Category: RIVER HOUSE (Page 11 of 20)

I just got back from spending over 4 hours on a walkthrough. During this session, we reviewed the locations of all the lights, light switches, exterior cameras and Ethernet switches. We also indicated everywhere that the builders needs to add blocking to the walls to allow us to mount towel bars, floating shelves, mirrors, and anything heavy that needs to be attached to one or another wall. It was a long session, but we got through everything.

Here is a picture I took from the blocking discussion in the kitchen. Aside from seeing Daphne, the architect and the head of the carpenter crew, do you see anything else interesting?

If you need a hint, its WINDOWS. Yes, all the windows have gotten delivered and the crew has started the two week long process of installing them. Every room in the house now has windows (and french doors) leaving against their walls waiting to be installed. Right now they are preparing the frame around each window. Future updates should include pictures of the mounted windows.

Speaking of updates, here is the garage foundation. Last week they poured the base and just today (while we were there), they poured the foundation walls. There is no basement or crawlspace under the garage. These walls will go up about a foot above ground level and the interior will be filled with gravel on which they will pour the garage floor.

During the walkthrough, the architect found another framing mistake, can you see it in the picture below?

Its turns out that this corner in the center of the picture should be concave instead of convex, so we ended up shrinking the bedroom and expanding the hall closet. This image from the plan shows where the wall was supposed to go, and the mistake is in red. Oh well, this should be easy to fix.

Today we met with the A/V guy who is handling the internet, cameras, sound system, doorbells and TV setup. We ended up repositioning two of the exterior cameras and adding a third, which will face the backyard and the river (for wildlife viewing). We also added a third doorbell chime for better coverage.

We also met with the electrician (who was part of the walkthrough) and the HVAC installer. The HVAC installer was doing his first visit to the house and will start to order the equipment. The next steps for the interior are a structural inspection, then attic insulation. Then the duct work can start. This is followed by the plumbing and then the electrical work, and finally the security wiring (e.g. smoke detectors).

The garage will be framed in two weeks. Then the house will be sided. I think the builder is holding off siding the house so he can side the garage at the same time. By the end of the summer, most of the work should move inside (until next year).

First the news. Daphne and I went paddleboarding on the Sudbury River. I was able to remain standing the whole trip. Daphne switched to kayak mode for a stretch and when she switched back, she fell into the river (she was able to climb back on – nothing damaged except her pride). It was approximately 2.5 miles round trip and it took us around 90 minutes. It was somewhat windy so we paddled into the wind at the start, which took us to Fairhaven Bay, where we saw an eagle and an eagle nest, although not together.

Meanwhile, visiting the site allowed me to fetch the construction camera recording from Saturday’s roofing work. The roofing of the main house is now finished. Here is the video.

This Saturday we sent to the site in the early morning to do our weekly pulling of invasives. To our surprise, we found a crew working on putting shingles on the roof. It looks like they started on Friday and will finish today. Here is a picture showing the roofing in progress.

On Wednesday they poured the foundation for the garage. The will add the garage basement walls this coming week. There is not really a basement under the garage, at least no space that will be accessible. I guess I will see what it looks like next week. Anyway, here is what it looks like now.

Inside the house, I noticed that they have finally placed the last interior wall. Specifically, the slanted wall between the master bathroom and the game room. Here is a picture from the porch. A few things to notice – they have a sunken area in the floor for the master shower (just behind the new wall). And if you look at the ceiling you will see a paper plate marking the location of one of the lights (more on that below).

Next Tuesday we will visit the site to do the electrical walk through evaluating (and adjusting) the locations for all switches and lights (and maybe plugs). They have already started to mark the locations for lights and switches. You can see one of the lights in the picture above. Here is Joel’s computer corner in the living room where you can see switches marked.

I have a short construction video of the pouring of the garage foundation.

I also have video of the roofing work from Friday but I am holding that back for another post. I do not normally record any video on Saturday or Sunday, but when I saw them working this morning I turned on Saturday recording. Tomorrow I will grab that footage and put together a video showing the roofing work.

Earlier this week they put in the framing for the supports for the garage foundation. The concrete will be poured tomorrow. The larger square is the original footprint of the garage. We then added an extension (called the “shed”) on the side towards the house, where we will store things like the tables and chairs for parties on the deck.

They have also finished the framing of the porch. The exterior openings will be large screens. There will be windows and a door between the game room and the porch. The area under the porch will be left open, and is where we will store the boats.

Here is the latest view of the waterfront. The water is way down, and people in our neighborhood community are complaining that the Conantum common dock is no longer useful for getting their boats into the river.

Here is an updated schedule.

• Roof trim is complete
• Roofing starts on July 9
• Windows will be installed the weeks of July 14 and July 21
• The basement slab will be poured as soon as the windows are done
• The siding will be installed starting the week of Aug 4
• Garage footing will be poured on July 10
• Garage foundation will be poured during the week of July 14
• Garage framing will be starts two days after the foundation is poured

On July 14th we do the electrical walkthrough, where we evaluate the placement of all lights, plugs, switches, Ethernet ports, and telephone ports. On July 21st we do the blocking walkthrough, where we identify the location for everything that gets attached to the walls, like coat racks, towel racks, toilet paper holders, floating shelves, etc. Basically anything where we need to add supports in the walls (so the screws go into real wood and not just plaster).

