Back To Building

Yes, i know it's what many of you have been waiting on!!  I am back to building on the house!  It's not anything major but it is a step towards completing the living room and kitchen.  Now, what it is, is that I framed the little hearth that goes under the gas fireplace in the living room.  This will be sheathed in Durock and then tiled around the outside.  The top will be a 2 inch concrete slab, like the bath and kitchen counter tops will be.  Basically all I need to do now is put up my little edge form for the slab and pour that.  Then I can start the tile at the bottom and go up.  The tile will go all the way up the wall that the heater is installed on.  And yes, it will have some decorative parts, not just straight tile.
And just in case you see all that scribbling on the wall there, I did swap my mind on some stuff and had to lay it all out again.  I was going to make the hearth end close to the edge of the heater but Allen suggested that I extend it as far as I could so I could put a large vase or some such on either side of the heater.  I thought that would look pretty so I moved everything out.  I have to mark everything out sometimes on stuff like this because you have to account for so many layers of material; the framing, the Durock, the tile etc.  I think this is going to look pretty good when it's done, which will hopefully be soon.  BTW, that is 3/4 inch plywood on top and does have a few struts under it to support the weight of the slab.

Just more gratuitous pottery photos.  I though these leaf trays came out pretty.  I'm getting caught up in my stores, sorta.   The 4 outlets I have now do pretty good and it takes me a pretty regular schedule to keep them supplied.  If I were to take on any more stores I'd never have time to work on my house.  Hopefully my enthusiasm will hold out and I can get a lot done in these next few months.

I've had a terrible gardening bug since it has warmed up and usually take Sundays to just work on that.  And maybe some evenings after we finish with supper! ha!  I can't help it.  While I have the energy I figure I better take advantage of that.  We got some rain in the middle of the day but I still managed to backfill part of a stone wall I'm working on, plant a few flowers and then transplant about half a dozen wild hydrangeas down along the driveway.  Oh, and Chigger and I went hiking along the mountain in hopes of finding a dropped deer antler but no luck there.  I did see some beautiful wild azaleas that are blooming though.
Well, I'll be back soon hopefully with some more goings on.  Hope everybody had a nice weekend!!!

Southern Accents Part 1

This past weekend we experienced an abnormally cool spell of weather; Sunday morning dawned around 58-59 degrees here!  That is astoundingly cool for August and made for some gorgeous days where it was actually bearable to be outside!  So, I said the heck with yardwork and housework, I needed to go do something.  I called Mama and asked if she wanted to go with us because our destination wasn't too far from her house anyway.  She was game, happily, so we picked her up and headed for Noccalula Falls Park.  This is a 250 acre state park around the Gadsden area in north Alabama.
Some of you might just remember seeing a story back in November about 3 "extreme" kayakers that purposefully went over these falls.  Now, they waited until after a heavy rain so that the pool would be as deep as possible; that is a 90 foot drop and many, many people have drowned in these waters.  I saw the video the guys made and I have to say, I had never seen the waters as high as they were that day.  They were still insane.
I grew up in this general area too, so this place is very familiar to me.  We didn't come here a lot when I was small but as a teenager and young adult it was a popular spot for a lot of us.  You can view the falls and upper part of the park at no cost so we liked that.  And there is a burger joint right across the street so it was all good.  My father lived just down the road from here as a kid and this place was their swimming hole back before it became a park.  That's a heck of a swimming hole!  I had thought that the city had blocked the entrances to the bottom of the falls, due to the number of deaths associated with it but they have not.  In fact, Mama was telling me that they just completed a long hiking trail that starts here and goes southward out of town.  I would like to find out more about that.  We used to hike all around the bottom and down the creek when I was younger.  It's very pretty there but you must be careful not to fall in the creek.

The water was pretty low the day we visited, despite all the rain we've had, so the geese were enjoying the calm waters above the falls.

The back portion of the park contains a recreated pioneer village along with a large "farm" or small zoo, however you want to look at it and botanical gardens.  This is the area you must pay to enter but it's not too much.  I really liked this detail in the outriggers and verge rafter on this old cabin.  I thought that was pretty cool.

