The Personal Page of Scott & Emily

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Scott and Emily

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Previous Diary

Stages of Construction


	Previous House Diary Entries

	Go to a specific month by clicking below:

	March April May June July

	March 1, 2003 Lighting and doorbell Met lighting person at the Brimfield model home. She had a computer program that displayed all the available lighting choices. We pretty much stayed with the standard lighting fixtures.
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	March 2, 2004 Flooring and countertops. We visited WCCV in Uniontown. Picked out wood flooring for the foyer, dinette, and kitchen and vinyl for the bathrooms and laundry room. The rest of the house will be carpeted (teal in master bedroom, burgundy in living room, “pebble creek” [aka “tan”] everywhere else. Picked out the kitchen and bathroom countertops as well. That was the hard part. The vinyl flooring samples are big—probably 2 foot square—and the countertop samples are tiny—probably 1 inch by 2 inches.
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	March 9, 2004 Preconstruction. Julie introduced us to the Foundation Supervisor and the Project Manager. We made a couple of changes to the plans and turned in our color selections.
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	March 19, 2004 Closing! Signing all the papers was uneventful and took about an hour. The stressful part was yesterday when the title company contacted us to tell us what our closing costs would be. The company did not initially credit us for the entire amount of our earnest deposit. After that was corrected, everything was smooth sailing. We drove out to our home site and found that the Foundation Supervisor was already staking out the lot. That was pretty neat to see. He also posted the building permit.
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	March 29, 2004 DIGGING BEGINS. Contractor began digging about 8:00am. By 9:30am they had finished hooking up the sewer, water, and gas. The basement was dug by about 2:00pm.
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	March 31, 2004 Foundation. The foundation was poured for the entire house. The drain system for the basement was also installed.
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	April 2, 2004 Concrete Block, Part 1 The concrete block, sand, and concrete mix were delivered today. The brick for the band around the front of the house was also delivered.
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	April 7, 2004 Concrete Block, Part 2 About one half of the concrete block work was finished today. We also met one of our new next-door neighbors. She and her husband have five school-aged kids!
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	April 8, 2004 Concrete Block, Part 3 The basement and garage block work is pretty much finished. There are only 1 or 2 rows left to finish in the garage. The stoop is mostly finished as well. Before the block was in, the hole didn't seem as if it was deep enough for the basement. But now that the block is in, it definitely looks deeper.
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	April 9, 2004 Concrete Block, Part 4 The basement and garage block are finished, as well as the stoop. The brick band was put around the front of the foundation. A nice touch that we didn't know they were going to do was they put a smooth coat of cement over the top few rows of block to create a more finished look. We were surprised and happy about that.
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	April 12, 2004 Waterproofing The waterproofing or the basement was completed today.
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	April 14, 2004 Back Fill Dirt was back filled against basement walls and a 4' layer of stone was placed on top of that.
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	April 23, 2004 Back Fill 2 Completed the back fill of the basement and the garage. Grade was smoothed for majority of yard and steel beam and support poles for the basement were delivered. Basement has about 4" or 5" of water in it. Either that means the basement is so waterproof on the outside that the water has no place to go or we will have an indoor swimming pool for free.
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	April 26, 2004 Materials & Floor The lumber was delivered today. Pam, Rena, and Kari went to visit the site with us. When we got there we saw the workers installing floor joists. We left for a little while and by the time we returned, the decking had been installed.
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	April 27, 2004 Framing Framing of main floor and garage completed today. Crew started to lay the plywood for the second floor.
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	April 28, 2004 Framing 2, Bath tubs & Showers Rough framing was finished on the second floor today. Bath tubs and showers were delivered to be lifted to second floor for installation before roof trusses and sheeting are put in place.
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	April 29, 2004 Framing 3, Windows & Doors Framing is complete. Roof and front peak installed. The windows, doors, and sliding glass door were delivered today.
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	April 30, 2004 Framing 4, Windows & Doors The windows, sidelights, and doors were installed today. The cornices above the front windows were also installed. We were happy to see that the workers picked up all of the scrap in the yard and threw it in the giant Dumpster that is in the driveway. That left the yard fairly tidy. We ate our first meal at the house too. Our food of choice? Pizza!
