What Goes Up Must Come Down

Look at this picture of my roof!!  See??  It's just my roof.....and nothing on it!  No scaffolding, no pickboard, no ladders!!  YEA!!!  Well, there is some dirt I need to wash off but other than that...  I'm very stoked about that.  Well, not washing dirt off but you know, nothing on the roof because I'm finished there!

I also made a concerted effort to finally close up the clerestory wall bottom and I got'er done! Did that today.  It looks 100% better.  I still have a little caulking and touch up to do but it's done basically.  WHOOP!

I also got this length of wall completely closed up and ready for cabinets to be set!  Yea me!  I will wait to start setting tile until after the cabinets are in and I know what kinda spaces I'm going to have.
Tomorrow I think I will start on the opposite kitchen wall and touching up drywall and caulking to get ready to paint.  And hang more metal wall covering.  I got one piece painted today but not hung.  That stuff is kinda tedious the way I have to do it.  So, things are finally rolling along here.  Have ya'll finished any projects lately?  Or started anything?

Fixing A Hole

I messed up on my placement of the sink in the bathroom counter top so I needed to move one of the two sconce lights on that wall in order to get the mirror to center up properly over the sink. It wasn't off by much and I guess some might have not bothered but it was aggravating to me. So, Allen said he would move the light for me and I could do all the patching. Fair deal I thought.
There are several ways to patch drywall but this one is fairly easy. This way uses the same pieces you cut out and you just tape the cuts. This is 1/2" drywall installed on wood studs so I used 1 1/4" coarse-threaded drywall screws. You need to countersink the screws between a big 1/16" to 1/8" so that enough mud will cover the heads and the spots not pop back out when the mud dries. Now, you must tape your joints will either regular drywall tape or you can use this mesh sticky tape. If you don't your joints are going to develop cracks. This mesh type is handy and easy to use and it sticks on the wall itself so you don't have to apply the mud first and bed the tape in it. Not that that is hard to do but it just saves a step.

Next you just skim your first layer over the patch and no, it's not going to look good the first patch but you're not worried about that yet. You will probably have to skim out at least 4-6 inches past the cuts in order to feather the mud out properly. Don't worry about completely concealing the patch on this first pass either. If you look closely, you can still see the tape through the mud. You are going to have to make 3 or 4 passes. This is easier than trying to gob a bunch of mud on and sand it back down. Lots of people don't do well trying to patch drywall because they want to fix it as fast as possible, one pass and forget it, you know. Well, this is one of those things that you are just going to have to accept takes a little time. Use a big enough mud knife also. I used a 6" knife on this and that size should be fine for most patches. It's hard to describe the action of applying the mud. You scoop an even line of mud about 2" thick across your knife and then just smear it down the joint kinda thickly. Scrape excess mud off your knife on the edge of the pan and then draw the clean knife back down the joint, smoothing the mud and removing the excess. Keep repeating this around the patch, kinda feathering the mud out as you go around. You just have to keep practicing and you will see how the mud works. Don't work it to death though. Once you get a thin layer all the way around with no huge ridges, stop! Let that dry, scrap or sand those ridges down (and yes, you will have some small ridges at first) and apply the next thin layer of mud. Repeat, sanding in between. As you apply the last couple of layers it sometimes helps to thin the mud a little with water. then sand and prime. After you prime it you may see some small scratches in the mud and you can touch them up then.
I still haven't finished this patch myself! Hopefully I can get it done today and paint it soon. Most of the time it seems that I am just going at a snail's pace towards finishing this house but I guess as long as you are moving forward, no matter how slow, that's what matters. I guess.

*The Beatles

Next Layer

Ok! here are the Sheetrock photos I've been promising for so long! This was some really tedious work with all of the rafter tails to cut around and the 30 light fixtures. This is the east wall. I would like some really cool sculpture to hand up in the gable part of this wall above the lights (those black dots).

This is mostly the south wall. The far left area will be the dining area. Where the 3 small windows are is the kitchen. The sink will be centered under that middle window. I've always wanted a lot of windows in the kitchen. There will be a short wall between the kitchen and living areas that I have not framed yet. I need to get the scaffolding out (after finishing the clerestory wall and ceiling) before I can put that wall in.

Higher shot of south wall. The sun has stopped coming in at this point and it stays fairly cool in the house. Actually, the sun disappeared at the end of March I think, which is about right I guess. It starts getting warm around here pretty quick.

This is the living room area, northeast corner. That rectangular hole above the window on the right is for my in-wall stereo speakers. Yeah! Going to be cranking.

This is the wall between the living and bedroom/bath etc. This is the wall that will (hopefully) be plywood and really cool. The BFA and I are still wrangling over this one. He is helping me pick out colors too for everything so maybe that can start soon.

How Long Has This Been Goin' On?

On the road to our place they are currently building several houses and have just finished several more. They throw these houses up in a matter of months. They can have one framed in a week. I'm on month 17 now I think. It's starting to get to me just a little. I know that these other houses are just your run-of-the-mill boxes; poorly designed, heat traps but it's sometimes easy to get discouraged. I am a little discouraged. I also know that we have not been able to work continually. I think this is the worst part of building your own place. Sometimes I have to wait on my paychecks to build up to purchase certain items. When we work overtime, I am way too tired to come home and pour more concrete or whatever. Sometimes I just go down to the house and sit and look at the house and I get even more overwhelmed because I end up thinking about all that I still have left to do. That's a bad attitude I know. I have had virtually everything handed to me so I don't want to appear ungrateful. I think staying at the house on the beach has made it worse for me. It's sooooo nice to have windows to look out of and a stove and a shower right in the next room! I also have not thrown any pottery in over a year. I miss that. I see artists friends of mine that are being in all kinds of shows and galleries ( I'm happy for them; they are good) and I think I'm really stupid for taking the time to do something like this. I should be working on my art; I'm not too bad at it. I might get somewhere with it. Yesterday, I had to type up a bio for a magazine that I have written an article for and the editor told me it could be up to 500 words and include my work, family etc. All I could come up with was about 100 words about work. I could not think of anything else to write about but WORK. I see all you other bloggers out there who have wonderful families and kids ( and I'm happy for you too) and I think everything I have done has been a mistake. Who puts so much effort into a damn house? OK. I will try to come back with a better attitude.

This photo shows some of the Sheetrock we have hung lately. Very tedious pieces to cut out but they were not near as bad as the clerestory ones. This is part of what is taking so long. Allen told me the other day that everything I want takes the longest, is the hardest to do and the most aggravating to work on. I guess so. Usually it's the most expensive too but I have gotten around that this time. As soon as I pick out what type of speakers I want installed and where they go in the living room wall, we can finish hanging the rock and get somebody up here to finish it. I hope. That's one thing I don't want to do myself.

My fig trees and stuff were coming out nicely and I was hoping for a good surge of growth from them but then we had a cold snap a couple of weeks ago that just froze the crap out of everything. I don't think it killed things but they are just sitting there now; not a green leaf on them.

I really want to have running water by the end of May. That is my next goal.

What's Going On

I have started installing the plugs where we have hung Sheetrock just to have some more places to plug in tools and stuff. I wanted to show this because Allen says this is the commercial way of wiring plugs, not the way most residential plugs are done. I don't know much about electrical work but he has been teaching me some and how to do plumbing also. Anyway, he wires these little pigtails (what I am pointing to) at each plug and switch so that if the plug or switch is defective, it does not kill the whole circuit. This way the plug is sorta on it's own little driveway off the main road instead of a junction in the main road. I think I am explaining this correctly but if not please let me know. These are all 15 amp plugs in the bedroom and living room areas but in the kitchen and bath, I am using 20 amp plugs. They don't cost much more and just gives you a little extra coverage.

We finally finished hanging the clerestory wall and Allen has mudded it completely also. It will be my job to sand and prime it. We were trying to get this done before we took all the pick boards down etc. and not have to put that stuff back up again. I am going to set up a rolling scaffold in the living room now to finish this stuff because we need to ladders and pick board outside. We have hung more Sheetrock but I'll show that later.

I finally got my slate floor laid out the way I want it for the bathroom. This is the standard pattern but I didn't have ANY extra to try to do any kind of an unusual pattern. In fact, all those 6x6 holes in the pattern are going to have to be filled in with some other type of tile but I thought that would look cool. I want to have the Sheetrock in the bath finished before I put the floor down but I had to know what kind of tile shortage I was facing. I do have a little extra that you can see in the background but that will have to be used to do the cuts around the edges.

We are actually going on a little vacation to the beach this Wednesday so I may not post again until next week but I wil try to get one more up before we leave.

Rock and Roll (Hootchie Coo)

Well, we rocked some; not near what I'd like but it's a start. When the entire house is built this will be the guest bedroom but it will be the main (only) one for now. The master bedroom and one more will be in the other section across the dogtrot. There is not alot of drywall in the house actually since the living room/kitchen ceilings don't hang and some of the living room walls get plywood. We could finish it ourselves but I am going to get a price from a buddy of ours for him to mud and finish it. It's worth paying a reasonable price to me just to get it done. Allen is good at sheetrock work but we are both slow at it and things are going slow enough as it is. We also ran some sheetrock in the bathroom but had to leave a bunch open for plumbing.

This is the first of the actual plumbing!! You have no idea how happy I will be to finally be able to......... not go somewhere else for things. I finally decided where to put the toilet too! That actually was one of my harder decisions to make. We will be working on plumbing this weekend because it looks like we are in for some more rain. Hopefully I will get my perk test done within a week to start the septic system. That's $500.00 for someone to come out and dig 4 or 5 holes in the ground and fill them with water! I know, there is more to it than that but I am down to counting pennies at this point. As soon as we get that done I can go buy my septic tank permit and start putting that in. This is the one thing that I have to have inspected and if you don't get it inspected and passed the power company will not put in your permanent power. They are in cahoots with the city and health department.

A note on the insulation and plumbing: that is R-11 unfaced fiberglass insulation in the walls. It is standard stuff they use in commercial applications. As I have stated before, I would have liked to have used some of the natural cellulose or cotton insulation they have but this stuff was free so... there you go. At least no energy will have to be used to make my insulation because I'm recycling and this stuff will not go into the landfills. We are using PVC on the drains and vents in the house but everything else will be copper. Copper is through the roof right now and has been for some time. Lots of copper thefts on construction sites too. We are also starting the plan for the solar hot water system. This will be the only active solar part of the house for right now. I did not realize that there are so many types of solar water systems: indirect, direct, roof top collectors, ground level collectors etc. etc. Do any of you have any experience with such things and/or have any advice?

Blinded By The Light

We got almost all the lighting wired for the living room/kitchen area. This is the lighting plan that the BFA came up with for me and I think it is SO cool. Due somewhat to the fact that the ceilings are so high and vaulted etc. he decided to put all of the lighting on the walls. The fixtures start approximately 2' out of the corners and then you have one every 4 feet and go all the way around the room. On the North and South walls these line up with every other rafter; this photo shows that. Now, they are wired in equal sections so that you can turn on part of them instead of just everone of them coming on at one time. If I want just the ones over the kitchen sink on, I can turn just those on or opposite sections in the living room etc. I think you probably get the idea. I know at first glance some of you are probably thinking that there is nothing green about this as they probably burn alot of electricity but it would be rare for me to actually turn them all on plus they will use about 40-60 watt bulbs and now they have those cool swirly ones that hardly use any power. Now, the BFA wants me to use plain, porcelain socket type fixture (very economical) but this would require using special light bulbs since they would be exposed and you don't want them glaring at you. I'm not very disposed to having to go someplace special to find some special light bulb that they are going to charge you some special price for. So.. I'm trying to find a very simple, affordable fixture ( I need 30).
Plus, with a porcelain fixture etc., the bulb sticks out straight and I just don't like that or the color blah, blah, blah so anyway, I am trying to come up with something maybe I could make. I'll keep you informed. The BFA is aggravated at me for this but he is usually aggravated at me about something so it's all fine. I am going to keep it simple though which I think is the main idea. These pictures really don't do it justice but of course, there is no drywall up or anything so it is sort of hard to imagine. We have some sockets on the boxes now just to be able to have light and the bulbs in them are 100 watt so they are much brighter than what I think they will be later.
This is just a silly shot of the bedroom ceiling with the light on. I'm still fascinated with the fact that you can go in the house and flip lights on. Oh!! My windows came in this morning so we will be installing those soon. YES! No more wind and rain blowing in! We have hung all the ceilings that get drywall and have hung the Durock in the shower and insulated some exterior walls. That means that I now have an attic too! Which needs insulating. I feel like I will be working the rest of my life on this house and I know in ways I will, but I will be glad to see even a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel.