Construction update

Once again, the work that's been happening on the addition continues to move along, though is probably at the least exciting stage of the whole project. My parents are in town this week (got in late Tuesday and will be here through mid-day Saturday) so Matt and my Dad have three full days to put hours in on the house. Matt and I optimistically (and mostly tongue-in-cheek) decided earlier this week that Wednesday would be for getting the electrical ready for rough-in inspection, Thursday for mechanical, and Friday for plumbing. Saturday could be used for any extra tidbits, and we could get all three inspections completed next week and be ready to move on to insulating and then...sheetrock!!!

Of course, this is a little ambitious, BUT, as of the end of today (Thursday), the electrical IS ready to be inspected at the rough-in state, and they were also able to make significant progress on the plumbing. The connection from the existing house has now been made and is simply capped off inside the mechanical room of the addition. The main drain line that runs through the mechanical room and has been kind of daunting to Matt because of all the connections from the laundry room that need to come down into it while still maintaining proper drainage and avoiding the area around the electrical panel is also cut and dry fit. We have a friend who has worked with plumbing for a number of years who has agreed to come over when Matt has everything dry fit and give his thumbs up or down before Matt actually PVC welds all the pieces together. ;) So we're not exactly as far as we had optimistically "planned" but at the same time are making huge strides.

The temps this week are the first really cold ones we've had. Highs are supposed to be in the single digits for these days that my parents are up, with lows going, obviously, much lower. We still don't have the heat running in the addition (have to get that mechanical rough-in inspection done and the boiler installed before we can do that!) and we also don't have any insulation in the roof yet because the electrical needs to be inspected before we can cover that up with insulation. Because of the double wall construction on the main and upper levels we have some insulation in there, but the basement doesn't have any (though there is 2" of foam under the slab). Matt re-routed a heat duct from the main house into the basement mechanical room, and we have a small space heater running all day long down there as well as a fan in the window (which will someday, hopefully soon, be a doorway into the addition and not a window) on the main level blowing heat in. It has managed to stay above 40 degrees, which makes it workable out there, and hopefully will also keep things warm enough in the basement to keep the footings from heaving. ;)

For many reasons we are feeling very ready to have this addition complete and Matt's mom moved in with us. For the past 16 months we've been over there 2-3 times a day 6 times a week, and over the last few weeks it's been beginning to feel like the right time to move past that. It will be good in many ways to have her here. Over the last few weeks especially, it's been neat to see how mutually beneficial this move will be - she will have us to help with her in the ways that she needs help, and we will have her love added to our household. She and Krassi have a really neat relationship. As much as we're seeing him really attaching to me, his response to me pales in comparison to the giddy excitement he exhibits when she's around! And after months of not really being sure what she would think about him when she met him, her response after meeting him in person for the first time was, "He's such a sweet boy - I can see why you fell in love with him." Who wouldn't love a grandma like that!

Grandma G doesn't even have to be down by him to make him happy...

...he's excited just to be near her feet!!