Over The Hill and Far Away

A lot of people have been curious as to where Allen and I live right now while the house is being built. We were talking about that the other day and there happen to be an article in the local paper encouraging those who were homeless to seek assistance from local resources. They included a checklist in the article to help people determine if they could be considered homeless or not. I think Allen and I are right on the edge. We live in the back of a store basically. We rent a small "apartment" from Fred who very graciously lets us live there for a very reasonable price and it's right next door to our land, which is handy. We sort of have a kitchen and bath although we have to walk next door to Fred's to take a shower or bathe on the porch which I love to do in warm weather. Now, don't get excited; it's fairly remote. The neighbors are not getting a show. At least, I don't think so. The photo above shows my house from Fred's back yard. In the summer you can't see anything for the foliage.

This is the view from our little porch and on the left there you can see my handy-dandy shower rig. Works pretty good. We often come out early in the morning and have deer standing all around in this area. As I am building the house (or trying to) completely out of pocket, this arrangement helps tremendously on living expenses. It's a little restrictive at times. I can't cook certain things and we have a fairly small refrigerator. Things like that. It's one, big room basically so you can't have big parties and Allen loves to stand right in the way in the narrow path through to the "kitchen" while I am trying to cook and so I want to choke him sometimes. But sometimes you have to make sacrifices to have things happen the way you want. It's a fairly comfortable little place though and we get along pretty good there. I grow various herbs and veggies on the deck too. However, after 2 years, I'm getting very anxious to be in my house.

On the subject of the house, we have acquired a free water heater and installed that and hung more sheet rock. We (I, really) also finally decided on the lighting arrangement on the clerestory wall and wired for the ceiling fans. Allen found the faucets for the shower and so I just need to come up with the shower head and we can proceed with tile in the shower. We have just a little more wiring to do for some exterior lighting and plugs and lights under the house. It seems like it never ends.

Let's Go Get Stoned

Some of you may remember that title from an old Ray Charles song. I think that I have become obsessed with rocks lately. I look for them everywhere; I'm constantly searching for just the right rocks for my wall. I have plenty on my land but I want more...lots more. I have a huge pile that I have collected so far but I am fearful that it will not be enough. So, I am always dragging more home, digging around to unearth what I think might be a prize rock! Allen keeps hoping that I dig up a gold nugget about the size of a watermelon ( and I do too) but nothing like that so far. I have even been given rocks as gifts from those who know about my obsession. Some of them are pretty cool looking and I plan to lay them in a prominent location in the walls I'm going to build.

The roof is getting very close to completely finished now that the weather is cooperating some. We installed the ridge cap and some of the flashing under the clerestory windows etc. Then we ran out of screws so Allen ordered some more and decided to swap the edge trim we had for some with a lower profile he thought would look nicer. So, when that comes in, which should be this Thursday, we can complete the roof. We have finished stubbing out all the interior plumbing and so have been able to close up the bathroom walls. Allen got a water heater from the power company and we need to install that this weekend. Hopefully it will not operate a lot after I get my solar water system installed but it is needed now and will be a good storage tank later. Lots more to tell you about the next chance I get. I have been transferred to another job and we are doing concrete form work so I am pretty tired when I get home. This job is a little closer to the house though so I only have to get up at 4:15 a.m. now. Bleeh!

Floored

I am starting to pick flooring and some of the inside finishes now. This is the slate flooring that I will use in the bathroom. I picked this up off a job 7 years ago and have been storing this stuff all this time because I knew one day, I would be building a house. This was all leftovers and was going to be thrown away so I asked if I could have it and the flooring guys gave it to me. There is a lot more, I just couldn't get it all in the photo. It is going to be just about enough to do the bathroom floor but I may have to pick a tile that will go with it to fill in a few spaces. This flooring does have a definite pattern to it but because it was drop, I don't have equal counts of all the sizes so I am going to have to get creative with the layout. I am also in the process of trying to find a tile that will go with the slate to do the shower stall and tie it all together. I have cleared a space on the bedroom floor and chalked the outline of the bathroom floor there so that I can assemble the slate floor within this outline and move it around etc. and then when I get it like I want it, just move it a piece at a time into the bathroom. Hopefully, I can get this worked out soon.
I have been saving material off job sites for about 8 years now. Unfortunately, the construction industry throws away tons (literally) of good material. Not because we want to but because we just can't find places for it. I always encourage people to try job sites if you are looking for materials and it doesn't have to be a certain color or whatever. I mean, you have to take what's there but it can be some great stuff and with a little imagination you can make it work out fine. I got a good bit of marble flooring off one job that I might use to make a medallion in the kitchen floor. It is not near enough to do a whole floor but I have always wanted some kind of mosaic thing in the kitchen. And Karl, one thing we usually always throw away is rebar. That is one item that we almost always have too much of but not enough to sell for scrap and so it just gets chucked. For anybody that wants to look for stuff on jobs; always ask for the superintendent, be nice and obey their safety rules.

Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream

That a blind man came and dug two large holes in my yard and charged me $400.00 to do it. And then I realized that it was not a dream at all but really happened and that was my perc test! Well, there was a little more to it than that but I did finally have the perc test done although I still have not received the results back from the county. What you do is call a surveyor and tell them what you want, they will come out and locate approximately where the septic tank and field lines will go and then dig 2 or 3 holes with a backhoe. Now, in the past, the surveyor actually does the whole test but something must have changed because he only prepared the hole for the county who came out about 2 days later and actually performed the test. What they do is fill the holes with a certain amount of water and time how long it takes the hole to empty. Too fast or too slow can both be a problem. The surveyor said my dirt looked good and should not be a problem. Then the surveyor files this at the courthouse and the county will contact you and tell you how many feet of field line etc. that you must put in. Here, we can put in our own system but I don't know what it is like in other states. Some may require that a certified company do it. Anyway, after the septic system is in you have to call the county again and they will come out and look at everything and if it is OK you can cover everything up and proceed! As in all cases when hiring a contractor, please call at least 3 to get a price! We got prices from $400-$600. This guy was a bargain and yes, he had a guy with him who dug the holes that was legally blind.

Shower The People

I'm a bit behind on what's been going on with the house but I just have not had time to post as much as I would like. This was done a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to have the whole sequence on at once. We determined the final shower size and installed the curb and drain for it and then installed the shower pan with the bottom row of Durock installed over the upturned edges of the pan.

The pan is just a thick rubber membrane basically that you can buy by the foot. I have bought just about all of the plumbing stuff from a plumbing supply house and they beat Lowe's or any of those places pretty good on prices. After you install the pan make sure not to walk on it if you can help it with shoes on or you might poke a hole in it and then you would get yelled at like I did. I didn't poke a hole in it but was told to stay out!

OK, so next we mixed up a setting bed for the shower floor consisting of sand and Portland cement at a 2/1 ratio. I mixed it pretty dry as you can see here; just enough water to get it to stick when you squeezed some in your hand. You want it stiff because the bed will be graded on a slight slope to drain and if it is wet the cement will want to level itself out.

At the thickest outside edge the setting bed is 1 1/2" and with about 1/4" per foot slope that makes it about 1" at the drain. Allen spread the mixture around and tamped it down with a trowel and then graded it with a short stick. We had grade lines marked on the Durock. You just keep tamping and grading and adding a little more if needed until you get it smooth. It does not have a slick finish like concrete but is smooth and even. I came back the next day and soaked it down with about 2 gallons of water to help it cure well. Concrete and such do not dry, it "cures", so keeping water on the slab helps the cement to reach its fullest strength. In the summer time if we pour a large slab of concrete we will often hose it down regularly for several days to make sure it does not cure too fast.

We have done much of the plumbing and almost finished the roof this weekend but ran short of material. I will try to get more up soon. The weather has been absolutely beautiful here and was great for working.

All Things Must Pass

It is very difficult to come up with a song title that in some way relates to plumbing but I was proud of myself for this one. I have to admit I had some help from a list of Beatle's songs though. Anyway, we have ran most of the plumbing drain and vent lines under the house. We are using PVC for these lines and will use copper for the supply lines. One issue we have had is how to limit the number of plumbing vents in the roof. I would like to have as few roof penetrations as possible in the metal roof, for looks as well as to cut down on leak possibilities. Metal roofs are just a little harder to seal around stuff like that than shingles roofs. What we decided to do is to combine the vent for the shower and bathroom sink and only have one roof penetration there. There will not be a roof vent for the kitchen sink but this is OK if you run an oversize drain line. This is what they do for sinks that are in kitchen islands where there is no wall to vent up through.

