2017 Sheetrock main floor and loft bath

This is a short video of the completed sheetrock in the half bath, mud room/laundry area.

This is the loft bathroom wall. The toilet in this bathroom is a power assist, rear flush model. A bottom flush would not work because of the support log directly below the area. I would have had to drill a 3 1/2 inch hole through the center of the log, greatly reducing its strength.

Hallway going towards the master bedroom.

View from inside the master bedroom, with a walk in closet on the right.

2017 Coaxial Cable

   Richard Dube reminded me that I should have the house wired for cable, so we ran coax cable from the southwest corner of the basement to the mechanical room. We also ran cable from the family room and the kitchen island area. All three cables end up in the mechanical room for future use.

2017 Wiring, Shower stalls

   At this point, I have completed the running of all of the electrical wiring on the main floor and the loft bathroom. The switches and outlets will be completed after the sheetrock is installed. The above is the master shower/tub area. I installed the first layer of cement for the shower floor pans, pre-sloping the floors towards the drain about 1/2 inch per foot. The next day I installed the rubber floor membranes with the help of a friend, Rich Dube, over the floor, going up the walls about 6 inches. I then installed the cement board on the walls and sealed all seams with construction adhesive.

   Once the walls were installed, I installed the final layer of cement to the shower pans, maintaining the 1/2 inch per foot slope.

   This is the loft shower. Both shower areas have built-in shelves for shampoo, soap, etc. The only thing left to do is paint both shower areas with RedGard waterproofing, then they will both be ready for tiles.

2017 Plumbing - Pex water supply

   As I have stated on prior posts, I ran all the water sources off of the two water manifolds, blue lines are cold, red lines are...  OK! With few exceptions, every line coming off the manifold supplies only one need. Example, the loft shower has a hot water line and a cold water line, each coming off the manifolds for that purpose only. Flush a toilet while someone is taking a shower, no change in pressure. The exceptions: I ran out of positions on the manifolds, so two toilets share a cold water line, one toilet shares a line with a sink line, etc. No shower or tub lines are shared. All T's in the system for the shared lines are located in the mechanical, none are in the walls.

   I also made sure that every water line I installed is sloping down. When I close the house up for the winter, they will all gravity drain to the mechanical room to prevent frozen lines.

2017 Plumbing, drainage and venting

This is the mechanical room in the basement. In addition to installing drains and venting for each drain in the rest of the house, I installed venting for the basement toilet, shower and vanity sink.

This is the P trap for the main floor bathtub top right of photo.

This is the main drain system running through the ceiling of the basement bathroom. When everything is complete on the main floor, I will install a drop ceiling in this bathroom and insulate it to conceil the plumbing.

This is the main vent stack that goes through the roof. I was worried about the positioning of this vent as I had not planned it out very well during roof construction. Lack of experience? It turned out to be in the perfect spot. It took less than an hour to drill the hole, install the pipe, and finish off the roof flashing. I did paint the exposed 3 inch pipe a deep green to somewhat match the shingle color.

2017 Planning and building walls

The first project in the house was planning out the walls for the master bedroom, bathroom, and half bath on the main floor. I laid out boards on the floor to get the feel of the dimensions of the rooms and hallways before I started building the walls. I also planned the area for the washer and dryer and the kitchen stove, and installed electrical boxes and the water/waste box for the washing machine.

I planned out the master bath shower/tub area so the shower is in the front and the bath tub is at the rear of the area. I was hesitant to complete the shower pans because I had never done one.

This is the half bath on the main floor. Once all the walls were up, I installed all the outlet boxes for electrical outlets, switches, smoke detectors and thermostats. The wiring would not be started until all the plumbing drains, vents and water lines are installed.

2017 Garage pad

 One of the first things I did this year was work with my cousin, Jim Hendrickson, and put in the concrete slab in from of the garage. It measures 30 feet wide and 25 feet deep, plus the area going around to the side door.We also poured a short sidewalk from the house towards the garage side door.

 I drilled holes in the garage concrete slab and pounded in rebar to secure the pad to the garage slab.

This is the completed slab before I stripped out the forms.