We heart insulation

And modern mechanical systems, new windows, drywall.

It is 13 degrees today, and we went over to close the windows at the house (cracked open to let out some of the drywall mud smell). The house was toasty warm and yet the furnace was not even on. How completely lovely. The old sunroom (new living room and dining room) were perfect. This would not have been possible before.

More pictures

It takes forever for the pictures to upload so I prefer to break it up. Here is the next set of pictures.

Kitchen entrance from living room


Kitchen from living room. Island in foreground.


Kitchen (foreground) and breakfast nook in back


Living room from kitchen


Well, this one does not need any explanation! We ordered the new front door last Monday :)

Finished drywall

Finished drywall - pre texture pictures. You probably can't tell this in the pictures but the drywall mud does make a huge difference in the look of the walls.

Upstairs guest bedroom


Master bedroom


Laundry room downstairs with the only 2 light bulbs in the entire house. We are so proud of those two bulbs!

Update - January 29

I took some new pictures yesterday, and I hope to get them up on the blog tonight (or tomorrow realistically!).

Drywall finishing is done,and we will inspect on Monday. Then they will have to do the texture.

All of this means we should be able to start our part of the house work next weekend!!! We are so excited. First up: painting and putting in the hall bathroom.

Drywall taping

Drywall tape is nearly completely up, and the house looks so great! Also the heat is on, and for the first time in 3 months, it is comfortable in the house. We had a lot of trouble getting the gas hooked up and then more trouble getting the furnace going so this is good progress.

I have had a really, really bad week at work, and the house is the only thing which is making me happy right now. It reminds of this English teacher at my high school who always used to say "Junior Mints they make my crappy life so much better". My beautiful new house makes my crappy life so much better.

We should be able to start painting and doing other chores for move on the weekend of February 4.

Drywall inspection passed

We pasted drywall inspection this afternoon, and now we can go to texture!

Drywall in the master suite

Door to nowhere


Bed goes under the 3 little windows


Door to nowhere from different angle


Master bathroom vanity wall

Drywall 2

Entryway. Seriously the old front door looks really horrible now!


Another view of the entry


Guest bathroom

Drywall pictures, 1

Thought this link might be useful for some perspective
Link to floor plan

It is super messy in the house, but it looks fantastic. Of course, it is very hard to take pictures so here is my effort.

Eventual long wall of cabinets in kitchen. Pipe hanging down is for range hood. Cutout which you can kind of see is for refrigerator


Standing in living room towards kitchen. Opening to left is into pantry. To right is into entryway.


Standing in dining room pointed to kitchen. Island in middle.


Similar pointing as last picture but closer to kitchen. Window in background is breakfast nook.

New computer

I love you so much. You make it so much easier for me to copy camera pictures onto the computer. I don't even need the stupid cord that I have not been able to find for the last 3 months. So there!

True Love

It is really true love that I am waiting to go over to the house until Eric gets back from Spokane this afternoon. Luckily it looks like his flight will be early (fingers crossed!). I want to go badly!

In a related note, the drywall contractor called and wanted to know about getting more heat in the house because it was too cold to work. I feel your pain buddy. I feel your pain. It is hard to work in the cold house. I have been using Eric's coveralls as the only way to survive it. Plus they have tons of pockets so I can carry all my tools around in them. I have to get a pair of them for myself!

A happy day

Dear Eric,

Today is our first hearing anniversary. Hasn't it been great? I had no idea how much our lives would change after cochlear implants. I did not realize how isolated we were becoming, and now it feels so great to fully participate in life around us.

I also think it is so fitting that on this day we are getting drywall at our house in a very visible step forward to going back home. I can't wait for you to get home this afternoon so we can go see it together.

I love you so much!
Jen

P.S. We have a special thanks today to Dr. Kelsall, Allison Biever and everyone else at the Rocky Mountain Ear Center for making this possible!

First drywall!

Ceiling in pantry

Insulation pictures

This is for you Eric. Miss you!

Insulation is going in

The insulation people are over at the house. When I was there about 8, they were trying to heat up the house (there is a minimum temperature at which the spray foam insulation can be done) and covering our beautiful new windows.

Yes, this means we still don't have heat. Elliott, the plumber and I have been calling both Xcel and the County to get the gas turned back on, and it has been an extremely frustrating and long experience. We absolutely have to have heat for drywall mud so that it dries evenly.