We also ran oversize drain from the bathroom just to help out on account of those 2 fixtures being combined. So, we have 2" PVC to just below floor level where it flares into 3" drain lines. Should not ever have any trouble with this but just in case, Allen put a clean out on one end. The septic tank will be located near what will be the front center of the house when the whole thing is built so all the lines are running in that direction with 1/4" fall per foot. The surveyor who did my perc test staked a general location for the septic tank but I think I can move it around a little. I have to get that finalized though before I will know exactly where everything is going. I still have not heard the results of the test. Allen said they came out and completed the test last Friday and are supossed to mail me something. We also started the central vacuum system. I love these things. The collection canister will be under the house and I will have 2 plug ins in the house. You get a 30' hose so that should be plenty. I ran the phone lines too but have never gone to the phone company and requested service. I guess I need to do that. If satellite service were better out here I would just have everything on that. Phone, TV, computer etc. I hate cable everything. We have a lot of trouble with it around here.

I am on a quest now to find the shower fixtures and tile! I am picking out finishes! I'm so excited!

What A Wonderful World

A few things are starting to bloom around here and I occasionally get a strong whiff of spring but it only lasts a few minutes. I'll be very glad when it gets warm. I really do not do well in cold weather. I planted these crocus, (croci, crocuses, crocamungi?) for Allen and many of them are blooming now but I was suprised at what a short life they have. The blooms only last a couple of days. I also read that deer LOVE them so I don't know how much longer they will be with us. I did not know that before I planted them. I am trying to cultivate a lot of native plants that deer are not particularly fond of since repellents don't seem to work well and I don't want to have fences around everything.
We are getting a good bit done on the house and I hope to post several things soon. There are just not enough hours in the day sometimes. If spring is arriving where you are, then step outside for awhile and enjoy it for me! And you!

Heavy Metal

I thought I would show this shot of the job I am on now since this is a more typical job for me instead of the Big House. Jobs like that house are few and far between. Anyway, I was brought over to this job to weld up that red steel you see towards the bottom of the photo. It is a support for a movable wall basically. This is in a huge multistory office building in Birmingham. Work like this can be a pain even though I love welding because you can get in some really tight places when you add to existing structure. You have to cram yourself up in all that pipe and concrete and over and under stuff and then strike this arc only a few inches away sometimes. You get burned a lot etc. It always cracks me up that the box of welding rods comes with these instructions that say "teach the welder to keep his head out of the fumes". I would like to send the manufacturers of the rods a letter saying " teach yourself to cram these rods up your #$%^%&". Well, I mean, we are not stupid; we know to try to avoid breathing that stuff but it's very hard not to breathe the fumes and now alot of older welders have Parkinson's. But I enjoy what I do and make a pretty good living. Oh, there are 2 other women construction workers on this job! I couldn't believe it. Also, this piddleling (sp.?) thing (the steel) had to be inspected and out of all the other big, structural stuff I've done in 13 years, this is only the second or third time I have had to be inspected and show my papers. That figures.
I'll try to have more about the house soon. More is happening. I am also trying to figure out how to list the blogs of other people that I read like everybody else does on their blogs. I'm a moron when it comes to stuff like that but I have noticed that I am listed on others blogrolls and want to do the same on mine.

Cheeseburger In Paradise

OK, those of you who are pretty observant will notice that there is no cheese on this one but Allen always has cheese on his burgers. I cooked in the house for the first time this weekend!! Now, don't get too excited, it was just on a camp stove; nothing permanent in the kitchen yet but still.... We have officially started the water system now. We installed alot of the drain and vent lines and they came out today to start my perc test for the septic system. That is a whole post unto itself. There is alot about those things that I did not understand. I'll try to get something up about that soon. I know ya'll are just on the edge of your seat to hear about my crapper. The hamburgers were great by the way. One of the grocery stores around here has started carrying all natural beef. Not certified organic but certified not to contain hormones or steriods or antibiotics. I was ecstatic to find the stuff and it is very good and tender. I would like to maybe raise my own beef one day but that is a long way down the road. We raised our own beef and pork when I was a kid and there is just no comparision to the taste with store bought, especially with the pork.

Here I am cooking!! I do that sometimes. When my kitchen is functional I plan on cooking for days on end so ya'll make plans to come by 'cause I'm going to need somebody to eat all this food. Allen and I don't need to eat it all ourselves although he may disagree with that. I'll explain in a later post why being able to cook a decent meal is such a big deal to me. Our living arrangements now are somewhat limited. You may have noticed that Allen usually takes my photo from behind (not sure what he is trying to tell me) but didn't here for some reason.

I have been transferred to another job temporarily but it has given me another great opportunity to acquire more materials for the house for free. I hauled a big load of concrete block home today (that I mentioned the other day) and tomorrow I will get a load of electrical conduit and red iron. Not sure what I am going to do with the red iron (structural steel type stuff) but I never can pass that stuff up. Funny how I always get sent to another job right about the time I need some more material. If only I had gotten sent to a framing job back when I needed lumber. Well, I shouldn't be greedy. One drawback to this new job is that we start work at 6:00 a.m. so I have to get in bed pretty early. By the time I get home with my loot and unload etc. and shower, eat, whatever, it does not leave much time for blogging. This great weather has really got me reinspired about the house though. I had gotten kind of discouraged about progress and money but I am feeling better about things now.

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?

Stuff Like That There

This weekend was spent stuffing stuff. It was too cold and windy for roof work so we bought some sheetrock and worked on the inside. If you remember, I already had this insulation from a demo job and it's lasting pretty good. I was afraid it wasn't going to go very far but I still have about 6 more bags after doing the bedroom and bath. We got all of the bedroom here done and completely sheetrocked and all of the bathroom insulated except for what we needed left out to do plumbing.

I love that foamy spray stuff! I sealed around all the windows and door and behind each plug and switch box. If you use it around windows and doors though, you need to make sure and get the type made for that application which does not expand so much. The regular type will bow your jambs and you don't want that! This was Allen's idea on the boxes actually. It's hard to get the roll insulation behind each box and you really don't want to tear your strips up so we thought this would work good. Some people use it to seal around plumbing penetrations in the floor too etc. but I prefer to Bondo stuff like that. I don't want foamy stuff in my floor. I know; I'm weird. I also got on Allen's nerves because I went around behind him making sure all the insulation strips in the walls were all turned the same way. He says there is no front or back but I say there is!

Now, I do like to use the foamy stuff to seal around the wiring penetrations in the walls. However, in my foaming fervor I forgot that the wire needed to actually be in the hole before you foam it shut. I had to dig this out for my phone lines to come in.

I also thought it would be great to use the foamy stuff in the T-posts. This is where the interior walls join the exterior walls at a right angle. These areas are basically hollow and I want them filled up! No hollow spaces for air to come in! Stupid, bad idea! It all falls to the bottom and then slowly oozes out the crack at the bottom for 24 hours. We worked until about 9:00 p.m. Sat. night which was great because I have heat and light!! It's temporary heat but it works.

I got another hit from Pella Corp. today....maybe they are not going to gang up on me. I don't care: put up your dukes Pella!! Heeyaa!! Fat, nasty corporation!

For You

The BFA (big, fancy architect) has been complaining that I put too many pictures up of details and not enough shots of the whole house, so here it is! He has relented on the roof a little, but not much. This is as far as we got on the roof this past weekend; just lack that little bit on the far right end. Those few rafters you see extending on out from the roof are the beginnings of a covered walkway. It looks kind of funny now and will until the rest of the house is built. When I build the other half of the house, this walkway will extend another 12 feet and deadend into the side of the house. It will be supported by cedar posts also, not those little 2-bys you see there now. You might also notice in this photo that I am short one window there at the bathroom but it is just temporarily boarded up. That will be a stained or architectural glass window and will be installed much later. Time and the weather are postponing sitework on this area too. I mean to install a drain with gravel at the base of the concrete foundation wall but it is too wet now to bring in a big truck. After the drain is installed I will backfill against the wall, up to about 6" below the top of the wall and level it out as far as I can towards the woods. I want to have a big flagstone walk and patio here.

The roof from the other side of the house. I told Allen the other day that I believe I will be working on this house for the rest of my life. Sometimes, it seems like we have really made alot of progress but at other times it seems to just be dragging out eternally. I really need to start the wall under the house but I'm still trying to salvage enough block and avoid buying them. I may have scored a good load of CMU's this week but don't know for sure so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Ha! I had to get in one good detail shot but I thought the BFA would appreciate this. I love it that all the ribs on the roofing line up perfectly with the rafter tails! I would like to think this is due to somebody's good thinking but I think it is just plain dumb luck. This edge is finished (and I really like how it looks) but the east and west ends, as you might notice in the photos, still need an additional piece of trim and we still need to run a little bit of ridge cap.

On a side note, I have been looking at my site meter recently and noticed that I was up on daily visits just a little lately. As some of you know, with Site Meter you can see where the people are that visit your blog and if they came there from Google or another blog etc. I noticed that I have been getting quite a few hits from people searching Google for "Pella windows rotting" basically. I thought this was a hoot! And then today.... I got a hit directly from Pella Corp. themselves! Did you know there is a Pella, Iowa? I didn't. To be fair, I have also gotten several hits from people searching for "MW window complaints". Honestly though, out of all the windows and doors that I have either worked on myself or have been asked to work on because they were rotting, 80% have been Pellas. What really gets me is their customer service though or lack of it I should say. So! Buyer beware.

Well, I've got to go bring in the brass monkeys tonight 'cause its going to be another very cold one here. I'll be so happy when I'm in my nice, cozy house with a nice, cozy fire going in the wood-burning stove and something savory cooking in the full-size oven and maybe taking a long soak in a tub. None of this I have now and have not for over 2 years.

How Long Has This Been Going On?

We have had a pretty fair run of cold weather down here for the past several weeks as you might see in this photo. This weekend was quite nice with temperatures in the 50's during the day but that has been the exception lately. This was taken at the Big House where we continue to slog on, trying to finish the restoration but it keeps dragging out. I don't think we will be out of there before summer now. Which is fine really, to me. Good job and actually good conditions for work despite the cold. I worked on a food distribution center in North Carolina once for about a year and that was really a miserable job. It was a 50 acre site and the building itself was an enormous tilt-up, which I normally enjoy. We got the panels set before the worst of the winter set in, which made that part fun, but when winter did come it was awful. It was mostly rainy and in the south when it rains alot in the winter, it just gets soupy with all the heavy equipment running back and forth through the mud etc. One of the foremen was walking across the site one day and he stepped off the normal path. This is a bad idea on a construction site; you stay on the paths because they are safest. Anyway, he stepped off a little ways and into what he thought was just a mud puddle but he fell in and kept going up to his waist! And the kicker is that he said he did not feel his feet ever touch the bottom! He caught hold of a piece of steel nearby and pulled himself out. I felt pretty bad for him; he was covered in cold, nasty mud. It was pretty funny too though and we ragged the crap out of him for some time.
Well, we are continuing to work on the roof at the house. We need to place about 6 more pieces of the sheet metal and we will have all of that on. Then we have to run some trim around the ends and we will be done. Maybe 2 more weekends on that. I will try to get some more photos soon. I am trying to get the water system started soon also. That is the next big item. I have to get a perk test done before I can get my septic tank put in and that is all expensive and a pain. Some people have asked me am I not going to go with one of those composting toilets and such but I am not so sure about those things. Anybody have any experiences with one of those? They say they work well. Hmmm?

A Hard Day's Night

Progress on the roof is coming along slowly but surely, I guess. We got all but one piece on the front half of the house this weekend. This is the worst side due to the fact that over half of the pieces are 27 feet long. We were afraid the weather was going to be too bad to do roofing but it turned out okay after all.
It has been fairly cold here (for us) lately as we have been averaging in the 40's during the day and the 20's at night. Usually we are in the 50's during this part of the year. Pablo had asked awhile back about how our winters are and sometimes they can be pretty cold. The past 3 years, I would say, have been very mild winters but this year has been making up for that. I remember my first winter as a little apprentice carpenter. I was working on a 6 story building, pouring concrete columns and floors. You just go straight up with that part and then much further below they start putting up walls, so if you are on the sixth floor, there is nothing between you and the wind but a barbed wire fence as the old guys used to say. Anyway, it gets cold up there and I remember one day I looked around and all the guys with mustaches had icicles hanging down out of them. I thought to myself', "what the hell am I doing out here?" But, the desire to eat and have a dry place to sleep will keep you going sometimes.
But back to the original story... we had a bit of a time getting these long pieces up on the roof. We finally devised a little ramp on the back of the house, where the ground is higher, and would walk the end of one up and prop it on the roof. I would push the piece up as far as it would go while Allen ran around to the front of the house and up the ladders etc. and then over the roof and grab the piece and pull it up. Then, I would run around and up the ladders etc. and get on the other side and we would carry it over to where it was to be installed.
Since we have lights and heat (YEA!!) we can work after dark so when the sun went down we insulated the attic. It's only about 300 sq. ft. but that took a little over 5 rolls of insulation. It went down pretty quick and easy. The boards you see laying around over the joists are all the patterns for rafter tails and such. We made sure to save anything like this so that when the other half of the house is built, everything will match. I was using them to kneel on while stuffing the insulation. I always have a fear of falling through the sheetrock in attics. I will probably put a little plywood down up here for a little storage space but not much. If you have space like this you will fill it up and usually with junk so I limit myself in some areas. FYI, this insulation is the standard R-25, 8" deep. Some green builders advocate the use of the foil lining on the rafters but I'm not really convinced that stuff works. Does anybody out there have any experience or proof that it helps?

Higher Ground

Here are some roof detail shots. We have not made alot of progress on the roofing due to poor weather. It's either been raining here or the wind has been blowing pretty hard and it's very difficult and dangerous to try to handle sheets of metal this big in much wind. You can get an idea of the type of roofing that we are using though. I'm still hearing about choosing this type from the BFA. (He hates it) He did admit though that all architects had rather sit and complain about what had already been done rather than be an active participant in choosing beforehand. I think he just likes to aggravate me too. Anyway, I like the stuff and I think its going to look good. This is a detail where the pieces overlap although the overlapping piece is not there yet! You can either run a bead of silicon down the joint or use this sticky, gummy stuff that the manufacturer sells. It's like 2-sided tape, kinda.
This shot shows the edge flashing that hides the 2 stacked 2x4's that contain the Iso Board. I think its a nice detail. We screwed the trim every 2' o.c. above the rafter tails. These screws have little neoprene gaskets made on them so they seal up the penetrations they make in the sheets. We use a cordless drill with a nut driver and they run in pretty easy.
A friend requested a photo showing the whole house and I tried to get one that showed what little roof we have on. I know this photo sucks but it was about the best I could do at this time of day. The roof is highly reflective, as you can imagine, and in the afternoon this was the best angle. I'll try to get one in the morning time. Any newcomers also keep in mind that this is only half of the house. The rest will hopefully be built at some later, unknown date. You can see my growing collection of concrete block and stone though, that I will use to enclose the underside of the house and build planters with. I'm hoping that this light colored roof will do alot to cut down on heat gain in the summer. We'll see.

Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues

I'm somebody!!! We have mailboxes! No mail yet but, hey! We'll get to that. I thought Allen came up with a nice design for them that incorporated anti-bash structure. We have the occasional teenage box mashers like everywhere does I guess and we are hoping maybe they will skip over these. I know these are not the most exciting photos but it has been raining alot here lately or dark by the time I get home so I have not been able to get many pictures lately. Several people have requested certain shots of the house and I am working on it!!
The roof came in!!! I am pretty excited about some stuff as you might guess. I could not get all the roofing in the shot but this is most of it. It is standard 1 1/4" rib metal roofing; ribs are 1 foot on center. I think it is 26-gauge Galvalume. It's the silver stuff like you see on barns, sort of. The BFA ranted and raved because I didn't get corrugated Galvalume but he did not tell me in time! I didn't think it mattered. Oh well, this stuff was not special order (read cheaper) so that was the deciding factor. The longest sections are 27' long. The truck had just a little trouble making the turn in our drive but he did OK. He just got up on one of the rocks a good bit but didn't hurt anything. We have started installing it but have not gotten very far due to rain etc. It has been miserable working weather here lately with the rain and cold. The house is about sealed up though and we have a propane heater so it is somewhat comfortable in the house. I'll try to get back with some more photos and/or stories soon.

