We are living comfortably in our Phase 1 home, which has 1500 square feet of living floor and about 600 square feet of storage mezzanine. After close to a year of hard work during which Phase 1 was finished Justin moved back to Albuquerque, and Brad took the summer off. It then took another 3 months sorting through the mountain of storage boxes, finding clothes we hadn't seen in 2 years, getting all 100+ boxes of books out and into shelves. Most of the stuff ended up in the storage area. Then there was some more work to do to clear out the west end of the building which had become the lay down and storage area during the Phase 1 construction. Once the west 3/4 of the building was cleared out Brad began work on the underground plumbing for the master bath. See page 1 for a floor plan of the complete building. Work by myself has been much slower than with additional workers. It ends up being less than a full day because other items take up some time too.

To begin work I started by shoveling about ten yards of "radon" gravel out of the area, which will be the master bathroom. Last year we roughed in only the 4" main drain because we were hoping to get closed in before snow. Now its time to go back and do the rest of the drain plumbing. Layout with orange paint shows where to dig.

Once the "radon" rock is out of the way the pick and shovel work begins. Trenches are dug for the drain piping. Fittings are sorted out and laid out where they are supposed to go.

We have a nice Jacuzzi bathtub, which will go right here..

Here are the drains for the laundry and toilets, plus the vent stubs.

The bathroom gets a floor drain for easy maintenance.

I had a load of sand dumped in front of the house. I only needed two yards or so for bedding pipes but the shipping cost is so much more than the sand that I got the whole load. Bedding sand keeps sharp rocks from puncturing the pipes.

Another photo of bedding sand around the drain pipes.

Once the bedding sand and backfill is complete the "radon" rock must be replaced. I'm not sure what good it does but supposedly any radon coming out of the ground will be collected by the radon vent and exhausted above the roof.

The master bath gets a walk in shower area about 5 x 7 feet. Its hand mixed and troweled to the drain. Integral curbs under future walls will keep water inside the shower.

The ceiling gets covered with 2 x 2 wooden strips to hold the sheetrock.

I went to Ziggys to get some wood for walls and ceilings, and found that wood prices had dropped to half of the price a couple of months ago. I loaded up the pickup.

I hired a concrete finisher to pour the slab in the master bath area. It all had to be wheelbarrowed. Here one of his crew loads from the truck.

The slab guys do pretty well with the concrete slabs. I don't do flat work. Its hard, dirty, and takes special skill.

The temperature got really cold. Here our thermometer is down to zero degrees.

The snow and cold has slowed my construction work. Its so cold in the unheated part of the building that its not fun..

We have found that the Internet dish from HughesNet has to be swept off when it snows. Its pretty good Internet service satellite direct.

That's enough photos for one page.