Chugging Along

Is it Spring yet?

Survey says no.

But all of the walls excluding the bathroom are installed. So I went ahead and put up the first coat of paint. Looking pretty good. Definitely adds brightness to the interior.

Finally committed to buying a shower pan. Was hoping to find one used on CraigsList or Facebook, but it's an unusual size (36"x34"). Found a fairly cheap one at Lowe's so I picked it up. I padded out the interior wall to fit the shower pan. Christian and I drilled out the hole for the drain then I installed the pan with some spray foam underneath for support. Then I installed the shower mixing valve.

Plumbing is chugging along still. Went with a new layout per Christian's recommendation. Trying to take up as little space as possible is certainly a challenge. This should work just fine.

Worked on the door for the electrical box on the back of the house. Started by recutting the plywood to fit better, then framing it out with some 1x2 to provide rigidity. Then added the piano hinge to the bottom.

Once I determined it was a good fit I added siding to the outside to match the rest of the house then added a couple slide latches to hold it closed. Looking good, just ignore the fact that I still haven't finished the trim, soffit and siding at the top of the walls.

And a small but satisfying detail: the exterior light next to the door. Sometimes it's the smallest updates that feel the best.

And on a side note: I have finally returned to the working world. After 3 years and 7 months of funemployment, adulting time has come. I got pretty lucky and was connected to a small consulting company that provides development work for companies using Rally, which is the software I was heavily involved with at my last job at Optum. The company was started by a former architect on the Rally team. I'll be working fully remote and work will be fairly flexible. Couldn't have asked for a better opportunity! Will most likely be starting Monday, if not sooner. Looking forward to getting back to the grind. This house isn't going to pay for itself!

McBoatface Gets A Ceiling

Finished up all of the insulation so it's time to cover it up!

Picked up some tongue and groove cedar paneling to install in the ceiling. The paneling is incredibly thin and delicate thus making it a real pain to install, but I got into a groove and made some good progress.

Here's what I decided to do to provide some additional support around the recessed lights. Seems to work pretty well.

After finishing up the loft I tackled the cathedral ceiling.

Almost there.

And here's the finished product. Super happy with the results. Another step closer towards looking like a home. I temporarily wired up the lights to a couple of batteries to test them out. It's nice to be able to use the wall switches and have those work lights out of the way.

And now I've been working on the walls. We decided to go with a 5mm pine underlayment. It's fairly light and inexpensive and it won't crack like drywall when the house eventually needs to be relocated. The plan is to paint it white once it's all installed.

Hoping to finish installing the walls in the next few days so my brother can come back and help finish up all of the electrical. Almost time to move in!