In the view below you'll notice the framing for the skylights which will help keep the East windows illuminated. You can also see the yellow wiring for porch lights coiled up above the door; it can wait there until we do the finish electrical work which is one of the last things that will happen in this project.
The longer view shows why the carpenters wanted to get this built - it will serve as a scaffold for working on the East windows and siding:
Meanwhile the bill from the plumbers has arrived (you pay in installments as they get each of the three phases completed). The "supply side" plumbing is implemented in PEX, which is a flexible plastic replacement they use now instead of copper. It has several advantages: it goes together much faster with clamps instead of soldering, it is easier to bend, and reportedly it can take freezing without splitting because it just stretches out (I'm not sure how the joints like it though - probably smart not to test it too much!). Metal plates go on the studs to protect the water and drain pipes from getting sheetrock screws put through them later.
For inspection, the whole supply system and drain system are pressurized to prove there are no leaks. As can be seen from the guages below, things are tight. To do the pressure test, each pipe must be temporarily capped and the drains must be blocked.... 
and for this they (whoever "they" are) make a little inflatable balloon thingy that one puts into a drain and inflates to seal it up; one is blocking the sunroom floor drain in the foreground below.
But what's that with the other floor drain? It's not even connected! Just flopping around! Guess I'll have to put a call in to the plumbers tomorrow; bummer. After looking at it carefully, my guess is that an electrical light box in the ceiling below got in the way of gluing it all together, so they just sealed the pipe to get through the inspection. Perhaps they were planning on making another 40 mile trip up here to fix that - or I suppose it's a task I could handle.On the other hand, the electrical rough-in actually looks complete, except they haven't billed me. The 200 amp panel has just a few wires coming into it...
As I lay in bed last night I'm thinking "I sure hope they labeled those circuit wires so they can label the breakers!" Otherwise it's going to be a lot of trial (click-click) and yelling ("Is that it?") to figure out what does what.
As a bonus (read "time and materials") the electricans ran 220V temp power up to the house so we can run heavier construction equipment. You can also vaugely see the hose bib (AKA outside water faucet) through the window at lower left
I left for India with arrangements in place for the guys doing the radiant heating to start Dec 17; the HVAC subcontractor is "Sundance Power Systems" (as might be surmised, they specialize in solar applications). As you know, Nature abhors a vacuum, and Time is the fourth dimension, so evidentally because the windows won't be here until mid-January, the HVAC tradesman has pushed back his work start until after the New Year!
I hope each of you has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
