We’ve had some real “frog stranglers” this week almost every afternoon, so guess what I found today in the mud around the back porch pillars.

Little green frog

Actually I found three little green frogs. They’re gonna be homeless tomorrow though because I’ve got to put the dirt around the pillars in preparation for framing the back porch.

We’ve got the side and front porches framed now.

Porch framing from side yard

These porches will have light weight concrete poured on them so they can be tiled. The side porch will have pex placed in the floor for radiant heating.

Front & side porch framing

Although it will be built as an open porch, it will eventually be enclosed as a sun room. It will get morning sun and the tile floor will absorb the heat from the sun in the winter. The eaves will overhang enough to keep it from heating up in the summer. We plan to also have a small gas stove as auxiliary heat so it can be used year round, even at night. All the porches will be 10 feet wide, so this is really a large “room.”

Awning windows in the loft

The porches will be covered and extend almost as high as the windows in the loft. I chose awning windows so they could stay open even during a rain shower. I got to check that out this week. No rain came in the windows.

Speaking of windows, we got the master bedroom window in this week too.

Bedroom bump-out window

Of course, it bumps out like several other features around the house. I love the look. It really gives definition to the front wall. You see it as you come up the driveway.  I looks nice with the trim truss and the dormer window. The windows are “brick red” on the outside. It is a deep burgundy color.  The trim will be dark green, so there isn’t too much red….just a touch.

We figured out a way to stain the high rafters in the living room this week.

Temporary floor over living room

We had the carpenter build a temporary floor that is even with the loft floor. This seemed to us to be a better idea than working from a scaffold. Most of the beams can be reached without a ladder. Only the ones in the roof peak will require climbing. This will also give us an opportunity to do the finish work in the ceiling and walls of the dormer. Maybe we could also install the dormer light and ceiling fan. That would make things much simpler and be a lot less dangerous.

Underside of temporary floor

When we’re finished in the living room, we’ll take it down and move it to the master bedroom where the ceiling peaks at just over 17 feet high.  So much to do…….so little time!

We’ve finally got all the walls built now. Since it has been raining almost every afternoon, it’s been too dark inside to take pictures, but the work has been going on.

Basement bathroom

The basement walls were the last to be built. They extend upward to the floor joists, but the actual ceiling will be dropped to eight feet above the floor to allow for all the pipes and wires above. Only one section of the ceiling downstairs will be higher than that. It will be a tray ceiling in the den. The dropped ceiling all around the tray will also allow for running wires for electronic equipment, speakers and TV cables.  I just don’t want it to feel like a basement.

Platform for whirlpool tub

We’ve also got the platform built for the whirlpool tub. It’s going to be really nice. Too bad we can’t hook it up now so we could bubble our sore muscles away every day after all our hard work.

Framing for medicine cabinet

The walls in the master bath were built out to accommodate recessing the medicine cabinets over the twin pedestal sinks. We moved the walls back to get a little more space for the shower, but that put the sink drains right over the LVL below the floor. Not a problem. I think this will work out just fine.

Loft railing

We also got the loft railing finished this week. It will be sheet-rocked on the living room side, but there will be bookcases on the loft side.

Loft railing from living room

I kinda envision the loft as a relaxing place to read or listen to music or just look out the windows as if sitting in the tree tops. There will also be a sofa bed up there for extra sleeping space when needed.

Windows in the loft

Now, talk about windows, we finally have some of them installed. They look really good and seem to make the bare walls look more like a room. The loft windows at the back overlook the back yard and there’s a view of “Rocky Face” mountain in the distance.

Dormer window from loft

Looking out over the railing/bookcase you can see straight out the dormer window. Then on the other wall, there are two small awning windows that will open outward above the sun porch.

View to loft from living room

Nice views and good cross ventilation.  I can hardly wait!

Next priority is the porch decking for the sun room. The sun room is on the side of the house and will wrap all the way around to the front to shelter the entrance door. It’s actually a future sun porch. It will be built to receive windows, but they will be added later. For the time being, it will be a nice covered porch…still enjoyable, but only for warm weather.

We plan to screen the rear porch and it will extend around the back and side to meet the sun room.  So, three sides of the house will be wrapped by covered porches…lots of extra living space.  It’s gonna be nice!

This weekend was spent trying to finish constructing all the porch piers.

concrete mixing

We mix the mortar and/or concrete mix in the wheelbarrow with a hoe. Pretty low tech, but it’s really about all I can manage at one time.

