End Result

The finished front of the house.

Settlement day

We moved in! Yay! It was a very wet Friday, but that didn't stop us...

The last week

Stairs are even polished! Sod is down, some shrubs planted to make it look nice.

The lawn is being prepared for sod. The gutters are being installed.

One week to go...

Sidewalk has been laid, plumbers are back and doing their thing. The stairs at the rear are finished, Cat5 is all terminated.

Driveway has been laid, stairs at the back of the house are being worked on, carpet is being laid.

Cabinets and dirt and electrics

The guy doing my data cabling is back, should finish tomorrow. Landings for the back doors are being constructed (they even have proper footings). We have a real front door lock and also have our street number and garage doors.

Electrics are 99.9% complete, some wood trim work going on today. Heating/cooling seems comissioned, bar the hookup to the Gas supply. The stain on the hand rails looks nice. I imagine they do the stairs themselves pretty much as a the last thing.

Electricians are back wiring in outlets and switches. Garage floor gets concreted, as does the front door step.

Cabinets going in. We chose the cheapest with a view to replacing later, but as it turns out they don't look as terrible as we might have expected. Topsoil has been spread out at the back. Plus, Gas meter is in and the garage and front door step are framed and ready for concrete.

Paint and Tile and Handrails and wooden flooring

Hardwood flooring is complete and the bathroom tile is done (very nice!). Fireplace has a slate surround.

The hardwood floor looks ace! Guest bathroom is grouted, master bathroom coming along nicely.

Garage pier fixed, handrails mostly fitted, bathroom floor tiling done.

Spray-painting the interior. The whole house will be painted white. Plus, the support pier in the Garage has been concreted.

Doors and things

Pier ready to be filled with concrete, carpenters seem almost done, attic has been filled with loose insulation.

Doors, wooden trim, window sills, baseboards and such. The outside door to the basement goes in, as does the attic access ladder.

Doors are being mounted, window sills fitted. The rafter and soffit trim is done. Last section of floor completed in basement.

A collection of random things, including the electric meter and the ground rod.

Drywall

Drywall seems to be done and they have delivered the doors for inside the house.

Installation of the drywall.

They have delivered a ton of drywall - to the rooms it's for too! Passed the insulation inspection today also.

Siding

Siding complete, failed the insulation inspection, the garage frame gets temporary supports and will be re-cast with rebar later.

Siding is almost complete, boiler is delivered to basement.

Siding is half way there, which is very cool since we didn't expect them to start this on a Sunday! Plus, the Tyvek that went into hiding seems to have reappeared and is being used on the walls. Look closely at IMG_1447, the bottom of the support pier is broken!

Exterior wall insulation

Outside walls are all insulated now, plus they got around to putting in my basement-to-attic PVC tube (for future cabling projects!) Also, the Tyvek that was delivered yesterday seems to have vanished. Need to investigate this.

They start insulating the exterior walls and the roof of the sunroom/family room. Siding delivery, basement is flooded from heavy rain.

Basement floor

Had an official walk through, brick work complete, nook door is in, loft access relocated.

Side windows go in at last, basement stairs arrive, framing inspection tomorrow plus an official walkthrough before they put up drywall.

The floor of the basement has been laid at last, the window in the master bathroom has been centred (yay!) and other small things. Work mostly on hold while everyone waits for the concrete in the basement to set.

Bricks!

Last leg of the brickwork starts, electricians say they're almost done and word is that the basement floor will be concreted tomorrow. They're digging a drain for the basement outside entrance, too.

Some carpentry over the weekend, but it's otherwise just very wet.

There's a lot o' electric cables going in!

Plumbing has been tested, one flank of brickwork is complete and the Electrics have started.

Bricks get laid! Tubs arrive!

And the stairs get installed.

Work progresses

More windows, some doors, some vents.

Windows are going in, plus most of the heating work is done.

They've removed the temporary supports, made the window opening arch and a bunch of other bits.

Getting ready for the basement floor, two vents through the roof.

Roof is done, two months to go!

Roofing is finished.

Roofing, water and sewer and a windows and doors delivery.

Markup for the exterior finish, trench for water and sewer, flashing on the window sills plus a random hole appears in our almost-a-roof!

Sheeting

And a peek inside.

It begins to look like a house.

Apparently the house is ready to be sheeted! Hope they start soon...

Some wooden panels make it onto the front of the house on this unusually warm and sunny day!

The roof!

The family room gets its rear wall!

And other small roof things.

Various work going on with the roof plus a sneak peek of the upstairs!

The roof is started just ahead of a major snowstorm.

More snow...

They were meant to have started the trusses by now, but can't because of the snow. And there's another storm coming!

*sigh*

The 2nd floor

The upstairs now has some framework.

The upstairs has its floor. Progress slows a little due to snow.

Carpentry has begun...

We have some walls.

The floor has been laid for the first (ground) floor.

Enough of the ground floor has gone in for them to position the support columns, ready to fill the concrete for the basement floor.

They have begun wood working on the house.

Bring on the concrete.

There's some concrete in the hole that was in the garage. Note the grade of the slope at the side of the house.

The land has been roughly graded and the crevice that surrounded the walls filled and compressed.

The Basement now has walls and windows. In particular, the rear entrance to the basement is quite clear now.

They've finally framed the walls. We've had some severe snow in Southern Jersey of late, about two feet in Winslow, which slowed everything down. Soon, they'll insert some iron reinforcment bars and then fill these metal frames with concrete.

We have construction action!

They're stockpiling these metal panels which they will use to frame the basement walls.

These footings are the foundation of the house.

Wednesday January 12th, 2005, the contractors finally broke ground!

Developers illustration and a picture of somebody elses house that is similar to how ours will look.

More images can be found here, including photos of the site and construction (at least, it will when it starts!)

Generated by house planning software, the rendering is pretty painful, but these images give you an idea of the house layout and design.

For Internet Explorer only: House plans. This has been known to not work.

If it doesn't work, click on the following links instead: 1st floor 2nd floor Basement The entire lot Developable lot

White Cedars site plan is overlaid in yellow with our lot marked in cyan.

Site plan is overlaid in yellow with our lot in cyan.

Site plan overlaid in yellow, lot in cyan

White Cedars color site plan with lot marked in white.