Ba humbug and all that.

The good news:  the rain washed the snow away.  The bad news:  x-mas week is a slooooow week for everything.   Nevertheless,  I had a few good workdays on my own,  and we're getting to the level of being over the windows on the second floor.  

THis coming week we'll pour concrete that far and all that will be left for blocks are the two gable ends of the second floor.  At that point all my hard won expertise laying faswall blocks is useless and I'll move on to impersonating a carpenter and roofer!   

Perhaps you've noticed the title picture of a spyhop?  THose whales are passing the coast about 60 miles west of here right now,  heading back south where we saw them last year.   Sure wish we could meet them there!  The coming week is supposed to be wet but not cold, so we'll see how we do.  

No go, too much snow!

This was a week of computer work as we were snowed in.  Rare for these parts to get a quantity of snow quite like this, and for it to stick around,  but it did.  Snowbound we were.  It's raining now, and almost all the white stuff is gone,  so let's hope for some work this coming week, short and holiday pocked though it will be!   Here are some scenes from spyhop in the snow:  

Now that the freezing pipe issue is handled,  the mobile is plenty comfy.

But the house is going to be a lot better in future storms.  Need a roof though: 

Lots of beautiful light in the storms.     ENjoy whatever you're celebrating this coming week. 

 

The weeks are blurring together now. Until recently I would write these entries on Sunday evening with pretty complete recall of what we had accomplished in the week immediately prior.  No longer.  Now I need to consult last week's post myself,  to recall when what happened.  

 Very memorable about this week is that I built a staircase for us to get up  to the second floor.   Of course,  this followed putting plywood decking down up there. But the stair is much more memorable because of the  incredible difference between having it,  and working up and down a ladder all the time.  Whew. 

 

Once the subfloor was done and the stairs in we were able to get moving with the second floor walls.  In short order we were up to the window bucks again -- these boxes that hold open the spaces where windows will go.  Some were able to be removed from downstairs and others had to be cut and reassembled anew (from the lumber that was in the downstairs ones, of course),  but we made quick work of gettin them in so that now the second floor is taking shape.  To the left and below is the corner of the bedroom.

(Notice that the first floor window opening in this shot are now without the wood framing)

These pictures are from this weekend.  As you can see, we had a little snow up here.  Although snow was predicted for all of Eugene, in only fell in the higher elevations.  We're at 900 ft, so we got some.  THere was none in town, and barely any once you got down off our hill. 

Earlier in the week Jennifer was inspired to photograph the sunrise -- which she watches from her stairmaster in the mornings:

The weather changes on a dime up here.  We went outside to take some pictures and the snow started to fall so heavily that the photos were a mess:  

   

After some chores we went inside for warming up and within minutes the sun came out and streamed through the trees on our western ridge.  I don't know if any phtograph could capture what I love about watching the light stream through up there,  and surelyI"m not enough of a phtographer to do it justice,  but until you get a chance to come and see for yourselves,  I ran out and made an effort.   

Second floor begins

Took this nice picture yesterday,  as Jennifer came up through the newly framed second floor: As promised,  back on schedule with the postings this week,  and what's more things are moving along nicely on the job too! 

We've had tremendous luck with the weather.  The rainfall to date has been a little less than half of what it usually is by this time,  and it's still been warming up pretty well most days.  The mornings are hard on the fingers and toes,  but so far we've gotten through it.   The days are very short here now --  44th parallel style.   No light at 7am,  and fully dark by 5.   Only a few more weeks and the tide will turn with that,  so I'm not complaining.

Keep meaning to share a few non-building observations about life on Spyhop.  The wildlife is a real pleasure.  Fred -- the fellow who poured our slab and who I hire to help handle the pouring of concrete is a great guide in this regard.  He recently identified a huge bird that flew right over us as a Golden Eagle.  It was a beautiful sight.  

Then there's this:   Looks like not much of anything,  right?  

Eagle eye fred pointed it out to me from far away -- it just looked like a dark patch on the base of the decidous tree farthest right in the scraggly bunch.  But he was right on:  

It's the bobcat's scratching post! 

