Finally, they are working on the shop

[TC Chris]

Today has been a good day!

First, I had a medical procedure done this morning. Not only did they not perforate my esophagus this time, but I have been pronounced "not dead". The suspected malady did not exist. I am going to live to fight another day, which is a blessing.......

Ditto on the congrats on the good medical outcome. There's nothing better after a lot of fretting over "what-ifs," only to find that it's "all clear."

Chris Campbell

[19&41]

Glad things went well all around!

[electra225]

Pictures. One guy did the foaming. Styrofoam is not heavy, but still.....

The 1" of styrofoam ads an R value of 5 to the insulation on the walls. The popouts are two more 1" thicknesses of styrofoam nailed on, then they put wire mesh on those. The electrician obviously didn't look at the plans when he put in the outside outlet. He allowed for the 1" of styrofoam, but did not consider the additional two inches for the popout to the left of the French entry doors.

[19&41]

That is built like the proverbial brick house! It's coming out nicely.

[William]

The eyebrows about the windows add a nice touch. You didn't want to plug anything into that outlet anyway, did you? It's looking good!

Bill

[electra225]

Wonder what the inspector will say about wires that disappear into the wall........

The eyebrows and popouts are there to match the house. Gotta match the house to satisfy the HOA.

[Firedome]

Glad to hear the A-OK on medical, and nice progress on the outbuilding.
I have a feeling I'd be butting heads all the time with that HOA, my experience with the one in the previous lakeside community that we lived in was not a good one, and I suspect it made me even more stubborn and oppositional than I usually am in such circumstances, which is saying something. It's a good thing that the current one is very loosey-goosey,
and it helps to be on the board of trustees just to make sure it stays that way, which is more typical in live-and-let-live VT.

[electra225]

If we have to have an HOA this one has not been all that bad, so far. They get a little silly when a coach light on your garage burns out, but....

The electrician is out here now working. He cut the hole for the outside outlet perfectly. I told the wife if I attempted that, I'd have messed up the whole wall. The electrician told me he gets $120 for every hole he has to cut that the foamers cover up. He told me he spent 8 hours one day cutting holes when foamers or drywallers covered up his fixtures. He told me that a drywaller covered up all the pot lights in a ceiling and that he had to cut those all out. I'd have been aggravated if that happened to me. He seemed to take it in stride......

Doctors will make you sick whether you are legitimately or not.

[Motorola minion]

Good to hear you are fit to enjoy this fun project Electra. You need not hesitate to crank up a restoration job (UL or CU testing ) because no sound leaks from a tight, new building.

Speaking of projects, I once helped an acquaintance by adding a sub-panel and fully wiring a two-story addition. There was MIL quarters in the daylighted basement and my job was to heat that as well. His carpenter added a chase, pulling out the NM (romex) I had roughed-in, leaving it hanging out. Later on, the drywaller covered up the pig-tails I had curled up for baseboard heaters. The last strike for me was when shelves were added in a closet, before an electrical inspection. I was called back to move the light/outlet away from the shelves tip space to comply with code. Its all part of the job>o<

The owner was playing the general or "lead" contractor and that did not work out well for him, evidenced by a failed plumbing inspection which sent him on the warpath, alienating the others. Myself and the others may have been moonlighting the job to save him money, but the trades get along (and coordinate! ) or they don't. I would have to get used to this if I were an electrician, usually the last guy in...

[electra225]

I'm hoping with all the plastic sheeting and styrofoam they are using, the accoustics will be good. I don't believe it will sound like I'm in a drum when something is playing, which is good, what I had hoped for. I went upstairs into the storage area for the first time today. Lots of good usable space there for tubes and things that aren't heat sensitive. It won't be air conditioned up there.

We thought about acting as our own contractor on this project. Probably a good thing we didn't. If a professional construction company has so much trouble with keeping their help working, I can only imagine if I was trying to do it myself. This has been too long of a project now.

[Firedome]

Being general contractor can be a challenge, I did that on our VT house, as well as being main builder, did all the framing and close-in with help from a friend, did all the electric except the service entrance to the 200 amp panel. But I refuse to do plumbing or roofing, and had issues with the plumbers. One guy did the waste side, super expensive, so had another guy do the supply side, shoddy work, PEX leaks finally found a guy that others in the community had used and he cleaned up the mess. The biggest challenge in VT is hunting season, fishing season, snowmobiling season, ice fishing season, even mud season, seems like there's always some kind of season to encourage absenteeism.

