siding begins

we have some hardie panels installed. boards are installed with 1/2" open joint over 2x4s laying flat.

drywall

all drywall is hung. corner beads and end moldings were installed today and whole thing is ready to be taped and mudded after we pass drywall inspection.

hallway with 2 solar tubes. they sure do bring in a lot of light.

insulation and drywall

all ceilings and walls are insulated with batts in addition to 2" layer of foam. this assembly should result in R32 walls and R52 ceilings. we still need to insulate foundation concrete. for this purpose we will use 1 1/2" extruded polystyrene boards, same as we used for underslab insulation.
drywall hanging started today. it goes really fast, but the whole process needs to be coordinated with soffit framing . droped soffit in living room will give it a better height to width proportion.

our double sliding door finally arrived.

spray foam and siding wood

half of the house is now sprayed with foam insulation. it is closed cell foam with R-7 per 1". we are doing 2" walls and roof and combine it with batts, as this stuff is quite expensive. it does seal and laminate the whole house envelope, making it air tight and structurally stronger.
also our siding hardwood was delivered today. ultimately we decided for brasilian mahagony which we will treat with Penofin Hardwood stain.

trip to ikea

we took trip to Ikea in Salt Lake City. This is the closest store to denver. We flew there and drove back. Phone ordered our kitchen cabinets and appliances to make sure we will get everything we need. Ouro rder was delivered to storage warehouse where we picked it up. In addition we bought what we liked in actuall Ikea store.
and some images from our drive back.

hardi framing

beam supporting trellis between house and garrage is installed. also framing for borders that will conceal gutters and downspouts are done. we also have garage overhead door.

also we got our first lighting fixture. not sure where we are going to hang it.

rosin paper

our mechanical room, still empty, once it gets filled with all the equipement, there will be hardly any space in it.
our contractor asked us to cover floors since closed cell spray foam insulation will be blown in this upcoming week. we used rosin paper, which we will keep over floor until painting is complete. whole place looks like it got "beautifull" pink carpet. also while jana was covering floors, i installed blockings in exterior wall cavity for siding attachement.

gutters

gutters and downspouts will be eventually concealed within siding.

my first DIY project happened to be working table. since there is more and more work we are doing ourselfs, this large working area will be handy. after construction is over i will keep it in garrage to have my little hobby area.
friday we received ceramic cook top.

final wrapping

house is completly wrapped now. we also have roofing membrane installed.

windows

windows are finally here. after receiving quotes on windows that ranged anywhere between $5000 adn $72000, we decided to go with Jeld Wen Siteline EX serie, with extruded aluminum exterior and wood interior. Even though it is not exactly the look we wanted (which was totally out of our budget), they are very decent quality for the price.
in one day, all the windows were installed. we are still waiting on patio double sliding door.
meanhile we started to collect all the tools we might need for the work we are planing to do ourselves.