Not surprisingly, neither of my two generators would start without about an hour or two of carb cleaning and replacing the old gas. Modern gas with ethanol is a killer for small engines, especially when they don't get regular use. PeeWee Sites, the owner of the drywall company helped me take the engine apart and get it going, a real small town approach that was appreciated. He knew what he was doing and I learned a few things and hopefully will be able to get my log splitter running now.
Back to the house, here's a picture after the insulation was up and the drywall was started. The insulators are due back today to blow in the ceiling insulation, this will be R38 and the builders have been kidding us that we should be able to heat with candles, lol. They will also finish up in the crawlspace ceiling so the house will be entirely surrounded by insulation. The HVAC guys were here last week as well and installed the air handler unit in the crawlspace, completed the cold air return (you can see these in the second picture below), and cut the holes in the floors for all the registers. They will be back this week to set the outside unit and to complete the ducting in the crawlspace to distribute the heat. Hopefully, we'll have the electric turned on soon- power company is saying that should be done this week which will make things a bit easier.
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| Insulation completed and drywall going up |
This is looking from the front door through the living/dining area.
Here's a shot back towards the hall and bedrooms.
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| Walls nearly done |
The two people that did the drywall were very impressive. One was a woman only about 5' tall but she was the main helper and used the screw gun on all the panels as they went up. I learned a lot from watching them, for the most part, they would cut a large panel to fit an area, then tack it up with drywall nails covering all the boxes for fixtures, doors, windows, or anything else. After the panel was tacked up, he used a router type rotary tool with a spiral cutting bit to plunge through the panel, the run it around the fixture using the box as the template for the hole. After the piece was cut out, a couple of taps with a hammer and there was a perfect fit for the drywall around the box. No measuring or being off by a bit- as long as the first plunge was inside the box to be cutout, he could then find the edges to use as the guide. Then they would put in the screws to hold the panel in place.
They also used large panels of drywall cutting out doors and windows but eliminating a lot of the seams that would have remained if the areas had been pieced- this should make the finish process much easier and less time consuming. This resulted in a lot of waste from the large 4'x12' sheets of drywall but will result in a better finish. The finishers will be here today to put on the first coat of drywall tape and mud. Think it will take about 3 coats to finish it all up and if the weather allows the mud to dry quickly, should be done by the end of the week.
Next up after the walls are completed will be painting all the ceilings and walls and installing the doors and trim. Once that is done, we'll get the flooring started. I've talked with the hardwood floor installer and he's ready to go- the flooring is being milled at the sawmill and will hopefully be ready sometime late this week or early next. We found some remnant pieces of vinyl flooring last weekend to use in the two bathrooms and the utility room so will put that down once the painting is completed.
We still don't have the board and batten siding for the house- our sawmill has been having some trouble getting the white pine needed for the siding from his supplier but should be on track for this week as well. The siding can go up when ever there are nice days to work outside and it won't hurt the house to not be covered right away.
More after the drywall finishing starts and the porch concrete is poured on Wednesday.
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