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

Well, the title has nothing to do with this post but it was the only song I could think of that mentioned a window and it's one of my favorites. Anyway, these are MW windows, made in Virginia I think. I liked them because they are just plain wood windows, no frills or grilles or cladding. You can get that with this brand but they have good solid wood too. I don't care for vinyl or aluminum windows. They are fine if that is what you like and want but I just like the feel and look of wood. Now, these do have composite sills but everything is paintable and the wood is treated with a sealer. As I mentioned before, I'm not much impressed with Pella and some of those either and here's why. Lots of the expensive window makers use white or sugar pine for the frames because its pretty wood (it really is), fine grain etc. But it rots like crazy. There is no sap in it. But they charge alot because it looks so nice and it does look pretty on the inside where you might stain it. Now, these windows use good, ol' hard yellow pine. Lots of sap means harder wood and less rotting. Now if installed properly, they should not be getting water under them anyway but things happen. But the interiors are still nice and would look just fine stained. Also, last year I replaced about 6 sills in some big Pella windows. They had only been there about 7 or 8 years and were completely rotted out, so the owner calls the Pella rep and complains. So the rep says, "I'll come out on Friday to look at them 'cause that's my day to check out complaints". He has one whole day devoted to complaints?? Anyway, the guy comes out and looks at the windows and says, " Yeah, they're rotted. Too bad." So I don't care much for them. We put down this rubber flashing under each window. It's a peel and stick deal and you have to make sure and not let it touch its self. Some peope say you only need this if you are going to have brick or stone on your house but we use it regardless. Let it roll up the sides about 2 inches and stick it down good. Then set the window.
After the window is securely set, I stuff a little insulation under it and then you kind of roll this flashing up on itself to make like a little dam at the back or inside of the window. This photo is a little misleading 'cause I rolled it a little different that what I show here. It will secure itself if you roll the sticky side in.
So it looks like this. This is in case any water gets under your window somehow, it will not fall back into the wall. It will either flow out and behind the siding, where it will evaporate, or just evaporate on the sill. Now, if you get lots of water, that's another story! So that's my window lesson for the day. The metal roofing is suppossed to be here Friday morning!!! I'm excited again! It cost way more that I thought! I'm running out of money! Need to work more side jobs. We added alot of trim to it so that's what ran the price up because that stuff has to be custom made.

Nick Of Time

Hey, what are those funny pieces of glass that keep the rain and wind out and raise up and down?? They're my windows!!!! We worked most of the weekend installing these and got all of them on the main level in. We still lack the 4 clerestory windows. Those are going to be a little bit of a challenge since they are up so high. We did get the pick board up and everything prepped for it so we can just go right to sticking the windows in. About 30 minutes after we got the last of these windows in a huge storm hit. But no rain came in! It's starting to look more like a house now. I'm excited!
I'll have more about the windows on the next post probably with some better pictures. I was just trying to put up a little something for now. These are all wood with composite sills. I've have to replace too many rotted sills for other people. And no, I did not go with a big name like Pella and I'll tell you why later. It wasn't the cost. Well, not entirely!
We also installed the bathroom and shower lights and bathroom exhaust fan and did a little more wiring in the living room. It seems like that is going on forever. Crazy architect and his crazy lighting plan. I'll try to post more soon; maybe tomorrow.

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.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of ya'll from all of us! Grendal doesn't get real excited about these things unless food is involved. I'm trying to get back to blogging about the house. We have done some exciting work and orders for things are starting to come in. I'll show ya'll soon. I (and my big mouth) got myself roped into writing an article for Alabama Heritage magazine on the restoration we are doing on the Big House so that's one reason that I have not been around much lately. I'm very excited about it though and hope that it comes out well. It was due today so I've been burning the midnight oil to get it done, as I always wait until the last minute. I used to do the same thing in my college art classes. Nothing like desperation to inspire you to great thoughts. The article will be published in the summer and if any of ya'll are so inclined you can finally see in greater detail what we've been doing all this time. Anyway, I was sick, again, last week for Christmas so that delayed things and was a great bummer but things are hopefully getting back on track now. I'm going home now to eat a bunch of crap that I shouldn't and try to find some interesting way to welcome in the new year.

