It's July, we're in North Carolina, and that means it is SUNNY, HOT, and HUMID as hell. If we're lucky, the heat and humidity crank up with low pressure and unleash some killer downpours with vicious lighting in the late afternoon to cool things down, but not for long. It usually just adds to the humidity in the long run. So with that in mind, I thought I'd post some well-deserved recognition photo's of the crews that have been working out in this furnace the last few weeks. Things have been moving right along well and it's all mostly good news and status quo for this post, which in my book is GREAT. This first photo is the lead guy of L&S Heating & Cooling's HVAC crew - they call him "Angel". I doubt that's on his birth certificate, but it's what he answers to so it works for me. Here he's pumping up the pressure in the A/C lines getting ready for the "Mechanical" inspection, which happened on Friday (7/8). That inspection "mostly" passed, although there's always something you either don't know, forget, or has recently been changed. The inspector was happy with the work but couldn't officially "Pass" the Mechanical because we never got a "Fireplace Permit". Who'da known that this year, Durham County started requiring them (obviously just to generate an extra $57.00 of revenue per fireplace)? I didn't, nor did my fireplace contractor, so off to City Hall I ran to get one. Now we're ready for the all-important "Framing Inspection", which should happen next week. That's a major milestone and kind of marks the mid-point of the job, and when most of the work moves from outside construction to inside finishing.
The two guys on the right are the leaders of "Johnson's Roofing" crew. You wanna talk about some serious work? - try putting 60-square (that's about 180 bundles!) of shingles on a 12-12 slope roof (that's a 45 degree angle) all day long when it's sunny, and 97 degrees out! That's what they do pretty much every day, unless it rains alot - and I added "alot" because they'll work in a little rain, and it probably feels good at that point. I think the end-result of the roof looks GREAT - as shown in the photo below. And it was put to the test the day after they finished with a downpour of 2.5 inches of rain, and it stayed dry as a bone inside! GREAT JOB guys, but I'm glad it's yours and not mine! They're boss (Wayne), although not photo'd here deserved to be because he was an absolute HOOT! Probably about mid-late 60s, a REAL Carolina boy, been roofing all his life, missing a finger or two, and I'll let you fill in the rest with your imagination.
So to sum it up, we finished up most of the exterior trim, which includes soffits, brick pockets, stone pockets, and all "shake" style siding, and then painted all the exterior trim in "Tavern Taupe" (the darker color of the siding) and some shade of beige (which was a change from the first tested lighter shade that Judy called "Chickenshit Yellow"). Then we were able to put the shingles on. We successfully passed the electrical, plumbing, and soon-to-be-passed mechanical inspections and are now ready for the Framing inspection.
The last major piece of exterior now in progress is the brick, which I think is moving along quite well. Ever wonder why you see houses with Brick Fronts and siding on all three other sides? It's probably obvious, that the answer is $$$$. Most builders think they could sell the house easier if its $10-$15 Grand cheaper, and that's about the difference in cost of brick vs. siding. But ask any builder what THEIR house is built with? ... they'll most likely answer with ALL Brick, or some form of masonry. Above, you can see a picture of the rear of the house mostly bricked up and I love it! It's kinda hard to see the color in this photo because the mortar is still wet and the sun angle is rough, but it's coming out even better than I'd hoped. And the brick Mason's from "Raleigh Area Masonry" a.k.a. RAM look like they're working slowly when you watch them, but they are very methodical, exact and when the long-day is done, they've laid literally numerous tons of brick. Below you can see a picture of them at work - and making a huge mess, which is what mason's do, but they'll clean it up. The mud from the rain doesn't help, but it's all part of the process.
Next, I have the insulation queued up. I'm going with 95% spray-foam insulation throughout the house, which is becoming more and more popular. It really seals up all the gaps tight and adds significant efficiency to the heating and cooling. If you do the math, the extra expense has about a 3-to-4 year ROI or payback period on the investment, but after that it's all savings in your pocket on energy bills and a "greener" footprint. The other 5% I decided to go with R-19 insulation under the floors in the crawl and R-30 under the bonus room (over the garage) to stay within budget and reduce the overall insulation cost by about 20%, with little impact on the efficiency. I also have my friend the "slabman" lined up to pour the garage floor around the same time, then it's on to sheetrock! Stay tuned.
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