This area was quite nice and has wonderful, shaded walking trails all through it.  The upper part, near the actual falls, was rather disappointing though.  They had let the maintenance of that area just go to crap.  When I was young it was full of rose gardens and other flowers etc. but much of that was now sadly neglected.  I'm not sure why.  The majority of the park is very nice though and well kept.  The building in the background here is the new entrance to the park and just in front of that is the boarding for the train that runs through the park.  Of course, the building in the foreground is an old church and small village garden.

There are quite a number of old buildings for the Pioneer Village.  Many of them were moved down from Tennessee.  I thought that was odd.  Were there none here to be had??  I also thought our chicken house looks much better. LOL!

This was the resident llama.  He was pretty friendly and thankfully, didn't spit on us.  You can see that's a very nice barn in the background!  I would love to have something like that!  They had an assortment of normal farm animals too; goats, sheep etc.  They also had several emus, one of which just ran around free! and numerous whitetail deer.

Now, ya'll can correct me on this ID but I think this is a Loblolly Pine??  They are enormous and grow very straight.  I don't have any on my property and I have always been fascinated with them.  I think I just have the average long-leaf pine.

Here is a shot of more of the animals and you can see the ol' llama would just flop down on the ground to graze!  I guess it was easier on him.

Anyway, I have a bunch more photos that contain more examples of our Southern way of life that I think ya'll will enjoy.  I figured it might be better to break it up into 2 posts so your eyes didn't start rolling back in your heads.  The South is a unique area to say the least, as are the people and the next batch of pictures show a bit more of our folklore and ingenuity.

Doggone!

The last week or so we have been letting the young chickens out late in the afternoon to forage. They have a blast with this! They just run everywhere, grabbing bugs and scratching, scratching, scratching. We only let them out for an hour or so and this way they don't wander too far into the woods. I have been pleased that Chigger doesn't bother them at all and in fact, seems to look after them a bit. I often see her laying in the shade with chickens all about her. I don't know if she just finds them curious or if she is really trying to watch after them. At any rate, I feel a little better with her around so maybe she would at least bark if a big critter were to come up.

Here is some of what we have gotten done on the tool shed. I have framed just a little more but not much! Maybe I can get back to that later today but this mornings chore is to dig the potatoes. I dug around yesterday under a couple of plants and I think they are more than ready as I got several taters the size of my palm. I hope I haven't let them get too big.
So, be back soon with the results!!

Eight Easy Steps Part 2

Well, once again I did not mean to be away so long but things have really been busy around here, what with the new chicks and all and trying to get things finished up. Plus, my heart has been raking me over the coals again and I've just been too tired at times to be on the computer much.
So, anyway, back to the remaining program! Once I finished the framing for the walls I installed the sheathing/ siding. It's better if you go ahead and run your sheathing because it adds a huge amount of stability to the structure that you really need before you start trying to frame and deck the roof.

What I'm trying to show here is not the wiring but the bird's mouth cut in the rafter. This is the little divot you cut so that your rafter sits flush on the top plate. I really cut a notch because a true birdsmouth on that low an angle would be seen from the outside and I didn't want that. It's best if your bird's mouth is cut deep enough that the rafter sits all the way down over the top plate. In other words, 1 1/2" deep. This gives you plenty to nail and I toenailed mine from both sides. If you enlarge the photo you might be able to see one nail head.

I ran 2 x 6 rafters; partially because we already had some old ones (as you can see) and partially because you need a 2 x 6 for that span. Well, for this light roof, 2 x 4's might be okay. Anyway, we alternated the old 2 x's with the new, just in case. If you look close you can see one rafter marked 'PAT'. This is not somebody's name! It's best to always make one rafter, verify that it is correct and then mark all your other rafters from that one pattern, thus the 'PAT'. If you mark your rafters from other copies you risk multiplying any mistakes you may have made, and that can really add up. Always stick with your original.
Because we had the material in old stuff, we also ran bridging where each piece of plywood was going to break. The joints I mean. Now, this isn't necessary, you can just use those clips, but since we had plenty of old lumber than needed using up and this is only 1/2" plywood, what the heck! Now, some of you with a sharp eye might notice that one sheet of plywood is running opposite the others. I'm not going to say who did this while I was gone to the store but it was a dumbass that I let help me one day. See, the grain of the plywood (roof decking) should always run perpendicular to the rafters. Do not run the grain with the rafters because it's weak when you stand on it. Now, if you run that crap OSB it doesn't matter, because that stuff has no grain but I only talk about real construction on this blog so, there you go.

