Day 67 of New Home Construction

Framing was mostly completed this week. There are a couple of small items that they have to finish up, but for the most part the framers are done.

We had windows delivered and roofing was started – just in time! It looks like next week we have one day of rain in the forecast, but for the most part things look clear.

With all the interior walls up we can really see how the space inside is going to feel. I think it’ll continue to change as more gets added, but we can really tell what it’s going to be like.

Back of house with covered patio

Moving Furnace from Garage to Attic

Earlier in the week the HVAC guy came to look at the house and plan the install. One issue that came up was the furnace in the garage. The original plan was to have the furnace in the garage and the ducting would go up through a chase in the bonus room.

The issue was that there was not enough room between the trusses for the ducting to come up without putting another chase in one of the bedrooms. He recommended putting the furnace in the attic space above the master bedroom. I was able to meet the HVAC contractor and our site superintendent at the site to look at the issue. With their advice we decided to go with what he was recommending and relocated the furnace to the attic space.

I had a couple of concerns with this. The first is the noise factor of the furnace. If it’s close to where we are going to be sleeping, will we hear it at night? They did not think that it would be that loud and he said he could hang it in such a way that the sound would go through the roof and not the ceiling. The other concern is accessing the unit. Obviously, it’s more accessible in the garage, but that didn’t seem to be a concern either. They will build a platform in the trusses so that it could be accessed if needed.

Another issue that came up was getting the ducting to the den, in the front of the house. From where the main chase is it was going to be difficult to get the ducting to the front of the house, so now we have a smaller chase in the master closet so the ducting can go down.

Area where furnace will go, above master bedroom closet

I know it’s common to put furnaces in the attic, but I don’t totally know all the pros and cons with having it up there. The biggest concern is with the noise, but we won’t know what that’s going to be like until we’re living there, so I might just have to do another post about this once we’re in the house. If it ends up that we aren’t able to hear it than I think this was the best plan as it will be better than having the chase in the bonus room and bedroom.

Next Up for Oregon New Home Construction

Covered patio

Next week the roof should be completed, as well as windows and siding. I also gave a call to our excavator to make sure he was available to do the rest of the work he needed to get done. He is scheduled to come the week of October 15 to get the utilities trenched, rain drains installed and back fill completed.

Right now it feels like thing are really rolling along, but we recently talked to some friends that built an Oregon new home and they said once you get to this point things start to slow down again. We’ve been happy with how things are going and feel lucky that the weather has been mostly cooperating.

Hope you all continue to follow along as we build our Oregon new home!