Naperville Custom Home Construction: Progress continues...

Well, we had success with the basement pour last Friday. Concrete crew was in and out in less than 3/4th of a day - and the best part is we did not have to pay $1900 for a pumper. They were able to cut a 2x2 hole in the floor between the joists and pour it in from there (thank god). When they were done, they put the floor back and it looks good to go.

My planning ahead and having the framer scheduled for today worked out well - as they framed out the basement stairs, got the kitchen island kneewall up and finished some odds/ends. They should finish up by tomorrow. Have the electrician back tomorrow to wrap up his part (which may bleed into Wednesday), HVAC guys set the furnace in the basement today as well.

This was the first day in which I actually took the entire day off and worked the entire day 7 am to 7pm (pretty good, considering we started this thing in Nov and so far have been able to survive by stopping by at 7am and nights/weekends). My plan for today was to be on site when the framer was wrapping up and at the same time start all the wiring I planned to do. I made very good progress on my DIY tasks - got all the RG6 Coax run, majority of the Cat5e run and got all the in ceiling speaker mounts up. Much easier than I thought, and glad I am doing it myself - as was able to modify stuff as I did it. My initial idea was to "home run" to the basement (ie, run all wire from EACH room back to a central hub in the basement - this central hub simply houses EVERYTHING in one location - meaning you somewhat future proof yourself by having a separate run to each room versus the old fashioned daisy chain method). However, the one finished room in the attic for the furnace worked out much better. Given our open floor plan - was difficult to get stuff to the basement - was much easier to drop down from above. Basically each room will have RG6, Cat5e and phone - some will have in ceiling speakers. One of the big advantages of having Cat5 in each room is some of the technology that is spawning from it - like running an HD signal and having your PC/DVR distribute a movie via Cat5e to rooms in your house. For example, I could pipe a a movie into Connors room and maybe pipe the same DirecTv signal that is playing in the great room into the Den or Master Bedroom. Most of this stuff is overkill - but when the walls are open and Cat5 and RG6 are pennies for a foot - its a no brainer to at least set it up.

Anyways - we are hoping to be calling in for rough inspection by early next week...I am meeting with the siding crew this week, in hoped to get them lined up to start asap once we pass inspection...after siding - its blow-in insulation and drywall - and then pretty much the final stretch of the interior finishing (floor, cabinets, etc) - which will take some time.

Framers putting the island kneewall together...