Things are starting to ramp up. Sewer woes.

   As the old business with the bank finishes up, the new quotes to finish the house are also almost near completion.  Mike has contacted all the old sub contractors and had new sub contractors place bids on the work as comparison.  During this process, Mike discovered that the sewer main doesn't come right up to the property, which could be a costly expense.  My neighbors property and ours didn't belong to the initial subdivision build, so when the sub developer was running sewer mains, they didn't come all the way up the court.  When my neighbors property was developed, that builder ran their sewer tap, but unfortunately it's on the other side of their driveway.  So our options are to either ask permission to tear up their driveway to connect to their tap, or trench the 60 feet to the sewer main.  Either way, it's going to be more expensive than we expected, but it's something that obviously needs to be done.  This discovery pushes back the boring for the water and sewer since we might just end up trenching the lines.

   This week should see a lot of progress on the house.  Mike is getting a lift to the property to install the great room windows and do some work on the roof.  The chimney needs to be wrapped and the weather vane mounting rod needs to be installed in the turret.  The copper roof installers from Copper bays, Flashings, Gutters & More are starting on Monday for the copper roof install on the turret.  They'll also supply a quote to replace some of the improperly installed copper flashing from the previous roofer.  

   Geothermal wells should be going in soon.  I can't recall if it was this week or next, but it has no bearing on if the water/sewer lines are installed. Next weekend should have some nice updates.

   The scaffolding was removed from the turret but it doesn't look like the cedar fascia has been replaced.  I think they removed the scaffolding in preparation for the turret window installation but I though the fascia needed fixing before the copper roof was installed.  The copper roof guys will probably have their own lift equipment so I hope they weren't expecting the scaffold to still be installed.  Its removal makes the turret feel a bit bigger.  It will still be a trick to see how we can finish off the window trim with relations to the roof line but I can't wait to see the windows installed.

   Mike got his welding truck out to the site during the week and got some of the welding tasks completed.  First was the great room support posts that were moved into the fireplace footprint.  The temporary posts were removed after these were reinstalled and it makes a world of difference to the flow of the room.  They really don't take up much room inside the fireplace column, so they shouldn't get in the way of the firebox.

   Here it is from the outside.  The space will probably be taken up by fireplace surround anyways so there's no reason not to put it in there.  We've nailed down our potential gas fireplace, but we're still not sure if we want it installed off the floor or right on the floor, which is why the fireplace opening is still so large.  We're not going to have an elevated hearth either way, but due to fire code, we might need a non-flammable material on the floor in front of the fireplace, depending on the install height.

   Here's the turret window opening without the scaffolding.  I think that piece of wood in the window buck is new, but I can't imagine what it could be used for.  If they need a spacer for the window install, then it should go the height of the window.  I guess we'll find out next week.  The plywood in the ceiling joists is still present, but we can get that removed at any time.

   They also removed the turret bedroom wall where the HVAC trunks go up to the attic.  We have to move this wall to encompass the trunks, which also works out with the bathroom for the other bedroom.  Moving this wall moves the location of the tub, which moves the center of the tub and tub drain off the steel beam under it.  A few inches makes a big difference and I don't think the twins will notice the missing space.

   Some more welding work was performed on the front porch supports, under the turret.  When Matt Lincoln and his crew built the front porch, they notched a laminated beam to rest on the steel beams supporting the turret.  This laminated beam supports large sections of the front porch roof and in an earlier blog post, I questioned if this install was correct.  Turns out, that it wasn't so Mike installed these steel brackets to support the load of the laminated beam.  The strength of any beam is the thickness and width of the beam itself, and how it transfers the load to the ground.  The way the beam was initially installed only had a very small portion of that beam transferring the load to the post.  Now the entire thickness is supported by the post.  It's not the best way to do it, but I think it's the only way considering how it was initially installed.

   So that's it for this week.  As I mentioned earlier, next week should have some interesting pictures and progress.  I'm hoping that Mike comes up with the new budget so we can see if anything needs to be adjusted.  I'm hoping we'll be close to the original budget, but since it was lowballed so much, I'm expecting at least some increase.  Crossing my fingers that it doesn't take us out of the realm of reality.