Aug 28th: Armstrong floor samples (Samantha)
Samantha picked up some very nice Armstrong floor samples from Springfield today. They are a nice large size:
Category Archives: House
Aug 28: Working on the walkout/porch concrete forms, gravel delivery, ThermoPEX
So far today has been a rather quiet day on the construction front 🙂 On the back walkout area, the framer is finishing up the forms/rebar/gravel for the concrete footings and slab. There are also pier locations for the posts that will support the back porch. Two loads of 1″ gravel delivered by Scott today for bedding in the ThermoPEX, PEX, conduit and ethernet (they’re all run in the same 2′ ditch) Martin Plumbing is coming out later today to
Control joints in concrete basement slab
We are building a house and I have been learning a bit more about concrete lately. You may know the old saying ‘there is only one sure thing with concrete, it WILL crack’. 😉 Of course the trick is getting it to crack where you want to 🙂 ‘Control joints’ are cuts made in the concrete so that hopefully when the slab cracks it will follow the pre-made cut. This is the control joint layout that I came up with:
New tankless hot water heater
I am looking forward to a visit from Martin Plumbing this morning to install a new tankless hot water heater! Our old hot water heater has performed well for over a decade, but there are some nice new models out today and I am excited to be trying one out. My family lives off the grid and a tankless (or ‘on demand’) hot water heater is a great match for an energy efficient home. 🙂
The Best FLAT Extensions Cords
It seems one can never have enough extension cords and the following extension cords are particularly useful. They are flat they so you can put something close to an outlet and still utilize the receptacle, this is of course great to go behind furniture or wall-mounted flat panels. I use a number of them in my house and here are my favorites: Coleman Cable 03518 Flat Plug Extension Cord, 16/3 Grounded with 3-Outlet Trinector Tap, 12-Foot http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BQT7B6?ie=UTF8&tag=pixensity-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000BQT7B6The Coleman Cable SlenderPlug
Heating vaulted or cathedral style ceilings (efficiently)
Please note, this is a draft version of the post 🙂 Everyone I know that has a vaulted ceiling says they are very nice to look at but that it is very difficult to heat/cool a house that has them. The most recent example was this past Sunday at church. My friend is retired and her children have moved out on their own. Now her house is too big and the vaulted ceiling is costing her a lot of money
Serving area for screened in deck
Samantha sent me this link tonight: 31 Insanely Clever Remodeling Ideas For Your New Homehttp://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/insanely-clever-remodeling-ideas-for-your-new-homeCan you get through this post without calling your contractor? And that resulted in #27 ‘Bring the outdoors in…’ being included in this email to our designer: Evenin’ Steve, Just a quick note here Kitchen notes & deck serving area The kitchen layout is Samantha’s domain, and we don’t have to go into extreme detail in these plans, but the pencil drawing is inaccurate as the
Timber frame house plan revisions
NOTE: this post is a copy of an email that I sent to our designer Steve. He has been a big help to us throughout the entire planning process. Good morning Steve, I tried to keep my previous revisions email as short as possible, but I did want to let you know that the decision to make changes was not a flippant one. I recently read this book at my dad’s prompting: Your Engineered House It is a book by