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	May 3, 2004 Plumbing The plumbers started to work on the plumbing. All of the holes and cut outs were made for the piping and the PVC for the drains was delivered. The shingles were also delivered today and should be in place soon. We were finally able to go into our basement. The 12 inches plus of water were finally pumped out.
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	May 4, 2004 Plumbing 2 Drain pipes were hooked up in entire house today. The water lines were installed in the upstairs bedrooms. The tubs and showers were also installed today. Sump pump was installed and the main electrical was run to the house as well as the gas main line.
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	May 5, 2004 Heating, Electrical The heating/air conditioning ducts were installed on the second floor. The electrician was in and installed all of the outlet and switch boxes and has started to run the electrical wire on the second floor. The fire place was delivered today. It is all boxed up so were unable to see what it looks like.
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	May 6, 2004 Electrical 2 The electricians have spent another day installing the wiring. It appeared that most of the wire has been run, it needs to be hooked up to the electrical box. The plumbers were in sometime today and charged all of the waste water lines and copper pipe to check for leaks. The fireplace was also installed today. The shingles are on now. They had the main part of the house done by noon.
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	May 7, 2004 Electrical 3 The electrical rough in was completed today.
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	May 10, 2004 Concrete We went out to the house today expecting to find at least a start on the siding. Much to our surprise we found the concrete had been poured for the front stoop, garage, and basement. That was okay with us as we are putting up insulation in the garage this weekend and it would have been a challenge with the ladders with the very uneven dirt that was in the garage.
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	May 12, 2004 Garage Door We arrived at the house today to clean up some of the brush in the back yard. After about 15 minutes of looking around we noticed a lot of nails on the garage floor. Finally we looked up and found we had a garage door.
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	May 14, 2004 Insulation, Siding Today was an extremely long, but rewarding day. The day started with us going to Scott's former boss to borrow his truck to pick up the insulation for the garage. When we arrive at the house at about 9:45 the workers had a major part of the siding started. We let them work and came to the house around 2:30 and found the house completely sided and everyone gone. We were very pleased with the outcome! From then we began insulating. Around 3:30 Mark Stauffer, one of Scott's friends from the airport and one of our neighbors arrived to help with the insulation. By 5:30 we had the entire garage walls and ceiling insulated. It was a lot of work but we are glad it's done.
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	May 17, 2004 Insulation The insulation was installed downstairs and upstairs in preparation for the drywall installation this week. The yard was graded again to even it out.
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	May 20, 2004 Drywall The drywall and joint compound were delivered today.
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	May 24, 2004 Spouting, Drywall 2 The gutters and downspouts were installed today. The drywall was also installed today. The joints have not been filled in yet.
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	May 25, 2004 Downspout lines, Drywall 3 The lines that hook the downspouts, sump pump, and garage floor drain were all hooked up to the sewer system today. The workers began the taping and mudding of the walls today. We found out today that they have until June 2 to finish. We received an update on the schedule of things to come: June 3 - Wall priming begins, electrician begins final electrical work, cabinets and trim are delivered. June 7 - Trim is hung and cabinets installed. June 11 - Countertop laminate installed.
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	June 2, 2004 Drywall 4, Attic Insulation The drywall was finished today as well as the knock down texture on the ceilings. When we arrived, workers were blowing insulation into the attic and finished that.
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	June 4, 2004 Painting, Staining & Electrical The walls throughout the house were primed today. All of the exterior doors were painted both inside and out as well. All of the wood trim was delivered and stained as well as the spindles and railings for the stairs. We also had all of the interior doors delivered and the screens for the windows were delivered too. The electrician was back and installed all of the sockets and light switches and finished hooking up all of them to the electrical box.
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	June 7, 2004 Floor, Trim Today the carpenters began to set up for the finish work. The trim was all cut to length, the walls were marked for the cabinets, and the sub-floor was put in for the vinyl and wood floors.
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	June 8, 2004 Trim, Doors, Railings & Furnace The interior doors in all of the rooms were installed upstairs today. All of the doors and windows were trimmed as well upstairs. The hand rail was installed for the stairs to the second floor and the stairs to the basement. They also began to install the railing in the office that will separate it from the stairwell.
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	June 9, 2004 Trim, Doors & Railings 2 The rest of the interior doors were hung today and the trim work was completed except the areas of the floor where the vinyl floor and wood floor need to be installed.
