troy! its good to hear from ya.

heres the current status of the outside..... siding guys have done almost all of their punch list, roofers haven't been back yet. house still looks great, just needs a couple minor tweaks and the outside will be done.





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managed to get a little farther with the deck. all the decking and the handrail top is done and all of the brazilian coa has been stained.





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today we prepped the garage for concrete!

its a little hard to tell from the photos but the 10" wide foundation wall has a 4" step in it with rebar coming out of it. this rebar was bent over and tied into more rebar and will be poured into the concrete slab. there are also 2 piers in the middle that were built on footings 2' below grade, before the garage was back filled with gravel. the gravel was leveled and tamped in place, plastic moisture barrier was laid, the rebar is 1/2" (#4) on 4' centers with welded wire mesh over top of it.













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All I've got to say is WOW!!!!

ill take that as a compliment

today i worked with my dad on the piping for the building automation panels. this will allow us to run all the low voltage wiring from the road all the way to the automation panel in underground conduit. even when it enters into the mechanical room its still enclosed in conduit. we also added a pass thru from panel to panel for interconnecting various signals/ and outputs between the panels. lastly, naomi came over to look at her new house. she says she likes it, but shes kinda hard to take seriously when shes holding a Barby and has her shoes on backwards. lol





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Naomi is such a sweet litl stinker butt

back when i was designing the house i also designed a "greywater system" that used rain water collected from the roof to flush the toilets. i have since learned that the correct terminology is not greywater, but "rain water recycling" as per the 2009 NC plumbing code. the really kool thing about this system is that i have a secondary source of semi clean water for use in my toilets, and to water the plants, or wash the car. this is a wonderful thing since we are frequently under water restrictions because we dont have enough water in the local reservoir. the restrictions start kinda minor, such as no watering the lawn on certain days, but when things get really dry they go to no watering the lawn at all, no washing the car, and they impose fines for anyone not following the rules. knowing that water will continue to be in short supply, i took the initiative to design this system and buy all the components to make it work, only to find that the town of cary really doesn't support those of us trying to make a difference....... ill get to that in a second

i spent several hours with 2 of the cary plumbing inspectors today. really nice guys, and i learned a ton from them. i asked them to offer me some advice on the water recycling system im installing. they were nice and helped me with lots of other plumbing tips and tricks but were really hesitant about the rainwater system. they informed me that currently the only guy in all of cary that has a rainwater recycling system is SAS (goodnight). supposedly they tried to avoid letting that happen but he has so much money and so much influence on the town of cary that they allowed it. the really unfortunate thing is even tho they allowed him to install the system on their new green campus building, they required the sewage to be metered rather than the incoming water supply so that they could charge him extra money for the water that was being collected from the roof and introduced into the sewage system.

in layman's terms....they are charging more if you have a water recycling system so that there is no way you can ever recover the expense of the system by having a lower water bill. i was pretty disgusted with what i was told, and i went home to study the building code, and find out if they can refuse to allow the system at all. (i was told by the inspectors that was a possibility) after reading the code section thoroughly, i confirmed my system meets all the requirements of the building code. another thing i learned is that the rules of this particular section do not go into effect till January 1st 2011 (4 months from now) so there is a distinct possibility that they could refuse to allow the system at all because by the current enforced building code there are no rules for using rainwater as part of the plumbing system.

if ever there was a way to discourage people from "doing the right thing" this would be a prime example. while i typically love living in cary, and iv lived in the triangle my entire life, i have to say that .....

town of cary wins the "fail sauce" award of the day!

today i left a message for "phil rice" chief inspector for the town of cary (also the guy that allowed the system at SAS) to see just how dificult they are going to make this. ill post more here once i get a response. in the mean while heres a drawing of the system and the 2009 NC building code section that states im allowed to do this.







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i spoke with phil rice (town of cary chief inspector) at length today to discuss the rain water recycling system. i emailed him detailed drawings of the system and started the long process of getting approval so that we can continue to install it. because of how many people/departments are involved with doing anything new and different, we have agreed to only install the required portions of the recycling system, (things that you cant get back to to install later) and move forward with the plumbing system as if it were a standard house. the town of cary will create a separate permit for the rain water system and remove it from the house permit/job. this will allow us to move into the house as soon as we have finished construction and not have to wait on the town to figure out what they require, for a system like this to be installed in a residential application. i almost hate it but it looks like im paving the way for the rest of the town as i'm the first to ever do this in a house in this area.

today we prepped the back patio for concrete. we will pour the garage slab and back patio on monday.





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we had a minor setback with scheduling concrete.... in order to get a decent price we had to set up an account with the concrete company, and by the time we had the concrete on order we couldn't get it when we wanted it. so concrete is coming monday morning instead of friday. but i did manage to spend the entire day working on the staircase, and i was able to totally finish up the lower landing. hoping to start the risers this week! picture lo0ks funny because its taken from the 1st floor looking down into the basement.



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its concrete time!

the garage slab and the back patio were poured today and they look great! the back patio was a little difficult because the concrete truck couldn't get around the house. we had to use the bucket on the bobcat to haul and drop the concrete in the form-work. after some serious troweling the concrete looked great!

















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been hammering out the work as usual...... its friday night and im so tired, and my feet hurt so bad, but i did accomplish a lot this week. managed to get the garage stairs mostly completed, as well as most of the pex plumbing.







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Looks really good E! Naomi looks super cute. House looks great. Sorry about the water recycling system. Sucks that they are retarded.

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240sx #2 Aka "Turbo Ant Farm"

today was a good day. got a call from phil rice. the department heads at the town of cary only have a couple more days to address the rainwater system, otherwise i get to proceed under the existing permit! they have to respond by friday if they are going to add anything adiitional to what the chief inspector has requested.......which so far seems somewhat reasonable. i was also notified that i dont have to use an automatic means of chlorination and dye for the system which makes it a lot more simple (cheaper). im going to ask if im allowed to install the RPZ backflowpreventer inside the mechanical space rather than at the street. that would eliminate the need for a heated enclosure by the road. at the moment everything with the rainwater system seems to be going my way. crossing my fingers this becomes really simple

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we are making more and more progress on the plumbing system, should be ready for the plumbing roughin inspection in the next week. the stair cases are progressing as well. got all the angled pieces cut and bolted/welded in place. where the steel meets wood it has a plate welded to it and its bolted thru a double LVL beam. where it touches down in the basement concrete it has an over sized concrete anchor bolt. i have the lower set of temporary stair treads in place, and im really excited to be able to see what its going to look like when its done. im sure it will look even better with the permanent hickory treads when we install those.









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its been a while since i posted..... mostly because iv been busy as shit. I managed to finish up all the welding, put end plates on anything that exposed the hollow core of the steel, grind a couple rough spots, and get the metal primed so it wont rust. i installed the temporary stair treads so that we can use the stairs while we finish the house. once the house is mostly finished we will come back and put a final coat of industrial enamel on the steel, and install the 2" thick hickory stair treads. now i guess i need to get started on the second set of stairs (theres an identical set that floats in the air above this set)













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