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.

Hey, Hey!

Lookie!!!! We got power! Well, sort of. This is as far as it goes right now; it's not actually attached to the house yet. The power company ran their poles etc. and we set our pole Thanksgiving morning or Allen did and I chopped a bit of firewood for Mama. We actually took the rest of the day off. Allen got the pole ready last night with the meter and breaker box and now I just have to call and get the power company to come back out and connect us. We should have had our pole set before they left but we had a little trouble finding an 18 ft. pressure treated pole. Ended up having to order one from the lumber company. Our temporary pole we set is about 15 feet from this one and then we will run underground to the house which is about 100 ft.
I would like to have run underground from this pole which is the second one from the house but I estimate it would have been a minimum of about $700.00. Maybe later. We also got a fair amount of this brush cleared up and burned. The weather was beautiful over the holiday weekend.
I didn't get to set any windows like I hoped. I went to see about buying them and they don't keep the ones I want in stock ( big suprise). All they keep in stock are vinyl windows and I don't want those so I will have to order mine and it will take about 3 weeks to get them. I should have investigated this more beforehand. So we put in the blocking that goes between the rafters that the exterior siding and the interior sheetrock or whatever will fasten to. If your rafters don't show you don't have to do this but since I wanted to make my life more difficult whenever possible.........I was suprised to see how baggy my pants look in this photo; looks like a family of raccoons just moved out. I have lost about 15 lbs. since we started building the house. It can be kinda stressful to do everything yourself and I have gotten sick a couple of times. It shows more than I thought.
This is a close up of the blocking that I was talking about. I dreaded doing it but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and now when the windows and doors are plugged in the house will be pretty much weather tight. This gave us a chance to use up alot of little bitty scrap pieces of 2x4 and plywood that we had been saving.
Since the weather was so nice, we worked after dark a little by lantern light. Allen thought he would get a little creative with the camera. I thought the photo was pretty cool! What is shadow and what is steel??!! Well, that's obvious, but it's still neat that the beam kinda looks like it could be shadows cast by something else. Or that's the way I see it. What do you see?

Working Too Hard

Blogger has gotten me screwed up with the photos here. I started on the second one but had to reload and they are not in the correct order. Anyway, you can get the idea. The Power Company cometh. This is actually on Fred's land coming down to where it connects to us. I hate that so much forest has been cut. Some of the trees were so pretty. I'm in a grumpy mood because of it too and it's my own fault! I asked the power company to come in! Ugh!
They sent their tree cutting subcontractor out to clear the way before they run my lines. I just hate the way they do this but I guess I don't have much choice. At least we convinced them to come in the back way sort of and not start in the front down the driveway. That is a 30 foot wide trail they cut and will have to stay cleared. On the right in the photo is one of the power company's pole markers with the pink flagging on it. This is the pole that will be closest to the house. When the rest of my house is built I will have the power run underground from this pole to the house but right now it's not really in the best place for that. We have kind of gone a little backwards with this part because the power service should really enter the house in the other section but I did not want that section built first due to the fact it is mainly bedrooms. Make sense? It's much easier when you can build your whole house at once but I guess I'm doing the best I can.

Things have not changed a whole lot lately. Stuff has been done but it's in that phase now where most of the work is inside. We have set the main breaker panel inside and done alot of the electrical work and we finished the Tyvek wrap as you can see here. Alot of time has been spent building scaffolding or moving scaffolding etc. But you've got to do it. Some we are going to leave up for awhile 'cause I'll need it again soon for painting and siding etc. I get fairly discouraged sometimes at the rate of progress on the house but there is only so much you can do I guess. We both work 40+ each on regular construction jobs and then both have a 50 minute commute one way. Then we usually have a couple of side projects going on sometimes. Well, I do; Allen has about quit doing side work but I need the money to finance the house. And I sometimes have a project that fufills my half of a barter deal I worked out. Then we have all the regular chores that go with running a house hold like grocery shopping, washing clothes, paying bills etc. and the paper work that goes with running a business if you are self employed. I couldn't imagine if I had kids to go along with all this. We actually went out to a gallery opening on Friday! Haven't been out in a long time. This weekend we did not get alot done. It was cold and gloomy and we sat by a bonfire alot. We did frame a covered walkway section. I hope to set windows over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Ghost Stories

