Drywall is here!

When are we getting to drywall?

Well we are finally here, so our friends can stop asking.
For those have not built a house this is the turning of the corner and seeing the finish line. Now the fun finishing items happens (which Cherie has been waiting for over a year).

The mechanical installations were a challenge, but we are finally ready for drywall. Drywall is a milestone. We have struggled to get to this point, because of fine tuning of the design and the need to shift doors, add outlets, incorporate security cameras and assuring the house is sealed and insulated properly. Once you covered everything with drywall, its hard to change. We are now ready to finish our dream home.

For our friend following the blog in Alaska, the Chicago winter has been the most mild ever, hence virtually no snow to shovel. It's not quite Redondo Beach California, but it helps the heating bills for two furnaces maintaining 45 degrees. This make for more time to work on the house. Photo at top is 2012. Photo to left is 2011 Blizzard.

Both 1st floor temporary and new 2ND floor furnaces have been working well and the house has held temperature of 50 degrees. The PEX plumbing is complete, master bath tub set and showers set. We choose to install a Schluter shower systems for all three shower, which is a foam base and curb kit with an orange rubber gasket mat on the walls. The cost of the shower system with drain is expensive at $300 each, but it pretty much fool proof for a remodeling project where you can adapt the foam and flash the walls and drains easily. We said " Do we want to take a chance of a leak or spend the money?" We chose the money and have a piece of mind.

We covered all the supply and returns with MERV 7 filter material to keep construction dust out of the system. A Merv 7 filter int eh furnaces at as a needed 2nd line of defense. To her credit, wife Cherie did a large portion of the unfaced R-11,R-13 , & R30 batt insulation as part of the "Flash and Batt Insulation (see photo of her on the ladder). Yes that's her auditioning for "Dirty Jobs" TV show ( and she's for hire!). She also does roofing without breaking a nail or destroying her manicure (see earlier roofing post with photo).


Cherie, Myself and friend Jimmie did the batt and blown insulation ourselves. The installer of the foam refused to give us a credit for the foam they did not install, so we had to terminate the second half of the contract for the batt and blown insulation. Some people say drywall is the worst job to do. I'd have to say installing unfaced batts is a close 2nd. Using unfaced batt insulation requires vented mask and eye protection.

The fan driven radon system has been installed in the basement slab and after attending a seminar, Mike found out that Radon is the 2nd largest cause of cancer. Radon is the migration of uranium from under you house into your home. In the case for a super insulated and tight house. The radon can easily be trapped inside. So the system is a must in a tight house. The addition of a HRV does help the issue of exhausting contaminants and bringing in fresh air into the house.

We'll be posting again very soon to show the completed drywall and painting take place (No VOC or Low VOC test), so stay tuned. Invites to the pizza and painting party is on their way out.

PS. What about the water??? Water in the crawl space has been the biggest anchor to completing this house. The previous owner let the water run through the craw space and into the sump pump via flow. Since then we have fixed the curb on the sump pump (so you can put a lid on it) and leveled the floors and installed and secondary pump in the garage to siphon off the high water coming from the West. We still get some water at about 10 gallons in one occasion. We are hoping that the fan venting for the radon will help dry out the slab and reduce the risk of water in the crawl. Plan "B" is to install a drain system under the floor on the west.