Now, I wanted my roof to be 12 feet because that is a standard roofing metal length and it would work out with the overhangs I wanted. When I laid out my rafter I saw that wall to wall (the rake) was only something like 8' -1 3/4" because of such a low pitch roof. So, if I had a 12' rafter that would let me have somewhere around 1' overhang in the back and slightly less than 3' in the front. I took one inch off the length of the rafters to let my roof decking overhang just a tad, because I like the way that looks. And I might put up a little fascia board. We also cut the slight curve in the ends using the same pattern I used on my house rafters. I like that look too.


Now, I mentioned in the last post how that I realize this is a lot of trouble and stout construction to go through for some chickens but here is my other reason: Where I live we have a surplus of predators that would love to eat my chickens before I could. We have coyotes, hawks, owls, crows, gopher rats, possum, raccoons, snakes, weasels, wild dogs, neighborhood dogs, bobcats and probably something else I've forgotten. I will not go to the expense of getting livestock, feeding it and caring for it only to let some other animal destroy it. I let the wild things be, but they ain't going to take food out of my mouth. I do not at all get into this pseudo hippie bucolic attitude of 'oh, we are going to be one with nature and just let the chickies roam and peck and if they happen to get eaten, well, that's nature. Bullshit. I paid $3 apiece for those f****ing birds, I'll be damned if some coyote, that isn't even native here, gets even a taste. I read the reviews for this book some dipshit wrote about this foray into urban homesteading. He built some little crap coop and it wasn't long before his chickens got ate by the neighbors dog or something and he was like, 'well, that was a learning experience for me and it's okay', blah, blah (I bet the chickens didn't think it was okay) and went on to quote some statistic that showed humans learned best by thinking about their mistakes. Well, no shit Brainiac. I guess we would have all died off by now if nobody could learn from their mistakes. I'll do you one better; I'll learn from that goober's mistake and build something no dog can get into.
It's basically like this; I feel that if I am going to confine an animal and take away it's ability to flee, and that's basically all a chicken has by way of defense, then I damn well better provide it a secure environment where it doesn't have to worry about protecting itself. If you don't you are basically providing the predator a sure fire way to catch and eat his meal and damning the chicken to a horrible death. I lost a few chicks once to a raccoon. It will not happen again.
So, the next post I'll show ya'll the run and a little more of what's been going on. If anybody has any questions about any of this construction framing etc. just let me know.

Eight Easy Steps

I know I have shown ya'll some of this framing before but I wanted to go back and do a little more detailed account of how we built the chicken coop, partially because I think my chronicling of it kinda meandered off course towards the end.
Of course, the first steps were to form and pour the floor, which I did show pretty well, and then lay the block. I laid one row of block because I wanted my wood framing elevated above grade to avoid rot and termites and to make washing out the coop easier. Now, if ya'll recall, I poured the slab on a 1/4" per foot slope, to facilitate water running off when cleaning. So, since I laid my block evenly on the slab, not accounting for this slope, they are out of level too. I could have just left it this way but that's 2" over 8 feet and that would have made my framing pretty dang wonky. So...since I was going to fill the block anyway, to accommodate anchor bolts, I simply formed a little top of the blocks that brought everything back up to level. You can see this in one of the following photos.
In the above photo you can see the I framed and stood the wall on the left first. This is the wall shared with the tool shed. I then mostly framed the front wall and stood it. I waited to frame in the window and door because I wasn't real sure what height I wanted these things at and it was easier for me to judge with the wall standing. Plus, it's easy to throw in that framing once you have basically, your wall outline. If you look closely you can see that we did use reclaimed lumber where possible.


