Sunday, March 29, 2009

This was a very jam packed week.   

It started with a big delivery of all the windows and a few of the doors for the project.   As with each new phase,  I was pretty anxious about the whole thing.  Everything from how to handle the actual unloading and storing about 30 fragile units,  to how to install them! 

I wish I had taken a picture of the whole mess of 'em,  but it didn't occur to me until this weekend,  and the pile is greatly diminished by now. 

The reason the pile is so much smaller is that there are quite a few windows installed by week's end:  

Getting the space closed in really makes a tremendous difference to the feel of the whole thing.  As you can probably see on the exterior shots,  it all starts to look a lot more finished.  

Unfortunately its very hard to give an impression of the inside of the space as its so chaotic with all the tools and storage and mess going on in there.  Here's a shot that captures the chaos,  if not the new feeling of having an interior space: 

And here's an upstairs shot where you can at least see the windows; and another in the dining room to be: 

I've gotten a real boost from this past week's changes.   Finally something that  makes it feel like I am progressing toward a house....   Also  my confidence got a boost from how relatively well this work has gone,  given that it's  important, fussy, and completely new to me.   

Another development this week is that we decided to purchase some redwood for the balcony decking.  Yep,  it's old growth,  clear,  50 year old redwood.  No,  we didn't partake of felling a 50 year old (more likely 150 year old) redwood.   The source of our deck wood:  A 50 year old water tank at a mill that got taken down.  

Once cleaned up,  they are just incomprable for outdoor use, so we decided to blow out budget to get some.  Bringing the wood home (about 48 miles) nearly involved blowing our tires and shocks as well:    

Over and out for now.  

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Little of this little of that

Last week I hoped to glue down the EPDM (like rubber) sheet that will waterproof the balcony on the west side,  and allow me to complete the rest of the roof work.  Although the temperature reached the ranges we needed for the glue to behave,  the threat of showers just didn't allow the work to be done.    Now,  in hopes of keeping the plywoof surface dry,  we have a nice billowy tent happening.  I'm hoping the plywood stays dry enough that I can carpe diem when we get some sun and clear skies,  though that is not presently in the forcast for the coming week.  

On the bright side,  we now have a relatively dry space and some indoor work to do.  So this past week the second floor's interior walls begged to get framed up,  and we complied:  As predicted,  it all looks chaotic and indiscernible in photos,  but in reality it allows one to get more of a sense of how this is all going to be.  In fact,  we did a little wall moving -- just a little -- based on things feeling different than the damned designer led us to believe.  ;-)

Also still savoring last week's accomplishments,  

while feeling a little anxious about starting in on window installation.  Window delivery is scheduled for Monday am.....   In other words,  looking forward to another week in the land of clueless.   Have you ever been there?  

Monday, March 16, 2009

I think they called this "dried in."

The house is roofed.  (However, the roof is not sheathed.  This awaits my ability to finish the two porch roofs... soon, I hope.) 

I am unbelievably relieved.  There's plenty more to do,  but these roofs involved a lot of highly visible work that I had no experience doing.  Translation:  clueless.

The last was the most unforgiving of all in that the interior all stays exposed.  High anxiety,  but I am quite pleased with the result.  Here's a shot of the interior look.  

And the exterior of this side is also highly visible since this is the patio side.  So here's the cedar planking on the outside (becasue the interior material wouldn't hold up to the weather). 

And when you're inside, looking out, itshould give  a nice feel to see the beams continue on out to create the deep overhang on this -- the south side-- of the house: 

As has been the case each time we've constructed one of these roof sandwiches,  the beams and the first layer of sheathing go up pretty effiently,  and then there's a few days of work just in finishing all the details around the permimeter of the roof,   before the insulation and the final layer can go in/on.  This week I had the good fortune of some extra help on those details. Our local friend (It's true,  we actually know a few people here now)  Kirk came and put in a coupla days helping,  and it really did help keep things moving.  

In the pic below you can see some of those fussy details around the perimeter.  As well, this photo shows another factor brought on by the exposed beam look:  the conduit for the  wiring all needed to be put above and channelled into the insulation above the roof,  since the usual cavity to hide such things is exposed, in this case. In this pic the conduit is exposed,  insulation not yet on top of it.

 So,   that's last week.  It's been raining, so we'll move indoors now.   Future work may be harder to photograph! YAY to that. 

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Spring forward

When the weather turns beautiful,  I'll be inside at last, it seems! 

Well, the weather forecast was terrible,  day after day,  but the actual weather gave us 4 decent days of work.  The temps were not ideal,  but we were finishing a ceiling, not fine furniture, after all.                                                                            

So we muddled through and got the beams and the planks for the ceiling oiled up.  Even had some sun, as seen here!

Next thing was to get the beams all shaped the way they need to be to meet their plate (seat, kind of)  

Then also the other end needed to be carefully notched and drilled so that it will hang on a nifty concealed hangar that gets pinned in..... all in the interest of a nice looking exposed beam ceiling.  Here are some pics of that end  (that's the hanger lying on top.  It slides into that groove and then three pins go through the wood and right into those 3 matching holes... we hoped: 

And there aren't just three of these..... there are 11,  so it took a bit of time, even after the experimentation with templates and jigs was over. 

In this one case,  the ions of prep worked out and the beams were fairly easy to put up.  So we got them up on Friday,  along with the first few boards.   THis first shot shows the side that has that hidden hanger,  doing its job.

And here's from the top.

With high hopes for a dry interior next week I sign off!  

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Working on the very last piece of roof....

Let's see.  This past week was filled with a lot that doesn't lend itself to pictures.  

The roof over the kitchen and dining area is the last to go on.  THis is because that area will sport exposed beams and exposed boards overhead.   All the boards that will form the ceiling and also the beams need to sanded and oiled before they get installed overhead.  

ABove is the pile of boards,  below the pile of beams. 

The main problem has been that the cold came back and the oiling process just isn't made to happen in the temps we're having.  Instead of vegetable oil consistency I have sticky honey.

On Friday I called off the efforts to oil,  hoping for better weather this coming week.  Instead,  I worked on my own putting a little mini-rooflet on the dining room window seat area (seen here from the side with Jennifer about to ascend).

THe forcast isnt' for anything better coming up, so I think we'll put some plastic over the windows and see if we can warm the space just enough to  get the oil flowing.  Then we'll probably have to work under the temp tarp that you see here, to get things up... 

In the meantime we've been working on lots of choices and orders that need to be placed as you can see here -- Jennifer's conemplating metal siding colors for the upper portion of the house that will be corrugated.

And here's the closest thing to sunshine that we had on Saturday.... and I mean that in everyway that you  might imagine I would =; -)