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	June 10, 2004 Furnace The furnace was set in place today and the heat ducts were run.
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	June 14, 2004 Cabinets The kitchen and bathroom cabinets were delivered today.
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	June 15, 2004 Cabinets 2 The kitchen and bathroom cabinets were installed today. We took some measurements to see if our selections for appliances will fit. While most of them should be okay, we had to make some changes in our selections.
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	June 16, 2004 Countertops The Formica countertops were installed in the kitchen and the master bathroom and full bathroom upstairs.
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	June 17, 2004 After some more careful considerations, and a "wonderful" scale model I (Scott) made, we found that one of our appliances (microwave/hood combo) would fit after all. We were worried about the clearance between the range and hood. It turns out it will work out very well.
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	June 18, 2004 Painting, Staining The wood trim and stair rails were stained and sprayed with a polyurethane to protect it.
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	June 21, 2004 Plumbing The rest of the plumbing was roughed in on the first floor and the hot water heater was installed. The hot water heater ended up being the wrong size (10 gallons too small) so they will have to take it out and put the right size in.
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	June 23, 2004 Flooring The vinyl floor and hardwood floor were delivered today. Installation should begin tomorrow.
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	June 24, 2004 Flooring, Light fixtures & Doorknobs The wood floor and vinyl floor were installed today. They all turned out very well. The light fixtures were delivered. According to the packing list, one of the fixtures we chose is on back order. The doorknobs and door pulls were installed on all of the doors.
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	June 25, 2004 Hot water heater, Electrical & Plumbing The hot water heater was replaced with the correct size. The electricians started the final installations. They hooked up the rest of the outlets and switches and installed the face plates. The eye ball lights above the fire place, the lights in the garage, and a light in one of the extra bedrooms were installed. The smoke/carbon monoxide detectors were hooked up. They are hooked together so that if one goes off, they all will go off (5 in total). All of the sinks and toilets were delivered. The sink in the master bathroom was installed.
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	June 28, 2004 Fireplace, Light fixtures The stone work was installed around the fireplace. All of the light fixtures that are not on back order (2 of them) were installed throughout the house.
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	June 29, 2004 Plumbing All of the sinks were installed. The toilet in the half bath was installed. The other two bathrooms' toilets were not installed. We are not sure if they ordered the wrong ones, there were 3 delivered earlier. The water spigot to the garage was installed and the garbage disposal was hooked up.
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	July 1, 2004 Plumbing, Closet shelves & Painting The plumbing was completed today. The rest of the toilets were installed and the water line for the refrigerator was installed. All of the shelving in the closet were installed. Another coat of paint was put on and some of the dirt and saw dust was cleaned up.
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	July 2, 2004 Carpet, Yard The carpet installers began the process of installing the carpet. The tack strips were installed in all of the rooms and the padding was also installed in all of the rooms. The dirt in the back yard was removed and smoothed out.
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	July 6, 2004 Carpet The carpet was installed in all of the rooms. The final cleaning has been scheduled for July 13. After that are the inspections and we will be able to move in.
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	July 7, 2004 Registers, Air conditioner The air conditioner, registers, and thermostat were installed today. Some of the items left to do are mirrors in bathrooms, garage door opener, driveway, sidewalk and final painting.
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	July 12, 2004 Garage door, Driveway & Final carpentry The garage door opener was installed today. The driveway and sidewalks were prepared for concrete pour. The mirrors in the bathrooms were installed and the shower doors were installed in the bathroom.
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	July 13, 2004 Final cleaning, Light fixtures The final cleaning was completed today. All of the windows were washed, carpets vacuumed, garage and basement floor washed, and bathroom tubs and showers cleaned. The remaining light fixtures that were on back order were installed as well. The only item to complete is the concrete in the driveway and sidewalk and a final grade.
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	July 14, 2004 Driveway, Sidewalk The driveway and sidewalk were poured today. With that, construction is DONE! The builder will come in and grade next to the sidewalk and driveway. Now we wait for the final inspections and we will be ready to move in.
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	July 26, 2004 Final walk through We met with the construction supervisor today and went over the operation of some of the items in the house and pointed out some small issues we had that we wished to have fixed. We are scheduled to close this Friday as long as the occupancy certificate can be completed.
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