Here you can see the anchor bolts that were set into the cells of the block as I filled them with Sackcrete. I used 1/2" x 5" bolts and they have the little crook on the end to keep the bolts from pulling out. I laid out their location before pouring to make sure they were not going to coincide with a stud location and I think I put about 3 per side. You don't need many; just about one every 4 or 5 feet and I put one about 16" out of each corner. Most of the walls are framed laying on the ground as this lets you nail your studs through the bottom plate, rather than toenailing, which is not as strong. The bottom plate, or rat seal as we call it, is then drilled to accept the anchor bolts, the wall stood up and set down over the bolts. I pop a chalk line on my concrete also and worm the wall to the line as I tighten down the bolts.

Now, if you click on this picture to enlarge it you can see at the base of this closest wall, where I leveled out the top of the blocks with additional concrete. If I were a real concrete finisher I could have formed the slab level and then just finished the interior of the slab on a slope, leaving the edges level where the block would go. But..I'm not a real good finisher.
So, after framing this front wall, which faces south by the way, I then framed the back wall. Since this structure will have a shed roof it was easier to frame the two straight walls and then connect the two with the one sloped.

Now, this wall I framed in place. I had the two walls on each side to determine my slope and I knew I wanted somewhere around a 2/12 slope or so. It's actually not a dead on 2/12 because I just used the drop off the 12 foot 2x4's to frame the lowest wall after I had cut off what I needed to frame the front wall. This way I used every bit of the 12 footers, rather than have a bunch of little drop and waste money. I mean, you can always find uses for short 2x4's but I like to use every bit I can in the original framing. The building is also 8' x 12' because plywood comes in 4' x 8' sheets and I didn't want any drop from that either. Of course, I did have some because the building is less than 8 feet tall, but that waste went towards nesting boxes etc.
Anyway, to frame this wall I just set in my bottom plate, which are all pressure treated since they contact masonry, and then figured the slope for my top plate, cut it and nailed it in place. After laying out my studs on the bottom plate, I then took my 6' foot level and transferred those marks to the top plate. This allowed me to accurately measure the length of each stud.

Which I then cut on the correct pitch and nailed in place. Easypeasy! And yes, I always mark the side of the line I want to set my stud on with an 'X' like that. You would be surprised how easy it is to get mixed up on that. Before I did my studs though, I laid out where I wanted the little window to go to make sure I wasn't putting a whole stud in the way. After framing all the walls I then ran my double top plate to tie the walls together. One note I forgot to mention earlier; I don't mind having such a low slope on this roof because it will get metal roofing to finish it. It's generally not a good idea to use shingles on any roof that is a 3/12 or less. In fact, you will void your warranty on most shingles if you do this. Metal roofing or roll roofing is the only stuff designed for flatter roofs. That I know of anyway.

Now, a lot of people would look at this coop and think, that's a hell of a lot of trouble (and expense) to go through for some chickens. Well, this is just my way of doing things. See, as I build and finish each structure I don't want to ever have to go back and lay my hand on that building again, aside from regular maintenance. I've got way too much to do around here to be continually repairing other structures and as I get older I sure don't want to be out there when I'm damn 75 trying to fix the roof. Do it right the first time because if you don't, all you're doing is just barely keeping your head above water with the continual repair. I watched my father half-ass everything his whole life and I can honestly say very little of anything he built is still standing. And I realize not everyone, especially nowadays, has the funds to buy all new material but you can still build a structurally sound building with reclaimed or used material. Even completely unconventional building materials.
So, I will finish up this project in the next post. There were a few more little things I wanted to discuss.

Chicken Box

Here's a little more on the chicken coop. I made fair progress on it today, however, looks like rain is coming in Wednesday and I have to go pick up clay tomorrow, so, I may not be able to get back to it until the weekend. I am really enjoying framing this little building and thinking about what decorative little touches I want to do.

I installed one of the windows today. This is one I pulled out of a dumpster on a job I was on. Brand new, still had the stickers on it. I got to looking and it is a Pella Low-E window; fancy-smancy. There was a Habitat For Humanity store not 5 miles from this church where we were building an addition but they opted to throw this window and 3 more in the dumpster rather than give them to Habitat. I am trying to not get started on that thought......

I know my window liner on this side not quite technically correct but it will work. I was trying to conserve wood. And, it's a chicken coop. Not building no piano here.
I'll have a few close-ups of technical details later and how exactly I attached stuff etc. Just trying to show progress here.

