Tuesday, September 4, 2007

To the window.... To the wall!

We've been busy since the last post. Well, we're always busy. But here it is:

We did the last few details of rough framing, like closets and finally the stairs.

We couldn't get a good picture of the stairs yet because there is a bathtub temporarily in the way. These construction temporary treads will be replaces with hardwood which will cantilever to the left about 12".

Our windows finally came in, so we rented some suction cups and a nifty material lift and installed them over labor day weekend. The five sided center window weights near 300 pounds and was extremely scary to install. I gave us about a 50% chance of dropping it, but we ended up successful.

One reason the windows are so heavy is they are triple pane for energy efficiency. In fact, even with all those windows, that big wall will loose less heat than a standard insulated wall with no windows at all.

This window is 6 feet wide and almost 8 feet tall. Here are the finished "wall of windows" which readers helped choose.



More window (and sliding door) photos




Inside view of front window wall, loft, and bedroom windows

Meanwhile, my dad was up again and he wired the whole place, down to the service entrance. The inspector signed off his inside work and GVEA signed off his outside work. Thanks again dad!

Service entrance. We went with 200 amps. Just in case we need to run the hot tub, an air compressor, and a welder at the same time, you know.

Main breaker panel and all the wires coming in to it.

As much as I want to be done with tree clearing, I had to clear a path to the power line.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

AMazing!! The windows are beautiful, the stairs look wonderful, the wiring is done------what an incredible "leap ahead". Congrats to all!! We're very impressed.

Deb and Dan said...

Whew, those people on the ladder give me the willies just looking at them.
The place is really progressing wonderfully! Thanks to Craig for all his hard work. That guy deserves a medal or something. Love the windows and the loft area should be a great place for the view. I can see you guys in there nice and cozy by winter. Can't wait to see it completed as I am sure you are too. Got to go and get my daily dose of humility on the golf course. Love Mom

Kara Stenberg said...

Wow, that's really impressive about the triple-pane windows' ability to retain heat. Even more impressive that you guys installed them yourselves! O_O; I think anxiety attacks would of prevented me from doing something like that myself!

And I see you are going with stairs rather than a ladder. Shame - it makes Those On High seem a little too accessible for orations to the followers below in the livingroom. ;)

Anonymous said...

SO.......is the truck still working??? Barry wants to know....the muffler hasn't reverted yet to it's former sad song yet? Thanks to JB weld-----the other Alaska duct tape.

Andrew said...

Re: the truck: Let's create a noise scale. From 1-10, the truck was a 10 before Barry fixed it. After, it was a 3. After a couple weeks it crept back up to about 6 where it's held steady. I suspect the muffler patch wore away quickly, but the clamps on the manifold hold tight and keep most of the noise at bay. Even today we hauled 325 gallons of water with it and it did fine.

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.