Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone, just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and give you a quick update.

First of all the second garage door is now in. This seals up the basement area and makes it about 2 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. Of course those of you who are living here in the PNW know that its been rather cold the last week so it really doesn't make a lot of difference when its 25 degrees out. However it does stop the wind from blowing through the house. I can usually get about an hours work done in before having to stand in front of the fire to warm up. Thank God the fireplace is working. I'm really pushing to get the wiring done and wrap up the other little projects because then I can insulate, yea!

Here is a picture of the house with all the snow on it. Kind of looks like it belongs in the mountains near a ski area, maybe that's where I'll build the next one!

You can see from this picture that we have about a foot here.

My friend Eric keeps saying I should put Christmas light up on it. I have thought about it but I just don't want to spent the time to do that, I'd rather get the lights inside wired up, then do Christmas lights next year. Of course it will be fun to see how big of a tree I can get inside, my great room ceiling is 24' to the peak! Anyway, instead of putting lights up I just turned on all my work lights and took a picture at night.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I'll be spending most of my days off working on the house. Its OK though, I have my hat to keep me warm.

Handsome Shrek

Still Building

Well, by now I was hoping to have my combination inspection done but things are just taking longer than expected. I also keep getting sidetracked on other projects that could wait but also need to be done.

I've continued on with the wiring. So far I've got the upstairs bedrooms and about 95% of the main floor done. I've started pulling wire into the basement living area. While there is a lot getting done it just isn't too exciting for pictures.

See what I mean.

One of the jobs I keep getting sidetracked with is putting up siding. I find it hard to work inside when its a nice day out. When I started the siding over the garage I realize I was going to have to rent some scaffolding again. Once again Craig's List to the rescue. I found a company getting rid of a bunch of their scaffolding. For about 3 months rent I was able to buy enough to go 3 frames high (18 feet) and 20 feet in length. Its super heavy duty shoring frames (designed to hold up buildings) but works great for me. When I'm done if anybody needs to borrow it let me know.

I also spent one evening putting the bathroom deck door in. I ordered it from Home Depot only to have it show up at the store put together the wrong way. It swung out to the right, not left, and they used interior hinges on it, and it was damaged. After waiting 2 more weeks it came in again, this time with the correct swing but still with the wrong hinges. Its an exterior swinging door so the hinges are on the outside and need to have non-removable pins. This time I took the door and am putting my own hinges on it instead of wait for another 2 weeks (and I figure another screw up). Now that corner of the house is locked up. At night it always seemed a little creepy with that door open and the coyotes howling. Now nothing can get in.

I also have started to install the garage doors. They came in a couple of days before the second back door. I should finish up getting the one in tonight and have the other in by the weekend if I don't freeze first. Now all I need is the jam for the front door and I'll be able to lock the place up.

Hopefully over the Christmas holidays I'll get the wiring fished. Then its inspections time and if all goes well and I pass, time for insulation. Which would be great because its flippen' cold out there.