The drywalling started going up yesterday. 250 4'x12' sheets of drywall were delivered on Monday to various parts of the property. The guys took the balance of the day on Monday getting them "stocked" into the house, and due to the surprising heat and humidity, called it a day. So they didnt start hanging drywall until yesterday. Before we get into the drywall work that was done yesterday, there are a few issues that came up with the insulation on Monday.
One of the things that I have found (and was told before we started) was one universal concept in this type of a job: contractors of different trades will always blame another trade for making their job more difficult. We have avoided some of this by using people that know each other in the major mechanical components of the house. However, this reared its head for me on Monday. When I stopped in at lunch to check with the drywaller to make sure everything came in ok, he mentioned that the remnants of the insulation on the studs and select places were going to make his job more difficult. He said we had two options: I could get him a little bit of extra money to make sure things got cleaned up the way he needed them as they went, or they could screw everything up as is, and we could hold our breath that it would be ok. His biggest concern was this: there were places where the foam was protruding, or maybe even un-trimmed. In those places the insulation contractor said you just screw the drywall into place on top of it and it compresses the foam insulation. The drywaller says that this compression will innevitably put enough outward force on the drywall that it will cause nail pops. This is something I am expressly trying to avoid with drywall. I know its going to happen, but in this case I am not cutting a single corner on the drywall and want to make sure we do it 100% right to give us the best chance of long lasting quality drywall. In the end, its my decision to pay what amounts to double for the clean up of the insulation, and in my estimation, its a cost that will be justified tendfold when its finished.
As you can see from the picture above, the drywallers have been trimming the insulation as they go, and the amount they are trimming is fairly substantial. This is the case in the entire house. Much more so in the first and second floor where we are working with the existing structure, but also in parts of the basement as well.
Here is a shot of the first floor looking south to the back of the house. My very first thought when I walked in here yesterday was that it looked bigger then the space I have been looking at for the last three months. The other thing that finally settled in when I saw this space drywalled - the lighting being recessed is such a nice feature to have. We have so many fixtures hanging from our walls and ceilings in our current house. You never realize how much more open a space feels when there isnt a bunch of stuff hanging from the ceiling.
Another shot of the house looking south. This shows a bit more of the wall space behind the accent wall and what its going to look like in the bathroom (which still looks tiny). Whats clear from looking at this is that I am glad we put as much light in the hallway/foyer as we did. That space gets little-to-no natural light, and is going to need plenty of help feeling like anything but a black hole.
Here is a shot of the kitchen. Again, I was happy to see that the space felt bigger. I know a lot of this has to do with the lighter colored walls and the space feeling bigger, but it also gives me hope that the countertops and tile choices we have made in here will work in concert with the lightness concept to continue to allow the space to feel big. Its not a huge space to begin with, but it should be a nice comfortable kitchen.
This is the laundry area. It was too late in the day to get any better shots of the basement, and frankly, its going to be pretty hard to get any decent shots of the basement without a flash as there really isnt much good natural light in there. Whats amazing is these guys put the drywall up entirely in the first floor and basement in one day. They said they will be finished with the second floor today, and will begin on the taping and mudding as soon as possible.
The goal is to be done with the drywall by next Wednesday, and flooring and til will start on Thursday. That means we could have a completely developed home with the exception of finishes like doors, trim, and lighting fixtures; by the end of the month.
Moving in by the end of November should happen barring us being behind in some major way that I am not seeing right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment