Sheetrock and stuff

Sunday was the 'perfect' summer day. Dry, not humid, with a high of 75. The 'eye on the sky' is calling for more humidity and heat this coming week with temperatures in the 90's. Over the weekend, we did some painting, picking up, and we insulated interior walls for soundproofing. Basically, any wall with a water pipe, plus all the bathroom walls, and some key walls in the 2nd floor bedrooms. Hope it helps.

I spoke with Brent, our excavator, on Saturday AM. He'll be back this week to install our leach field and trench for the water and propane tank. He didn't show up on Monday, but I expect we'll see him on Tuesday.

Today, the OSB guys started sheetrocking the interior. Another big visual change! They've got a few days to go, but the mudroom is rocked in, as well as 2 of the 1st floor closets. Apparently, they're pretty hard to do. Michael, the mason, came mid-day, and worked on the heater core. It's getting there- That should be wrapped up this week. Meanwhile, Loralee finally settled on a paint color-- Believe it or not, its the darker one she has preferred initially! She got a lot of the south wall done, about 1/3, and it looks great. Darker was the way to go. Later in the week, when more is done, I'll get some pictures up of how that looks.

Well, well, well....

The well is in! Faulkner came yesterday (thursday) around 11 AM, and the well was complete by mid-afternoon. They drilled 260 feet, right through granite, and got a draw of 35 gallons per minute. A really great well. Now, we'll have Brent Newland come back to dig for the hose, and once that's done, tri-state will be back to install the pump and tank. The well is one of the biggest unknowns when building a house, and having ours come out so well is a huge weight off my shoulders. In addition, the cost of the well was wrapped up in a land deal I did with Neal last year, so the cost of the well doesn't hit the bottom line of our budget.

The OSB boys got the south wall siding done today, and Loralee followed up with the staining. She acutally got half the wall painted in about 4 hours, which is pretty good. However, after seeing just how light the stain color we have selected is, we realized that it's just too light. She's going to pick up a darker shade today, and we'll see how that looks on the house.

This weekend, we'll be up at the house again: insulating interior walls for noise-deadening, wrapping up the 1st floor window eurethane, and exterior painting. We'll probably work a half day on Saturday, and a full day Sunday. We also need to do a lot of picking up-- I finally managed to get the loft floors done, so all that wood can come out, now.

It's hot (high 80's) and very humid... It may break over the weekend, but I'll believe it when it happens. Summers are short around here, so it's hard to complain. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of the corn has topped out over the last few days. The hot humid weather really helped the crop catch up, but I thought it all still seemed a bit short to top off....

Midweek Update

Well, despite the rain of early summer, this Mid-summer has proven to be hot (80's) and humid. We are still getting the random late-day thunder storm rumbling through, but at this point those storms aren't affecting progress. The OSB guys have been working on the trim and siding, focusing on the south wall, and it looks great. The siding is quarter-sawn spruce, locally grown, with similar longevity characteristics to cedar. For cost reasons, we have gone for a 4" reveal, although a 3" would have been more traditional. The siding is pre-primed light grey, and we will be staining it a darker grey (possibly starting this weekend).

Almost all the rough stuff is done inside, with Paul expecting to wrap up rough plumbing by the end of the week. Next week, everyone will be back inside hanging sheetrock. Still on target. Once concern is still the well-- Faulkner came by on Friday to check things out, said he'd be back in two hours, and hasn't been back since. I'll follow up with him today, and I'm sure its just a matter of time, but...



Mike Thronson is pushing on getting the heater core complete. It's nice to see some mass on the main floor. He actually stayed overnight last night, so as to get another good full day in today. He doen't work on Fridays.

Lor and I have been urethaning windows, I've been wrapping up the loft floor, and whatever else needs to be done.

post-weekend update

We took Saturday off from working on the house. Chris, Ray, and Dale came up from NH, and we hit Kingdom Trails on the Mountain bikes. the morning was great (the rain held off until about 2), but after 19 miles my legs were Jello. I just don't have the miles on this summer that I usually do. Anyway, it was nice to have a break, and we had a blast with the guys. Loralee, despite only picking up mountain-biking 2 years ago, and out-bike me up any hill we encounter. So far, I can still stay ahead on the single track, but not for much longer.

