Wednesday was a great day.  Dennis & his brother installed the last 3 windows!  All 21 pieces of the window & door package are in!  They finished just before dark.

It's amazing how this step made the project look so much more like a home.  Until yesterday, I thought of doorknobs as "finishing details".  Dennis points out that it's reasonable to start heating enough to make working comfortable, but being able to keep the doors closed would be beneficial.  We'll have to decide on the doorknobs soon.  Wish we knew what color the siding is going to be!

Then today (Thursday), in a mix of  yay!! :-)  and yuck :-P ", a less exciting, but equally important event (drum roll please):  installation of the septic tank!

 

A few good days

"How's your house coming?"
"One nail at a time."

Today we are 52.4% done installing windows & doors!  Well, Dennis is making progress.  All I do is count the results.  Eight windows and three doors, totalling 11 of the 21 are done.

The only picture I have right now is of the first 2.

Long time, no update

Sometimes it feels like progress has been slow, or worse, not at all.  But, then I took a look at the pictures I'd uploaded in early Oct to update this blog "the next time I have nothing to do".   A lot has changed.

So I haven't told you that the SIPs are all on.

The house is shingled.  All shingled!

 

I uploaded the above 2 pics, and then we had what seemed like a pause to catch up on some pre-winter yard work.  

So the condensed version of the progress since then would be like this:

• Cover all the window & door openings with poly.  Initially we had some very wet, windy weather.  That's changed to snowy, cold & windy.  Real windows = very good, but for now, covered windows = good!
• Shop around for our window & door package. Finalize opening directions, sizes, etc. This post has been so long in coming that we've had time to decide, order, wait 5 weeks and the windows were delivered today.
• Bring hydro from the pole to the new house:  trench dug, unusual amounts of fall rain pumped out of trench, line laid, water pumped out again and trench filled.

   

• Light fixture sale!!  Got lights for most of the main & upper floor rooms. 

• 
  Basement floor:  existing water line re-routed to utility room and back to current house.  If you have a private water supply and pressure system, you can feel our anguish (and shortening tempers) when the late evening we were doing this phase, we broke the water line, had to drive to the Big Town for parts, repair the leak...and then prime the pump before we could sleep.  Yeah, part of the huge patchwork of memories we'll associate with building our house. 
The above-ground loop is insulated & heated so the supply to our current home doesn't freeze solid
and stay that way until April.
 

Sewer lines installed for the basement bathroom and vent stacks where they will be below the floor level.  Styro, poly, rebar & floor heat lines in place.  Inspection passed.  We can pour cement when we're ready. 

• We've laid the tongue & groove 1x6" boards for the ceiling of the main floor. They are one of several steps to building the second story floor.

• Since these pictures, we've bought two bathtubs.  It feels strange to be doing that already, but we thought at least one might need too large to get through a door later.  And we found what we wanted at the right price.  So we bought now.
• While waiting for windows, Dennis got a start on framing walls on the main floor.  Our house will be divided into rooms!  So far just the master bedroom, it's ensuite & closet are framed. 

So, there is progress.  There's still so much to do, but there have been a number of great momnets when we see glimpses of the next step or the finished product.

4 Walls and a Roof

Saturday Oct 3:  A little trimming & modifying.  Our understanding of the blueprint dimensions and the actual size of dormer openings differed.  Always easier to make a hole bigger.

Tues, Oct 5:  Men and crane ready to start work.

End of Tuesday...the fourth wall and half the roof went up today.

Tuesday evening:  putting footholds onto the last roof panels so they are ready to go up tomorrow.  Nothing escapes the watchful eye of Josie,  the Quality Control Lab.  Fortunately she's happy with being paid in doggy kibble & hugs.

