These got installed today. Of course, without handles or a remote control, I have no way of going into the garage right now, but I assume that it will get worked out. These look much better than the blue tarps we were using.
Category: RIVER HOUSE (Page 4 of 20)
I thought the garage was supposed to have its wall board installed this coming week, but it actually happened last week. Here are some pictures.
The wall board installation in the house will probably have to wait for the insulation application to be finished.
They have been installing the insulation all week. It feels to me that they probably just have a few more days of work.
The second floor and under the roof has been finished. Here is a picture from the second floor family room.
The first floor is part done. Here is a picture from the dining room wall.
In the basement, they insulated near the floor. Then they started installing the wall board that will insulate the basement.
This week they will start installing wall board, starting in the garage.
Inside the house they are blowing in the insulation. I can not go into the house while they are doing this, but I have this picture of the hose running in the front door and up to the second floor.
Outside the house they are getting ready to install the gutters. Here is a pile of gutters on the deck waiting to be installed.
And today we had a new row boat delivered. Since the boat cover needs to be shipped separately, the boat has been parked under the porch for now. This weekend we will try it out on the river.
We went for a hike on the Fairhaven Trail today and when we were across the river from our house, I took this picture. The siding is done, but the basement still needs stucco, the porch needs screens, the deck needs a railing, and we need to remove all those stickers and protective films.
Inside the house, they have finished insulating the garage and have started insulating in the guest bedroom on the second floor.
Also, because I did not post a picture of this yet, here is the front door. The have sided and trimmed the overhang, but nothing else. The door itself (what is shown is not the real front door), was delivered with a bent frame so it was sent back for repair or replacement. The posts are temporary. The real posts will be added once the stoop is added. The stoop is being cut at a quarry in Vermont and may arrive in a few weeks.
Update from our EMF consultant: The measurement fluctuations on the loop reading were due to drift using an 18 inch loop ammeter to measure a thin conductor at low levels of amperes. When we switched to a more appropriate clamp meter (The Ideal Ammeter), the net current equaled zero. This confirmed that [electrician] and his team successfully identified and fixed the final net current issue and [the builder] can confidently resume his work knowing that the magnetic fields have been remediated.
I have updated my previous post and we are now clear to put up the walls.
Also, I forgot to mention earlier that the team has finally finished the siding, although there is still some touch up painting to be done on the trim. Gutter installation should be starting the week after next. After that, the deck flooring will be installed.
This past weekend, we went to the house to document every wall and ceiling before they get insulated and plastered. This way, we will know inside every wall, where the studs are, where the wires run and where the pipes run.
Daphne and I together took 283 pictures. Here is one example.
Having done that, the builder can proceed with the installation of insulation. We are having a blown-in foam insulation in the walls and under the roof. It is very effective and easy to install, especially when there are a lot of wires in the walls that would normally make it harder to install rockwool or fiberglass.
Work is starting in the garage. Here is the truck.
I held the camera inside the plastic sheeting (without going in myself) and captured this picture of the insulation that was put in place yesterday and today.
This work will continue for a week or two. During the work, the house will be off limits (to me at least) because of the fumes. Once it is done, then they will start to install the plaster board, walls and ceilings.
I will have no videos of the insulation installation since it would likely screw up the camera lens. But we will try to take some interior videos once the walls start to go up.
Current estimated occupancy date: July 31, 2026 (no change).
Probably. Our last two houses have certainly had problems. To explain, let me tell you what is going on in our house.
We are trying to build a house that is electrically and magnetically quiet. Quiet enough so we could do radio astronomy from our living room, if we wanted to. To achieve this, we are paying an EMF consultant to help design and test our electrical system. This consultant usually works on commercial projects — for example, hospitals and labs where excess EMF (electric-magnetic frequencies) would be a problem for the equipment. Our electrician was given guidelines on how to wire the house to reduce EMF, and he did a good job following those instructions (delaying the project by a month or two). Then, once the wiring was done, our consultant drove in from New York to test the results.
