Ribbon Cutting

Finishing Touches

Friday morning the carpet went down and Jose Espitia sent one of the painters to do some touch up as well as cleaning. Our company gathered and help install some final touches and vacuum a bit. We shared a lunch together and then walked to the home with the owner to go explain how everything worked and show off the finished product. It was a great project and something that we were excited to help with. The current economic environment is not great for home builders, we can debate the reasons and the recovery, but the truth is we have to accept what we can't control and do our best to control what we can. Regardless of our own economic situation and the situation of all our vendors we believe that we have to look outside ourselves and find ways to help our community. Loving and caring for our fellowmen is something we can control and we hope that through our efforts others will be blessed and be more willing to pass on that generosity and care. Thanks to everyone that helped.

Day 7

Thursday was the day that will go down in infamy. Gary had some obstacles come up, solved problems and in a whirlwind had a Certificate of Occupancy in hand. Coleman flooring was the first on the the job and they put down some vinyl. Soon after they finished the plumbers, electricians, and hvac men all went to work. They danced around each other and made the best of less than ideal working conditions to quickly finish their work and pass their inspections. We also finished the concrete flat work and Consolidated Landscaping was on site to prep for seed and verify proper drainage. The homeowner's mother is elderly and is in a wheelchair. In the old house access was always difficult. We wanted to make the new home was easily accessible for a wheelchair. We did that by lowing the foundation, using low clearance thresholds, wider doorways, more space in the baths, raised outlets, grab bars, among a couple other things. We hope it will take away a lot of the burdens the family faced before. If there was ever a time for everything to come together it was today and with some prayer and hardwork it happened.

Day 6

Trim carpenters from Custom Carpetnry of the Carolinas (Don Hamrick's minions)show up bright and early and got their groove on. I had ordered a couple doors wrong (bad deal I know) but Beeson Hardware stepped up and got us 2 new doors to allow the carpenters to finish. By lunch the painters were the only ones on the job and already had the primer coat on. Some sheetrock point up was done and soon enough the paint was finished.

Day 5

BOB's DRYWALL and DCH CONSTRUCTION. Need I say more. I will say a bit more. I think it took longer to unload their tools than it did to actually hang the Sheetrock. Bob and his crew hung, taped, and finished the drywall and still gave time for Marsh Cabinets to come in and install cabinets by the end of the day. DCH took care of the siding, shakes, gutters, porch posts, and everything else that looks pretty on the outside.

Day 4

Trades, mechanicals, roughs, meps, whatever you want to called it, it looked like an ant farm on Monday. Electricians, plumbers, heating and air, insulators, inspectors, framers, roofers, crawled all over the house and by the end of the day we had passed 5 inspections and were ready to hang sheetrock. It was a tight space and yet all of the trades worked well together and did an amazing job. AC electric had Mike, Joey, Mark, Richard, and others all drilling and pulling. The boys from Comfort air were doing their best to follow the HVAC layout and the proof of their quality came in the duct loss testing which showed less leakage than even was required. PF plumbing just made it happen and by lunch had there pressure tests on and passed. Branchelin insulation took care of the thermal and sound insulation as well as sealing the walls to prevent any air leakage. By building a house that is so air tight there needs to be some consideration to indoor air quality. Being energy efficient is great, but we wanted to make sure the house was also healthy and comfortable to live in. We installed an ERV (google it for a further defenition) to circulate the air in the home making sure we had fresh air filling the lungs of the occupants. The old home had mildew and mold issues, but by insuring the proper amount of air changes, the new house will remain a healthy living environment.

Day 3

Well we hadn't planned on working on Sunday, but with the rain from Saturday and because of the unique timing situation we finished framing on Sunday. We figured that serving others by building them a house would be an okay activity on the Sabbath. We could also hear the minister next door, so it was like we were in Sunday School while working. The framing went smoothly, we hand set the trusses, and finished mid afternoon. Insulation Solutions showed up and sprayed some open cell foam on the roof and gable end walls. The coolest part of this home (well one of the coolest for sure) was the advanced energy efficiency measures we used to lower energy consumption and of course the home owner's monthly bills. We had the house evaluated and designed to meet an energy efficiency standard called 'System Vision', like energy star, but kicked up a notch. The evaluation and testing was done by Danny Gough, a rater from Advanced Energy Solutions. He's a genius when it comes to energy usage and building science (probably other things as well) and offered a tremendous amount of help in the design and execution of our energy saving measures.

Day 2

Rain Rain go away. So we had some severe weather that interrupted our framing efforts on Saturday. Everyone arrived early and tried to sweep the water off the slab to allow us to chalk some lines, but as soon as we had the lines chalked the skies would open and wash us out. Hector Chavez and his crew were great sports and hung in wet and cold weather until about 1 pm when the bottom fell out completely. By the end of the day we were muddy, wet, and the framing was about 50% complete. Of course as soon as we all got home and cleaned up the sun came out. In hind site we should have started later in the day and worked in the afternoon, oh well. Lunch was provided by Jere White, it was some awesome Japanese food. The boss Todd, Randy, and Gary carried wood and kept the framers busy.

Project Videos

Day 1

We started at a little after 6 am on Friday April 15th. Demolition in the dark!!!! All the neighbors and the family were there to watch as Gilmer Allen from Double A Grading took his front end loader right through the house. We had Carolina Disposal as well as Disher Grading haul the house off. There were some mixed emotions as the family watched the house with many fond memories come down. The house came down in about 20 minutes, just a neat thing to watch. After the demolition we had Gilmer clear the pad for the house and the Kale Engineering arrived to stake off the house. Soon after/during the stake out the amigos from TMG Concrete arrived and quickly had the slab formed up. PF plumbing was a well oiled machine and before lunch they had the slab roughed in and their inspections passed. The inspectors were great to work with and shared in the excitement of the build and we are very appreciative of their efforts. The Baptist church around the corner provided lunch for the crew (they helped us bribe the inspections department with that wonderful bunt cake), we can't express the gratitude we feel for all those that provided meals. We just hope that everyone that helped realizes the positive impact they had on this project, thanks. Anyway, back to the house, Tony from TMG Concrete finished prepping the slab, followed closely by Go Forth Pest Control doing our termite treatment. Ready Mix sent the concrete and by about 4PM we had the slab being placed. A little late to start a pour so I was about 11 PM when they finished. BFS of High Point delivered the framing materials and the trusses arrived from our good hill country friends at Truline Truss (can't beat those moutain folk). Forsyth Rent-a-John Provided releif, literally, for us. Loflin Materials provided some stone. All in all, the first day was long and successful.