The west wall - Sept 25

People have often pointed out how convenient it is that we are living on the build site.  They are right. This past weekend we had our first real encounter with the little cloud that comes with that big silver lining.  There is very little clearance between the two buildings, adding a challenge to putting up the last 2 SIPs on the west side.  Of course having a crane on site and maneuvering a vertical panel would be easier, if a lot more costly...okay not feasible for people who aren't building full time.  I can't afford to pay a crane to be on standby for a couple weeks so we can use it an hour a day.

That said, John Deere is still our best bet.  Dennis figured he could lay the wall panel on the trailer roof so we would start winching it upright from an incline rather than the usual horizontal.  A good idea, really.  It just had him using the tractor lift to near max and careful spotting at roof level so we didn't damage the nearly new trailer shingles.  So... considerable risk of error, "oops!" and the resulting setback and/or damage.  Next time I'll have to post a picture of how the SIP's are located in place and attached to the floor, positioned within 1/8" of their neighbor panel.  

Anyhow, here's a brief pictorial overview of this craziest panel placement so far.

It went well.  The last panel on that side, although not as tall, also took some creative maneuvering before we could winch it upright, but the west wall was done Saturday evening.

With winter closing in, our resolve to hold down spending is giving way to good common sense.  We have a small crew of men coming next week to help with the taller north & south panels and the roof panels.  This will be the crew's first experience with SIP's, but they are eager to evaluate whether it's something they will be able to use in their future builds instead of more common stud framing.

One wall

Happy Birthday to the Project

Today is one year since our Rural Municipality issued the building permit.  A year already!!  We're overwhelmed by how much is left to do, but chanced upon a picture from May and realize how very far we've already come on this adventure.   Wish I had a picture, but that will have to wait for daylight and another day.  So, just believe me:  one exterior wall is up. 

Tuesday, Sept 6 the SIP's (structural insulated panels) were delivered.  These are essentially OSB & styrofoam sandwiches that will go around the outside of the frame to be the exterior wall/insulation unit.  They are big, bulky and because of their size, heavier than you might guess.  The largest pieces have the equivelent of 12 sheets (4x8') of 7/16" OSB, which would have a total weight of, well...more than I'm ever going to be able to lift!  Here are a few pics from last week.

Roof - layer one

Last week was great.  We were so happy to have the frame standing, and have visitors from Alberta coming, that we hardly thought about the next step in this long process.  The house could wait.  Well..  turns out my brother can't stand to sit & visit, even if it's raining. As a bonus, he and his family spent last summer house building.

All I can say here is some people have NO fear of heights.  Well, no...if I didn't LIKE this brother a lot, I could come up with something witty about primates. 







Remember the 2x6" boards Dennis cut shiplap into with a customized Honda-powered table saw?  Here's their place:  they cover the rafters and are visible gorgeous from the inside.

Here's the new view from my kitchen window--

---and one of the girls took this view from their future bedroom window

The morning after

In my youth, my parents built 2 new houses.  I wasn't the chief worker or planner (or payer!) on either of those jobs, but I don't remember a day that came anywhere near what yesterday was here.  It was a remarkable day that we won't ever forget.

If you are reading this because you couldn't be here, I'm sorry you missed the marvel of seeing all the pieces fitting together and the sense of community as huge beams were guided into place, some as much as 35' off the ground on the south end.

And if you were here, a very big thank you from our family.  It was an amazing day that couldn't have have happened without you.

I don't have words, but we have hundreds of pictures. Here are a few.

The last peg!

From the southwest.

From the northeast.

Noon: Ahead of projected pace!

From a couple angles when we stopped for lunch @ 12:10  Half the floor joists for the loft are in, one more set of queen posts to go, then 12 pieces (that will together make the 4 long beams to join the house from end to end) and the rafters.

We're excited with the progress!

9:30 AM--Off to a good start

On the eve of Raising

Well, here we are!  12 hours until the crane will be here.   Dennis's list is done.  The chili is in the slowcookers, coolers for pop & water are washed & ready.  There are a few little things to do, like a quick tidying in the main bathroom, but mostly I need to relax and rest. 

Morning will be here soon!