Friday, Neal Faulkner (tri-state wells) showed up in the afternoon, and said he'd be gearing up to get the well in. He told Lor he'd be back in 2 hours, but never showed. As of Monday, we still haven't seen him. I'm hopeful we get the well in this week though.

While Lor was at the site, I hit Home Depot after work, and picked up our lights for the house. We decided to go cheap for now, and upgrade to better lighting when we had the money. We have a $1,000 light budget, and that really doesn't streach (Wendy, did I spell that right?) too far. I hate home depot, and am glad we haven't had to use them much.

Sunday, Lor and I were back at the house. I worked on the trim, and Lor worked on urethaning the windows. Today, Lor wrapped up the trim while I put a second coat on the remaining windows on the 1st floor. Also, we picked up the hardware for the 3 doors. We had priced out the hardware at Home Depot, Allen Lumber in St. Jay, but ultimately got the best price at Wheeler's in Lyndon. To be honest, this has consistently been the case throughout the project. For example, we are installing six-panel pine pre-hung interior doors, with black hinges... At home depot, these doors run $170 and you can't get the hinges in black. Wheelers, however, is giving them to us for $130 each, and will special order the black hinges. To me, it goes to show that Home Depot seems to be over rated.

Windows in

We are really pleased with the windows... Despite the snafu on the cut outs for 4 of them, that was quickly resolved, and the OSB team managed to finish the installs today. In addition, they got the french door for the Dining room in as well. They look great, and everyone is impressed with the quality. We opted for standard double-hung windows from the Marvin Integrity line. This is thier 'value line', but are still thermal pop-outs for easy cleaning.

The rough wiring is complete, and the Mason has finished his foundation for the heater. Paul expects to get the rough plumbing done by the end of the week, which means they could start sheetrocking very soon! As a matter of fact, Jeb reviewed a rough schedule with us today, and its aggressive but very doable:

• 7/24- Work on siding
• 7/31- Move inside, hang sheetrock
• 8/7- (Jeb vacation,) have taper work on interior
• 8/14- Lor and I work on interior painting, while OSB does the siding.
• 8/21- install pine floor, sand and finish. Meanwhile, mill the trim.
• 8/28- install interior doors and trim.
• 9/4- install kitchen, work on trim, install countertop.
• 9/11- install finished stairs
• 9/18- Punch out!

Hard to believe, this has all gone by so fast, but the end is really in sight. The exterior trim was delivered yesterday, so Loralee has begun painting it. We have the rest of the week, as they won't need it until next week. In addition, we need to urethane the windows.

A new week

One thing you get used to, building a house: extreme highs and lows. It was a real high, at the end of the week, to see our porch go on the house. Lor and I are both very please with how it is coming out, and have already begun enjoying sitting on it.

At this point, the rough electrical is almost done. Lor has really worked a lot, pulling cable and cutting out boxes, over the last few days. Over the weekend, we pulled some data cables, and I worked on my loft flooring. Saturday we tried to work at the house all day but had so many visitors it was hard to get anything done. I did manage to pick up the brick from Chuck and Nancy, we'll see if the mason can use it.

Over the weekend, Lor's brother Andrew and his fiancee Megan came over with thier son Axel. We had a nice visit, and at one point, Andrew and I started talking about design and architecture. The book, "A Pattern Language" came up. If any of you are considering building a house, FIND AND READ THIS BOOK. It was written in the 70's, and is a bible for anyone creating a home. It describes timeless principles of design (that many modern architects seem to have forgotten). One thing that amazes me as I walk through our house is to see many of these principles come alive within the structure.

So, those where the highs.... Today, we had some lows. The power run from our pole to the house ended up being way over budget, and we just got the bill. We are so on the edge of affording this house that any overage matters a lot, and there isn't much room to cut. In addition, we had a minor crisis with the windows. As the OSB team went to start installing them, they found four that were too big for the rough openings. In the end, it will all be fine, but it does mean some re-work. It was due to a typo on the spec sheet! What a stressor...

Oh, one final thing: the photo below is of a finch that made her nest in the basement ceiling beams. her babies hatched a week or two ago, and we're hoping they fly off before we get the whole thing enclosed.

A House Embalmed

Just so you understand where I am coming from: A few years ago, I 'wintered over' in a mobile home in Charlotte. I had sold my first house, and had been looking for a new place when I was laid off ('voted off the island') from my place of employment... So, I rented a trailer. It was a long, cold winter, and I would lay awake at night staring at a plastic ceiling, listening to the vynl siding creak and pop in the wind and frozen air. The sound still sends shudders up and down my spine. So, to put it mildly, I dislike vynl siding. with a passion. I think it epitomizes everything that is wrong with American home design, and is the current generation's attemp to cheapen our landscape and pass the buck on to the future generations.

Anyways, there is this cute little cape just up the road from us. adorable, with dark blue/grey stained cedar shakes. Classic roofline. Classic windows layout. Nothing over the top, just... nice. So, the other day I was driving by and noticed that they were replacing the siding... Embalming it in plastic. the house has gone from 'cute' to 'generica'.... WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING?? is vynl really that much less expensive? Does is really require that much less maintenance? Did the shakes really need to be replaced?? The house just became one more blight on our landscape of fast food fat factories, 68-oz slurpie service stations, sheetmetal strip malls, and multi-lane roads.

Our saltbox is a vynl-free zone. Locally grown quarter-sawn spruce, pre-primed. With proper care, it should need to be stained about once a decade, and should last 200+ years. No landfill fodder. No toxins (well, less toxins). And a look and feel that can only be described as 'authentic'.

Recent Pictures

Here is a photo of our central stairwell. It's amazing how much cozier (read: smaller) the main floor feels as the space gets filled up!

The stairwell starts in the Kitchen, heads up WEST to a landing, then 3 steps south to the 2nd floor hallway. For some reason, we LOVE the idea of coming downstairs right into the kitchen.

Now, this picure below is taken on the 2nd floor looking EAST towards the cathedral ceiling in our master bedroom. Note how the light plays off the pine on the ceiling. The framed wall there will separate the bedroom from the rest of the house and will be sheetrocked in.

Quick update

Okay, the past few weeks I've fallen off the blogging waggon-- Bad Shawn! As the weather has heated up, so has the project. A quick summary of recent accomplishments:

• The 2nd floor (subfloor of 2x6 T&G Pine) is in.
• All interior walls are framed up.
• Stairs are in (not finished, but framed and useable).
• All 4 subs have started: Electrical, Plumbing, Air exchange, and Mason. This is HUGE!
• The metal roof is on.
• The house has been wrapped in Typar.
• we have POWER!! Installed by Lyndonville Electric last friday, 7/7/06. What a painful process.

On Sunday, Loralee and I went and sorted/stacked the boards for our finished floor. We got the rough lumber from our family friends, the Bishops. We have 1800 Board-feet of 1x10" pine. Although it will wear hard, we love the look of wide pine floors. On Tuesday, my Dad trucked it to Heath Lumber for milling, and brought it right back. My Co-worker, Ed, helped me unload and stack the finished lumber in our basement for acclimation. It's quite a stack to work around, but it will be ready to go in September.

Oh, and Falkner Well Drilling called this morning. They will start the well next week. That's another biggie, and once it's done we can have Brent Newland back to finish our leach field and grading.

THis week, Lor is looking into getting our propane tank installed, ordering paint and other materials, and generally doing a ton of running around.

Meanwhile, I'm finishing our loft floor (more 2x6 T&T), and pulling data-comm wires so we have some 21st century elements in our 18th century home....

... I've still got a ton of pictures to get up here, and will get some more detailed updates in the next few days...