Feb 18, 2011

day 22: slab + siding + standing-seam steel


cement truck came to pour the basement floor slab. The driver remarked on our mushy driveway. i said i was worried about getting my car stuck, to which he said, “at least you don’t weigh 80,000 pounds.”


Uncle Ben worked the shoot and one lucky guy hoofed the concrete in a wheelbarrow over to where it was needed.


other guys spread the concrete and ran the screed board.


newly completed basement floor. One of the guys came back after this picture was taken and floated the whole floor again on his hands and knees.


the guys framed an opening for dad’s favorite thing to talk about - the fireplace gravity vent to the living room.


while not the most suitable construction vehicle, it has served me well so far. i was feeling bad about the coating of salt from last week’s drive through a snow storm, and now i’ve added a new layer. the driveway is a mess near the house.


not a tornado, but it looks like it. all the siding came with a plastic sheet that had to be peeled off, and the steel roofing panels came in wood crates. i retrieved a 4x8 sheet of rigid insulation that blew all the way across the lower field. not an easy task in the wind this afternoon.


installing window trim on the house


installing the front entry door


the crew installed all the garage siding and finished the standing-seam roof. All we need to complete the exterior is the correct ridge vent cap for the roof, the 4" siding for the house, and the guys need to install the sliding patio door to the kitchen. and some clean-up.

Monday the crew will be framing all the basement walls and finishing some miscellaneous framing. i gave them a short list of tweaks i needed, most of which they finished before they left today. but they are headering out the ceiling joists in the kitchen for the recessed lights, as an example.

Feb 17, 2011

day 21: windows + roof + siding


Monday, day 18, we passed a plumbing inspection for the drains. so tuesday, day 19, the crew poured part of the basement slab.


a large portion of the basement ground was frozen from the blowing wind and ice from many storms ago. but it was 60 degrees today! the guys took advantage of the weather today and dug out the ice and frozen gravel. then they leveled the ground and prepared screed boards for pouring the rest of the concrete slab tomorrow.


the downside to the warm weather is the muck. i joked with one of the guys that i grew 2 inches taller just walking over to see him. i hope i can get this mud off my shoes... and pants, and everything else.


i finally got to see the screen porch up close. it has nice views.


uncle paul brought over the fireplace from his shop this week. the crew loaded it in so they could install the chimney, which they needed in place for the roofing. who wants to install all the bits?


the standing seam steel roof has been going in for the last few days. i think it looks great. we had the wrong ridge vent cap, so we'll have to wait for that before it's really done. we have returned a lot of parts in this project because everyone keeps assuming we are building a shallower pitch roof.


you can look out from the house finally. it's so great to see the windows going in. most of them were in place by the end of the day. this is the view south from the dining room.


this is the view from the living room windows looking east over the lower fields. this looks bigger in person and without the sheet metal bender in the way, or whatever it's called.


the other major thing happening is the James Hardie cement board siding and trim. dad switched the color to a dark red at the last minute, despite putting it to a vote and losing. some day i will get this painted the dark grey i wanted it to be. haha!


the garage gets 6 inch siding and the house gets 4 inch siding. hopefully we won't have to wait forever for the house siding. here you can see the house roof almost finished and the skylights getting installed and flashed.


north elevation


north east view


the east elevation looks a lot larger with the windows. those windows are 6 feet high.


and finally, i just thought this was funny. the low corner of the garage needs a lot of fill before they pour the concrete slab floor. until then you can walk the balance beam.

Feb 11, 2011

day 17: errands

today i ran errands and no one worked on the house. however, i saw that the plumbers completed the drains in the basement floor. they are just waiting for the inspector to come out. then we can warm the place up and pour a slab.

I met a tile installer in the morning to show him the project. it was so cold that after i set down my yogurt for a few minutes to talk, i ended up having frozen yogurt for breakfast. i had to go warm up after that. i transported the chimney and fireplace parts down to the house, had a pulled-pork sandwich (thanks mom!), priced out some doors at a few places, went out and bought a used torpedo heater after some research and telephone calls, and had a cinnamon roll at Panera while updating the blog. i'm still doing that now. i guess i had better go drop that off that torpedo heater before it's completely dark.


upper screen porch done


windowless house is really just a big advertisement


light shelf in the living room / hearth area / dining room


lots of framing, lots of ceiling heights


drains in basement gravel


bathroom in the walkout basement


chimney and accessories for the fireplace


lumber

Feb 10, 2011

day 16: shopping

After stopping by the house and surprising the plumbers, i went with mom and dad to a wholesale flooring place about an hour away. longer if you stop at Starbucks.
We found a porcelain tile to use in the master bathroom. It is a light color like mom wanted, it comes in 12x24 size like dad wanted, and it has a pattern that was acceptable to everyone. price was not so great.
most of our tile was spent looking at a limited selection of slate. We have a small amount of slate already that we hoped to match as close as possible. dad + mom liked the sample pieces we saw, but then hated them after seeing a sample area that was installed in the showroom. i wasn't able to sway them to anything darker or more uniform.


porcelain tile


dark slate


greenish slate


multi-color slate


we laughed because our floors are from the Homer woods, and made by Amish


pendant we laughed at but then liked

Feb 8, 2011

day 15: screen porch

Dad + mom finally saw the house on tuesday. the framing crew was there finishing up a lot things. The highlights include finishing the faom sheathing + tyvek over the exposed basement walls, the low hall ceiling + pull-down stairs to the attic, framing the light shelf that runs through the living and dining rooms, and building out the screen porch with frames (minus the screens) and the railings. i had them make the railings out of hog fencing that slips in a dado cut in the top rail, and in a gap in the cedar that wraps the 6x6 columns.

the plumbers had started over the weekend, but didn't get done what we had hoped they would do first. while they started diggin in the basement floor for the drains, they seemed to do a lot more work upstairs installing drains and vent lines. They wanted to be sure where the drains were going to down down to the basement. but because they didn't finish in the basement, the framing crew packed up there tools and left for the week.


basement drain ditches


master bath vanity and washing machine hookup


framer between low and regular ceiling joists in the hall


hall to laundry and mbr, stair to attic


attic above living + dining high ceilings


trimming out the hog fence railings


covering everything with cedar


underside of screen porch floor - TimberTech (like Trex)

Feb 2, 2011

day 12: plumbing

despite an overnight ice storm, the plumbers started work today. The goal is for them to get the waste lines run so that we can pour the basement slab, frame the walls, and get the HVAC work started.

i didn't take any pictures because i was too busy searching for the shower valves for them. and then i had to leave for the airport. i hope they know what they're doing!

Feb 1, 2011

snow day

no work done today. there was at least 6 inches of snow overnight so the crew didn't come in today. oddly enough there was no more snow all day, though now its raining and everything is icing over. good luck tomorrow. i predict another snow day and another canceled flight home for me.