Stucco wrap, insulation and drywall…Oh My!

We are seeing some real progress on the new house now. This is what we found when we returned after the holidays.

There was a lot of activity when we arrived back at the new house. Yay! The house has been wrapped in tar paper and chicken wire in preparation for stucco.
Our linear fireplace has been installed.
Then the insulation crew showed up. First step was to mask off all the items you don’t want spray foam insulation to get on…like the fireplace and windows.
We have garage doors too! The garage doors are also masked off. All the 55 gallon drums with the insulation material are staged in the car garage.
Drywall was put up between the living area and the garages so the wall could be insulated on the garage side.
The RV garage has been totally insulated now. On the left, you can see where the crew started shaving off the insulation that protruded beyond the studs.
The bathtub was removed from the bathroom so those walls could be insulated. Here the tub in the guest bedroom…temporarily. These walls have also been insulated.
Then where we weren’t looking, our solar controller appeared. Yay!

So, that is where things stand. The insulating should conclude in a few days. Next week the drywall will be installed, which should take two to three weeks. I don’t envy the crew that has to drywall the RV garage!

Electrical installation continues

We aren’t anywhere near the house right now (we are back in the Northeast for the holidays), but thanks to the builder and a considerate neighbor, we have a good idea of what is going on.

When we left, this was the wall where the solar components are going. Kind of messy.

A rat’s nest of wires.

As of today, this is what it looks like.

Much better! all tidied up.

The trench has been dug to get the power from the road to the house.

This view is from the house towards the road. Next the conduit needs to go in and be inspected.

While the guy doing the dirt work was there, he leveled out the ground next to the RV garage.

We will be parking to the right of the RV garage come January…we hope. That is dependent upon the power being at the house.

The guy doing the stucco showed up.

The stucco guy put up a bit of tar paper and then left. What the heck???? The builder thought the same thing…”What the heck?”

So more progress! We shall have to see what gets done between now and Christmas.

Plumbing, HVAC and Windows

There has been some progress since our last blog post. Not as much as we would like to have seen, but we are learning this is the norm here in Las Cruces. If you are building a custom home, it is going to take a year. Period. The trades are all busy and if you make them mad they can just walk away and find work elsewhere. Our builder is walking a fine line to get work done in a timely manner without making the subcontractors mad.

Plumbing! This is the laundry room. You have to get it right the first time. There is NO basement here to go into to fix plumbing issues.
All the duct work is in (not sure why I took this particular picture, but it does show a duct!). The air conditioner / heat pump will be on the roof and is not installed yet.
Windows! This is the master bedroom.
Great room windows, but no sliding glass door yet.
On our garage deck/roof, you can see the canales have been installed. If you look at the parapet, you can see the vertical aluminum square with an opening in it. This is used instead of gutters in the southwest for roof water runoff when it rains.
We have been busy looking at granite to find something to coordinate with our cabinet colors.
Finally, we just signed a contract to get solar panels (this is a mock-up, not the real deal). It will be a large system capable of powering the whole house.

Electrical install should start this week. Jim spent a lot of time coordinating between the electrician and the solar installer to make sure things are wired up correctly.

Progress is being made.

Tweaks and Stairs!

We had to go up to Albuquerque for a few days after the last blog post. So we were anxious to see what had happened while we were away. A few items got tweaked.

Initially, there were to be small windows over these larger windows in the garage. But to accommodate the heavier trusses for the deck over the garage, the garage ceiling had to drop. Thus our small windows were removed from the plan. To balance things out, you can see how the eyebrow feature over the windows were extended (towards the left as you look at this picture). Much better!

We gained the start of the half wall to hold the plumbing for the kitchen island.

The triangular pieces on the ends are just temporary supports.

The windows on either side of the front door were dropped so that everything at the top lined up.

Now it looks like the plan.

The enclosure for Jim’s shop lift was framed in.

The attic lift enclosure still needs a floor.

But what is missing from this picture? Stairs! We still couldn’t get up to the second floor without hauling a ladder over to the house. The stairs had been promised days ago. So I called the builder who was aware of the missing stairs. I’m not sure what deal he struck with the framer, but the next working day we had stairs!

