Mudding it up

Mudding and sanding is nearly done which means painting can begin on Monday! Here are some nice pix of the mudding.

Mudding the arch

Main kitchen

Main living room

Other news...the outdoor kitchen has been polished. It's all ready to receive the sink, grill and 2-burner stove. Gorgeous, isn't it? :)

Drywalling near complete

Almost all the sheet rock has been hung, although there is the the mudding and garage to finish. Here are a few photos of how things are looking. Sort of a mess (the nature of the beast) but it is really starting to look like a house inside!

drywall in great room

casita kitchen

stairway transition

Drywalling well underway!

Drywalling started at the end of last week and they are making great progress. We are hopeful that it will be completed by the end of next week. Once the drywall is done, we understand the concrete staining comes next...and then painting...on the inside. Also the stucco and roof move forward on the outside. We are hopeful to see BIG progress in the coming few weeks!

The subs do such very careful work. We are very pleased! Karin is taking them cookies today! :) Keep 'em in carbos!

The grillers out there are gonna love this!

The outdoor kitchen was "unveiled" today. While there is still a bit of finish work to do, you can see by the photos that it really turned out fantastic! Joseph was quite pleased with himself...as he should have been! :) It's a beaut!

Insulation complete; concrete outdoor kitchen poured.

The insulation was completed today. Most of it was cellulose (paper) in the walls. They blow it in wet and then they need to wait for it to dry before they cover it with drywall. We're hoping it will be dry by end of this week so they can start hanging drywall. Here are some photos of the insulation and process:

Here is a cool picture of the icynene (foam insulation) they put in the cooling towers.

Monday was a big day. They poured the concrete for the outdoor kitchen. It was quite the process. they have a big concrete truck, quickly put buckets of concrete in the form, and then vibrated it all to get the air out. They will unveil it on Wednesday or Thursday...and fingers crossed...it will all look beautiful! I'm sure it will though since Joseph Austin (owner of Counter Intelligence) is excellent at his craft! Here are some photos:

Attic insulation and outdoor kitchen move forward

Yesterday they insulated the attic. First they "netted" the attic by attaching a white cloth on the underneath of the rafters. Then they blew in 16 inches of fiberglass. Below is a photo of the process.

Another exciting development is that the outdoor kitchen is due to be poured on Friday. I am particularly excited about this because it is more-or-less be "my" space! (Karin Lynn has been consistently supportive about funding aspects of this project that encourage me cooking more! :) )
Below is a photo of the concrete form created by concrete-meister, Joseph Austin. It may not look like much but it will hold a grill, 2-burner stove, and a banco (bench) so that others can keep the cook company! :)

Finally...an update!

It's been a long time since I've actually had some substantive info to share. Without going into all the details, we had about a 3-4 week set-back. It seems that although we resolved the HVAC issue pretty quickly, the installation of it had a ripple effect on the plumbing and electrical. All needed some modification which means those sub-contractors had to come back and un-do/re-do some work. And all of this required a delay and reschedule of the necessary inspections. <sigh> Such is life in residential construction. BUT, the good news is that all inspections have been completed and we are back on track!

The photo below shows the entire house wrapped in insulative foam board and chicken wire, ready for stucco and a roof.

However, there are a few interior steps that must be completed first.
* finish caulking and sealing everything--should be done today
* do a "blower-door" test. This lets us know the size of air gaps in the house...very important for a passive solar house. we think this test is scheduled for Monday.
* hang dry-wall
* stucco outside of house
* put on roof

Once all this is done, they return to the interior of the house to do things like stain the concrete, mud and sand the drywall, trim, install cabinets, yada, yada... Hopefully we'll have some fun pictures to show soon! Stay tuned!