry room and the wall in question is an add on. It is not originally in the plans. We decided to make the utility a fully separate room instead of part of the main laundry. We were concerned that building the wall might be an issue if they required the water heater to be close to the drain in the laundry room. The code only requires a drain or pan if there is a floor below it. We are on a slab so we got the go ahead to build the divider wall.

Utility divider wall

After getting our questions answered we went straight to work to wrap things up. They needed to see all our electrical boxes with the grounds connected (not just with coiled up wire) and there were a few places we needed to spray in fire stop. We also needed to re-pull the source wire for the smoke detectors with 3 wire instead of 2 wire so that all the detectors can "talk" to each other even if they are in the opposite wing. We also had to have them come out a second time for our plumbing because we didn't know we needed to air pressure test the lines. The inspectors are always very gracious when we make silly mistakes.

We have been slowly prepping the edges of the augment overhangs as time and weather allows. We are using Prosoco R-Guard fast flash. It is a liquid (in caulk gun form) flashing product that was originally development in the 1970's (I think) as a car windshield glue. It it an easily spreadable water proof adhesive. We chose it to flash the edges because it is also an adhesive allowing us to glue the airform edge to the concrete. It cures as a still flexible (rubbery) coating.  On many of the openings the airform pulled away from the edge when the bucks were removed and there are many screw holes that also needed sealing.

The goop is not cheap so we only open a tube when we know we will be able to use up the whole thing in one shot. After we get all the edges sealed to the concrete we will be able to stucco the edges over it to make it look nice. 

I have more progress to share but I am going to break it into a separate post specifically about the last of our windows.