In addition to The Owner-Builder Book, I've read Better Houses, Better Living and am in the process of reading Make Your House Do the Housework and have watched several of the DVDs that I've ordered from this site, all of which have been jam-packed with excellent information that I cannot imagine building a house without. Angela in Luray, VA

24 days to go

Posted by Brian in Dexter, MI on 1/7/2008

We have decided to give our landlord notice that we are renting from that we will be moving out on Jan 31st. That gives us 24 days to get a CoO or temporary CoO.

Since the last update, all of the rough mechanical inspections have been completed. I learned that putting a furnace in the attic isn't a good idea. 90+ efficiency furnaces need to be in conditioned space, which means a drywalled insulated room in the attic if you don’t want it on the floor. I ended up relocating the second furnace to a conditioned closet on the bonus floor.

The furnace is now running, and we had to heat the house a week before drywall. To keep the heat in, I had the insulators batt all of the ceilings with R-11, and they came back to blow it to R-50 after drywall was hung. Insulation took a total of two days.

Just before drywall we had the rough building inspection. I was both surprised and pleased that we passed on the first try. After the inspection passed, there was about a week's worth of work to finish things up for drywall.

Once in, the drywallers hung all of the board in a day and a half (about 16,000 ft.). They took another four days to tape, apply several coats of mud, and sand. The primer happened today, tomorrow the ceilings are being painted.

While waiting for drywall to finish, I built all of the frames around the windows and doors using 1x8 wood. I have also tiled two tub/shower stalls and three bathroom floors. I have one bathroom left to tile and a kitchen floor, then I start on the hardwood. My goal is to have all of the tiling done by the 11th, wood floors and cabinets hung by the 18th, and trim and doors in by the 25th.

Photos