Framing and Plumbing

The framers were busy yesterday working on the screened in porch. They put up the redwood posts and filled in the space between them. It is shaping up out there.

The fireplace base was also added today. Elizabeth enjoyed the base as a chair while working on her website. This fireplace is in the living room is an Inglenook wood burning stove. This stove will keep us toasty next winter.

The plumbers brought in the gas line to the upstairs utility room this afternoon. Yesterday they completed insulating all the hot water lines.

Steve brought all the outside doors to the house from storage this morning. They are all ready to go in when the framers can get to them.

Flags are Flying

Flags were flying high at the McWhorter house Sunday. Marcus Herrera and our builder Steve Gaines set up the poles on Saturday afternoon while we were out of town. They battled the elements of lightning and rain to get the poles up safely. An hour later the rain came through and left three inches in Christoval.

The poles are 50 feet tall and placed in the center of the circle drive. I can see them from the highway before our turnoff. They are really something to see. Just perfect.

Thank you to Mr. Sam Caldwell for making the poles and to Rita for painting them so perfectly.

Dormers Done

The rock-men stuccoed the dormers over the house and garage today. The rock-men were a singing crew, no radio just their voices. They were pretty good!

Next we have to pick a paint color for the stucco. We will match the stucco paint to the color of the rock. The rock-man will bring up some of our rocks next which will help us choose a paint color.

The framing crew completed the ceilings on both the balcony and the front porch today.

Rock Men

The rock men were at the house this morning preparing to apply the stucco on all the dormers. For safety reasons they need to complete this small job before the metal roof is installed. The metal roof will be ready in the next couple of weeks.

The rock for the outside of the house should be delivered in a couple of weeks also. Due to the recent rains they are behind in their deliveries.

The framers continue to install the ceilings on the porches. They have the support beams up now on the balcony porch and waiting for the metal supports.

I found our resident landscaper (Rita) on the job again today pruning another oak grove. We appreciate all her talented trim work, she does a super job.

Plumbers

The topic for yesterday and today is plumbing. Lots of plumbing going on this week. Those plumbers can sure make a mess, wood shavings are everywhere.

Our hot water system is a continuous system which requires a lot of tubing. This means when I turn on a hot water faucet anywhere in the house I will instantly have hot water. Great feature.

Busy Men

A little of everything is going on at the house today. The rock-men started attaching metal strips on the outside of the house. When mortar is applied these strips are pulled down into place to support the weight of the rock and keep the rock from falling off the house.

Frank and his men are building the chimney from the study today. The plumber is taking the plumbing pipe upstairs, he has completed the downstairs. I like all this busyness.

Slow and Steady

The work continues everyday, but seems slow. It takes a long time for the framers to go around the top of the house installing the soffits. They have to take down scaffolding then put it up again as they move around the perimeter. All this takes a great amount of time.

The plumber delivered the whirlpool tub. This tub is pretty big. They will install it under the bathroom windows some time later. Paul is looking forward to a long soak in the tub while enjoying the view out the window.

Elizabeth displays the attic ventilation Steve Gains brought to the job site this week.

Windows-Plumbing

Today the downstairs east side windows were installed. They are three feet by six feet windows and pretty heavy! The framers make it look easy. They have to finish wrapping the house in the Tyvek paper at the front of the house. Then they will continue to work on the ceilings of the porchs.

The plumbers started their installation today. They will continue working at the house through next week. Things are moving right along now. Yeehaw.

Lighting

The electrician came to the house yesterday. He installed the wiring needed on both of the downstairs porches. The framers can continue to install the soffits and ceiling material around the edge of the house and porches with this electrical work completed.

Our builder recommend recessed lighting for all the porches. He pointed out two benefits of recessed lighting, and I was sold. Birds can not build nests in them, and they will direct the light down onto the porch floor which is the best direction for lighting the large spaces.

We enjoyed looking at a couple of the homes in the official Parade of Homes yesterday. The homes had many wonderful bath and shower tile ideas I would like to copy. We have a couple more on our list to look at tomorrow.

Windows

I did the happy dance when I saw more of the upstairs windows going in. We don't need any more rain on the second floor.