Turn around 180 degrees and here's what the bobcat sees:  

Poor fella.  It'll get better, I promise!

We got the floor trusses for the second floor in this week.  

So,   the top floor starts to get its definition,  

and with the addition of a "top" the first floor rooms start to take shape too:  

In fact,  we looked things over on Saturday and in addition to taking some pics of ourselves creeping around on the trusses,  Jennifer came up with a new window configuration for the bedroom that we'll be running with.  

I've lamented how messy concrete can be -- and it sure is -- but the house is feeling very solid,  and the material lends itself to some suprises here and there that I quite enjoy.  To wit the footing for a post that will hold the roof overhang in the entryway:  

=; -) Have a good week!  

Blog Schmog

T'was time for a few days off, so off to the coast we went for T'kg'g with one of J's family's clan.  It was mind altering to not work on this for a few days, for me.

So,  the week I am reporting on was a short week -- 3 days.  We got ready for another mini-pour that we did this monday.  Even my most dedicated followers would find the detail of this discovery overwhelming, so I'll leave it at this:  Following the last pour I found a problem that worried me a lot,  but turned out to be very small and easily solved.  However,  it warned me of a a more disastrous version of itself that was yet to come.  Little problem got solved, and big problem got averted with the mini pour we had monday.   It all had to do with these tricky and previosuly mentioned lintels: 

Pours are too demanding and messy to allow for picture taking.  But before things got going,  I photographed the set up.  DOesn't really convey it... 

Still out of the habit of a full days work, today was a half day because of dentists and such. 

Second floor trusses were delivered in the pm, though: 

So if all goes well there should be some progress to show at the end of this week,  when my discipline about work and blogging shall have returned!  

 Jennifer tries out the balcony,  surfaced for the first time.  She's looking the wrong way,  but as of now,  the balcony still has a view to the East! 

Day late on this post -- busy weekend.  Apart from socializing with folks from J's office, we got to see Joan Baez on Friday night.  Really enjoyed that.  

Well,  the pour was successful,  although very difficult.  THings didn't get started until almost 2.  The scheduled noon start time was objectionable to me as it was,  given that it's dark here by before 5 right now.  Thanks to a firend named Eddie who brought me all kinds of things that I didn't think I needed, we do have a job site light ,  see (hanging as if crucified): 

 but it's far from ideal to work that way.  Things are pretty sloppy working with concrete.... and they got even sloppier when we had a few "blowouts."  That's when the concrete breaks through and creates a truly awful mess...  It shouldn't happen.  I don't think it will happen again to me... because I could see exactly why it happened once it did, and because it was so traumatic that I'll take any precaution I can possibly imagine next time.  

If all's well that ends well,  then it's well.  It ended at 8:30 PM -- a terribly long day when you're hauling and muscling the weight of concrete.  Furthermore,  there's a big difference between clean up right after a pour and clean up the next morning,  when the grey goop is dry and tough... but live and learn,  we cleaned all day Tuesday.

Thanks to Sebastian,  who thinks a lot better than I do in blow out mode,  the scars where the blow outs were repaired are really minimal and all within what the plaster on our future walls will smooth over...  

After about 1 1/2 days of clean up we moved on to putting up rafters and then decking thatform the roof over  the mudroom and study and the subfloor of  the balcony to the west.  That's what Jennifer is tanding on above, and what you see here:

Also working on completing the sloped sides and then just moving up with the walls until the second floor trusses arrive.  It's getting higher and harder to work on a single height scaffolding.

THis is a short week and next week will start with a small extra pour .  Then if we have trusses,  it will be time for some carpentry again, so we can build up from the second floor platform.  That's it for now from your weary homemaker.  Looking forward to a long weekend OFF!  

Prepaing for Pour # 2

   

This was a pretty good week for progress,  despite that Mon-Weds was truly miserable, weather wise.    I was lucky to have two days of help from a friend from out here named Kirk. He braved the horrid weather.  He's lived here a long time -- has all the gear. I should have taken some pictures while he was here, but the 
relentless wet meant that  thought did not come to me at the time. 