Too Close For Comfort

I don't have anything worked up on my house right now so I thought I'd post a little about the Big House that we are still working on. The restoration is nearing completion but we will still be there through January probably. This photo is from when they were putting down the new flat roofing. It is big sheets of rubbery, tar-like stuff that is kind of melted down with torches. There is always a slight chance of something going wrong when you have an open flame on a really old structure so we were on fire watch the whole time. This means you sit up on the roof for hours in the freezing cold (or blazing heat, it's always one or the other, never a nice, mild day) and watch these guys work and make sure nothing catches on fire. Not very exciting but I did see our resident hawks cruising around. There is a pair of mated hawks that live somewhere nearby and they like to come out and just hang over us when we are on the roof as if to scrutinze what we are doing. I have no idea what species of hawk they are or anything but everyone loves to watch them when they are out riding the currents.
Those of you that read my blog often know that I have posted several things about the bizarre history and goings on at this house and have expressed alot of interest so I have another story for you. This happened just the other day and the guys at work said I really needed to post about this. We have been working on the window hardware lately, cleaning and polishing it etc, getting it all in working order and so this means going inside the house alot. There are 255 windows in this house I believe, so that is alot of hardware to work on! Anyway, I just happened to be working on the windows in the room that the woman was murdered in and had gone in and out several times and the other carpenters were in and out too. Now, in most of the rooms there are those monstrous, velvety drapes that you typically see in monstrous, ominous houses in the movies, you know. Scarlet could whip any numbers of outfits out of these drapes, tassels and all! And they are all held up by these monstrously heavy, iron curtain rods which, of course, hang over the windows we are working on. Being typical construction workers, we like to play a few jokes on each other and we'll try to scare the crap out of any unsuspecting person that is in the house because most everybody knows about all the stuff that has happened in this place. So, we were joking around about working in this particular room and nobody wanted to be in there by themselves etc. and then I walked back into the room and proceeded towards the window. I got about 1 step from the window when the curtain rod and curtains just dropped off the wall and plummeted towards my head. It came so close to me that I felt the wind of it on my face and had to jump back to keep it from hitting my feet. We are required to always wear a hard hat on the job and I do but even with that protection if this thing had hit me it would have done some serious damage. When we put it back up (very securely I might add) it took me and another carpenter to lift the rod and curtains together so it is pretty hefty. Now, all the guys are saying that the ghost has it out for me since I have been the one to hear all the other bizarre stuff too. The next day when we were talking about it and laughing, all the lights in the house started flickering on and off. What really scared me about the whole thing is when I realized that the room where this happened is now the kid's bedroom and where they play alot. If one of those kids had pulled on those curtains, as kids often do, and it had fallen on them, it could have killed them. I think I'll be glad when this job is over.

Finally!

I have been so bad about posting lately or not posting I should say. What's been going on lately just has not seemed that interesting so I haven't been excited about putting much up. I mean, it's very exciting to me but I think would not be that thrilling to other people. Anyway, we got the power actually ran to the house!! After all this riggamaroll (?) about finding an 18' pole for our temporary, Allen came to me the other day and said he thought that the pole he had all this time was 18'. He thought previously it was 16' but didn't check it. I know everyone out there has felt that desire (that I felt then) to choke the crap out of someone at some time in their life. But, it was okay. We now have plenty of 18' pressure treated timbers. Should we ever need one again.
And when you put all those wires together, you get this!! Yea!! I couldn't help but have my feelings of joy dampened just a little by what we had to pay for 200 amp service wire though. All wiring has gone up tremendously lately. They tell me it's China's fault. Concrete has skyrocketed too. I finally got quotes from 2 different places on my windows too. Another sobering reality. I really wish I could have salvaged some windows from somewhere but that just didn't happen so they are going to be one of my bigger expenses. But I really can't complain because of all of the stuff I have gotten for free. And once again, Lowe's and Home Depot have been beaten out by the little local building supply. Do not ever assume, as alot of people do, that those big stores are the best deal. A building supply in a nearby town beat Lowe's quote by a considerable amount and I just can't see how that is possible IF Lowe's was really trying to give me the best price. Anyway, I'll try to post more soon.