Beautiful stairs! 19 steps in all. My knees are already saying “Ouch!” The necessity for an attic lift is now obvious.

Once up there, you can see the wood shop in all its glory.

The windows in the shop overlook the garage roof deck.

Finally, we were going to be able to see what our deck looks like, and the view from it.

Here’s our deck and its view of the Organ Mountains. This picture does NOT do it justice.

The next morning we got up in the dark and headed to the house. We wanted to experience the deck during sunrise. Here we go.

We brought our lawn chairs and coffee (me) and hot chocolate (the hubster)
This was worth getting out of bed for.

At this point, we decided it was time to head back to New York. We were on the road later this same day. It’s time to let the HVAC guys, plumbers and electricians do their thing.

Goodbye house. See you in a few months.

Framing 95% done

After our last post, the framing crew got pulled off on another job for two weeks. Don’t ask us why. This is New Mexico, it happens. The delay did give me time to agonize over appliance choices. Oh goody (said sarcastically).

Then one day, the framing crew reappeared! Rejoice!

And the monsoon rains reappeared too.

Our RV garage floor was a tad wet. The drain in the center has not been opened to the outside yet.

The “eyebrow” architectural features were added.

The Front.
Garages.

Some interior features were added too.

This is one VERY tall fireplace.

I got out my photo editing software and mocked up what our front door may look like.

This is close. The windows outboard of the front door and sidelights are going to come down so the top of the little widows are even with the top of the transom window over the door.

Things were moving along, we took an evening to sit on our back patio and enjoy the view.

Happy Hour.

We are looking to have solar installed. The company we are dealing with sent out their project manager with a drone. They use the images from the drone along with some software to determine optimal placement of the solar panels. The guy was nice enough to share a few of the pictures with us.

Front of the house. In the foreground, the car garage roof is the place where we are going to put our “Margarita Deck” facing the Organ Mountains.
Back of the house.
Yeah, I think we can fit a few solar panels up there.

The HVAC team should be in next week. After that comes plumbing followed by electrical. We still need to do an electrical walk through this trip (we are picky about where our light switches go) before the electricians show up. Then we need to head back to New York for a while.

More framing

Some more framing happened this past week. Things are closed in a bit more.

8:00 a.m., 82 degrees
Standing in the kitchen, looking out the back.
Back porch, still needs its roof.
Sewing room with a view!
Standing in the corner of the great room looking towards the kitchen.
World’s largest RV garage.
Standing on the back porch looking towards the front door. There was a very nice breeze blowing through the house. I longed for a lawn chair and a cup of coffee so I could just sit and relax.
On top of the garage you can just see Jim’s 2nd floor shop.
Another view of Jim’s shop. You can see a door for roof access. Plus a horizontal window to put a fan into to blow out sawdust.
The south side of the house (spare bedroom/sewing room) borders an Arroyo…”A deep gully cut by an intermittent stream; a dry gulch.”
The garage side of the house. Our outside RV pad will be long the RV garage wall with the four small windows.

Framing update

We are on-site and got pictures of the progress that was made in a week!

It’s happening! View from the end on our driveway.
RV Garage on the right, two car garage on the left.
RV Garage…it’s HUGE!
Two car garage.
Looking out the front door.
Looking out the living room. Dining room to the right.
Dining room.
Master Bedroom.
View from the sewing room. 🙂

It’s happening!

Framing has started

First, we have an inspected power pole on our lot now. That means we can plug in the RV when we get there. Woohoo!

We had the concrete in the garages and patios/porches “densified” last week. “Concrete densification is the process of applying a chemical hardener to your concrete floor to increase its durability.”

And framing has started! We have a very nice neighbor across the street is keeping us posted on what is going on. She informed me that the roof trusses were delivered last week.

Yesterday she told me lumber was delivered and a whole crew of guys showed up. She was kind enough to send me a picture.

The crew has arrived. Those 2×4’s are our house. The house that is enclosed on the right is the house going up just north of us.

Finally, progress!