Chicken Shack

Why

So these photos are fairly crappy but I think you can get an idea of what I'm showing. That gap in the top of the louver is for it to fit around the ridge beam, as Ed correctly assumed. The whole louver is sitting on a horizontal 2x4 that was placed in the framing at the appropriate height. We set the louver back in enough for when the 3/4" trim is applied to the edges, it will be flush with that rafter, as you can see in the next photo. I don't think there is any standard way to do this, we just thought this looked best.
Here the trim is on and I have caulked some of the joints. This looks crappy I know but I'll get a better photo when it is completely painted and all. It was just about dark and I was in a hurry this afternoon when taking these photos. Rain is coming and I wanted to make sure I had everything put up. Anyway, just a couple of other details you can't see: I stapled screen to the back of the louver, completely covering the whole thing, to keep out insects and birds. It would probably be a good idea to cover it with a layer of hardware clothe too, to keep out squirrels and such, as they can chew through thin screening. Since the screen is on the back, critters can still get up between the louver planks but you wouldn't want to see the screen.
Obviously, the louver boards are slanted downward to shed water, although I think rain will only reach this one on rare occasions. Also, any exterior finish I put up is primed all over before installation. Any trim, siding, anything like that gets one good all-over coat of paint and so you may have noticed that this louver was primed all around, inside and out, even though the inside won't show. Some may consider this overkill but I think it's a good safe guard. Moisture problems are one of the major repairs done on houses and so I go the extra mile on trying to avoid this in the future.
I went with spruce on the trim for a couple of reasons, mainly I was afraid I would not have enough of the cypress that I am trimming out the rest of the house in, so I chose to conserve that material. I should have thought about this and made sure I had enough cypress but I made a mistake. I didn't want to use pressure treated, like the louver itself, because it has a tendency to shrink and I don't want the trim to develop cracks in the joints if I can help it. Spruce (or fir) is a good straight, clear wood and I think it will hold up fine, especially being painted.


*Annie Lennox

Minute By Minute

Here is some of the stuff we worked on this weekend. I bought a vent free propane wall heater for the house and installed it on this wall between the kitchen and living room. This gives it a central location in the house. Sorry the photo is bad but I have trouble getting good detail at night. I framed out the middle section of that wall to give it some visual substance and the chase formed by that will accommodate the ductwork for the vent for the range hood on the opposite side, gas lines and some electrical. I sheathed the wall in Durock because I want to tile this wall. Being a ceramic artist, I must make some tile of my own for the house and thought that this would be a nice accent. Plus, I'm hoping that the tile will absorb heat from the heater and help warm the house. I have had a lot of questions about the heating and air system for the house and I'll tell you why I put this thing in. I am planning on installing a HVAC system but I would like for it to be a geothermal system which means it uses underground water to supply the heat and cooling. It is obviously more complicated than that but that is kinda basically it. They say the systems are like 400% more efficient than normal HVAC systems and use a lot less power. They are also more expensive to install. If I go this route I would prefer to put it in after all of the house is built, not to mention, I can't afford any kind of HVAC right now so temporary heat is it. Now, after finding a wall unit this attractive, I may keep it permanently installed because in the case of a power outage, any kind of HVAC is going to go out. And if I am old and/or sick I don't want to be chopping wood to keep warm. The looks are a little deceiving though. From this photo and the one on the box, it appears that the heater is recessed into the wall and that is not the case but after installing it I think it still looks OK.
This is just the backside of that same wall and you can see some of the wiring for the kitchen counter tops. Oh, there will be bookshelves on either side of the heater up to that bar height which is 4 feet. On top of this wall I can display some ceramics or sculpture.
And look! that is HOT water coming out of that shower head. Wooohooo!! No, I have not actually taken a shower yet. I can't find a #$%^&* shower curtain rod that I like. And I really need to install the new sediment filter, which came today, and get the water cleared up. The filters that I have on the lines now also greatly reduce the water pressure so I am anxious to get them off and this new filter on. It is supposed to only reduce pressure by 1 psi which should leave me plenty. I'll show lots of details about that as we install it.
And I painted this wall, almost. It needs another coat as I saw tonight that I have lots of holidays in it. I also need to get a taller ladder or shorter scaffold to do the rest on the right there. The color is a darker version of what I did the bedroom and clerestory walls in. I like earthy, vibrant colors as you can tell. Wait 'til you see the kitchen color! You can also see one of the ceiling fans here. I don't remember if I have shown them before. They are an industrial type fan in brushed nickel.
Well, the countdown is to be in before Christmas. I told the guys at work that I am going to go ahead and buy the biggest Christmas tree that I can afford and keep it outside until I move in so there is no backing down now! I might be decorating that tree on Christmas Day but it will be there!!

