April 4

Been some time - but somehow, someway, we are progressing to the desired end date of June 1. Some weeks you get behind, others you make some up.

We are beyond all the "difficult" inspections...so it is really an exercise in finish work at this point in time. There are still the hurdles of getting it all done, and passing final...but nothing like the inspections that occur at the "rough" stages where you can get hung up for days/weeks if something goes awry.

Drywall took about a week longer than anticipated - but that was mostly due to the mud not drying very fast...the cold March where temps had a hard time hitting 45 many days were the main culprit - as the furnace has very minimal power - as it only has "return" air from the basement right now (to prevent a lot of dust/crap getting in to it) - so with it cold outside, and things trying to dry - moisture has little chance to escape with no return air vents. But it was what it was...and they wrapped up priming and painting ceilings on Sat.

Hardwood guys showed up this morning...and laid 2,000 sq ft of flooring in 8 flipping hours!! He told me it would take him two days - and I did not believe that he could do it that quick - much less one day. When I did it last time, on my own, it took me 10 days, and about 15 pounds of body weight. Lesson learned...due to the speed, and not having to rent tools for 10 days...it was probably cheaper to hire it out...and its flawless.

They are pouring the concrete porch tomorrow, installing the staircase on Wed and hopefully starting the siding work tomorrow.

I am off all next week in hopes of getting about 200 sq ft of tile laid, and all the trim work up. Kitchen cabinets were all delivered last week, and installation will start next Monday. Masonry work should also start next week.

So all in all, things look good at this point - but that can change daily.


It starting to resemble a livable house...hopefully in about 14 days cabinets will be in and much of the window trim will be in.


A last minute change (after I did that math, and it was really not that much more expensive for hardwood versus carpet in the 20x16 master bedroom)...so we have hardwood. The $500 more it costs now I am sure will pay itself off over the long term and is simply a much nicer look in the master.


A look into the kitchen from the great room...while the floorplan is completely open - have attempted to achieve some definition between the rooms will some 14" sofitts. With 10 foot cielings in the house - it helps define the spaces better.


Have, so far, saved a bank of 10 trees clustered together in the back yard...and looks like I will be able to wrap a paver patio around them...so as long as they survived excavation - will provide a nice feel to the back yard - all 30x55 of it.

A look into the great room - you can see all my efforts of prewiring for any and everything along the bottom of the back wall. Corner fireplace will have stone work all the way up to the ceiling. Flat panel TV will sit between speaker cutouts and awning windows.

The front door (there is a piece of drywall hanging over half of it on the other side). Photo does not show scale - but with 10ft ceilings, you can't exactly put a normal 6 ft 8 inch door...so this thing is 8ft tall and 42 wide...so taller and wider than a normal door, which is 36 wide. To the left is the office.

The patio door which will lead to paver patio that will be sort of recessed into this pocket of the house.

Not much has been getting accomplished on the exterior - as have been waiting 3 weeks for the siding to come in. It is due this week. My make shift garage tarp - after my first, cheaper one got torn apart in the wind/t-storms.

Feb 27

Crazy that this was the snowiest Feb ever in Chicago - however, it took only 13 days for 20+ inches of snow to melt away to nothing but grass. And the sudden melt and rain equaled 3 inches of water in the basement the other week, thanks to not having any sump pumps yet - however, the floor drain worked fine and sucked most of it out in a couple hours. 60 degrees and what was once 20 inches of snow makes for a lot of water.

Other than that, this Tues is d-day - the big rough framing inspection, electric and Hvac....once we get by those, its much easier sailing - as the hard inspections are over and a lot of it is "detail" work (insulation, drywall, flooring, etc). However, last time we got dinged heavily on framing - so trying to be more proactive this time...odds are we wont pass - most dont - hopefully they are just small corrections that will take a day or so. On the last build, inspector wanted architect to come out and look at a few things - that kind of stuff just slows the process down.

As long as we can have insulation, drywall and the hardwood flooring down by end of March - I think we are a lock to make it in by June 1....looking at photos from the last build - we were about 2 months from occupancy when I wrapped up hardwood. And this time I wont be doing it myself - which took a week and a half...the pros will be doing it in 2-3 days.

