It's the little things

Haven't posted on the house for awhile -- the interlude of leonberger poetry should make you smile though.

We have been working on those pesty inside things: electricity, plumbing, chimney, circulation fans, catwalks and insulation. Not very pretty for pictures, but important for comfort later. Here is an update:
We bought and installed in the rafters a rangehood exhaust fan. Now, I think it is a good thing we have big dogs and no cats because this baby should suck up small animals with no problem. The RangeMaster 11oo cfm fan. It is so large, it had to go up the chimney opening as it won't go through the trusses.

The electrician is finished until the walls are covered. We are having most of them plastered since we have those concrete ones to work with. The plasterers are scheduled to arrive this week sometime. Dave has placed insulation in most of the interior walls. We did that between bedrooms in Wells and found it to be a life saver for sound deadening. So, we went the entire way this time.

The chimney is up to the roof and ready to go through -- if the weather dries out, that will happen tomorrow or Tuesday. It looks good and finally I can see exactly how it works into the floorplan.

No air conditioning -- but we have 3 whole house fans. The switch panel is going to look like StarTrek command, but should move some air. Of course, the bathroom fans, dryer vent and attic fans (one at each end of the house) also all needed to be ready before the plastering. The plumber is coming tomorrow to finish all those connections and we still have some work to be done on the radiant heating system. The pipes and water heater are in place, some manifolds still need to be connected. This should also take place this week.

The concrete walls are not as tall as our ceilings (8 1/2 feet). So, there is framing above each of them. For now, we are having these covered with plaster board and plaster. I am afraid they might crack with settling -- we have plans for decorative wood in case that happens. Also, we are planning several wood walls which won't be finished on move-in. Some ceilings are also going to be wood, these will be covered with wallboard for now. Have to be able to blow in the insulation before winter.

Dave built numerous catwalks in the attic / truss space. With deep insulation, that was the only way to traverse that space if any of the above mentioned fans give us trouble.

I saw the kitchen cabinets (the varigated hickory was a good idea and they are coming along well). The appliances are ordered for delivery on or about Oct. 10th. Soon my weekly laundramat visits will end!
So - the little things have been keeping us busy. I'll post more later.