Filling the porch pier

The piers at the front of the house are ready to go now, and two of the four at the back are done. I ran out of blocks, so I’ll have to wait on the last two.  I put four bags of mortar mix and two cap blocks into the Volkswagen trunk, but that’s probably as heavy a load as I want to carry. We’ll have to use the truck for the blocks.

When we covered the interior of the crawl space with cement backer board, we had some scraps that were 1 foot wide and 5 feet long.

Covering the styrofoam foundation

They worked out just right for covering the styrofoam around the foundation. I’m taping the joints with fiberglass tape and then skimming a coat of mortar over the panels. Most of it will be covered by porches, so that’s where I started. After I feel confident, I’ll do the parts that will show. All the exposed styrofoam has to be covered with a fire break, so this is working out really well.

Drains

Earlier in the week, the plumber arrived and started working on the drain lines. The plumbing in the upstairs bathroom is routed through a 2 x 6 wall between the main floor powder room and laundry/mudroom.

Plumbing chase wall

We tried to stack all the plumbing together for effeciency’s sake. The master bath will of course be separate and those pipes will run through the crawl space.

Upstairs bathroom

We had planned to have a shower in the upstairs bathroom, but according to the inspection department, we had to have 6’8″ headroom above the toilet. We had the headroom to the ceiling, but they measured from the beam, which didn’t interfere in any way with using the toilet.  This meant we had to move the toilet about a foot away from where we had planned it. Now it would not be far enough away from the shower (15″ on center), so we had to give up the shower. Bummer! Ever look at those magazines that show you how to tuck a half bath in under the stairs, or in an attic space with a sloped ceiling? Well, apparently you can’t do that here very well. Who makes these stupid rules anyway? Apparently the 6’8″ rule applies to all bathroom fixtures. I know. How about a bright yellow sign that says LOW CLEARANCE. If  it’s good enough for the DOT it’s good enough for me!

The plumber will be back tomorrow and hopefully we’ll soon be ready for the rough plumbing inspection. I’m going to stick to the concrete work for now.

We started working on the basement floor last week-end and it’s looking good.

The basement "rug"

One of the hardest things we did was washing the floors and making sure there were no contaminants on the concrete (such as oil, adhesive or other stains).  After it was dry, I taped a design on the floor using 1/4″ wide masking tape. It makes a good looking “grout” line. Some people cut grooves in the floors and then grout them later, but because of the radiant heat pipes under the floor, we didn’t want to take any chances of cutting them.  The “rug” is positioned in the center of the den. I used electrical tape around the borders. All the tape was firmly pressed down to the floor so the acid would not get under the tape. We wanted nice crisp lines.

"Tile" in basement bathroom

In the bathroom, we opted to make it look like 12″ tiles.  Of course, as you can see, there are no walls, so those were “mapped out” first.  We were told by our concrete man that this would be much easier if we did it before the walls went up.  The shower was placed where it will be installed, but we propped it up on cement blocks so I could tape right under the edge to give the appearance of the tiles continuing across the whole floor. We also covered the bottom half of the shower, the center wooden beam and the pex tubing coming out of the floor with a plastic drop cloth so no acid would get on them.

Acid staining the floor

I had two colors of stain, a golden yellow and a dark burgandy called “cola.”  The bathroom was sprayed first, then the center of the “rug.”  Then, we loaded the cola stain into an all plastic (important) garden sprayer and highlighted the yellow “tiles” and center of the “rug” to tie the design together.

We started spraying the solid cola stain in the back corner of the basement in the mechanical room.  One of us sprayed while the other took a clean deck scrubbing brush and scrubbed the stain around to even it out some.  We continued this process until we backed out the door of the room into the exit “tunnel.”  We continued staining all the way out to the edge of the concrete outside at the patio and rock retaining wall. Whew! Now it had to dry overnight.

Mopping the residue

The next day, the design was dry and the residue that was formed by the acid reaction to the lime in the concrete was evident on the whole floor. The instructions were to wash off a section with clear water and decide if it needed a second coat. We gave it a light second coat and blended that coat around with an O’cedar mop. Then we let it dry again.

Rub-a-dub-dub

After it was dry, it was time to neutralize the acid. This is an important step, because once you neutralize it, you cannot stain it again.  The neutralizer is 1/2 pound of baking soda in 5 gallons of water. We mopped it on and swept it toward the door, changing water frequently to remove the residue.  This took a pretty long time, but eventually, we were satisfied that we had gotten most of it off. Wow, that’s the most mopping I can ever remember doing!