As I have earlier written, it was good but not perfect. There was over an amp of current leakage somewhere in the system, which causes excess magnetic fields, and which needed to be tracked down and fixed. As of today, the electrician reports that two of the electrical panels now show 0 amps of leakage and the last panel is down to 0.07 amps of leakage (20x better than before). As of end of day Wednesday, we now have 0 amps of leakage on all three subpanels inside the house. Woo hoo!
What caused these problems? In our case its caused by a connection between neutral and ground or a connection between two neutral wires on different circuits. Tracking it down is a time consuming process, since you have to work circuit by circuit, testing and then inspecting the wiring. There is a call with the consultant today to determine whether our current measurement is low enough, but I suspect that it is not.
Anyway, why do I think your house has problems? Well, your electrician and builder never went to these extremes. In fact, our electrician did not even have the right meters needed to detect the problems. I am sure that if you did test your house, you would find similar problems, and miswired plugs, and other issues that do not normally show up as issues in everyday use. In other words, its “good enough” for most electricians. We are trying to do better. In fact, I would argue that the whole impetus for building a custom house from scratch was to have an electrically and magnetically quiet house.
That said, at this point I do not believe that the electrical issues are delaying moving forward with interior finishing work, so that’s good.
I have an update on the schedule from the builder. This all assume that the electrician can find the electrical problem and we can start insulation next week.
- Mar 24 – start insulation
- Apr 6 – start hanging plaster board
- Apr 27 – complete plastering
- May 4 – prime coat all walls and ceilings
After that we have the following tasks for May, June and July:
- Install all trim/cabinets/tile/stone
- Finish electrical and plumbing/flooring/appliancesĀ
- Finish painting
There is more work to do outside, including the deck, deck railing, gutters, front stoop, leveling the ground and paving the driveway. But those tasks are not on the critical path for the completion date.
New estimated occupancy date: July 31, 2026.
Our EMF consultant came on Monday and took a lot of measurements to evaluate the electrical installation. The results were a mixed bag. In general, our electrician did a good job and the consultant said so. So it does not look like we need to rewire the walls.
On the other hand there are two problems. The first problem is that the path to ground is not very good, mostly because of the sandy soil. This will be improved when we put in the actual grounding stakes, which will go under the driveway, but even then, our consultant thinks the resistance to ground will be higher than he likes.
But the real problem is that there is 1 amp of current that is not returning to the transformer. The belief, although this is not certain, is that there is a wiring problem somewhere where a neutral is connected to ground. The evidence is shown on the meter below where is says 1.12 (and I believe it should say 0).
So, today, the electrician was trying to fine the problem. He acquired a set of meters himself, and was using them on the second floor panel, wire by wire, to try to find the problem.
Right now the electrician is looking for the problem (probably a neutral wire touching a casing). If this can be found in the next two days, then we can keep on schedule.
Also on the electrical front, the electrician has decided that the subpanels in the basement are too full, with no expansion room. So he has added two more smaller panels, and he will spread out the circuit breakers to reduce crowding. Here is what it looks like right now.
On the outside of the house, they have just about finished the siding. Here is a picture of the porch where you can see the finished siding against the house (although some trim is still missing). There is also a plug and Ethernet port on the porch if you want to sit out there with a laptop.
And here is the view of the pantry door, showing the finished siding in the breezeway and, I believe, the actual door we will be using.
The plumber has also been working and has installed the exterior faucets. Here is one of them in the front next to the breezeway.
This week, I stepped back and took a picture of the river side of the house now that the siding is finished. I adjusted the angle a little which is why the picture is not square. Still missing are the gutters, downspouts, porch screens and deck railing. Also the exposed foundation will have stucco added.
While I was there today, the town building inspectors were doing their framing inspection. We passed inspection, and the inspectors really liked the house and the location. Earlier this week, we had the electrical inspection, plumbing inspection and fire stop inspection as well (all passed).
Assuming we find the electrical problem, this means that we will go ahead and start insulation installation next Tuesday. We were going to use Rockwool, but because of all the wiring, the builder has decided to use spray foam insulation instead, the same product that we are using under the roof. The house should end up being very well insulated.
It seems to me that we are still on schedule, although I hope to get confirmation from the builder. So optimistically:
Estimated days until completion: 95 days (late June)