You Can't Do That

I didn't have to work this past weekend so we got a fair amount accomplished at the house, I think. I started grouting the shower but ran out of grout. That freakin' thing is just way bigger that I thought. Anyway, got about 2/3 of it done and I need to pick up some more grout during the week. Allen built a door for the "basement" and then one for the pump house. We used some leftover T&G cedar I had from a job and so the doors look great. He hung the one to the pump house but I wanted to find some better looking hinges for the one that goes on the house so it is still on the table. I finally framed the wall that will separate the kitchen from the living room. In this photo, you would be standing in the dining area, looking into the kitchen. You can barely see the edge of the sink on the left. The range and oven will go about opposite the sink on the right and center up on that high part of the wall. The lower areas of the wall are at 4'. Bar height sorta. I wanted to be able to see into the other areas and have good air flow. I plan on having concrete countertops and the backsplash on this wall will be tile. Maybe glass tile? That small room at the end is the pantry. The kitchen area is approximately 9 feet wide by 14 feet long.
Here you would be standing in the living area (by the door) looking into the kitchen. Now, on this side of the wall there is going to be this really cool built in book shelf unit that covers most of it and within that I am going to install this gas heater. That my sound odd but it is this really cool modern looking wall mount heater that is made to be flush with a wall surface. I think it will look nice. If I can find a photo I will try to include a link. I think this is it. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=267514-51507-SSRD200T-CB&lpage=none You may have noticed that there is not much room at all for wall cabinets in my kitchen. That's right! I hate wall cabinets! I have a rather large pantry and will have a good bit of space with floor cabinets so I plan to use a few open shelves on maybe 2 walls for placement of dishes etc. I hate lots of stuff. We all have way to much stuff. I want to pare my kitchen and everything really, down to just the essentials and am, at some point, make myself a nice, whole set of my own dishes so they will look nice sitting out where they can be seen.
You may have also noticed that this wall does not seem to have much support since it does not connect to the ceiling. Well, you ought to know better. I ran 3 studs (2 of the 8' and 1 of the 4') down through the floor, interrupting the bottom plate and nailed it off to the floor joist below. This strengthens the wall considerably. This was Allen's idea so I can't take credit. When the cabinets and countertops are added that will also add a lot of stability.
See my messy caulking job! It looked much better up top.
Well, now I'm having a breakdown over where to put the propane tank for the house. The best location will be inaccessible to vehicles in the future so I don't want to put it there. The next one puts it more in view but really accessible. The next best, as far as hiding it goes, means running more line thus more money but it would also be very accessible. Allen says again that I must one day do something the easy way. What's that?

The Deck, Part 2

Well, I'm finally back to finish the deck posting. Things have really been busy lately. We used 16' boards for the decking and randomly laid them down something like you would do hardwood flooring so that our joints were well staggered. We let the ends run wild and then popped a line where we wanted them cut off and zipped them off with the saw. I'll use that drop to make a little table or stool for the deck maybe.
I used galvanized screws (2") I think, to secure the deck boards. Two screws per joist. Pressure treated lumber wants to warp badly as it dries and this will hopefully hold and keep the boards straighter than nailing would. Screws don't back out. This was my job as Allen can't stay bent over all day anymore like I can. But it wasn't without repercussans for me either. I was sore the whole next day. Pressure treated lumber also shrinks quite a bit so you want to fit the boards as tight as possiblle to one another. As it dries you will get a little gap between each board but if they are tight to begin with, it will be minimal.