Worked on wiring most of the weekend (cat5e wiring, satellite, whole house audio, speakers, etc). You would think its a quick task - however, its really a time consuming task, running wire, drilling holes, working around joists or other obstacles, etc. And really, you would think the advent of flat panel tvs would make wiring easier, however, its makes it more difficult - as you need to have the satellite/cable wire up high (4ft) and also down low in case you have a satellite box in a cabinet. Then you need to have in wall HDMI so you have something to go from the low box, to the high TV. There is just so much to think about - gets very frustrating.

However here are the details:

*All bdr rooms with 2 RG6 jacks (directv) - one high, one low, in-wall HDMI, one cat5e jack.

*Mster bdr with same setup, plus a 35 ft HDMI run into mst bth that will display the same signal that is on the mst bdr TV into the mstr bth (idea here is to save any expense on another monthly direct tv fee) in case we ever stick a little 20inch TV in there. In cieling speakers fro whole house audio in mstr bdr and mstr bth.

*Bonus rm above garage - same ability as mstr bth and mstr bdr set up to share a signal (or have its own) with guest bdr...2 seperate HDMI runs linking up the two rooms.

*Office - 2 RG 6 jacks - 4 cat5e jacks, 3.5mm jack to plug in ipod/iphone and link it into great rm receiver. Whole house audio speakers. In floor power socket and in floor cat5e jacks (so a desk can be placed in middle of room and plug into the floor - didnt do this last time and regretted it).

*Whole house audio, with separate zones in kitchen, dining rm, back deck, front porch, garage, office, master bdr, master bth. In wall front and rear speakers in great rm.

*3.5mm jack in kitchen to dock a iphone.

*2 extra long runs of RG6 dropped in rear soffit to accommodate satellite install.

Its walls like these that make trying to wire a house for tv, internet, audio difficult...there simply is often no place to put outlets easily.

Fireplace is roughed in.

A pleasant late Feb day to work at the house...some of the detail has since bad added to the outside (the window awning, etc).

Blizzard 2011

Been awhile since last update...things were progressing good until this storm. Plumbers are near wrapping up, HVAC has started, and electrician will start on Mon/Tues.

I still don't have water or gas hooked up, although the sewer is hooked up, and water is trenched to the street - they just need to hook it up by going under the street. Gas is fairly simple, as it only goes 2-3 ft down, and they can tap in on my side of the street. Either way, 16-18 inches of snow will probably prevent either from happening in the near term. However, I really don't need water right now, and really don't need gas until we start drywalling (which wont be until early March). So for now, we are OK.

My biggest concern today was getting the house "dug out", as when I got there, it looked like the porch roof was under stress, and there was absolutely no way anyone could access the site by truck, much less by foot. And I knew if the powdery snow sat for more than a day, it would be much harder to move...so it was pretty much get it done today, no matter how long it took (and that meant pretty much all day).

On the first build, while the weather was not awesome, never did we have to deal with this, it was more the typical Chicago 3 or 4 inch snowfalls, not 18...


My slightly tweaked window design from the first house...a fixed center window, with flanking casements. Transoms were made narrower than last time. Overall, I am very pleased, as they look better and were cheaper (fixed window cheaper than one that operates).


The boys playing on the future fireplace hearth...

Connor likes going to the house...he often thinks the "workers", as he calls them, need one of his Handy Manny tools.


Having fun with all the plumbers PVC pipe fittings. Apparently, they made good balls.

Both the boys bedrooms will have vaulted ceilings.


Temporary stairs - but stairs will be a straight up shot like this...


Master bedroom has a pretty high vault...and 4 square awning windows .


Dining/Eating room...


This shot kind of show how the kitchen (island is where that 1/3 wall is), dining and great room will flow together.


This is about 2.5 hours of pure hard labor to clear that snow bank.

A look down Jefferson...very snowy.


Dumpster is dug out...

The aftermath...luckily, the high winds kept the snow off the majority of the roof...it tended to get hung up on the porch roof...this was post me shoveling the roof...the snow was about halfway up that 2nd floor window...