As of Wednesday morning, every interior wall has been framed except the wall between the bathroom and the game room. I assume by the time you read this, that wall will be finished. In addition, the porch is partially framed. Also, they dug out the place for the garage foundation.

Here is an interior picture. This was taken at the front door looking at the front hall. You can see the stairs up the second floor on the left side and the living room wall just past the stairs. Going from the stairs towards the right are the guest bathroom, the place where there will be stairs down to the basement, and the laundry room. Across from the laundry room (against the front of the house) is the front hall closet.

Here is the river side of the house showing the progress on the porch. Our neighbor has been trying to convince us that we do not need screens, but after discussing it with the builder and architect, we are going to stick with built-in screens. Making them removable would add more cross bars and shrink the windows a little.

Finally, here is the garage location. You can see they have dug out the place where the foundation will be added.

There will be no construction camera videos this week because if the dreaded SD card error (I have thrown out that memory card, but I have been getting a lot of those errors.) There will also be no weekend update because of the long weekend.

This past week they were mostly working on the roof trim and soffits (the bottom of the roof overhang). I also noticed, when we visited this weekend, that they now have the roof over the front entrance in place. And they have started work on the porch.

I have two house pictures today. The first is the usual angle showing the roof trim work and the front stoop roof.

The second is the opposite corner, showing the work on the porch.

Finally, here is the river bank. The water is way down right now, and the mud flats are starting to green up.

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I have two construction videos for you this week. The first one is pretty short (although slowed down a lot). It shows them putting in the survey stakes for the garage foundation.

The second shows work on the river side of the house and the very start of work on the porch. It also shows the earth mover, which has been parked there for a few days.

They are working on the roof trim, putting in the soffits. Here is a picture of the front of the house. Those soffits (bottom of the roof overhang) will be painted black at some point.

The builder is confident that we are on schedule to be able to move in summer 2026. Meanwhile, here is the short term schedule:

• Roof trim complete – July 11
• Roofing will be done the week of July 14
• Windows will be installed the weeks of July 14 and July 21
• Garage foundation will be dug on June 30
• Garage footing and foundation will be poured the weeks of July 7 and July 14
• The basement slab will be poured the week of August 4

They are about to start on the porch, although they are short a few pieces of wood so finishing the porch will be delayed a little.

We (Daphne and I) need to finish the electrical plan (where all the plugs, switches, lights and Ethernet ports go) by July 14th. Then they will put up place holders in the house for our inspection. Today we picked locations for the outside plugs. Hopefully, I will be able to get an electric (plug-in, not battery) snowblower at some point.

Inside the house, the framing for all the interior walls are in place on the second floor, but not on the first floor yet. Hopefully soon, although I do not have a schedule for that.

A quick trip to the site today. The garage foundation was surveyed yesterday as you can see in this picture. This is in preparation for foundation work for the garage. Nobody was working on the house today as the temperature went over 100° F. Yesterday, however, they fixed the upstairs bathroom walls (I checked).

Our new neighborhood, Conantum, holds a fall harvest festival every year and last year Daphne and I attended to have our first chance to meet a lot of people from the neighborhood. One person we met, Carl, had built a new house further down the road a number a years ago and had some advice for us. He told us to visit the site every day so that we could catch any mistakes early, while they were still easy to fix.

Well, this is a challenge for two reasons. First, I do not have access to a car more than two weekdays, so I can not visit every day. And second, Daphne can’t really visit at all except on weekends and I would not be able to spot a mistake, while she would see something wrong right away.

Well, Daphne visited the site this Saturday morning and did a walk through and noticed that the upstairs bathroom walls (which were just put in a few days ago), reflects an out of date design. Remember all those “days since we moved a wall” updates. Well, the upstairs bathroom was where we moved the last wall.

The problem is likely that not all the plans on site that the construction crew are using are up to date. The architect says that she will fix this next week. Meanwhile, the upstairs bathroom walls need to be removed and put in the correct places (they are not load bearing). Below are the old bathroom design (left), which is what they framed, and the new bathroom design (right), which is what we want.

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Meanwhile, we went to the site this Saturday to pull more invasive plants and to go kayaking on the river before it got too hot. To fit all this in, we arrived at 7am, worked a little and then took a breakfast break on the second floor.

We ended up working for a few hours before we called it quits and brought out the kayaks. Here is the pile of oriental bittersweet and buckthorn that we removed just this outing.

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Instead of the usual picture of the outside of the house, here is a picture of the foundation from the old garage.

If you look closely, you will not see any foundation because it was removed on Thursday. This weeks construction video is very short since most of the week they were working inside (and I have not moved the camera inside yet). But if you watch to the far right in the video you will see them remove the old garage foundation.

All of my house pictures this week are interior shots. The outside has not changed much at all.

This is the first floor. I am standing in corner in the pantry facing the dining room (left) and living room which is past the opening in the wall and left of the stairs.

This is the first floor from the corner in the master bedroom. You can see the game room on the right (the big window openings). The ladders are all in the walk-in closet (isn’t that where everyone stores their ladders?)

This is the second floor. I am standing at the top of the stairs looking into the family room, or today only, the breakfast nook.

And here I am standing in the middle of the family room looking back towards the stairs and the front bedroom.

Finally, here is the second floor again. I am standing in the corner of the back bedroom looking towards the bathroom (whose walls are wrong).

And finally (really this time), here is the waterfront taken from ground level. We have to walk across that mid flat to find deep enough water to launch the boats.