Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at our house as usual since it's my favorite holiday. We thought we would take a break and celebrate with our great families. We had a good time (even though it snowed and we were thinking of our uncovered roof getting all wet again). The roofer (Valley Roofing) left with the roof only half covered with weather guard because he ran out and he hasn't been back since. We left him an unpleasant message on Saturday. A recession? People out of work and desperate? Not in NJ. We've gotten sky high prices from just about everyone, contractors not bothering to show up and jobs left half finished. We were at the house this weekend putting spray on foam insulation in the crevices between the roof and the stone just trying to keep it dry inside until our contractor comes back. The doors and the big arched window for the kitchen should be in this Tuesday. The two glass doors came in two weeks ago, but the framer doesn't want to put them together, the lumber yard where we bought the windows from won't and Andersen Windows doesn't want anything to do with them. No one wants the responsibility. Now we have to find a carpenter to put them together so the framer can install them this Friday. No worries.

The big push

The framing continued at a fevered pitch - everyone pitched in to help - even my daughter, Paige and her friend Izzy

The building inspector gave us a hard time with the sheathing. Make sure your builders ask the town if they want a gap for expansion or not. We had to rip out all the plywood along the sill and redo it. Also, make sure they use galvanized nails with the new treated lumber otherwise the copper in the lumber corrodes the nails. I'm learning a lot.
The floor in the basement was finally poured after we put down the tubing for radiant heat.


Here are more framing photos
A picture of the crew. As you can see they more than happy to pose!

The new builders

The new builders pulled up to the house with dust and gravel spewing out behind them. The door to their van opened and just like that little car in the circus they just kept coming out. Twelve in all and three more in a second car. They couldn't squeeze in three more? They attacked the house and in about 5 minutes the living room deck was on.

Now, I was used to things crawling along at a snail's pace for the entire summer. Suddenly, things were happening! Wait! Too late.
The walls were up. It seemed as though things were happening just that fast. I loved it. We were running out of time.

In less than 3 weeks the house was framed. Arturo and his workers (John Prevete Framers) were amazing workers. They each had their part of the framing to do and they did it very well and even though it was quite complicated, very fast. Our architects were impressed and every other contractor who came to the house asked who did the framing. They all thought it was great. We had made some changes to the plans and Arturo was very patient with me when I wanted to change something else. One day though, he said "I change nothing else! Talk to John!" I knew I had reached Arturo's breaking point. Below are some photos of the framing.