Drywall for Christmas

I was at the Hideout this past weekend because our kitchen cabinets were being delivered.  I arrived 30 minutes early to check out some updates.  The drywall was in place and there was a crew on site taping and floating.  Unfortunately, they began in the house and were just getting started in the garage - which meant I was going to be piling up a bunch of cabinets in the middle of their work.  After some 'negotiating' in Spanish we got everything dropped off and covered in the garage.  I managed to snap a few pictures before heading back home, but I couldn't get to the second floor because the staircase had been removed so I'll return soon to get some more shots when the work is done.

The had to remove the stairs to drywall the west wall.  The ladder is providing the crew access to the upstairs.

There is a nice pile of trash on our back porch!

The drywall crew told me they will be complete this week.  We are scheduling the garage door install for Saturday the 28th, and will be getting the welders in for the stair install as soon as possible. Merry Christmas!

Insulation and Water

We've had some electrical updates - mostly moving recessed light cans around and pushed some receptacles up or down as needed.  Once that was done the insulation crews came by and did their stuff.

We went with batt insulation in the garage which should be fine for that space.  Since we are planning to set this up as "kid hangout" we will be installing a split system ductless AC unit in back wall to keep it comfortable in the summer time.  I really like the Mitsubishi systems and have heard good reviews on the product.  I'll post an update once we get it installed and field tested in the 100 degree heat.

The house was shot with spray foam insulation.  All of the exterior walls are 2x6 framing so we get a great thermal and moisture barrier with the spray product.

Directly behind the insulation crew is the drywall team and the builder asked us to get water onsite ASAP as they will need it to complete the dry wall finishing.  We called APEX back to the site to finish the pump & tank install, and they had it wrapped up in a day.  We will be building a shed to house the pump and pressure tank and protect them from freezing temperatures (yes, it freezes in Austin).  We were glad to discover the water was odor free.  Some of our neighbors' well water has a strong sulfur smell.  We'll put a conditioning system in the house to remove some minerals and then we're ready to go.  The tank in the photo is 2500 gal and will ensure we have consistent pressure and volume in times of peak demand.

The weather here has been wonderful this week so we hope to have the exterior paint applied, and some photos of the drywall to share soon.