Our windows are made by Eagle and have two wonderful features. They open from top down, or bottom up! I really like this feature. On hot summer days I can drop the tops down to release the hot air closest to the ceiling. Cool feature. The window casings also fold forward for easy cleaning.

The soffit work continues around the edge of the house with lots of vents for circulation. The electrician is coming this evening to install the wiring on all the porches. Then the framers will enclose the ceilings on porches using this same grey material they used around the edge of the house.

We are going to San Angelo today to view their Parade of Homes. We need paint color ideas and much more. I hope to glean lots of ideas from these homes today.

Flag Pole Stubs

Saturday at lunch time we were surprised by a phone call from Rita informing us Sam Caldwell, the flag pole man, was at our place to install the flag pole-stubs. Sam had gotten ill when he made the poles and was unable to finish the job installing the pole-stubs. Rita had called him early Saturday morning to discuss the steps we needed to take to install the poles ourselves. During their conversation Sam said his daughter and son-in-law would be happy to install the poles for us while he supervised. We quickly went over to the property to see how we could lend a hand and found his family already mixing cement and pouring it into the holes. They were fast. In no time the first stub was in and they were onto the next one. We wrote our family names on the cement rings, dedicated each one to our little pets, Elmo, Ginger and Blue Boy. Then we all put our hand prints in the cement too.

Paul has been busy contacting people today who might have the equipment to lift the poles into the holes.

Paper Covering

We were in San Angelo until late last night, too late to post the work on the house after we got back.

The framers started covering the east side of the house yesterday with paper. At the same time applying the trim on the eves.

Our resident landscaper (Rita) started working on two oak groves Monday. She does a fantastic job with anything she attempts. We will soon have a clear view to San Angelo through all the brush if she keeps it up. Attached are pictures of her before and after trimming work. Rita admitted today she had fallen down a small drop off into a cactus while hauling off clippings. She fell on her knee, ouch! And then right into a cactus, double ouch! She said it took quite a while for her to pull all the stickers out of her neck and legs, ouch, ouch ouch! We appreciate all her talents.

After, what a difference!

Dormer Trim

The framers are busy today installing all the trim on the dormers. They have to finish this trim because the stucco man is coming this week. He told the builder he needed to do this little stucco job before the metal roof is installed. It would be safer for him to install the stucco now. We are all-for safety!

Stairs

Elizabeth displays our stairs are now compete for all who would like to walk up them! Frank Gomez worked on these today and installed three dormer windows.
The other framers worked all day cutting-ripping to size the materials needed for the the porch ceilings and eves.

Black Roof

Over the weekend the roofers came and covered the roof with tar paper. The roofer was scheduled for Saturday, but never came. Sunday we went to Eldorado for church and dinner with Paul's parents. Sunday evening on our way back to the River we could see our house and its black roof from the highway. We were very surprised to see the roofers had been there on Sunday. The house looks even bigger to me with the paper on the roof.

Paul loves the second story balcony the most, the view is the best.

Decking Over House

The roof decking over the house and house dormers was completed early this afternoon. The framers told us the decking over the garage would be completed before they left the job today. All this was good news with a chance of more rain in the forecast.

The tar paper is scheduled to be rolled on tomorrow. We are looking forward to having the roof completely covered to protect the second floor from any more moisture.

The weeds are really growing tall around the property with all the rain we have had.

Roof Decking

The rain poured yesterday in the morning until after lunch. The framers did not come out to work on the fourth of July as they had planned because of the rain. However, with no rain showers today they were able to start covering the roof. We were doing the happy dance to see this much of the decking completed today. We really hope this rain lets up soon.

Yesterday we had a nice 4th of July grilling out in the rain. Hamburgers on the River is our traditional meal to celebrate Independance Day. We couldn't think of breaking tradition so we covered the grill with a canopy and it worked out just fine. Delicious!

Roof Skirting and Rain

The framers came late yesterday after the rain came through. I thought it best to wait until today to post something since there was no visible progress yesterday.
Today's focus was on the roof skirting. They made good progress before the rain came late in the afternoon. Frank Gomez said they will come back tomorrow on the 4th of July holiday. This news encouraged me, they must want to get the roof on as much as I do.
Christoval has more rain in the forecast tomorrow.