Work continues on the siding. This week has been focused on the front (street facing) side of the house. While they are not finished, there is enough siding installed for you to get a good idea of how it will look. It is still missing trim around the windows and at the roof. And the real front door does not show up until mid-January.

Inside the house electrical wiring continues. We are using shielded wiring to reduce EMF (electromagnetic frequencies) inside the house. It should be electrically quiet enough to host a radio telescope (although that is not our plan).

The first picture shows the wiring in the kitchen corner. The range will be just to the left of this area, and the sink will be just to the right.

The second picture shows the wires coming down into the wiring closet. There is a lot of work to be done to get all these organized.

The propane tanks got installed last week. They will be filled on Monday, at which point the house will be heated using a temporary furnace. In the long run, the propane is for the backup generator and kitchen range. The real heating/cooling is electric (modern air-to-air heat exchangers).

Meanwhile, Daphne has been ordering all the lighting for the house. The lights get shipped to our current house, where we open the boxes to inspect them for damage. Then we drive them to the new house where they get stored in the basement. The electrician will need to see each style to wire them properly. These are not all the lights; there are more on the way.

Finally, here is a current view of the river.

I have construction camera footage of the siding work, but I will wait until they finish the front to splice it all together into one movie.

First we have more work on the siding. Here is what the front of the house looks like right now.

And they have finished up the back of the garage as you can see here.

They still need to add the black trim at the top, but I assume that will come later. All the trim pieces are sitting inside the house right now.

I have a construction video showing the siding of the front of the house (up to this point). If they keep working on the front next week, I will extend the video. At the end of the video, they are installing a vent on the second floor with the cherry-picker. I am sorry about the length (4 mins) and the fact that some days are blurred with moisture.

The electrician was snaking guide wires through all the conduits. Here are pictures from the north side of the garage (one end) and from the electrical room (the other end). The electrical room was dark so the picture quality is poor. But it looks like all the lines are labeled.

And there is more wiring in place in the garage. Those large black cables in front come from the generator.

Finally, to close out this post here is another view of the house from across the river.

The recent snow storm delayed the delivery of our propane tanks. Delivery is now scheduled for late next week. In the long run, the propane is for the back-up power generator and also for the kitchen range. However, during construction, the propane will be used to run a temporary heater which has been installed in the basement with a duct running to the first floor.

Here is the temporary heater (in the basement):

And here is what it looks like coming up on the first floor. (Architect for scale.)

Outside the house, the construction crew continues to add siding. Here are some siding progress pictures from the front of the house (to the left and right of the front door). The trim around windows, vents and blocks still need to be added and the blocks will be painted black.

Meanwhile inside the house the electrician continues to work. We decided on the placement of the outlet and Ethernet jack that will be on the deck (on the end next to the living room). This will allow Joel or a guest to use a laptop on the deck. We also identified the places where we want to avoid any wiring running under the floor — basically anywhere Daphne will be spending a lot of time.

Two pictures showing what seems like about a day of additional progress on the siding installation. The first picture is the front of the house (next to the deck). The vent in the wall is air intake for the ERV (air exchanger).

The second picture is the north side by the master bedroom, with Greg for scale. This is the same section from the previous post, but there has been further progress since last Wednesday.

Since the construction camera is facing the front of the house, and since there has been so little progress, I will wait a few more days before assembling a new video.

Lots of people working at the house today. In the basement they were installing the temporary heater that will keep the house warm while they work over the winter. Meanwhile, they are working on the siding on two different walls (front and south side). Here is a picture of the south side of the house (master bedroom wall). The little square in the lower-left corner of the siding is where there will be an exterior faucet.

Thursday, the construction crew restarted the installation of the siding. It is supposed to take the rest of the year, but progress is visible. Here is a picture of the north side of the garage (with the electrical panels), and the east side of the garage (which is not finished yet). Notice that the peaks will be in a different color (not green).

I caught the action on the construction camera and here is the cropped video. In the video, you can also see some more work on painting of the deck framing.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, we went to the house and placed strings between the posts in the backyard. This divides the area into squares.

Then Daphne sprinkled seeds onto the ground according to a plan, which is shown below. With luck, some of these will sprout in the spring.

Finally, I have moved the construction camera to the front, where work will be done next week (I hope).

This week’s meeting was pretty short, mostly an update about where things stand. We did decide where to place the exterior sconce outside of the basement door. That decision needed to be made before the end of the week because it requires a hole to be drilled in the foundation, which will happen on Monday.

We did not decide where to place the outlets on the deck, but we will decide that when we visit the site this weekend.

Meanwhile, siding installation started up again today. Here is a picture of the piece that delayed the work the latest time. Not the green pieces, but the black strips.

And here is a picture of the construction crew starting installation.

Meanwhile, after the meeting with the architect and builder, I had a visit by a botanist. The botanist took a few pictures of the trees we planted and the area we cleared of invasive plants and he will write a report for the Concord Natural Resources Commission.

At the end of our weekly meeting, the builder outlined the upcoming schedule, which I have reproduced below in hopes that I have not jinxed things.

• The propane tanks get delivered on December 2nd.
• The kitchen cabinets get delivered at the end of December.
• The siding installation will take approximately 6 weeks, so until the end of the year.
• Once the siding is done, the deck surface will be installed.
• The electrician will be working until mid January.
• Then at the end of January, we will insulate the walls.
• The interior walls should then be sealed up by the end of February.
• Then the flooring can be installed.