November 5, 2005 Close to the Finish Line

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Quick Summary

Finishing the house has taken much longer than we thought it would. We ended up hiring people to do the siding and the patio and a few other items that we felt we didn't have the expertise to do ourselves. The roof, siding, carport and interior are almost complete and we're aiming to close the loan in two weeks.

Siding

The siding is about 75% complete at this moment... the posted pictures are nearly a week old. We had the siding contractors halt work for about a week to allow for the porch contractors to finish their job but they didn't show up during their reserved week! The siding work continued this morning and we expect the board and batten area to be completed by the end of the day. We have enough money in our budget for only one more day of the siding contractors' work, so whatever they don't finish will be left for David and me to complete.

The color of the siding is the natural color of the primed HardiPanel which we plan to paint.

Tyvek Repairs

This has been the hugest pain in the butt. The Tyvek has been destroyed several times. The first issue was with the actual transport. During the module transport, the housewrap tore in many places from the wind. Also, the Tyvek was secured with staples instead of roofing nails (the nails with the orange caps). So we ended up with ripped Tyvek with hundreds of staple holes in it. We repaired the holes with Tyvek tape and the many ripped areas with new Tyvek. This took several full days to complete, and at our pace, it was stretched over several weeks. It would have been much easier for us if the Tyvek was completely left off. Since the Tyvek was secured underneath the anchor straps, it was very difficult to properly lap the lower areas of the Tyvek. Later on the patio contractors burned the Tyvek in the front of the house when they flashed the OSB with a torch and roofing paper. So, we had to repair that as well but at least we didn't need to worry about proper lapping in the areas under the 4' eave.

Roof

David completed the roof with the exception of a few flashings. The roof contractor at the factory made many mistakes installing the roof and flashed the shed roof modules in the wrong direction and in some areas, entirely left out flashings. The factory sent us the remaining flashings to make the repairs and David is confident it will be a quick job. Fortunately, David is comfortable with the roofing and seems to have enjoyed the job. There is also a small repair to make on the bedroom module where the metal eave was damaged in transport or the set.

Foundation Contractor

The foundation contractor we hired has still not completed his job. We still don't have vents in the foundation; I discovered a cat who has been living in our crawl space and I was only happy that it wasn't a family of raccoons. We still have a hole in the drywall where he had to retrofit an anchor strap because he embedded the anchor strap in a doorway. He still owes us money for overpayment and on top of everything, he caused a lien to be placed on our property because he bounced a check with the concrete supplier! We immediately filed a complaint with the Contractor's State License Board when we were informed of the lien. After he paid the concrete company we were easy on him and retracted the complaint. Now we're just waiting for him to rectify the other items.

We're also planning on chipping off the cheap stucco covering that he put on the foundation. The foundation was formed with 2 x 4s and when the concrete was poured, a nice pattern of lines was formed. We'll have to chip off the stucco after the loan has closed since it is a non-essetial item but I think it will make a difference when it's done.

Carport

The carport is nearly done. We have yet to install the roof and side panels.

House Systems

Everything has been installed including the evaporative cooler, water, waste plumbing, propane, electricity and the hydronic in-floor heating. The evaporative cooler is huge and unsightly but we'll have to live with it until we think of a way to creatively disguise it. The in-floor heating was hooked up two days ago by the only experienced hydronic heating contractor in L.A. They encountered several problems since the contractor in Utah, where the house was built, installed a couple of pressure regulators and fittings backwards. We still have to install the foil-lined insulation before we can really use the heating. This is our job for today and I am planning to meet David very soom at Home Depot to get some insulation pins. We need to leave a 2" space between the subfloor and the foil to create a heat pocket.

Interior

I hope I have more time to elaborate on this tomorrow. We're nearly done with the interior although we have many little fixtures and fittings left to do. The kitchen progress was halted because we had a major problem with a wall being out of sqaure and we'll have to alter one of the cabinets and a coverpanel. Now that our systems are completed, we're able to finish the bathroom that houses the door to the utility closet and access to the crawl space. Here are a few pictures:

Master Bathroom

Kitchen Sink

We still have many fixtures lying around, waiting to be installed.