Basement perimeter walls

Frugaldad framed the perimeter of the basement when I was laid up on the couch with a broken ankle.

Our #1 and #2 Priority

We passed our plumbing inspection on Valentine's Day. The inspector was very impressed with Frugaldad's DIY job. Then the following Saturday, Frugaldad cut into the existing septic line and tied the new plumbing into it.

In case you missed the news, I fell and broke my ankle on February 13 so I haven't been outside to take pictures or even see the progress for almost 3 weeks. But Frugaldad assures me that the progess is great. He framed all the perimeter walls in the basement so they can be insulated and now that most of the snow is melted, he and the kids cleaned up most of the rest of the debris around the site.

The last door, finally

I'm not even going to apologize for the lack of updates.

We ordered the last door on Dec 14, it came in 4 weeks later (2 weeks late) and wasn't even what we ordered. So we ordered again and less than 2 weeks later the right door came and was installed on Saturday Jan 26. It is very nice to be able to get into the addition on both sides of the building now, instead of having to walk around.





We're also almost done with the plumbing. The drain side is finished except for the vent out the roof, and there hasn't been a snow-free day to get on the roof yet. A couple weeks ago, an entire Saturday was spend tapping into the supply lines of the house and all the supply lines to the addition are run, supported, and in the walls ready to be attached to fixtures.

The dirt pile out back, once the bane of my existence with it's ability to migrate into my house, is now quite a fun sledding hill.

Windows!

We finished installing all fifteen windows over Christmas break. He and I were able to do 13 of them alone, and we got some help with the other two that were too big for just the two of us. The last door is supposed to be here but I haven't gotten the call yet. Over the weekend we cleaned out the garage so Frugaldad can access the water heater to start the supply side of the plumbing. I think he has acquired all of the supplies now.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but it's hard to get a minute to blog when the kids are around. The three older ones went back to school today so I making time to update!

Applying flashing tape to the window sill.



Rolling out the flashing tape.



Smoothing out the corners.


Almost ready for the window.


I didn't actually take pictures of the window going in since I was assisting in the lifting, but you'll see one eventually.

Family Time

The weather's been iffy and it's the holidays, after all, so we've been spending some family time together and not getting as much done. Slowly but surely, though, it will get done.

Merry Christmas!

Since we didn't really have time to put up many outside decorations, we decided we could have the world's largest luminaria.




I realize there hasn't been much updating lately, but most of the work has been hard to document. Frugaldad has been working on the rough plumbing in the bathroom and our windows were delivered. Yesterday we installed 5. There are 10 more, and the other door is on order but not due to come in for a while. The first door was installed a couple weeks ago.

The French doors


The first window opening


You can see two windows on the edge of this picture, but this was a failed attempt to take the first picture, because I thought the flash was off.

That's a wrap!

edited 12/7
This weekend Frugaldad framed up the walls for the first floor bathroom, and the doorway in the main wall upstairs.



In this picture you can also see that all the doors and windows are blocked by Tyvek, so to get into the addition you have to go down the ladder in the window well, and then go up the stairs.

He also wrapped the addition in Tyvek home wrap.



The next step is doors and windows! They are ordered and will get installed in a couple weeks.

Today's chore is starting the rough plumbing.