Found out where the tracks lead to. There was around 15 head of deer grazing between the houses. This in the next lot to the East of us.

It's been awhile since we posted but this was about a week after our last posting. It's amazing how fast they can frame one of these things once they get going.

Nice driveway if you own a Hummer.

Above is the direct vent gas fireplace and below the direct lounge jetted garden tub.

This is the On Q Structured Media Center for the video, data, phone and security. The video splitters, data network ports, router, cable modem and security electronics will go in this eventually. Personallly, I think Barb did an awesome job pulling the cables and dressing them in the box. She cabled 500' of RG6Q coax, 500' of CAT6 data cable and 150' of 2-Pair phone cable. I managed to pull maybe 60' of speaker cable. The 70' or so of 1" ENT mentioned earlier for the cable/data/phone home runs pulled me. Muscles I'd forgotten about re-introduced themselves.

This is the trench for the sewer. The guy standing at the end of the trench is about 6' tall. The guy you can't see in front of him was in a 4' deep hole making the sewer connection. After the inspector does his checks they fill the trench with fine gravel, back fill with dirt and then put the water line in which is also covered with fine gravel before the trench is back filled. They also installed the stop and waste valve for the irrigation for me.

Tyson did a fantastic job putting the HDTV antenna in the attic over the two car garage.

At the time of this posting, the house is completely framed with windows and doors-temporary doors as the builder doesn't want the permanent ones dinged up. The shingles are going on. The house is wired, plumbed and the heating is in. It's passed its 4-way inspection (framing, plumbing, heating, electrical). The sewer is in, water is run to the house and the gas line is to the house and ready for the meter. I conned the dude that dug the trenches for the sewer and water line who also digs the trench for the power line to put the conduit for the video/data/phone home runs in at the same time so Barb won't have to dig the trench after all. The insulation is in and its inspection complete. The drywall is mostly hung and will be taped by the end of the week. The outside is getting bricked and then stucco. The landscaper is working on the rough grade and building the rock wall in the back.

We woke up Sunday morning to a light powdering of snow, maybe 2". We decided that it would be a good idea to shovel the snow off the sub-floor so it wouldn't get wet, blister the OSB-oriented strand board and cause floor squeaks in the future. Have I ever mentioned that I'm a little left-brained? 1937 square feet takes a little while to clean 2" of snow off of. At least Barb has a heads up of what it will take to vacuum, sweep and mop the various floor coverings. And I have a good idea how nice it would have been to sleep inside the house after making a remark like that. There is the 3rd car garage though.  

This will be the nook or dining room looking towards the South. The exterior walls are 6". The ceiling in the nook will be the standard 8'. The rest of the kitchen, great room, entry hallway and den are vaulted. The floors in the kitchen, dining room, laundry room and half bath will be tiled.

This is the great room looking towards the master bedroom. The corner is where the gas fireplace will be. The great room, hallway and bedrooms will be carpeted. The main bath will be tiled with tiled tub/shower surrounds.

These are the trusses that form the vaulted ceilings over the kitchen and great room. The doorway leads to the double garage. To the right of the door is the laundry room and to the left is the half bath. The tall step ladder is a keeper in the event the framers take off without it. :-) Barb will need it to change the light bulbs in the great room when the occasion occurs.

This is looking towards the South out the great room window.

This is looking out the master bedroom window and will probably be Sophie's favorite place to be so she can watch the hills for rabbits and such.

The next two pictures are the guest bedrooms which are kind of useless if no one ever comes to visit. `:)

My favorite room, the den. This will have hardwood floors and eventually built-in bookshelves along the wall to the right.

Doesn't look like much now but this will be the front entry to the home. The entry will be tiled as well.

This is the kitchen looking from the great room with the pantry in the corner. The step ladder laying down is on a board that covers what will be the stairs leading to the basement. The basement floor had only been in for a few days so the builder had a heater going to keep it warm while the cement cured.

Deer visitors-possibly three snow snakes having a race. There seems to be an abundance of wildlife around the community. Not only deer but we've seen upland game birds-not sure if they were sharp tail grouse, sage chickens or midget turkeys-the older eyes aren't what they use to be. Living in the city this long, most the foul I see is cut up, wrapped up, over-priced and frozen if you know what I mean. Seems the prickly pear cactus went away-at least until the snow melts.

 

This is the master bath. The jetted garden tub goes in the corner just under the window. The vanity goes along the wall to the right and the shower is in the corner opposite the jetted garden tub. The floor will be tiled along with the tub surround and shower. It will have a toilet too, forgot to mention that. It will be to the left of the garden tub.

Back to cleaning the snow off the sub-floor. I talked to the builder bright and early Monday morning and confessed that we were out and cleaned the snow off the sub-floor thinking we saved the day and helped the framers out so they wouldn't have to shovel it. He's hilarious. He said "bud-don't you have anything else to do with your time?" He uses an exterior grade OSB that can have standing water on it for like 2-3 months, it's 3/4" tongue and groove, glued and ring-nailed to the joists. It was nice to be out doing something though. :-) 

Our next adventure is roughing in the cable for video/data/phone, the 5.1 sound in the great room, floppy conduit-smurf tube-ENT-Elk buggle if you cut it to the right length, I ramble, for the wires that run the sprinkler valves from the timer in the garage. The ENT makes it really easy to run cables through the house after the walls are finished. Same thing for the cable/phone home runs. Another stretch of ENT from the basement to the garage attic for a HDTV antenna and home runs for a satellite dish if we decide to go that route in the future. All the video/data/phone cables will end up at a SMC-structured media center located in the utility/storage room in the basement. This will house the video splitters, network interfaces, routers and cable modem. 

