We've Moved!

Well, actually just the blog has moved. We won't be moving for a few more months.

So, if you're following this blog, please update your links to http://homedeconstruction.wordpress.com

Thanks to everyone who has been reading this!

Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing Pictures

Here are some more detailed pictures of the MEP work, now finished at the house.  Rough inspections (by the city building department) are tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Here's the main duct, covered now in insulation.  Not shown and to the right, the duct starts at the furnace, in the garage.  Ground floor registers are in the ceiling.  Upstairs, the air will come out of the cabinet 'kick' or the floor.  The duct will be enclosed in the same cabinet material.

Here's the electrical sub-panel, with all the circuit breakers.  Power comes from outside PG&E lines overhead, to the main panel with the meter, and then to this sub-panel.  From here, wires to to all the lights and power in ever room.  Different color wires carry different amounts of power.  Orange, for example is 30 amps, going to the electric clothes dryer & oven.

Let there be light!  We tested the lights, to make sure everything works.  This picture is of the recessed cans downstairs.  They're halogen, uninteresting, and pretty much as cheap as you can get.  At least they line up.

This plumbing picture is taken from the garage.  All the waste lines come to a point before going into the ground and into the main at the street.  All these pipes come from the kitchen and bathroom upstairs.

Plumbing waste lines not only go into the ground, but need to be 'vented' to the roof.  Vents provide relief of sewer gases and prevent these gases from entering the building.  With exceptions, every plumbing fixture must have a vent.  In our second floor, only one wall extends to the roof.  All the other walls are partial height and stop at 8' above the ground.  So to hide all the pipes, they needed to come to this one full height wall, and vented to the roof.  Also in this wall are bathroom exhaust fan vents (in silver) and a flue from the furnace (black plastic).

Lastly, here's the kitchen sink plumbing.  Since it's on an island, there's no place for a regular vent, discussed above.  So the piping has to be configured in what's called a 'loop vent'.  It loops around and connects with another pipe, eventually going to the roof.  In the picture, it's the larger copper pipe, forming an upside down 'V'.  The 4 smaller copper pipes are the water supply, hot and cold, for both the dishwasher and kitchen sink.  A required 'clean-out' is below and behind the blue hose.

Progress!

Hi Everyone,

Again, we haven't been so great with updating.  This time, we have lots to update.  Also, a side note, I accidentally deleted 3 comments recently.  Sorry about that.  Feel free to repost.

So now, not only do we have floors, but we have walls, pipes, ducts, lights, switches and wires!  Rough plumbing, electrical, and mechanical inspections are scheduled this coming Tuesday.  So enough with words, here are some pictures:

Upstairs framing.  You can see the entrance to the two bedrooms in the middle.  The 8' high wall is going to contain all the kitchen cabinets.  The bathroom is behind and in he middle.  Only one wall goes up to the high ceiling.  It contains all plumbing vents and is also a structural wall.

Here's a close-up of the back of that tall wall.  All the plumbing vents from the entire house come into this one wall, and up to the roof.  The bathroom exhaust fans & furnace flue also comes through this wall.

Here's the roof.  The lower pieces of wood spanning across the house will  be removed.  They'll be replaced with 4 steel rods.  You can see the framing for the skylights to the left.

More of the upstairs.  The dining room is behind.  The lower wall has the kitchen sink plumbing.  The island will go in front.

View from the back of the house.  You can see the hole where the stairs are going to the right.

Close-up of the stair hole.  It starts at the far point from the camera, and turns an 'L' as you descend.

This photo is from the entertainment room downstairs.  It's looking toward the stair hole and the master bedroom beyond.  To the right is the garage.  The yellow thing in the ceiling is insulation, covering a duct.  One main heating duct runs from the front of the house to the back, with registers that admit heat, to each of the upstairs and downstairs rooms.  The rectangles with circles in them are the recessed lights.