Electrical Floor Fail. Insulation Success.

So, how's the cabin coming along this week?

1. I grabbed my gracious electrician friend, Karlin, on Tuesday evening to help me hook-up the infloor heating in the basement. With the below-freezing weather, we need to warm up the building in order to pour and cure the concrete floors on the upper two levels. We were not successful. When we arrived, he realized that the wires and circuits run to each floor for the heating were undersized and need to be 30A circuits and wire, not 20A. We're working to get our rough-in electrician friend back up there to make the correction and run 30A wire and circuits. So, no infloor heating for yet.
2. After the insulators failed to make sufficient corrections on their second visit to the fireplace bumpout, Katie got up at 0'dark:30 Wednesday morning to meet the insulators at 7:00 am to oversee their last-and-final attempt to correctly insulate the fireplace. They ended up having go "in from the outside" in order to insulate it properly by removing the metal siding and paneling on the outside!! But it's done and correct, now. (Note to self: Next time wait until after the structure is insulated before you install the fireplace.)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Immediately after the insulators left, Katie called me to report success. Then I called the Chelan County building department to schedule inspections for framing and insulation this Friday. (Yeah!)
4. The interior doors, with the exception of two special-order doors (an 8 footer and an angle-cut stairway door), are scheduled for delivery on November 8th -- the same day that the weather is currently forecasting a new chance of snow....
5. The birch plywood panels that I really like at Dunn Lumber are just too expensive to fit within the budget. But I found what look to be comparable panels for 25% less at Home Depot, so I'm making plans to borrow a truck and transport 40 panels from their Redmond location to the Haus. The plan is to cut it in half, in to 2' x 8' lengths, and install it on the ceilings on the top and bottom floors.
6. I picked-up the correct-sized, pipe fittings for the outdoor railing (see previous blog post), and a DeWalt 15-gauge finish nailer at Grainger for installing the plywood panels.
7. I'm picking up a couple electric heaters from Home Depot this evening that we can let run in hopes of warming up the place so the impending concrete floors can properly cure (above 40 degrees). After they cure we should be able to get the wiring for the infloor heating rectified sufficiently to hook it up.
8. We got final approval on our construction loan and should close on it within the next few days. (Of course, the fed just lowered rates the day *after* we locked -- our loan will be at 4.00%.)  With the loan in place, we'll have the needed funds to finish the cabin this coming year. We're hoping to drive over to the title company in Leavenworth on Friday (before the inspections) to sign papers.

The weather has turned very cold up at KnArrow Haus -- not above freezing for the last several days. There's a warming trend that supposed to start today and continue in the coming week. We need snow to hold off long enough to pour the concrete floors and have our doors delivered at the end of next week. And if we're lucky, get drywall done the following week.

Primed Floors for Concrete. Doors ordered.

The bridge to our development that has been under construction since Summer has finally reopened, making it possible for us to get a heavy concrete truck to KnArrow Haus in order to poor the concrete floors. In preparation, Katie and I sealed the floors with primer on Saturday. Doing this will, at least partially, prevent the floor from sucking the moisture out of the concrete as it cures.

Master bedroom.

Bathroom.

Bunkroom.

Family room.

We used our portable propane heater to warm up the Haus enough for the waterbased primer to cure. Insulation makes a huged difference. We got the top two floors up in to the balmy 60 degree range.

While we waited for the primer to dry with the propane heater running, I built a campfire to burn through our growing pile of scrap wood.

Unfortunately, although our insulation concractors fixed most of the items we asked them to correct, they failed miserably on the primary task, which was to insulated the *sides* of the shed dormer next to the fireplace. It seems like such a simple task. We're probably going to have to meet them up there in order to get the proper correction made.  As soon as that's done, I will call for inspections on the framing and insulation. 

I also ordered the wrong size fittings for adding bottom rails to the outdoor railing, which I was planning to work on over the weekend.  So a new order and a return to Grainger. 

I also placed the door order this week. We're going to install painted 2-panel, shaker/cratsmen style doors. 

They'll be painted the Sherwin Williams color "Web Gray". Here's a sample picture off their website showing the color.

I'm also working on ordering the plywood panels that will be used on the ceilings -- hopefully ordering those on Monday.  I'm going to have them cut the 4 x 8 panels in to 2 x 8 panels, which will look nicer and be easier to mount on the ceiling.

So, hopefully this coming week we'll get the instulation corrected and be able to get our final inspections allowing us to cover everything with paneling and wallboard. And this weekend we'll get the electrical in-floor heating installed and wired so we can pour concrete the following week. 

White Fluffy Stuff (on the Inside)

Amazing how big a difference a little insulation makes.  It was raining lightly when we arrived around 2pm, and it was snowing lightly at 5pm when we left. 

Hoping to call for clearance to cover this coming week, if we can finalize the framing and insulation corrections around the fireplace.

Looking in through the front door.

The mudroom.

Family room from the mudroom door.

Family room for the North corner.

Basement from the North corner.

Basement from the back door.

Utility room.

Garage.

Master bedroom.

 

Master bedroom.

Bunk room.

Bunk room.

Insulation Prologue

The insulators show up tomorrow morning. By implication that means (a) we've gotten stamped responses from the structural engineer to the inspector's notes *and* (b) clearance from the inspector to insulate (as long as he can see the framing corrections.)

After last week's foot of snowfall, this is what's left:

Katie and I spent the evening getting the cabin ready for the insulators

• Moved the stair stringer glulams to floor and removed the temp wall brackets.
• Finished installing conduit for Internet cable that extends from exterior to laundry room.
• Installed blocking for kitchen cabinets.
• Cleared access to walls including the woodpile in garage.
• Installed the plumbing cleanouts caps in basement cleanouts.
• Install 4-gang power box in utility for Internet.
• Framed cleanouts in basement for access door.
• Installed studor vents and covered to protect.
• Measured rough opening for all doors including jamb width & confirm L/R-hand for door order.

All the water pipes are insulated throughout the cabin.

All the Ethernet cables on the left. The conduit for the Internet

provider's cabling on the right extends to the building's exterior.

Katie insulating water pipes in the upstairs bathroom. 

Katie insulating water pipes in the kitchen.

I redid the water shutoff in 1" PEX. The brass is gone.

Crush blocks installed in the laundry room. 

Norm and his boys will also be up at KnArrow Haus tomorrow making the engineer-approved corrections. I'm targeting early next week for inspector sign-off on the framing and the insulation, which will mark a significant milestone, moving on to finish work (floors, doors, drywall, tile, etc.)