Latest Updates!

The insulation and pine tongue and groove wall boards are being installed in the open section of the basement and we have ordered the toilet and utility/laundry sink for our half bath/laundry room in the basement. The propane monitor is now running in in the basement during the day when workers are there but they turn it off when they leave since the entire house is not yet insulated. We would blow through a lot of propane at this point if the monitor heater was left running 24/7. The gas lines were run from the propane tank to the heater by the gas company two days ago! Prior to this, our contractor was using a portable propane heater with portable propane tank in the basement to stay warm while insulating the basement and putting up the pine tongue and groove wall boards down there. Before the pine wall boards can be installed they have to be treated first with some kind of lacquer. But the temperature has to be warm enough to treat the pine boards with lacquer. So they need to heat the basement, where they are working on treating the wood before installing it. 

The HVAC lines have been run upstairs for the HVAC heating/cooling units but those cannot be installed until the pine tongue and groove wall boards are installed on the walls that the units will be mounted to. So our contractor is working on insulating the house and getting the walls done that impact the ability to complete the HVAC work. 

Probably within the next two to three weeks we will be fully insulated and will have a nice warm house between the HVAC units on at least the first floor plus the propane monitor heater in the basement. And shortly after we will likely have the HVAC installed on the second floor too! But even without the second floor HVAC unit, the entire house will be nice and warm. The second floor is open so the heat will rise nicely up there anyway. And probably within the next couple of weeks our half bath/laundry room in the basement will have the toilet and laundry/utility sink so we will be able to use the toilet and will have running water too! 

We also have lighting installed in the basement now but lighting upstairs cannot be installed until the pine tongue and groove wall boards are installed on the ceilings. Most lights are provided by the electrician such as recessed lighting, two spot lights outside as well as bathroom fans with lights and closet lights. We still need to choose and purchase the decorative lighting for both outside and inside. There are decorative lights outside the front door and sliding door and we need two ceiling fans with lights inside as well as a couple of other standard ceiling lights for the downstairs bedrooms and downstairs hallway. We also need to select lighting for over the kitchen island that will be hung from the ceiling and will need long rods to allow the lighting to be right above the island. 

The deck boards on the farmers porch have been installed too! We can now walk freely there! Prior to this we had to carefully walk along planks that were temporarily put into place without falling down below. There are no rails yet but there’s plenty of room to walk without having to go near the edge. 

It has been really cold up there the last few weeks with temperatures down into the single digits mostly, at times below zero! Otherwise they might have been able to finish the deck boards too! Railings will have to wait for slightly warmer days. For now, most work is being done indoors with heat provided by the propane monitor heater in the basement. 

However, it appears our contractor might be working on installing the stairs to the farmers porch today! If he gets too cold he can always go inside and warm up now! Before we had heat, the temperature inside the house was actually colder than outside! The temperature would drop severely during the night so the house would get cold. During the day the temperature would rise but not enough to raise the temperature inside the house. 

Anyway, our camera just showed this! Not sure yet but we might soon have stairs here! We will be able to check in later on to see if this is what our contractor is working on. It’s too soon to tell if this is what he is actually working on right now. 

We don’t have any cameras inside the house so I don’t have any photo updates. And we’re not going up this weekend so I won’t have indoor photos for a while. Not unless I can get my son or daughter-in-law to stop by to take photos for us! 

The well is now great at 6.5 gallons per minute after drilling down 1,000 feet and hydrofracking twice! It was hydrofracked once, for an entire day, at around 600 or 700 feet with poor results and drilling to 1,000 feet provided poor results but when they hydrofracked again, they got great results within a few hours! After this, the repeat flow test showed the 6.5 gallons per minute! The well company still needs to come back to install the well pump and lines (electrical and water lines). The electrician will hook the electrical line to the fuse box and the well company will install the water line to the well tank in the basement, which has already been installed by the plumber! The trench from the well to the house has been filled in. The lines are in the trench. Well, the conduit for electrical is there plus water lines. They just have to run the wiring through the conduit and hook it up to the well pump. They just have water line is ready to be hooked up to the well pump. Once the pump is connected it will be lowered into the well at the proper depth to be able to grab water and the well will be capped. 

Since the gas line from the propane tank to the house is done, that trench can now be filled in as well. It’s on the side of the house so that trench isn’t in the way like the trench from the well to the house, which went across our driveway area. So it’s great to have the well trench filled in now! 

Now that the gas is installed, we can now get the stand by generator in place! We will move it ourselves into place on a pad on the side of the house next time we are up there. The plumber can hook up the propane to it. The gas company doesn’t need to come back for that. The gas company only needed one appliance to hook up to in order to complete the gas lines from tank to house. The lines were inspected by the town so from here on out our plumber can hook up everything else: Generator, stove/oven, and gas clothing dryer. 

Moving along slowly but surely! The holidays were slow and not much got done as far as the house itself. Our contractor’s son went into the military so he took some time off to spend time with his son before he left. They did things like hunting and fishing together, and probably lots of other things together. Then our contractor had a flare up of shoulder pain and couldn’t work for a couple of weeks. But during the holidays and while he was out for medical reasons, he still had a couple of guys working on stuff so some progress was still being made as far as carpentry goes. The electrician, HVAC guy and plumber still made progress as they work independently. So progress was made with these areas as well as gas company and well company work-related duties. And our site guy was on top of everything too like digging the trenches and filling them back in. I can’t tell but it’s likely the trench for the gas lines is now filled in. If not, it will most likely be filled back in by tomorrow. He seems to come mostly on weekends to do work there. So next time we visit we will likely be able to walk around the entire house again! Yay!