Installing water/septic/electric, siding started - Aug/Sept/Oct

At the end of July we had the house and got the septic tank in. I took no photos of it be we laid the pipe for the septic and the electric line. It was a lot of work, didn't think about taking photos, mostly busy think about the task. It was exhausting work. Mostly the electrical because we had to use the largest wires for home use, it's called 500 mcm. It's so big you can't pulling through the pipe. The wire was run out the entire 450 feet from the house to the power line, we then had to carry a 10 ft pipe along the length of it 45 times, and attach them. It was August, so it was hot 90 degree days, working in a ditch that in some areas was muck that you sunk almost to your knees in. Good times. We were extremely happy the day we finished. 

Somewhere in the middle of all that the well guy showed up and set up our water! I got a few photos of them attaching to the well and laying the tubing. It would be several weeks before we actually could use the water as the electrical needed to be done. We had the wire in but Matthew then needed to attach the main wire (500 mcm) to the house. 

connecting to existing well

 

running the tubing

Thanks to my lovely mother-in-law there are photos of the electrical wire.. this is it laid out in the ditch

in this photo you can see one of the cleanouts for the septic

We had many mucky dirty days!

We were very productive in August. While Matthews parents were visiting his dad helped him get started on wiring inside the house. We got the circulation unit installed. Our house is very well sealed and if we don't have this system installed the house would get humid from our breath and we would run out of oxygen. No joke.

This is a Zehnder unit

Zehnders are great, we got this unit because we were told it's a lot easier to install. I don't know how difficult an alternative would have been but this was really straight forward. 

On to September! As I look back at photos I'm reminded. The electrical was also held up by needing to put up some siding where the electrical box would mount to. So, we got siding and had to restack it, then let it sit and cure for several weeks before we could use it. It was green and green wood will cup and curve badly if you don't let it cure a little first. We ended up doing just enough siding for the electrical box then went on doing over things for a while. 

up on staging we borrowed from a neighbor, putting up flashing and corovent for the window before we start siding, we then attached furring horizontally the finally siding on top!

This was as far as we went until recently.

My Mom, Cindy and Helen came to visit! I had a much deserved break with them for a few magical days

And then back to work, this is Matthew working on one of the penetrations for the house. We've done several and are complete now so we can just focus on the siding.

temporary stairs! It was amazing getting these from friends. We spent a month climbing into the house.

By the end of September we were moved into the basement of the house. That was a big goal for us, to be moved in for winter and before Matthew went back to work. He's working part time at his previous job and is enjoying it. Weirdo. Anyway, we keep plugging away together when he's off and I have been doing some things on my own. On to October!

The beginning of the month was our anniversary, 3 years!

We poured this small concrete slab for our future heating unit

I call this the ugly corner of the house

oh yeah, somewhere in my 'free' time I worked on restoring this tub for our future bathroom.

We built a new compost bin! pretty excited about it, this was before we added anything lol

I'm pretty good on a tractor these days. This was practicing using the forks. Came in handy later when I had to unload several packages weighing from 300-750#

One weekend we had friends help us make progress on the siding.. 

Heather installing more siding under the window

By the end of the weekend we finished one wall! 

When Matthew is at work I'm at home mostly doing plumbing. He did all the electrical without my assistance so I decided to take on the plumbing. Been learning a lot! I'm doing the drain side, I'm mostly done with the dry fit and in a few weeks we will take it all apart, glue it and leave for a week so it can cure without us inhaling it.

getting good at doing a square cut on these pipes!

Ok, that's all for now. It's November so I'm slowing down. It's crazy the shift in my energy levels between summer and winter. I don't expect to be as productive in the next few months. We, in our naivety, thought we might be done by the end of the year. Experienced me now hopes to be done by spring 2022.