[electra225]

Jim, the county building code inspector paid us a visit this morning. He passed the roughed-in electrical. He determined that the structure was sufficiently sound to hold up the tile roof. We are good, construction can continue. The next inspection will be for the ditch for the electrical from the house to the shop, and to inspect the drywall screws to make sure they are properly spaced. God forbid that the drywall screws were not properly spaced.

[Firedome]

The last house we built in MD had 17 inspections, including a last one for the house numbers to make sure they could be seen by firemen from the street. The house set 800 ft off the road so we had to put huge numbers on the side of the garage. This despite the same bloody #s were on the mailbox! As soon as we got the final permit I took those stupidly large ones off.

The last house we built, the one in VT, had only 3 inspections: footers, framing and plumbing... nothing for electrical! The footing one was totally useless as it's on sonotube piers and they'd been long since poured and buried by the time they came! They had no idea if they were 60" deep to the actual frost line.. so dumb!

[electra225]

The insulation guys are here today. They are spraying foam insulation on the underside of the roof, then putting batts in the walls. The underside of the roof, with the 2X6 rafters is completely filled with insulation. They say the attic will stay within 5 degrees of the air conditioned main work area. So if it's 115 outside, the attic will be something like 85 degrees. The advantage to insulating the underside of the roof is that you don't have all that heat captured in the attic. I'd never seen this done before. I'll get some pictures when they get done and get the mess cleaned up, which is considerable. Nice guys, though.

Edit. It may be taking a long time to get the shop done, but I have to say I've learned a lot. This spray foam insulation is messy, but impressive in how cool it is inside the shop now. It is 87 degrees here now. I believe I could work comfortably in the shop with the windows open with perhaps a fan going. The installers cleaned up sufficiently so you can't tell they were here by their mess. They even raked the rocks in the landscaping where they dragged their hose. They cleaned up all the little divets and scraped and vacuumed the floor. There is some outgassing from the spray foam, so they opened the windows and the door and recommend leaving them open for 24 hours to let the fumes escape.

[TC Chris]

Send a note to the insulation company praising the guys who did the work. Our culture doesn't do enough "thank yous" but we are quick to gripe. People are always surprised to get kind remarks.

Under-deck insulation works fine of you have cement tile roofing. Not so well if it's asphalt. The sun bakes the shingles if they're sitting over an unventilated area. Manufacturers limit their warranties for shingles installed over insulation. But you've got cement, and it can bake away without harm.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

One of the guys who did the insulation WAS the boss, the guy who owned the sub-contractor insulation company. He showed me his outfit. He pulled his 28' trailer with a Chevy diesel one-ton pickup with dual wheels. The trailer had a diesel-powered generator, an electric air compressor and an electric pump contraption to pump the insulation foam. When the foam hit, it expanded like it was alive, freaky looking stuff. After it sat up, they too k a big machete looking thing and trimmed the excess that had oozed where they didn't want it. They put unfaced batts in the walls. Tyvek and plastic sheeting go over that on the inside. The Tyvek as part of the insulation package, the plastic sheeting to protect punctures of the Tyvek by pegboard hooks. I thanked them profusely for their professionalism and for going the extra mile.

[electra225]

I trust this won't jinx the deal, but......

The project manager called this evening and announced the drywall crew would be "available" tomorrow. Let's hope that materializes. I'll have the coffee made.......

[William]

Congrats, Greg, for progress on the shop. Maybe it will be complete by the end of March like the project foreman promised. Good thoughts go your way that happens.

Bill

[electra225]

They are here hanging the drywall on the ceiling. This is the first time they have worked two days in a row. This week will mark the one year anniversary of this project. ONE YEAR to work on a 400 square foot shop and it isn't done yet. They have built 10,000 new houses within a stone's throw from where the shop is, but these guys can't build a 400 square foot shop in a year? The inspector seems to think we are lucky we have gotten this much done. Many small contractors around here aren't doing this well...

We learned this morning that stucco shooting is scheduled for Monday next, stucco texture for Tuesday. MAYBE roof done by the end of the week. Let's hope this pans out. That done, we can schedule the tile for the floor.

[electra225]

It took two guys less than an hour to hang the sheetrock on the ceiling. These two guys had done this before. Amazing to see them work as a team. Now, in an hour, there will be somebody else to "tape, texture and clean up mess. One hour". I reckon drywall is like doctoring. Everybody has a specialty. These guys don't tape and texture. The tape and texture guys don't hang sheetrock.