The partially drywalled kitchen. It's kind of magical to watch; things are now being given a form and texture that we haven't seen before.

The drywalled den. After getting accustomed to 2x's, pipes and wires over these many months, this is a REAL change!

A partial view into the drywalled 1/2 bath and laundry.

Cutting around wall boxes in the laundry room with a handheld router. They make drywall work look easy, but that's because of their experience and skill.

The drywall installation has begun! Here, holes for the supply and drain for the laundry room sink are being cut just before putting the piece of drywall up on the wall.

A view from the Master Bathroom looking at the insulated Master Bedroom wall. Owens-Corning pink!

To make the Master Bedroom quieter, we had Evan insulate the walls along the Great Room and Master Bath with fiberglass batt insulation.

Spraying cellulose insulation into the wall cavities. It looks like a dirty job, and it is! One guy sprays the insulation into the walls and it seems about half of what is sprayed drops to the floor. The second guy has a large vacuum hose and his job is to vacuum up all the insulation off of the floor. The insulation blowing machine is set up to recover this material, add new cellulose, and send it back for another trip. A third crew member has a rubber roller gizmo which lightly scrubs the bulky cellulose down to the plane of the wall studs. The 3 of them just keep working in a big gray cloud of dust.

More shooting of insulation. The cellulose insulation is blown through the gray tube and out a large diameter nozzle which has two water nozzles (one on each side) spraying into the stream of cellulose to lightly wet it. Starch in the cellulose acts as a glue to give the mass some cohesiveness and hold it in place. That's not to say the insulation is "'glued in" - one could walk up after spraying or now (days later) and pull the insulation right out.

As part of the insulation prep work, the contractor foams behind all the electrical boxes in exterior 2x4 walls. This has to be done because the way/direction the cellulose insulation is sprayed doesn't do a good job of filling the narrow gap between the box and the sheathing behind. These are 3 of the 25 electrical receptacles in the garage!

A milestone event - we passed both the mechanical inspection and the rough-in power inspection. After months of plumbing and electrical work, we can insulate, close up the walls and get on to the finishing touches! Still a lot of work to do, though.

Weekend warrior ammo.

25 rounds per clip.

3 clips in the magazine.

28 degree collation.

Clipped heads.

Cement coated.

Lock and load!

The steam generator for the Master bath shower. Located in the basement utility room, the black insulated pipe to the right carries the steam to the shower. Control is via a waterproof shower keypad and a telephone-like gray cable seen hanging here unplugged.

The business end of about 4,000 feet of cable in the basement. And, there's still some more basement wiring to run! The blue, white and black cables to the right are the 'structured wiring' runs for cable TV, computer and telephone and which will end up in their own panel. The yellow wires to the left are the security system cables and will terminate in two wall-mounted panels.

The house attic looking towards the Great Room from the Mudroom entry area. The attic walkway and handrail that Evan put in can be seen to the right. The silver kneewall across the middle is to keep the cellulose insulation from sliding off the sloped cathedral ceiling.

The direct-vent fireplace chimneys exiting through the roof in the attic (the second chimney is barely visible behind and below the first). The boxing around the chimneys (just above the Great Room ceiling) is not too pretty, just functional, contains noncombustible vermiculite as insulation to avoid cold spots in the house ceiling.

The lift-beam over the stairway in the garage. It will be used to lift and lower heavy objects, such as an air compressor, into the basement area under the stairwell. Made from two yellow pine 2x10's 12' long, there are 2x4's sandwiched between to transfer the loads down to the ceiling joists.

The kitchen range hood exhaust duct with the open end bagged to keep insulation out of it and temporarily set off to the side over the garage (where the insulation will be shallower). To the far right is the plumbing vent for this end of the house and mid-left is the lift-beam over the garage stairway.

The Master Bedroom vaulted ceiling from the attic. Evan extended the soffit baffles higher because the cellulose insulation will be packed in on the two back sides against the roof. In the left foreground is the plumbing vent pipe exiting through the roof for this end of the house.