Well we didn't even get a blog post up in August. To say we have been busy is the truth. We seem to officially be in the phase of the house build project where it seems all progress stops. The frame, windows, doors, siding and roof all go up so quickly, then the physical plant systems, plumbing, wiring, HVAC, audio, video, etc seem to take forever without much noticeable physical change to the project. We spent half of August in the crawlspace plumbing the Drain-waste and water supply systems. We think we are close to rough inspection time, but are currently waiting on the shower unit so we can complete that last drain, then the inspection. In the meantime we started wiring and that seems a lot easier. At least we are out of the crawlspace for the most part, but do get to climb all up in the roof trusses. It will be nice when that is over :-)
The Metal contractor is finishing the last of the roof and walls this mid-August day.
Steve prepares to install the LB joint for the underground electric service cable entrance.
All good. That's the gray thing on the right. The cover comes off that LB box so you can more easily pull the service entrance cable through the underground conduit and then bend it into the house. The black pipe is an RV sewer hook up. We will cut that down to ground level as soon as we get the gravel up to finished grade height. We will mount a 50A RV electric hook up near the sewer.
We mounted the electric service panel inside the garage very close to where the service entrance cable comes into the house. You can see the open 2-1/2" electric conduit to the lower frame left of the panel.
We pulled a temporary 50A electric service over from the shop. We pulled it through the underground electric conduit so we don't have multiple electric extension cords running across the driveway. You can see the black cable coming out of the conduit and we ran it up into the attic and across the garage into the house for a load center.
The temporary 50A service comes from the Shop. You can see we are using one of the RV 50A electric hook ups for the source and just ran the cable down through the electric conduit under the driveway over to the house. It's the little things...
There's the load center inside the house coat closet. We just connected a 50A receptacle to the cable then used our RV electric test box to convert to a duplex outlet with 120VAC for tool and light hook up while we work. This is much better than the extension cord nightmare set up we had a few weeks ago.
Evidence of plumbing progress underneath the house in the crawlspace. In this late August shot the pipes are not glued just dry fitted for now.
This is the other side, north side of the crawlspace. All we lack is the shower drain, and we will set that as soon as the shower unit arrives and we know where the drain will be located. Soon after this picture (a week or so) we glued up all the drain and also installed and glued the supply system. We still lack the shower drain though, which is holding up the rough plumbing inspection.
First evidence of plumbing above the crawlspace. We now have the entire vent system plumbed and will have to update the photographic evidence.
Here's a thing we did; we wrote some of our favorite scriptures around the framing of the house. This Proverbs passage is written on the window header above the kitchen sink.
This scripture from Matthew is written above our guest bedroom door. Come visit with us.
The Lord's Prayer is written above the garage door. We have since sheathed over it, but we know it's there :-) The Tyvek we stapled up at all the eave bays to hold the insulation inside the house structure and prevent it from spilling out into the soffits and clogging the vents. We plan to have insulation blown into the attic. R-40 we are thinking.
A view out the garage door. That fine looking soil out there is really not soil yet.... it is presently a cow byproduct.
View looking east. We still don't have an overhead garage door. We ordered it in April this year. We are praying it is installed before it starts snowing.
View looking southwest. We are looking for a black steel Eagle silhouette to hang on the gable end to put our style on "Eagle View".
View looking northwest.
The 40 ft driveway between the Shop (left) and the House (right). We envision the ability to place two RVs between there. One hooked to the Shop, the other to the house. Both with full 50A, water & sewer hook ups. We are planning to winter over in the Shop this winter and continue working inside the house, hopefully making more good progress. One nice thing is it is a short commute to work in the mornings.
View looking northeast.
Gari cleans up in the garage.
Plumbing the header for the water softener in the garage with Gari.
Last week we prepared for gravel delivery by outlining the driveway with some of our larger and plentiful river rocks.
First day wiring. I see AV cable and some branch circuit work in the great-room.
Last week we had the propane tank delivered and buried. Troy our awesome excavator makes the first cut for the tank hole on the south side of the house.
Shane from LP Propane operates the wireless crane while Troy guides the tank into place. Gari watches closely to follow up with quality control. She doesn't miss a thing.
Tank set in place and stubbed out, Troy begins to cover the tank.
Later that same week, Troy starts the gravel delivery. This is planned to finish our driveways now that most of the heavy equipment building the house is finished. Below Troy dumps a load in front of the garage. Soon we will be able to drive and park things inside. All we need now is the overhead door.
A second and third load are dumped in front of the garage.
Wiring is now in full swing. Still waiting on the shower.
Woke up one day, went outside and saw this; two light eyes on the side of the house looking back at me. Reflections from the Shop windows.
Ranchers have been busy cutting and bailing hay over the last few weeks. We have watched many loads of hay like this go by Eagle View.
We had a bit if excitement a couple of weeks ago. We were just finishing up dinner when we started to hear more and louder mooing than we normally hear. We jumped up thinking the rancher neighbors were moving cows, and we wanted to get a few pictures. We opened the Shop door and we see nearly the entire herd walking across our driveway!
Quick thinking Gari ran towards the gate to close it back up before every last cow escaped. It appeared that the cows had pushed the gate down and just trampled over it.
The cows, about 60 of them, walked around the neighborhood for a little over an hour, then the moral of the story is that the cows do come home. The ranchers with a little help from us guided the cows back into their rightful pasture.
