It's Electrifying!

I'm three for three today! I told you I am trying to get caught up. Today's title is brought to you by John Travolta in Grease. I almost chose "Electricity, Electricity" but wasn't sure who would get it - all 20 of my readers, lol. If you know where that flashback comes from, comment below.

As I told you in a previous post, David has made fantastic use of the fact that most firefighters have a side hustle - not because they have to but because they work 24 hours and then are off for 48 hours. They need something to fill the time...or their wives need them to find something to fill the time. Many of them work in different aspects of construction. This is a former captain of his from a previous fire hall, Capt. Gary Standley of the NFD and his father, Mr. (David) Standley up on the ladder. They are electricians and did a great job getting us "warred" up as Mr. Standley would say. Those of you who know me, know I love a thick southern accent. If it takes me a second to figure out what you are telling me, you have given me a bit of pleasure.

Before they started running the wires, David and I walked around the house and positioned the boxes for the outlets and switches. Then we had the boxes installed in the ceilings for lights, fans, and smoke alarms. Positioning required a great deal of thought not only about how far apart we needed to have outlets and how high up they needed to be from the floor but also to meet the building codes and our own anticipated electrical requirements. I have already picked out most of the furniture, so knowing where the bed and couch would be placed and their dimensions helped quite a bit. We had to think about where open doors would rest since you don't want a switch behind a door - or at least we don't. I don't know what you want :)

Still, we ended up putting up a switch box in the bedroom with four switches and had the wire all run to all of those switches on a wall that would be behind the open door to the bedroom without realizing it. In my defense, we were originally thinking of using a pocket door there, which would not have covered the switches. We made it through the first inspection without anyone realizing the mistake. However, when David was making the needed changes, he somehow realized (thankfully before drywall was installed) that the switch was positioned behind a door and moved it to another wall.

One thing that I have a love-hate relationship with about this process is making the decisions about everything. On the one hand, there are a lot of decision to make which feel tedious until I realize how important it will be to have a switch by the front and back doors for outside lights or a USB outlet next to the bed. On the other hand, there are so many fun choices that get to be made along the way to build our own home just the way we want it to be.

In the picture above, you will notice not only all of the boxes running on both sides of this dividing wall between the sunroom and the house but also the red pex pipe that holds the sensors for the thermostats for the radiant floor heating system.

You can also look straight through to the outside in the pictures above and not just through the window openings, so apparently these photos were taken before they installed the windows and finished the siding :) For a while, there were several things happening at the same time. It's hard to keep up with it all.

Mr. and Mr. Standley came several times over a few weeks to get in all of the wires both in the house and the shop/tractor shed and to connect both of the breaker boxes. I have a rather large collection of leftover copper wire that will be used this summer for something crafty - or more like many things crafty. I have most of it stripped of its coating already. Now I am making some plans. I'm thinking of a copper wire tree and a few other things. If you have some ideas of what I could do with leftover copper wire besides recycling it, comment below. I'd love some ideas.

We had to pass an electrical inspection before moving on to the next phase. We had a few minor things that had to be changed, which David was able to fix on his own over the weekend. We passed the second time and were able to move on to the next important phase, insulation. Who doesn't like to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. For me, the cool part is the most important part. I do not like to be hot.

We ended up going with three different insulation applications throughout the building. While we originally wanted to use spray foam insulation, we did quite a bit of research and reading about the different types as well as reading about other home builders' experiences. What we found out was that a tightly insulated home with spray foam, especially one on the smaller side, which will have a gas stove and a fireplace, will have issues keeping fires lit due to the limited air flow through the building. Apparently spray foam seals things up pretty tightly. However, because we have a ceiling in the sunroom that is full height to the roof (about 14 feet at its highest edge), we had to spray that ceiling as you will notice in the picture below.

The walls are insulated with standard fiberglass insulation including the dividing wall between the sunroom and the house for some sound dampening. I learned from the insulator that the color of the insulation is proprietary to the company. So the pink stuff is only made by Owens-Corning - you know the one with the Pink Panther? That is why ours is a lovely shade of brown.

Here is the fireplace all ready for completion in the fall or winter hopefully. At least we will enjoy the mantel and the hearth until then.

Here is a sneak peek at the door hardware. It is totally unrelated to electricity or insulation. It is just pretty.

The wall in the picture above is in the bedroom. The other side is the garage and my laundry area. The wall houses hot and cold water pipes as well as the fire sprinkler system.

Here is the dividing wall again between the sunroom and the house. Those horizontal boards are not structural in any way other than to hold in the insulation and provide something for the drywallers to screw the drywall into. The structure of the wall is actually steel tubing, which you can spot between the batts of insulation.

In this picture you will also notice some boards along the bottom of the wall. The outer walls are concrete block as you may remember. That block has been painted on the inside with a substance that keeps out the moisture. Then there are strips of wood screwed to the block so that again they can screw the drywall into something.

We had decided some time ago to drop the ceilings in the house proper. We originally wanted them to be full height to the roof and had plans to install skylights in the kitchen and bathroom which are the two rooms in the center of the building with no windows of their own. The cost and the struggle to hide the mechanicals and to drywall between the trusses was way more than we could afford to do, and I really do want furniture in this place, so the ceilings were dropped to 11 feet, which is still a substantial height, and we had them blow insulation in the attic space above once the drywall was up on the ceiling.

At some point, and I am not quite sure how it happened, we ended up installing mini splits in the garage, too, which necessitated insulation in the garage as well. So the ceiling in there got the same spray foam treatment as the sunroom and the walls have a vinyl covered fiberglass product. At least the garage can be temperature controlled since not only is my laundry area there but also we will have considerable storage.

Here is the king in his castle, aka shop. Due to an injury to his neck which he sustained at work back in October, he has not been able to put in the work he wanted to in building his home. He has been off of work recovering and waiting for a disc replacement surgery now scheduled for mid-June. I know it has been frustrating to watch it happen from the sidelines and not be able to jump up on the lift or up on the trusses to make things happen...and save some money. But God's plans are not ours. He works all things for our good. He has at least been off work to supervise the process. Someday after he recovers from surgery, he will thoroughly enjoy his 1,000 sq ft shop.


One last inspection had to happen before we request the "Final" and get our certificate of occupancy. That was the insulation inspection. We are thankful that we have passed all inspections and are moving forward.

Next up is drywall and paint. Are you counting the days? I know I am!

Stay tuned,
Lizabeth