The four-way inspection is scheduled for the 20th, insulation and sheetrock on the 24th. The builder gave us a closing date of March 23rd.

Despite the crazy weather and snow we've had recently, the house is showing promise. The drains are in and inspected, back filled with gravel and the concrete is poured for the basement floor. The basement windows are in and the framers are well under way. The rest of the valley was under a red air alert meaning the air is un-healthy to breath. We was shocked how clear and nice it was at the lot. It's probably 5-10 degrees warmer than it is further north in the valley. We are excited about that.

The framers began by putting the load bearing walls up on 3 1/2" stilts because the basement floor had not been poured when they started. Amazingly the builder likes doing it this way because they put 16 penny nails through the seal plates so when the floor is poured, the wall is secured better than it would be using concrete nails or powder actuated hammers which they commonly use now to secure the walls to concrete.

This is the South-East of the house looking at the master bathroom, master bedroom and one of the guest bedrooms. The tiny rocks came out of the ground when they were digging the hole for the foundation. We will eventually be using these to build a rock wall behind the house for the landscaping.

The removed soil around the back of the house next to the scrub oak is where the rock wall will eventually be. From the top of the rock wall, the lot will go back about another 20' to the back of the lot and be flat tapering slightly to the sides for drainage.

This the back of the house looking at the nook and great room. Eventually there will be a 12' by 16' patio off the door from the nook.

This is looking at the kitchen, laundry room and 2 car garage to the left and the 3rd car to the right which haven't been framed yet. The trusses laying here are one of about three or four piles of them. These will be used on the West-Side of the house.

Looking from the South-West corner of the lot towards the nook.

This is Robert thinking with left-brained wisdom that I exhibit too frequently, did I do the math right on the financing of this project?

 

Front of the house looking at the den, front entry and other guest bedroom. These trusses will be used in the great room for the vaulted ceiling.

This is one of two granite slabs that will eventually be the counter tops in the kitchen and master bathroom. It's called Santa Cecilia and it comes from Brazil. When the framers are finished, the cabinet guy will be out to measure for the cabinets and generate a template for the counter top guys so they can cut the tops and drill the holes for the sinks and faucets. It's amazing how all these different trades can pull this stuff off. At least we hope they pull it off. It's not done yet. :-)

Another look at the front of the house and more trusses. The builder told us that it will be framed with a roof and windows in the next 7 days. We are supposed to be in there at that point in time wiring in the video cable, data and 5.1 sound. Not sure how excited Barb is to dig the 18" deep trench from the corner of the house out to the street where the cable and phone boxes are located. She said they will have to move their skip loader first.  

Looking North from the South-West corner of the lot towards Salt Lake and all the yucky air we won't have to breath. The next step is to get all the trades in for the heating, plumbing, electricity and hopefully cable, data and 5.1 sound. The builder is planning on having the 4-way inspection done, insulation, another inspection and drywall by the end of January.

Building a house in the middle of the winter can be interesting to say the least. Nerve racking to say the most. The first house was started in April and was weather delayed for a month by monsoon style rain. The next two houses were built in the middle of the winter with no weather delays and very little snow. The fourth, following the trend, is being built in the only year we actually receive a lot of rain, snow and enough mud to make any mud-bogger happy.

The foundation is back-filled and the landscape around the house is rough graded so the water will run away from the house which is difficult to accomplish because of the front to back slope of the lot. There will eventually be a 2 foot rock wall that runs the width of the house about 15 feet from the back of the house around the patio. The rest of the back yard will be mostly flat sloping from the middle out to the sides so water will run out and around the house towards the street. The front will have two small horseshoe like cuttouts with rock walls to soften the front appearance of the home when looking from the street.

These poor guys were throwing the snow up and over the top of the foundation getting it ready for the plumber to rough the drain pipes in and back-fill with gravel so the basement floor can be poured. These are the footings for the load-bearing walls. The guys are standing by the footings for the walls where the stairs come down from the main floor.

The J-bolts on top of the foundation used to bolt down the seal plates for the rim joists are set towards the back of the foundation wall so the 6" framed exterior wall will leave enough room on the front for the brick. The bolts for the walls of the house that are stucco are more towards the front of the foundation wall-not a good thing if the foundation crew doesn't look at the plans before they set them. The tall metal straps on the corners are hurricane straps required by code so the big bad wolf can't blow our house down or in the event of a ground shaker hopefully not shake it off the foundation.

I don't think we have to worry about the basement floor curing too fast because of the heat we get around here in the summer time. The framers are scheduled to start Monday, January 3rd. I'm pretty sure a snow blower salesman will see me coming next fall based on what we've seen so far this year.