My new home construction is on track, a few days ahead of schedule. More luck than skill, however. The weather has been cooperative and with a relative lull in both residential and commercial construction in this area, I have not had to wait at any time for work crews. Same with construction supplies, no delays on that front either.
The house is up, roof is on, windows and outer doors are in. Plumbing, electrical, and miscellaneous wiring are all roughed in and have passed inspection. Electrical code is NEC 2017, the most up to date standards, everything in the house is either GFCI (damp/wet) or AFCI (everything else).
Still quite a bit ahead. Insulation and interior walls will be coming up shortly. Next week the septic tank/system will be laid.
I was quite pleased with the weather dynamics. The site is 2,800 feet in elevation, or double of that of nearby Mount Airy which sits at the edge of the piedmont. Even during the recent heatwave, while not ideal, it was far more comfortable up here, than down a few thousand feet. While I don’t plan on spending summers here anytime soon, it is a decent summer location, compared to locations outside the mountains.
I will say that I might need snow chains to get up here when the place gets socked in with snow, like happened just a few months ago.
It is kind of interesting sitting on the edge of two different worlds. To the south and east of me is the North Carolina piedmont. Winston-Salem is about 50 miles from here, 2 1/2 to 3 hours to Raleigh. Charlotte is 90 miles south.
To the north and west is Appalachian North Carolina and Virginia. Not exactly the impoverished portion to be sure, but still definitely Appalachian in culture. And as to where I am, the people located within one mile of me can be counted on 1 hand.
Nice and rural here, yet plenty of stuff not too far away. A good balance.
This is from another house in Surry County that sold a few months ago and it pretty much the inspiration and model for my house, though the interior differs somewhat.
The basic design of that house and mine are almost identical. The trim will be substantially different outside and the wood interior will be of somewhat of a darker somewhat more reddish shade, but the interior on the first and second floor will be entirely wood. The finished ground floor will be standard painted drywall and faux wood tile floors. The master bedroom is on the first floor, bedrooms upstairs. The porch will wrap around the entire house.
The garage/workroom will look almost exactly like the pictured one, except it will be FAR more distant from house, about 60 yards.
The things that actually kept me from buying that property, instead of building, was insufficient land, less than ideal location and the fact that the public right of way comes up far too close to the house. I had momentarily considered it.
Definitely a few that I will change. In particular, I have been told that refrigerators and arc faults do not mix well, unless you like throwing away everything in your refrigerator on a regular basis.
Another point I would add is that house is located at about 1,600 to 1,800 feet elevation, while mine is at 2,800. From a climate/weather point of view, that makes quite a bit of difference.
I actually consider the chance of an electrically caused fire microscopic, with or without arc fault breakers.
Many electrical fires boil down to sheer stupidity on the part of the homeowner/renter and some from bad or super old equipment.
Pretty much everything going into that house is going to be brand new. Not moving anything from Pennsylvania. I have never had any electrical issues, let alone fire and I do believe the modern code is over the top in regards to some of its requirements.
I do intend to replace any dedicated refrigerator/freezer circuits with standard breakers. Out in the garage, which is well away from the house, I am going to replace the AFCI with standard breakers. It would be impossible use any drill or other large electrical shop equipment with an arc fault breaker, it would constantly trip.
In any event, that is farther up the road, still have another electrical inspection coming, when after they install all the electrical fixtures. All the plugs must be “tamper proof”.
I’m out of Chicago where we pipe everything. That’s one of the problems with romex. Plus you cant add anything with the romex. I tried it one time in a jurisdiction where it was legal and cant say I likes it. It really wasnt that much faster. Cheaper I’m sure but you get what you pay for
Most "electrical fires " are not even electric. They use that term mostly when they cant figure out what caused it. Not to say it doesnt happen but mostly space heaters and overloaded breakers and undersized wires. Not a problem in new construction because its accounted for.
Septic tank and system is done and passed inspection. Interior work is well underway.
The garage/workshop, metal barn and a small wooden shed have been completed in their entirety and have passed all final inspections and are ready for use. And not too long after we discussed AFCI in this thread, I found that AFCI is NOT required in a detached garage or other detached structures, although GFCI is required for damp/wet locations in detached structures. The local county department had to confirm it with the folks in Raleigh. So we switched all the AFCIs in the detached structures to standard breakers prior to the final inspections. That made me happy, because AFCI would definitely been a pain.
It is a realistic possibility that the house is done before the end of September. That would be terrific, particularly since my daughter wants to come here during the deer archery season, which runs from September 7 to November 8.
I posted the other day about the arrival of claw foot tub, but that got lost in the database dump.
The claw foot tub arrived Saturday morning and was lugged upstairs to one of the second floor guest bathrooms. A classical looking design. They hooked it up yesterday, along with completing the rest of the plumbing related work around the house.
The major work is complete. Various trim, including electrical plug and switch covers rough and final cleaning and delivery and installation of major appliances. Final completion will likely be Wednesday. Various walk-throughs and final inspections will likely occur the following week. Should have the Certificate of Occupancy in hand by Friday, October 4 and paid off all remaining contractors by that day. No closing involved since no loans were involved.
Everything finished up this week, walk through’s and inspections all completed and passed. Monday I get to run down to Dobson and pick up the Certificate of Occupancy. Pay off the remaining contractors. Then got to get the post completion insurance walk through and get the building insurance converted to standard homeowners. Then the initial tax assessor walk through. Then a check of the title to ensure all liens have been properly cleared.
And with all that done, the stuff that is already ordered can actually be delivered.
