Water Supply Lines and More Tongue and Groove

This week started out with the fire code Sheetrock installation on the garage ceiling.  This is a code requirement and is designed to help keep any fire that originates in the garage isolated until fire fighters can put it out. Basically any wall of the garage that intersects the house has to have fire code Sheetrock.  A word of caution here, if you are using a subcontractor that has not been recommended by someone you trust keep an eye on them.  We're quite sure these guys made off with a $175 set of drill bits, but we just can't prove it.

Also on Monday our crew finished the log siding installation on the rear of the garage.  We will complete the rest of the installation ourselves since the garage sides aren't three sets of scaffolding high.

While the crews were busy outside we started the installation of the water lines.  Here is the water heater completely installed in the utility room.  The shut off is in the crawl space, we'll see if the inspector is OK with that.  Sometimes they want the shut off to be located in the same room.

The next order of business was the supply lines to the kitchen sink.  After all the lines are in place we will add the shut off valves and pressurize the system to check for leaks.

We also picked up the vanities for the half bath and guest bathrooms.  By shopping at a local building supply house instead of a big home center such as Home Depot we saved over $700 on these two vanities.  Same quality but with a much more reasonable price and we were able to get the wall mirror/medicine cabinets included in that price.  Just because they're big and have a large selection doesn't mean you'll get the best deals.  We have literally saved thousands shopping at local stores over Home Depot on kitchen cabinets, carpeting, wood flooring, artificial stone, gas fireplace, tile and bathroom vanities simply because the local stores will offer better pricing than Home Depot.  Because our Home Depot won't give an owner/builder contractor pricing we figure they've lost out on about $80,000.00 in sales on this home alone.

Here you can see the water lines for the washing machine.  These lines will make another 90 degree turn and come up outside the wall where they will hook into a protective device that will keep the water pressure to the washing machine off when it's not in use.   More on that in a couple weeks.

While working on the water supply lines don't forget to allow for a couple outside hose connections.  Here I had to install the rim siding in order to install both the electrical outlet and the hose connection.  The logs are dirty from rain splashing the dirt on them.  The difference in logs that have been exposed to the sun for a while and new siding is dramatic.  A little bleach and water and the discolored logs will look just like the new siding.  This will be done prior to staining the exterior of the house.

It's the little details that make the difference.  This electrical box (and the hose connection) could easily have been surface mounted however recessing them so they fit flush makes for a much neater installation.

On Friday our cabinet installation expert, Francis stopped by and we installed the wall oven.  He did the cabinet work and I did the wiring.  It's ready to go now all that's needed is to install the circuit breaker in the panel.

We also installed the Jenn-Air cook top.  This unit has a down draft fan that is extremely effective.  It also has interchangeable burners that can be replaced by a grill (on the left) or a griddle.

This is the duct work for the down draft fan on the cook top.  It is ducted into the crawl space and then out to a vent in the foundation.  The gas line has yet to be connected as you can see.   That's a project for next week.

While all of these other projects were taking place the "boss" continued her mission of tongue and groove installation.  Here she has a good start on one of the dormers.  This is anything but easy since the angle of the boards must fit flush against the trim boards.  In this picture the trim board has not been installed yet but a good straight board was used temporarily to make sure all the angles were right.

That's it for another week. Next week we'll finish the water supply lines and hopefully have our plumbing rough in inspection.  The "boss" will continue with the tongue and groove and if we're lucky we may have a functioning bathroom by week's end. No promises though.

Check back Soon