This past weekend we built a small temporary ramp up to the deck for moving large objects (like furniture!) into the house and finally got the ceiling fans installed. The house has been very cool in the mornings now that we are in the low 50's at night but when the apartment is getting uncomfortably warm in the afternoon, the house is still so nice and cool. No air conditioning is needed, where as we still need it regularly at the apartment.

I will try to post again soon. There is much to tell, both here and I have some good stories from work that I think you will enjoy. I have not been feeling so well lately so I am behind on news. My ticker is not working so good and they have me all wired up with this contraption tonight to find out why. My heart wears me out, especially since we have been working 6 days a week now but I will try to catch up soon! I appreciate everyone who reads this blog and hope somebody gets some decent info out of it.

The Deck, Part 1

Blogger would only let me post these few pics so I will do this post in a series because I wanted to show some details. We started on the deck last weekend ( a week ago) and just about finished this weekend. I have been wanting to get this part of the house done for some time but just felt like some other stuff was more important. The first weekend we framed the deck up and got the posts set etc. Now, this deck will eventually become the dogtrot when the other half of the house is joined here and so will be a covered area. House on both sides with a continuous roof overhead. All of the lumber for the deck is pressure treated pine. The deck is 12'x 28'. The left side (in this photo) is supported by the concrete retaining/foundation wall that the house sits on. The rest of the deck is supported by 4x4 posts for now but when the other side of the house is built, the deck will be bolted to that half at the bands and the posts dropped out. When the whole house is here, you will enter to the left, stepping up as you reach the concrete wall. There will be a lot of back filling against that wall so I'm thinking there will only be one step up onto the porch. Since the supporting posts will eventually be removed, we did not want to embed them in the concrete as you would set most posts. They are merely supported by the concrete and can easily be removed later. We used some temporary 2x's to make dead men, placed about every 12 feet and nailed the band to them as we nailed the band together at the corners. We just eyeballed level in at this point. When we got everything there and nailed up we could shim the dead men up or down, as you can see under that one post on the left to get it actually level. Now, we shot level in with an instrument but I know most people don't have those so a stick level is fine too. We then determined where we wanted the 4x4's, dug a hole for it and nailed the 4x's in place with the ends dangling in the hole. I mixed up some Sackcrete and we filled the hole up just enough to reach the bottom of the 4x. We let the concrete come up on the posts about a 1/2". Then held them plumb with rocks until the concrete set. I hope I explained that correctly; if not please ask me to clarify.
We used the old ledger system to frame the deck. Here, you have a 2x2 that you nail at the bottom of the band that your joists rest on. Oh, the band is 2x10's and the joists are 2x8's. Most people use joist hangers ( those metal U shaped things) but this is what they did before those were invented and probably cheaper.
We used 16 penny galvanized, spiral nails to nail the framing together with. Code requires 3 nails below each joist in the ledger. The band on this side will be bolted to the house with probably 3/8" carriage bolts but for now it is just nailed. I need to do that soon though. Each joist gets 4 nails at each end into the band also.
This past weekend we started the decking. These are five quarter deck boards by 5 1/2" wide. Of course, you know that most dimensional lumber is not the size it is referred to. For example, 2x4s are actually 1 1/2" x 3 1/2". A board that is referred to as "five quarter" is actually a full one inch thick. Whatever. Now, how you put down the deck boards can be done a million different ways and they probably all work fine. This is what we did. We determined a dimension about center of the deck lengthwise that would allow the boards to end with about an inch overhang on the outer edge. We popped a chalk line and began running the boards off of that line. Now, we are using 16' long boards and pressure treated lumber can be wiggly. It can start to get out of square etc. the further you run it, so this way we are only running off our reference line 6 feet in both directions rather than 12 feet if we just started right off the house. Shorter runs make for less room for error. That goes for anything.
Well, that is all of my pics for now. I will show the almost finished product next; hopefully soon. I'm still trying to come up with a handrail design so that is not on yet and we have no steps either. Still climbing up a stupid ladder to get in the house! I will try to get back quickly and if I did not explain something right ( more than likely) please ask me to explain and I will reply. Work has been rough on me lately so I'm down a little on posting. We have had to work some overtime and I'm not as young as I used to be. I'm so bruised and cut up from the job that I am moving pretty slow right now. I need to get some deck furniture so that I can rest some on my new porch! Yeah, like maybe 10 minutes.

