Last Friday we got a lot of work accomplished with Shawn's dad's help. He left in the evening and took Evan with him to spend the weekend with the grandparents. Shawn's older brother, Chad, his wife and four children where there as well. Evan seemed to have a great time. He seemed to remember the kids from our last visit and played with them. I think granpda learned what happens when you give Evan sugar, and the little Pike wore him off!
In the meantime, Shawn and I worked through the weekend and we got the basement wall finished. We sill had to do the garage frost wall, and some miscellanous things.
Monday and Tuesday night it rained in the evening, so we didn't get a chance to continue working on the house. We did work on figuring out what we need next after the basement is poured. We want to install radiant pipe for heating the basement floor, so I'm trying to figure out how to do that and see if we can do it ourselves. We also designed the details for the concrete ceiling that will go over the tornado shelter that we added to the design.
So Shawn took Wednesday off and finished making the last buck to the entrance of the small tornado shelter, straightened and plumbed the walls and measured them.
Yesterday he worked on getting the layout for the garage, and he's home today all day. His brother Brian is coming out to help to get the plywood attached to the corners. I will be taking vacation this afternoon so I can work on stacking the block for the garage.
Bill and his crew will be back next week from their job in Davenport, and they will be doing the pour. Once they are done, the plumber will come in to rough in the pipes that go under the slab for the basement plumbing. Then Shawn and I will install the insulation foam that goes under the basement slab and either we will hire the plumber to install the radiant pipe, or we'll be installing the pipe ourselves. Then the flatwork contractor will come and pour the basement and the concrete for the stoop on the covered porch.
Our framer had another job commitment prior to taking on our project, so he will start next week at this other job. He estimates it will take him two and half weeks before he can actually start on our main floor framing. So during those two and a half weeks, we have to get the rough plumbing, the radiant pipe, and the concrete slab poured.
We were worried that it will get to winter before we can get the roof on, but the framer is not concerned, he said he works through the winter, and this actully will give him some income during slow months, so that's good. And Shawn's boss told him that he installed shingles in January, and it's not big deal, not a good idea, but if we have to it can be done. The thing that needs to be done before the ground freezes is the concrete, but we should have the basement slab in a week or two. We might have to wait to pour the garage slab and driveway until next spring if it gets to be too late.
We also finalized the windows so they are ready to be ordered as soon as the framer starts. We've been looking at entry doors. We are going to pick what we want, get the rough opening for the door framed, and cover it with sheathing. We will probably not buy the door for a year or two (or three) since the cost of the entry door is a much as what our Buick is worth. We had allowed an amount in the budget for the entry door, but I guess entry doors are a lot more expensive than we thought. Since we won't be living upstairs for a few years, we really don't need to have the door yet and we can save up so we can afford the door we want. We will use the garage entrance anyway and the walkout basement door while we live in the basement. And really, entry doors can get damaged during construction and we'll wait until after all of the flooring and carpet is installed before we install the door. So we are quoting several different suppliers for entry doors, but even doors from Menards are expensive!
So we will be putting the finishing touches this weekend so the basement can be poured Tuesday or Wednesday. Please pray for us so we can get it done.
I will post some pictures next week.
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