Friday, September 29, 2006

Sewer Line Passes Inspection

Here are a few more pics of the sewer line going in. The tap in went well and we passed the before and after inspection. The inspector asked if he could be included on our first tour. Anyway, then the sewer/water contractor spent the rest of the day filling the trench back in. He finished up about 6:30 pm - just before Kenny and crew finished the roof. Then of course it started raining, so he probably won't start digging for the water line or electric until next week or later, since it calls for rain all next week too. Augh!
Now don't try this at home folks . . .
This weekend we hope to finish up the house roof and continue with HVAC inside. If we're really lucky, we might get to the garage roof or the rest of the house roof trim????

Thursday, September 28, 2006

A Day Made for Roofing

Today was a beautiful early fall day. It was just one of those perfect days - not too hot, not too windy, but a nice breeze, and a nice blue sky with a few white clouds. Kenny, his brother, and his Dad literally spent from sun up to sun down putting roofing on today. Rain is expected tonight and tomorrow (actually there's a thunderstorm going through right now), so they tried to get as much finished as possible. There's about 10 pieces left that need to be finished - hopefully if the rain clears out, we can get those down in the next few days. We still have the garage roof and some trim pieces to do, but you can see from the picture above that the standing seam metal roof really has a nice clean look to it.
I spent the day taking pictures and "getting stuff." Above you can see what was my view from the highest point on the house roof looking north to the Tealtown Baseball Fields. Our shed is in the lower right. Below is Kenny securing down a piece of roofing. Below you can see the Nutter boys. Kenny is farthest down, his Dad is in the middle, and his brother is closest. They really had a system going!
Below is a view looking up from the ground. Can a sky get any more blue? This is as they were working on the first few pieces on the east end.

All in all it was a very productive, but tiring day. Kenny's Dad loved the fact that he had both of his sons working with him and not once did any of them try to throw another off the roof! I've got some more pictures of the progress on the sewer line and excavation that I'll post tomorrow. It's almost 10pm so we're heading to bed for some well-deserved rest. Kenny's Dad and brother probably still have another hour before they get home, so if you know them, make sure you tell them they did a good job today!

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Progress Pictures

Above: The north side of the house. Notice the roofing stacked on the garage roof. Below: The shed is almost finished! We just have a few trim pieces, cleaning some dust off, and some touch up paint.

Trenching for sewer line.


UPDATE: Roofing, HVAC, data, and sewer

The sewer contractor came in today and began running the underground (WAY underground) sewer line from the house to the road. Tomorrow he hopes to reach the street (remember he has about 350' to travel to a final tap in depth of about 12 feet below the road) and tap in to the city sewer. Then he'll begin trenching down the other side of the driveway for the water line. After that we have the electric line (with data and cable), the underground propane tank, and the underground cistern for the rainwater catchment system. It's pretty much a mud-fest at the Nutter Residence for the next few weeks.

We've had A LOT of rain again, and without the metal roofing on the house, the rain has soaked through the felt, sheeting, and into the house. We've spent many hours with dual Shop Vacs sucking up water. The drill is to start on the second floor, suck up the water, turn on fans, open window, and hope it doesn't rain anymore. We've put plastic on the roof, plastic over the sub-floors - you name it, but there's no way around it - the place needs a roof. Sooooo, Kenny and his Dad are taking off from work on Wednesday this week to get the darn metal put down. This past weekend was nothing but rain, and it's calling for the same this coming weekend. Actually, it's now saying thunderstorms on Wednesday night - man I hope they get it done. We wanted to rent a lift to help out with the eave trim and fascia trim at the lower edge of the slope, but the sewer work means no access to the site by vehicle, so it looks like it will have to all be done with ladders.

Today, Brian and Pete came to help us haul 50 sheets of standing seam metal roofing from the ground up to the garage roof. Each sheet is 26' long so Brian and Pete carried it up two ladders and handed it to Kenny and I who were on the garage roof (have I mentioned how much I love heights?) Kenny and I then stacked it and secured the stacks to the garage roof. Tomorrow we'll do the whole process again with Kenny's dad and maybe his brother. We'll hand the sheets from the garage roof up to the house roof and begin installing it. This is after all of the trim pieces at the eaves and rake are on. Just for all of you who are wondering, I did amazingly well up on the garage roof today. The view up there was pretty neat. You could actually sit on the garage roof and watch baseball games on the nearby fields. I don't think I'll get on the main roof - at least not until we install the solar panels. I may get up there once to look at the panels, but that's about it. It's about 25' off the ground at the LOW side. It's only 3:12 pitch, but still . . .

Meanwhile, (during the rain), HVAC has progressed, slowly. We'll continue with ductwork this weekend while it rains more, but hopefully we'll be dry inside with a new roof overhead. (and hopefully the rain won't cave in whatever hole the sewer/water contractor has open at that time. (Just for the record, we've exceeded normal rainfall amounts in our area for the months of May, June, and September so far. Sure, July and August were dry, but can anyone say 105 degrees?) Mark my words, we'll get this damn rainwater catchment system in and we'll have a drought for 5 years! Every time it rains I think of all of the gallons that could be going into my cistern - how many toilet flushes or loads of laundry that could be!

As soon as we get some of the main ductwork out of the way, we can begin running electrical, cable, and data again. There isn't really that much to do, but our data/cable help (Thanks Uncle Joe!) is going out of town in mid-October. Actually, it's the plumbing we want to get moving on. All of the rough in stuff needs to get complete and inspected so that we can get the spray foam insulation applicator in while the temperatures are still moderate. They can't spray when it's too cold, so beyond mid-late November and we'll be at a complete standstill until it warms up enough to spray.

I'm going to the site tomorrow to get some photos and video of the sewer dig, so I'll get those posted later on in the day tomorrow.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Metal Roofing and Synchronized Fork-Lifting

Above and below: two fork lifts taking the metal roofing off the truck.

Above: the hightech method of offloading. Below: How many trucks does it take to get the roofing back to the house?

Well I've got some new pics to share with you, but something's wrong with Blogspot - it won't take any of my pictures right now.

Let's just say that getting 32' long roofing panels off a truck and back 350' along a 20' wide driveway was interesting. It took 2 flat bed trucks, 2 forklifts, 1 tractor trailer, 3 drivers, 1 husband to supervise and video, 1 wife to photograph, and 2 kids as spectators to get the job done. Aw, we only had the road closed for a brief time! (although we were able to get a school bus through - the kids on our road were bummed, since they thought they were going to get to miss school!) Pics forthcoming as soon as the site lets me upload!