So yesterday they delivered the sheet rock:

(Sixteen-foot pieces! Wow!)

And they got the new boiler hooked up and working:

(They’ll have to come back to finish hooking it up to the in-floor heating in the addition, which obviously has not yet been installed.)

And then today – within just a couple of hours, all that sheet rock went up! We’ve got walls!

(Remember that goofy-looking door is just temporary, making it so we don’t have a layer of dust over everything we own.)

Whee!

This is facing the outside corner. The armoir (that contains our TV) will be just to the left of this view, with low cabinets on the other side of it below the window. We haven’t chosen colors yet, so they’re just there for texture.

The insulation passed inspection today, so they can start sheet rock tomorrow. Today they added something to attach the ceiling sheet rock to (rather than directly to the rafters):

And they also nailed down the plywood subfloor more permanently (except for a couple of pieces to allow the heating installers access:

They also primed some mysterious pieces of trim; not sure what it’s for yet:

And they did…stuff…along the bottoms of the wall. Shiny stuff:

And the boiler looks much closer to ready to go, with pipes and vents and all sorts of neat things:

And again, hooray for our contractor, who found someone to take away the 200+ gallons of heating oil left in our tank. The company we bought from showed no interest in taking it back, even without crediting us any money.

We apparently have to make decisions about the built-ins within a day or two, so I assume that’s coming soon, which makes sense. Vroom vroom!

Yesterday, we passed inspection on both the rough framing and rough electrical (including, I’m pleased to note, the speaker wiring I did):

So today we got insulation:

(Honest, there’s insulation under the plywood floor now. I saw it myself.)

Meanwhile, the siding continues to move along:

And! They took away our (old, broken) boiler and brought in a new one:

Purty, ain’t it? It’s natural gas instead of heating oil. The sub pointed out that we have 200+ gallons of oil in the tank, and he can’t cart that off, at least not all at once. Hopefully our oil vendor can come and take it away; I haven’t heard back from them yet.

The main carpenter is on vacation this week, and the secondary guy is mostly working on siding, which goes fairly slowly. But it’s coming along:

To make up for the lack of dramatic house updates, some pictures from our camping trip to Maine:

…and one from the first day of school:

Tomorrow we’ll have inspections of the electrical and the framing, and then insulation can go in on Friday.

…but progress nonetheless.

Mostly they worked on siding today. A lot of the work was the siding up next to the new roof, where it’s hard to get a good picture. But it’s coming along.

(That may be the same as the last picture, but this one is in the daylight.)

And! We have lights! Two of them that are on a pre-existing switch in the kitchen that used to be for the exterior light.

Those will shine down on Dena thinking Big Thoughts at her as-yet-hypothetical desk.

I cannot believe how fast this is going.

This used to be a window. Now it is plastic. It will be sheet rock:

This used to be our outside door. The outside door is now on the outside of the addition (you can see it through this temporary door). The door that is here is temporary; it will be an open doorway into the new living room:

Our carpenter was asking whether we wanted trim on the doorway once we get to that point. I said “yes” rather quickly. He said, “Yeah, doing just sheet rock is very condo.” Amused me. Having the temporary door is nice; helps keep some of the dust out (though plenty is coming in).

This used to be the bathroom window. It is now a mirror in the window frame. This makes it so we don’t have to try to match that paint. Dena thinks it’s funny to have a mirror that looks like a window. I guess it is, a little bit:

This is the other side of the former-window-that-will-be-sheetrock (not the former-window-now-mirror):

The picture is here more to point out: look! Wires! Electrical and speaker!

This is the panel for the speaker wiring:

The contractor and the subs were looking at it today, a bit amused. Seems when I told him I was going to do some stereo wiring, he didn’t realize it would be quite so elaborate. The connections are for, from left to right:

First panel: Front and back speakers (left and right).

Second panel: Middle speakers (these terminate in the ceiling with no actual jack, since we don’t have middle speakers and probably won’t any time soon).

Third panel: RCA cables to where Dena’s computer will be so we can use that iTunes. Our new TiVo actually accesses the iTunes library through the wireless network, so we may just go with that, but it’s nice to have some extra wires running the length of the room just in case.

This is to prove that we will have lights:

And siding:

We’re scheduled to be going through October sometime. I wouldn’t be surprised if they finish sometime in September.

I’m back from a fun trip to New Orleans and the first couple of days of classes at the law school, and check out how much has been done:

First, we have windows! Behold:

And a roof! (Meaning we no longer have to have huge tarps over the house.)

And…pipes? In the bathroom?

(Not actually random – they’re putting in a baseboard heater in the bathroom, which didn’t have heat before. They can use the same line they’re using for the in-floor heating.)

And an overall view:

We have acres of plywood, ready for the (membrane) roof:

…and a vent thing:

No more updates until after the weekend. See you then!

They’re progressing, but it’s not quite as visible (hence no pictures) — continued work on roof rafters (including finishing up the ones above the pantry), etc. Today is supposed to be plywood for the roof, and then the roof tomorrow.

The extra concrete for below the pantry ended up not being crazy expensive, so that’s something. And I think we’re close to deciding on plain ol’ (but pretty!) oak flooring.