January house update

I'm way behind on updating on the progress on the house. But, then again, since hardly any work happened on the addition in all of January, this post won't be all that out of date.

First of all, the good news about no work getting done on the house is that Matt has had a full load of "real" work to occupy his time. As much as it's good to make progress on the addition, doing work that he gets paid for is helpful, too. Probably the most exciting to us is that our residential design business has had a number of inquiries over the last few weeks from families who are looking to expand/modify for their families that are growing through adoption and involve children with special needs. Even though only one of these projects has materialized into real work at this point, we have found at many times in the past that God uses contacts like this (even contacts that don't "go" anywhere) as an encouragement to us - a reminder that he can make the right opportunities come at just the right time. We're actually quite grateful that we only have one larger design project on the agenda right now, because our days are very full.

And because that addition really does need to get finished. We'd been aiming for early December (2013!), then moved that out to late January, and as it stands now we're just hoping for enough to be completed that Matt's mom can move in before Baby arrives. But even there there are variables on the table that make that a potentially impossible goal.

Being out with the flu last week didn't help any, but did give me some quiet time for reflection, and I realized God was trying to tell me something - I can get so hung up on the timing and sequencing of things, and as I think back on the circumstances of the last two years, there were so many times when things would get hung up, or seem to be happening at really bad times, and yet in hindsight, we can see so clearly how every single piece of the puzzle is fitting in to where God wants it to fit when he wants it to fit. It is good to be able to just sit back and know that this project will be completed no sooner and no later than he wants it to be completed.

Which is good. Tomorrow I'm officially 31 weeks along with this baby. ;) That's starting to get really close.

With that, here's what happened in January and where we are today.

1) Matt wants to hire someone to spray insulation at the rims, and also to finish the blown-in cellulose for the inner walls of the main and upper level. To get ready for this, he needed to first finish the wall insulation in the basement (fiberglass batt) and get the vapor barrier on down there.

the back corner of the basement playroom

the front corner of the basement by the large window well

Please note that this work was completely over two weeks ago. Matt's been unsuccessfully trying to get in touch with the insulator to get on their schedule. [Note to Andrea: do not fret. If God can coordinate timing on the macro scale, he can surely get the insulator here at the right time.]

2) We continued plugging away on the plumbing, finishing up dry fits on a few smaller vent runs, and then getting out the purple PVC glue again and putting it all together!

My way to help is to work through the geometrical gymnastics of how you sequence the gluing of interesting pieces like this so you don't end up with a piece you can fit in. PVC, by the way, does not bend. ;)

Gas lines and PVC fittings make great fine motor challenges. (Thanks, Reuben!)

Here's Mr. "Bum-bum, Wa-dah" hard at work with the upstairs bathroom.

Hammer in hand, he adds a few more fittings to the supply lines for the sink.

This was an exciting move - the main drain from the addition going through the plywood panel that connects the addition's mechanical room with the main house basement.

Then Matt and I got to spend an exciting evening in our [not so] glamorous basement bathroom. This is, for those of you who don't know our house, the only shower in the house. Notice the nice painted concrete block walls, and the classy fixture...even better is the painted concrete floor complete with floor drain. The towels came with the house (meaning they're probably all older than either Matt or I - possibly even put together. They just don't make towels like that anymore...) Nothing is glued here, but you've got to love how the main drain line from the addition runs conveniently right underneath the goose-neck of the shower spigot. Pretty fancy, huh?

And this was the exciting moment. In order to be able to attach the new drain line into the existing one, we had to cut out a portion of the existing. We'd debated timing on this. If we do it when the kids are awake, we don't risk waking anyone up with power tools, but we also have many distractions. Not to mention many opportunities for someone to forget and accidentally try to flush the toilet...  If we tackle the project at night, there are no risks of that sort of surprise, but making noise is always something to avoid with a houseful of five young children. We opted for the risk of noise, and even though Matt's first attempts to cut out the old pipe with a handsaw were ineffective and he had to get out the sawzall, we managed to get it all done without anyone waking up because of it. Phew.

3) All the supply lines are connected and capped. All the drain and vent lines are done. Next step is to test it out...

What you're seeing here is WATER coming out of the supply line for the upstairs bathtub!! And it worked! No leaks in the supply lines, no leaks in the drain line!!! Yay!!!

And, with that, Matt was able to schedule, and pass, our rough-in plumbing inspection!!

4) As rookies, we're learning that radiant systems that are not embedded in concrete are NOISY!!! Every time hot water from the boiler cycles through those water tubes, they expand like crazy, and creak and squeak and shift, and it sounds like quite the meteorological event. Not okay. Some quick research gave Matt a few ideas for minimizing the noise (some adjustments at the boiler, some adjustments of where he had the clips for securing the tubes), but my favorite part is his idea for a level of craftsmanship that I'm guessing very few houses have.

See the tan rectangles? Those are scraps of fleece fabric from my leftover scraps that Matt has stapled to the subfloor around the ends of the tube runs so that as they expand and contract they can slide without rubbing against the rigid insulation he's installing under the tubes to keep the heat going up instead of filling the joist cavity.

And again, every time the tubes go through the joists and have the potential to rub both against each other and against the web of the joist, he has carefully wrapped more strips of fleece fabric around the tubes to cushion the rubbing. I would have to guess there are not too many houses that have this kind of construction detail! But the sound is definitely reduced to what is now a very acceptable level.

With a little help from Owen to run the rigid insulation through the table saw (and from Reuben to play with the scraps)...

...he's now got most of the joist spaces filled.

And that's about where we're at. There are a few exciting things coming up - the fireplace is set to be installed on the 17th, and the same person from our church who helped with the sheetrock on the upper level ceilings is planning to help Matt with more sheetrock at the end of February, but it still feels like we're at a "so close, and yet so far" stage of the work. We "just" need to get sheetrock up, taped and mudded, flooring in, tile in, bathroom fixtures in, trim and doors in, painting done, light fixtures and wall plates in, and then the upstairs will be ready. Anyone want to make a guess at when all this will really get done? Maybe I shouldn't ask... ;)

Because I already know. It will be done when He wants it to be done. And not a day sooner. Or later. Thankfully.