Current schedule:
Insulation today
Insulation inspection tomorrow
Drywall on Friday

We finished all our pre drywall tasks about 10 last night. Eric and I are tired. Eric is off to Spokane for a meeting today. He will be back on Friday. The original schedule had drywall on Thursday, and I told him I was going to have to go over and see it before he got back on Friday. He gets back at 3 on Friday, which means he can't be in Boulder til about 4:30. We will see if I can wait that long to go over. Not likely. We are both super excited to get drywall!

Insulation update

Insulation guys are not finished with their last job. Insulation will not happen until tomorrow. Side note for today: it is shockingly hard to get gas reconnected.

Ready for insulation

After taking the afternoon off to work at home, we are ready for insulation tomorrow. Still not quite ready for drywall. Very tired, but ready to see some major visible progress this week.

A big week

This is a big week at the Marquardt residence. We are to get insulation on Tuesday and drywall on Thursday. We have been working frantically to finish wiring before insulation goes in. Today the drywaller stopped by to measure the house. He will have a crew of 12 and will finish all the drywall upstairs in 1 day. We are beyond excited for this next step!

Inspection results

We mostly passed inspection (Eric says it was good). They have to come back and redo the water line inspection (there were leaks at the valves). That is all fixed now but not inspected. They did not wind up putting water in the lines. Don't ask me why.

Really all that matters is that we can turn on the furnace. Or in other words, we are heating the entire state of Colorado tonight.

Live blogging of the rough inspection

Okay, maybe not live blogging - mostly because I have no idea how to do that!

The inspector is at the house to do plumbing and gas inspection so that we can turn on the heat. Eric is on his way over now to see what an inspection is like.

It is really, really cold outside. I hope everything is okay and that we can get that heat on.

Bureaucracy Drives Me Crazy

Not that it is a far journey right now.

It is currently a balmy 14 degrees right now, and we have water in the pipes. Yikes!

The inspection we were supposed to have today was not scheduled as there were communication difficulties between the person who gave the okay for the inspection (after energy report issues) and the scheduler.

Elliott is trying to get them to come do the plumbing part so we can turn on the heat today. Electrical will not likely get done today.

Weekend Work

I pulled speaker wire on Saturday. We will have speakers in the master bedroom and bathroom connected to the main stereo and to an auxiliary jack (i-Pod). Also I pulled speaker wire for the Bose sound system we have in the living room. This will replace our old system that involved 4 speaker wires running from the stereo under the rug to the Bose box (mimics surround sound with a simple box). Not that that was not a good system!

Eric started the cable/telephone wiring. It is a lot of work, and he worked in the freezing cold weather yesterday so he wins a good husband award for it. Of course, I think the award right now is more working on the house!

Rough Inspection Tomorrow

We have resolved the HERS energy report issue. Apparently we turned in an old version of our report to the county to get the permit.

Rough inspection will now be tomorrow on a pretty cold day. Elliott will go over first thing in the morning to turn on heaters. Ed, the plumber, will be by then to fill the pipes with water again. Then the inspection will happen. After that, hopefully, Ed can connect the main gas line, and we can then hook up the furnace. So tomorrow for the first time since about November 1, we will have heat and water in the house. I would not recommend spending the night there though. Still no insulation or potty!

A Roof With No Leaks

Hopefully, the roofers finished repairing the roof yesterday, and so it will no longer snow in our house. Eric and I have begun to appreciate the simple things in life - no snow in the house!

In the old house, I think we had 3 holes through the roof (and the chimney). In the new, we have about 12. That is a lot of pipes. But we have for example working fans in every bathroom (0 before), an actual hood in the kitchen (which sadly will not be hooked up for awhile), and two dryers (one upstairs for when I am too old to go down the stairs and one downstairs for now).

A Disappointment

We are completely ready for rough inspection as of Thursday. On Thursday, Elliott called for it, and the County said we need some report from the HERS energy auditor before they can come. Unfortunately, our HERS energy auditor has no idea what this report is. So there is some work to figure this all out. Friday would have been a perfect weather day for this inspection which requires water in the pipes. Next Monday and Tuesday will be bitterly cold, and so we have probably lost an entire week to this inspection.

Eric's Surgery Anniversary

A year ago today, Eric had surgery to put cochlear implants in his ears. That was a pretty scary, stressful day, but I will say it was totally worth it. I can't believe how great those implants are and what a profound impact they have had on our lives. We are so blessed!

January 4 Update

Electrical is ready for rough inspection this week. Plumbing might be also ready, but I can't really tell what is left there!

We are just over 2 months in. We don't have any deep thoughts about that beyond we are exhausted!