day 223: bird shower

master shower wall finishing up soon


master shower floor already water tested

dad said the birds love sitting on the snow guard to take in the morning sun. otherwise i never saw birds on the roof.

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.

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.