Back On The Inside

With a little money back in my pocket I was able to afford to buy some material for the house since I need to start concentrating more on completing items that will get me moved into the house. So, I opted to get this wall at least closed up and partially finished. This is insulation that, as you might recall, I salvaged off a job last summer. All of the space above that horizontal top plate (2x4) is next to my attic and needed insulating against heat and cold. All the space below that (the actual wall area) I thought I would insulate against sound since I had the leftover insulation. I don't like the idea of standing in the kitchen and hearing the shower run or the toilet flush so maybe this will help. Also, it insulates the bedroom wall which may help some if someone is in there trying to sleep and someone else is up moving around.
We then completely sheathed the wall in 1/2" CDX. Let me stress, this is not finish! This wall will be covered once more in a thin but very nice grade plywood and stained. This finish layer will be run in a very defined, 4'x4' grid pattern so it was either place studs within the wall everywhere the edges of the finish plywood would fall or just put this under layer of plywood up and I could fasten over it anywhere. I think this was less trouble. Also, due to expense, it may be a while before I can afford the finish plywood and this allows me to close the wall up now. There is lots of plywood now everywhere and I'm not liking that much but I just keep telling myself most all of it will eventually cover up.
We also installed the smoke detectors; this is one in the bedroom with it's little shower cap on. You keep those on until construction is completely finished because dust can set these things off and it is really irritating. On the commercial jobs I work on they NEVER have these little covers and the detectors are forever going off until they allow us to tape plastic over them. We also finished filling in all of the water line trench. YEA!
I am having some issues with the house now that it is getting closer to the point that I could actually move in. The recent rains have resulted in a lot of runoff into the spring and really fouled the water system. I think part of this was my own fault for not having the water line trench filled in; the water ran straight to the spring. So, I must put up a silt fence in the next day or two for an immediate fix and then start work on a masonry wall of some sort around the spring to protect against future runoff. The problems with the water system are really bothering me. I have running water but half of the time I can't drink it. I have got to get all of this sorted out soon. How I am going to heat this winter is an issue also and something that must be resolved in the not so distant future. If I can just get the shower functioning, the porch built and the scaffolding out of the living room, I would be happier and I could actually move in. Sometimes it all seems so monumental and I only seem to be making baby steps. Of course, that's better than none at all, I guess.

A Slow Go

Man, this is taking forever to put this oil and beeswax finish on. You can see in the above photo the difference in the color of the wood after the application. Part of this has just been put on; it does seem to lighten somewhat after it cures for a couple of days. The rafter tails have been stained but you can see that better in the next photo. You have to keep the oil/beeswax fairly warm also for easier application so that has been a challenge. At first I just heated a small amount in the microwave and carried it up the scaffold with me but then I remembered that I had an old, mini crock pot that I got at the thrift store for when I thought I was going to make some candles. I took it up the scaffold and ran an extension cord up there and just keep it full of the mixture. That works really well. Even though I am trying to apply the oil very sparingly, some of it still drips on me. My hands and arms are getting really soft from having this stuff on them so much.

This is a closer view of the stained and waxed rafter tails/rafters. I wanted the tails to look more like they were just another type of wood rather than having a heavy stain on them. I think it looks good. We'll see what the BFA says; I sent him photos this afternoon. I think he will hate it.

I'm not sure if you can make out what this is or not; it's not the best photo. I was trying to show the entire rafter tail, inside and out. I have gotten a lot of hits on this site for people looking for adding tails to rafters. I thought this shot might make it more obvious what we did. This is taken as I was looking up through the window. The main rafter (and what's really bearing the weight) ends inside the wall. The exterior tail is sort of capped over the end of the rafter and extends inside the house also. Now, this made the cost of each rafter just about double but, I don't have fascia or soffit board to buy since my tails are decorative so I save there. I could have just scabbed a fake tail on one side of the rafter but that doesn't look very pretty or substantial and is why most people cover it up with soffit.

I'm hoping the ceiling here will be done by the weekend and we should start the bathroom floor in the next day or two. Not much else happening. It has rained almost every day here for the past week I guess. The spring is up and I have squash out the wazzoo.