Peeling up the tape

After it dried, I removed the tape. Yes!  The lines are pretty sharp.

The plan was to give it one coat of sealer and cover it up with 6 mil plastic to protect it from workers, but that didn’t happen. The carpenter and electricians arrived again to work, and we just thought it best to cover it right away without the sealer. Hope this works

The wiring has gone along real well and is very close to finished. The carpenter has finished the walls in the rest of the house except the upstairs bathroom, the Jacuzzi tub platform and the basement walls. He plans to work on those this week-end.

Opening for solar tube

He cut the hole in the dining room ceiling that will house the solar tube. The tube will extend to the roof inside the upstairs closet.

Solar tube and diffuser

It’s kinda like a very small round skylight that has a long reflective tube. It will come out between the kitchen and dining room.

After that,we’re ready to build the porch decks and install the windows, which arrived today! They look great!   More later.

Build small………….live large!

Yay!  We’ve got wires all over the place and more to come. 

Wires in the main floor kitchen

 While the carpenter has been on break working on someone else’s house, we’ve had the electrician and his crew (boss wife/helper) working on the wiring.

Electrician's wife/helper

 For such a small house, we’ve got a lot of wires.Believe it or not, we’ve already used about a half mile of wires and will probably use almost that much more.

Wiring box for powder room fan/light

 It takes more wire for the SIP construction than for a stick built house.  We have no attic and the conduit is already inside the walls, so if you’re wiring a 3 way switch at the top of the stairs you have to go up from the basement to the second floor, back down to the switch, connect to the switch at the bottom of the stairs, then return to the panel box in the basement. Whew! Now, multiply that a few times, and it’s easy to use up a couple hundred foot rolls of wire really fast.

Oh what a tangled web we weave!

 We’ve got wiring in the kitchen boxes and above for overhead lighting. Also, the hole was cut for the fan/light in the powder room. And where does all this wiring go, you ask. Well, it all ends up in the basement to await connection to the electric panel.

Ready to wire the basement

 We marked all the outlets for the basement, and it was nice to just be able to draw on the styrofoam walls to tell the electrician where everything is to be located. 

John cuts the styrofoam

 In the basement, the styrofoam has to be cut out and the boxes and conduit are embedded into the walls. John used a hot knife to cut the channels. It’s a pretty nice tool and made short work of the cuts.

Wiring through my super insulation

 Oh, and remember that section of the sub floor that I filled with styrofoam because if I didn’t do it now, it would be closed up forever?  Well, apparently, “forever” already came.  We had to open that section to add wiring.  Who knew?  Anyway, I found out that I did a pretty good job. I’ll bet that section of the wall was insulated to about R-1000!  We won’t be cold going down the stairs beside that.

We’ve had a pretty productive week, but John is ready to go back to work next week so he can rest. Ha! Doesn’t he know that it is light until 9 now. There are still plenty of “honey do’s” that can be done before 9. He must have been out in the sun too long this week!

We’re going to try to get the basement floor stained tomorrow, so that will be a real big deal. We’ll take pictures and update again soon.

We’re on vacation this week to work on the house. We really want to get a lot done, so we started out with running the pex under the main floor for the radiant floor heat.

"Spooling" the pex

We put the roll of pex on the “spooler” so it wouldn’t twist and get kinks in it. John drilled holes through the joists to pull the pex. Each run uses a certain number of feet of pex that leaves the heat exchanger in the mechanical room , warms the floor above and then returns to be re-heated. Each run needs to be about the same distance, otherwise, the water will get too cool before it returns and will cause cool spots in the floors.

Pex for radiant floor heat

John used a special staple gun to install the pex. It actually went up easier than I expected.

Basement view of pex on main floor

Probably the hardest part is drilling those holes!

I worked some more on finishing. We will cover the soffits under the eaves outside with the same boards that we used on the ceilings. It will appear as if they just continue from the ceiling inside all the way through the walls to the outside.

Soffit boards

The inside boards will be finished with oil, but the outside boards get a couple of coats of spar urethane. They will be somewhat protected under the eaves, so there shouldn’t be a maintenance issue for a long time.

Polyurethane on soffit boards

I think they’re really going to look neat.

We’re hoping to get going on the rough plumbing and electrical this week too. And as soon as that is finished, we can build the rest of the walls in the loft.

The windows may arrive this week too, so maybe we can get a little “closure.” I hope so, because we have an unwanted “squatter” living in the dormer and windows will begin the “eviction” process.