Countdown to Raising Day

Monday evening: we made a list of things that need to be done before Raising. 

• sand 5 braces
• varnish 10 braces
• sand 8 large timbers
• varnish 8 big timbers
• assemble bents
• mark timber footprints on floor
• install one more floor jack in basement under stair post
• put "stops" on rafters for securing lifting sling
• repair "Big Bertha" (huge wooden mallet aka The Persuader)
• prefit 36" braces in mortices
• stack single timbers in lifting sequence
• book crane
• phone a friend -or several
• trip to lumber yard for small supplies
• bracing material on hand
• rent scaffold

Tuesday morning:   Dennis's brother & sis-in-law have an unbooked day and come by to help.  They help Dennis move timbers onto the floor and start assembling bents.  These should be quick & easy for the crane to lift.   

Pounding the first peg.  No more "test fits".  This is for real !!

Making very good progress on the first bent.

It's been a good day: 2 bents done and there's still just enough natural light to clean up the tools.

Wednesday morning:  Dennis read over the list again, sets the goal and locks it in by booking a crane for Thurs, Aug 26.  The countdown has begun.  Nine days!   Now we have a definate date to book off work, and we can start phoning the friends who wanted to try to be here for Raising (as per THE LIST).   

Wednesday evening:   The euphoria of having a date booked for Raising eases off a little and I realize my list also includes hostessing:  getting lunch and possibly supper ready for however many people--work crew, their spouses & kids and other spectators-- who show up on Raising Day, getting tables, garbage cans, adequate drinking water if it's a hot day, and ...  My head spins for a moment.   Put that against a backdrop of life where back-to-school is looming too, there are some large projects we're trying to finish at work before month end, and we have (very loved and wonderful) out-of-province guests coming for a few days at about the same time as the Raising.  I have a mental near-meltdown.  Okay, it's all good.  Pick up the pieces, make some lists and GET WORKING !! 

Saturday (today):   Things are progressing well.  Only 5 more days.  The menu is planned, the grocery shopping done and the baking is in the freezer.  (Except for 2 items that family members have offered to bring..same thing though...on my list, that counts as done.) 

Dennis is working this weekend, and we took some time to go to the parade in town this morning, but with the 3 1/2 hours we had, there was more progress on stacking timbers and we also have 3/4 of the work done on assembling bent #3.

We also discovered today that we need a new theory about black mold & discoloration on the timbers.  Even some of those that have been under a dry roof since the day they were cut out of a log have some discoloration!  It's not just rain, straw bales & tarps to blame.  They were properly separated with 1" airspace on all sides...maybe they needed slight air movement too?  And if so, where's the line between drying the wood too quickly, which causes excessive cracking, and getting enough air movement?   Sigh...we're just glad none of the damage we found today is major or in visible places.  There's almost no action required to clean these up.

Making progress

It's been a week of sanding & varnishing.  There have been some where Dennis was right  (Yay!!!) : washing with water is all a few of them needed.

There are smaller piles of timbers all over the front yard.  Some days I've wondered how to drive through the maze to get my car to the house when a tractor's blocking the driveway.  The piles represent various stages of resurfacing and sorting into sections for raising.

Last weekend we took advantage of Saturday (2 adults available to work on the house) to "test fit" the east wall of the house.  Raising Day will go much smoother if all the 1/16 & 1/32" problems are worked out in advance.  It's also a lot less stressful knowing that if there was any small discrepancy, you won't  be discovering and fixing it with a crew of family & friends watching and a rented crane waiting. 

There were a few places where taking a paper-thin slice off a tenon with a wide chisel was needed to fit it snuggly into the mortise.  But that wall all fit together, the wall "squares" and is exactly the 42' long we thought we were building.  Very encouraging to seethe many pieces of the project coming together and working right!

Just in this pic, there are 7 places where the fit is checked.  And there's an ugly piece of blocking to hold it off the ground while also allowing us to level to whole wall.

I've got to go for now, but more news later today!