Despite some setbacks (read goof ups on my part... oh well) we are ready to pour tomorrow (Monday)It did take a workday Sunday to get there,  but we're ready.  It will be a lot harder than the last time.    Don't love working on the weekend,  but it was a gorgeous misty morning:





And it turned sunny and even hot later:


The challenge this past week was really building the "lintels"  and filling them  in with blocks and about a ton of rebar.  They are the things that act kind of like bridges over opening on the first floor,  and hold the second floor walls above them.  

Here is a picture of the one that crosses the kitchen/dining area:  

And here it is from the other side,  where you can see the "ledger" attached.  It  will hold the second floor trusses.  All those 2x4s are temporary support -- there won't be walls in most of those places (which is why the lintels are a big deal).  


It gets dark so early now.  Problem for a night owl like me.  Sometimes I've walked the dog in the near darkness.  Absolutely beautiful here.  We have quite a few owls that get into conversing from one great fir to another in the gloaming hours and later.  Paradise.





Think of us and send good luck to us Monday pm for a tricky pour.  


 

Well,  the good news is that your toiling constructors seem to have regained their health.  The not so good news is that the notorious Willamette Valley rains have come our way and it's a pain in the tush to work all wet.  These photos were actually taken on a say that it rained little... but you get the idea none the less.

Soggy now,  will be a sweet dining room window seat one day: 

 But,  we got a lot done and are hoping to get our progress "set in concrete" with a pour later this week.  In preparation for that,  we did a lot of straightneing of walls this past week -- tweaking them into a position that they will hopefully stay in,  when the weight of the concrete gets moving through them.  See the "kickers" in these two pics:  

The major piece left to do before we can pour is to construct the forms for several "lintels" which are essentially concrete beams that will be cast in place so that the walls of the upper floor can go above even where we have large openings below,  such as between the living room and dining room.  Here's as far as we got by close of day Friday,  on the first one:

The pictures I took this week are terribly chaotic looking.  THere's a lot going on in there now,  and the wet and shiney just makes it harder to see in pictures,  but there is a real feel of enclosure happening,  though roof and dry are still a long way away.

That doesn't stop it from feeling like home to a few people and creatures here on the ridge top we call Spyhop:

Progressing with challenges!

Well, if it ain't one thing it's another, so we had another hard week because of illness this past week.  I was only on half speed for the first half of the week-- fighting the microbe that drugs have now freed me from -- whew.   And for the second half Sebastian relapsed to his bug state with fever and sore throat.  Then I had to get a case of the same, So, sniffle sniffle and sneeze,  barely a four day work week.  Ugh. 

Early in the week we finally got backfilled.  I was lazy with the camera that day, so the pics are of the results, but not of the process. 
 "Backfilling" means the moat that has been all around the the house got filled back in with the dirt that had been removed, so that the basement is now really a basement.  Of course, given our tremendous slope,  it does protrude on northeast side:

but still,  we can now move ourselves and materials in and out the door openings withoutcrossing the moat on a bridge.  
More importantly,  we've reached a new level of being able to feel how the house will interact with its surroundings.   Jennifer has yet to see it -- she's on the road home from Ohio right now, but I'm pretty happy with how it has changed things.

Here's what will be the sliding door to our outdoor terrace for eating and having company:

 
Speaking of change, the weather had changed now, and we are WET.  In honor of this, now that the earth moving got done,  we also added "hog fuel" all around the site.  It's really just largely ground wood chips, blown all around the work site.  So far it seems like its going to be life changing , in terms of clods of mud on the boots, and ultimately into the house. You can see it in this pic --  it's a big improvement .

We did go up some, despite all the poor health.  The filling in over the windows is painstaking.
Here you see the diing room window seat and the living room windows beyond.  


 And look carefully at what's starting to peek out above the mobile:  



Pretty awful, huh!  Looking at this, you'd never guess houw beautiful it is here.  The big leaf maples are dropping their really big leaves and walks with the dog are especially fun:  



See you next week!