In honor of Halloween I thought that I would post something a little different for you all. Most of you know I have been working on a restoration of this very large house in Birmingham. Some of my early posts show some details of the house. I've been so busy lately I have not put much up about it in awhile so, here we go. There is a very large room on the bottom level (it has 5 levels) of the house that is a copy of a large hall in a castle in England. The weapons and armor and other decorative items (there are some jousting lances in the corner) have all been authenticated to be from the Middle Ages. The man who built this house was a little eccentric and loved anything to do with England. Unfortunately, he didn't get to live in the house very long before the Depression hit and he lost his fortune. He tried to conserve his money by living down in these lower levels and eating creatures he caught on the property as he was a pretty good hunter and his trophies from his big hunts are still displayed all over the house. But, alas, it was not enough and he could not make his last payment, so the bank took the house and all the contents. Some say he cursed the house when he was forced out and something horrible has befallen every owner since him. Some say that the wife of the 4th owner haunts the house because she was murdered in her bedroom.

Let me tell you what I know and have heard. I haven't seen anything since working in the house but I have heard plenty that I cannot explain. I was working on the outside of one of the windows to this room one day. The room is half below ground so if you are outside you can walk right up to the windows. I had the window open to work on it and therefore I could see and hear what went on in the room. For the most part, we are not allowed in the house and the exterior doors are kept locked. Well, I was just working along and I distinctly heard someone walk across the room. The floor is limestone and so it's hard to walk across it quietly. It was so audible that I just casually looked down into the room to see who was in there because it's a little unusual for people to be down there. No one was there. A few more minutes passed and I heard them walk by again. This time I leaned in the window all the way so that I could get a good view of the whole room. As before, no one was there. There is a back door to the room but you can't open it from the outside and it makes a horrible noise when it is opened so I would have heard if someone came in that way. About 20 minutes later one of the other carpenters came to help me get the window put back together and as we were working on it we bothe heard the footsteps again all the way across the floor. We both turned, without saying anything to one another, and looked down into the room and of course, didn't see anyone. We looked at each other and I said, "You heard that too!" and he said "I didn't hear anything!" and we threw that window back together and hauled our butts out of there.

I was down in this room on another occasion with one of the masons cleaning up after a storm because the ceiling leaks some now. This is one of the items we are in the process of repairing. Most everyone else had left and the owners were not there. We suddenly started hearing this woman talking and just going on and on about something. At first I thought someone had called and I could hear the answering machine from upstairs but I realized that is impossible. The walls are 2 feet thick for the most part and all the phones are way up on the top levels. It was so loud we thought maybe some neighbors had walked over so we went out the back door to see who was around. No one was there. It got quiet for awhile but then started back up after about 5 minutes. We looked all around the back yard and when we came up to the main levels we looked around to see if the people had come home but no one was there. Neither experience was really frightening, which is surprising to me because I can be a real scaredy-cat sometimes. When I went down this afternoon to get these photos though, I made one of the guys go with me. Halloween....in this house... I'm not taking any chances!

Wrap It Up

We started with the house wrap this weekend; didn't get completely done but we got the majority of it up and then we ran out of felt caps to nail it and the hardware store was closed so we moved over to doing some electrical work. When we started nailing up the Tyvek on the west side there I noticed bunches of wasps coming from somewhere. We finally tracked them to a cavity behind one of the T-posts in a wall. I guess they didn't like it when we started hammering because they kept coming after me. I told Allen there was no way I was getting on that pick board, 15 feet up in the air with a bunch of pissed wasps flying around so we had to exterminate them before we could go back to work.
Anyway, we got most all of the plugs wired and now just have to figure out how I want the lighting done. The BFA has come up with a really cool concept for the lighting in the living room/kitchen but we have to figure the best way to wire it.
I feel like I am really doing some blatant product placement and endorsement with some of these last pics of stuff we are using but they are good products and I don't mind showing what we use. There is no way to show the house without it anyway. Just use good name brand products like these; these Big Box Home Improvement store brand products I'm not much impressed with.

The colors this year have been much brighter than I expected. This photo does not do the trees justice here. We were walking around at the end of the day on Sunday just looking at stuff and the sun was setting and shining on these trees and they were really glowing. I didn't have much hope that it would translate well in the photo. Oh, well.