Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[jinman]

Call me cheap or call me tasteless, but why do you need a granite counter-top in the mud room? I know, I know. . . like the others in the house, but isn't that form over function? With the money saved on the counter-top, maybe they could afford a trim person who doesn't make an eyesore right beside your front door entrance. Of course, I'm also surprised that they are caulking an outside deck handrail and not concentrating on inside trim finish.

Peter, the yard is looking great. Your steps have given me a whole new idea for steps near my garden and also around one of my ponds. The 6x6 boxed steps are terrific.

 

[FairfaxStu]

I think it is a race against time, Jinman. Peter and his mother are willing to sacrifice some quality for the abilility to move her in before the end of the month. The vast majority of the punch list items are cosmetic and can be corrected afterwards but before the final payment. Yes, I agree the boxed steps look great.
-Stu

 

[pclausen]

Pretty much Stu. Final inspection is this Wednesday and utilities are being cut over the following Monday, which is also when the movers are coming.

So they added a couple more "boxes" next to the stairs. Unfortunately, they didn't put in the bottom pieces (in red), which was the whole point to tie in the low points coming from the house and the bottom step. I think the only fix is to undo it all, put in the 2 bottom pieces, and reassemble.

They finally wrapped the exposed chimney today due to the extreme delay in getting the rock work done.

The rock guy actually did show up today and got some of the front done

Painters started on the walls and trim today. So far I'm not impressed. From what I'm seeing at this stage, this all needs to be sanded back down again, and redone...

They are using white filler on the wood trim around the A/V equipment...

The got the 45 soffit roughed in

And the extension

The "desk" is installed, and the upper shelves & cabinet is installed. Unfortunately, it was done before the receptacle (red rectangle) was moved to new location (green rectangle). Ditto on the phone line (red x to green rectangle). That will be a challenge for the electrician now I would think.

End of wall cabinets. Lower piece does not match color wise at all. Hopefully they will be staining it to match.

 

[mkane09]

Peter, in the picture above where they wrapped the chimney, are they going to paint the basement walls to match the siding or leave it bare concrete? I like the rock on the front........

mkane09

 

[FairfaxStu]

So they added a couple more "boxes" next to the stairs. Unfortunately, they didn't put in the bottom pieces (in red), which was the whole point to tie in the low points coming from the house and the bottom step. I think the only fix is to undo it all, put in the 2 bottom pieces, and reassemble.

I agree. Yet another example of the builders trying to get away by doing it easy and not right. I am completely flabergasted by their work. One minute it is spot on, the next, not so much.

The rock work looks good but given the progress I have seen I estimate it will be another 2 months before he makes and installs them all. Don't rush him because he is doing very high quality work from what I can see. The main focus at this point is to get the inside finished (good enough) and have your Mom move in. Knowing your Mom, like mine, she will find some other stuff that we never even thought about that needs to be adjusted before the punch list is final.
-Stu

 

[forgeblast]

What about having them put one more large box on the bottom from the base of the stairs to the start of the patio?

 

[pacerron]

Peter,
At your mom's present house the brown stone paths encased by 6 x 6 have an ending point purpose, such as going to the pool, the greenhouse, etc.
I would think you would want the bottom of the stairs to go to the lower patio as an end point for now at least.
If they sawed off that one piece of 6 x 6 and framed over to the patio with brown stone it would have a purpose.
Sketch attached.
It looks like they plan to paint the stereo equipment frame or they would not have used white putty and written on it with pencil.
Was that the plan or was it to match the ceiling?
Ron

 

[pclausen]

Are they going to paint the basement walls to match the siding or leave it bare concrete?

They were going to leave it bare concrete, but looking at that pic, I can see how it would look much nicer to paint it to match. I'll discuss with builder.

The rock work looks good but given the progress I have seen I estimate it will be another 2 months before he makes and installs them all.

Actually, he will be working all day today, and has 3 folks that used to work for him for years in Florida coming up Monday to assist. He should be able to have everything done by Wednesday, maintaining the same level of craftsmanship.

forgeblast/Ron, great idea about building another box / continue the walk path to the basement cement path! I think the builder will like that better too instead of having to tear it back up on his dime.

Yes, the trim around the stereo equipment is to match the ceiling. Speaking of ceiling, they have not started sanding it yet. I hope the paint crew understands they need to sand it before painting it. They are working unsupervised from what I can tell.

 

[pacerron]

Peter,
It looks like the missing bottom 6 x 6's that you outlined in red have just had dirt thrown up against the next tier. They/you haven't filled the boxes with dirt yet? All they need to do is pull the loose fill from under the now bottom row in the corner and put a temporary block under near one side of the corner. Then hoe the other loose dirt out under the 6 x 6's and slide a missing side in, remove the block and do the other side. It doesn't look like there is a gravel base, or any drainage gravel/weep holes under any of it, so you need to have those two under there in particular, sitting on some gravel or you may have a big slide/settle of all the boxes and steps next spring. If you could get some 4" flex black plastic drain pipe with holes or slots in each tier of the boxes along the downhill sides and run down under the bottom cross 6 x 6 at each tier and out under the path to the lower deck, covered with 6-8" of gravel, before filling the boxes with dirt, you will be much better off. Whatever you plant in there may like it better too, rather than roots standing in a pool of water every spring. On your mom's old property most of the raised beds are on relatively level ground, away from the house, but they still probably have drainage. The property is listed again, on the net, with a lot of the pics that you have shown during this new build. Beautiful property. The hanging plates in the great kitchen are shown but not to the point of seeing if they are birds or something else.

The one trim corner you show that had the triangular chip of paint out of it hasn't even been filled and sanded, just painted over, leaving a big depression. All the nail holes are still showing under the paint
and some of the filler over the holes is sticking out beyond the board surface. You can see on the end grain how they are going to try to gob paint in it to cover the grain. It is not going to work, as you can see. It doesn't look like they intend to fill and sand the depressed and warbly seam tape on the PB either. If they do a lot of this stuff after the move in your mom's beautiful furniture may get damaged. If she really has to get out next week, have you considered putting her furniture in storage with the mover and having her stay with you till the new house is ready?
Ron

 

[pclausen]

The painters were back all day today (still there) and they redid all the nail holes. Nothing done with the triangular chip yet, but at least it looks like my message got through, to some extent.

They framers showed up at 8am and did the walkway to the basement concrete pad. Turned out pretty good. Ron, I head you on the lack of drainage. Will have to keep an eye on that to see if it will become a problem or not. Gravel in the bottom of each flower bed before topsoil sounds like a good precaution, even if the rest is not properly drained.

Electrician was there all day as well. Finally got the basement light working.

I spent all day cutting and chipping small trees along the deer fence line. Tomorrow I plan to start dropping 90' Yellow Pines in the path of the deer fence. Deer fence itself should show up mid week. It will be tight getting 1100' of it installed by Monday when mom moves in with the German Shepard's. Especially since I estimate 50 Pines need to get hauled out first and the limbs/tops chipped before we can string for the fence line.