Innards

Lots done at the house this week! I'm no pro but I think the electrical, plumbing and mechanical are nearly done! They also put up the metal shed roofs on the front and side as well as poured the garage floor. Oh! And the roof was shingled! 

 

Rob and I had gone through and put post-it notes around for the electrician based on a couple dry runs of daily routines. We added a couple switches, changed a little what controls what. Honestly it was one of the things I was dreading most about building because it requires so much thought but I think we did alright. The electrical inspection was Friday and passed. 

Fireplaces in! 

 

The sewage ejector all piped up and ready to spray (or "wheeze-honk" for you nature buffs). 

 

Looking back at it. 

This is that service door out the back of the garage that we didn't know would work out until the house went up. 

 

We stopped over at the house again today before picking Kasper up from a sleepover and it was all cleaned and tidied! Someone came to clean between yesterday and today, probably in preparation for another inspection tomorrow. According to our calendar, they are expecting to start insulation this week. 

It was sooooooo cold all weekend which was a bummer. Rob and I did go out and play disc golf today before going to get groceries. It was 7 degrees so we didn't take the kids (they stay home for a couple hours now which is amazing). I got to see Rob get a hole-in-one at our local course he plays all the time! He's been trying to get a hole in one here for the last 6 months. Maybe it had been too warm.

Another busy week coming up! Aren't they all?? Kasper has his last ski club, Marlo has swimming, Kasper gets to visit the orthodontist. And Friday is a day I hoped to never see again: an e-learning day. Wish us luck. We also decided this week to send Kasper to the middle school our new house feeds into vs. the middle school his elementary school feeds into. Kappy ultimately made the call, and it'll be so much easier for him to take the bus to and from home. Big changes for the dude in 2022, but he'll be ready!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Electrical

Every week I say the house is moving along so quickly! 

We had our electrical walk through this week! Stuff like this is overwhelming to me because I've never built a house before where we have total control over where light switches are and what they control and where outlets are. There were quite a few people working at the house while we were there and so that was fun. I think framing has officially wrapped up as of this week.

The light in here is just magical.

 

This weekend we did a family adventure race put on by the school district. It was cold but fun!

   

 Then we went back to the house while it was quiet to walk through ourselves and go through daily routines to really nail down the electrical plan. We have a (temporary) front door now!

   

Kitchen 

Marlo's room 

Loft and spare room 

Kappy's room 

Our room 

Sliding door in the basement that will eventually lead to the hot tub!

 

Kids are over it. 

Nice big window downstairs!

   

Little bar downstairs. 

We got the stairs going downstairs!

 

Then we went out to Lake Minnetonka to hang out at some ice houses belonging to friends. It was cold and windy so the kids mostly sat in the ice houses and watched the Olympics.

 

It was quite the sunset! 

Today we took the kids to the mall! We got them some snacks then drug them to the Sleep Number store where they insisted on being very involved in the process of picking a new bed.  So we ended up just getting this one.

   

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Windows!

Other than some fun house progress, we had a normal week with work, school, swimming lessons, ski club. 

The fun update at the house is that the windows are (mostly) all in! We added a couple windows after our initial window order so the big office window came later in the week and the little squares in our bathroom aren't in yet. There is a window downstairs but it looks like it arrived damaged so it wasn't installed yet. 

Also this week, HVAC began!

Our cabinet drawings are stapled all over the house for mechanical rough in. Each step makes it feel more real! FYI - the boards with the red edges are engineered studs. They put them in spots where it's important that the wall is super plumb straight like where kitchen cabinets go and shower tile go. 

 

Still waiting on those little square windows! The house is so much warmer with windows in.

Hope everyone had a great week! 

Brrrrrrr

It was cold this week! Seems like the third week of January is always downright bitter.  In fact, it was too cold to get done what they wanted at the house - most notably installing the windows. It was even too cold for Kappy's ski club!

They got the peak up on the upper level gable. It was about -10 degrees this day. The construction guys are mostly out there in the elements all day. Thankfully the basement is constantly heated and pretty pleasant so there is somewhere to warm up.

Then the porch, which I LOVE.

   

Boxes of windows! 

Stairs!

  

They got exactly 2 windows in. Apparently the plastic seal around the window cracks when it's nailed in and it's this cold. That's the biggest concern.

The kids got to finally walk into their rooms! First is Marlo's room.

Then 

Kappy's!

 

They also got the fireplace framed in downstairs! I think they're looking for things to do in the warm basement.

 

In other news, I got a (not awesome) video of Marlo doing the backstroke in swimming lessons. Swimming is really starting to click with her!

 

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Stay warm!