Yes, we really do have bats in the belfry! Well, at least one bat. We suspected it earlier, but didn’t see any signs, but we definitely have a bat living in a small space above the ridge beam in the dormer. We watched until he left tonight at about 9:15. We’ll leave him an open window until he leaves, then close the window and other entrances so he can move on.

Actually, I think we’re going to install a bat house outside for him to live in. Bats seem kinda freaky, and I don’t want to live with one, but they are capable of eating about 1,000 insects per hour and they really love mosquitoes, so he can “hang out” at our place as long as he’s outside. Hope he doesn’t hurt himself on that closed window!

This week, I’ve been up close and personal with some of our ceiling beams.

Beams in the entry foyer

  I’ve done a lot of sanding and staining and they’re really looking good. 

Stained beams in foyer

 We will finish them with a penetrating finish containing tung oil. 

Beams above stairs

 They can be coated as many times as wanted until the desired finish is obtained. The stain also contains a penetrating component that goes deep into the wood to help protect it from being marred while still allowing the wood to “breathe.”

Ceiling beams and dormer

 So far, I’ve finished most of the downstairs. The loft, upstairs bedroom and bathroom can be finished from a ladder. The living room and master suite ceilings are probably going to require scaffolding.

Foaming the cracks

 We’ve also filled any potential air leaks that we’ve found in the walls. We’ll really be glad we did this some day when we pay our heating bills!

One more use for duct tape

 Oh, and I found a new use for duct tape!  I worked my pants off this week.

We had another busy day at Shadowood today. The carpenter arrived early to build walls.

Our bedroom wall

It’s getting really exciting to see everything coming together like we planned. We’ve made a few modifications in the wall placement, but mostly minor.

Control Central

There was a wall in the dining room that we angled on the corner for a little more space to pass by the kitchen island. It opened up the bracket in that area so it can now be seen from the dining room, kitchen and living room. It will have most of the light switches on it, so it’s kinda like “control central.” Well, after all, it is on the center post of the timber frame!

While all of this was taking place on the inside, another Bob Cat was turned loose on the yard.

Water/propane trench

We finished digging the trench for the water and propane lines, and dug the hole to bury the propane tank.

Digging the bank

Moving the ferns

Earlier this morning, John and I dug plants off the bank where the tank would be buried. We put them in boxes in the shade in hopes of re-planting them tomorrow after the inspection.

Dirt in the driveway

We placed a tarp on the driveway before the digging began to try to hold down the mud potential. If course, everything is so dry now, it’s hard to think about mud. But the rains will surely come and we can be thankful that all this digging is done.

Installing the propane tank

The second trench of the day was for the electrical conduit that will go from the house to the pole. It’s really good to get that done too, because that would really be tough digging.

One more trench across in front of the house for the drain connecting to the septic tank. Yes, we did indeed locate the tank. Since most of our former landmarks were gone, it was hard to tell exactly where the edge of the tank was.

Clean out drain

The trench was dug and a pipe was inserted under the master suite foundation wall where we had located a sleeve before the pour. The pipe for the clean-out was set too.

Tomorrow, the guys will be back to finish off the septic connection and when it passes, along with the gas line, we can cover the trenches and re-plant the bank.

Other than hand digging the drains for the guttering, we’ll hopefully be done with the trenches and all the supporting “cast” that comes with the job. Well, at least until they install a new power pole and bury the phone lines again! I can hardly wait!

Well, stepping up to the stairs. The carpenter arrived this morning with a load of lumber and a plan for the stairs to the loft. There are some pretty tight tolerances for putting in the stairs. 

Beginning the stairs

 The base of the stairs on the main floor comes down between the master suite door and the powder room door, so there is a definite point where the stairs have to start. 

Split landing

 They go up to the loft and are sandwiched between two walls. 

Stairs viewed from mud room

 They also have to clear the back door in the mud room and leave at least the minimum headroom above the basement stairs. 

Stairs to loft

 Whew! That’s a lot to think about all at once, but they’re in now and look great. 

View from top of stairs

 Well, the treads will have to be added later, but the two-by-fours work just fine for now.

I spent some more time sanding beams in preparation for more staining. It’s really looking good now.

Trench for water and gas line

 John has spent time this week digging a trench at the back of the house. 

Pipe inlets to basement

 We’ll put the water line and propane gas line in to bring them from the front of the house to the back where they enter the basement.  

Rocks from the trench

 Remember the rock in the basement foundation? It has a relative at the back of the house. We’re getting a pretty good collection of rocks now. Hmm..I wonder if I could find a place to use some more rocks!

On Monday, the carpenter is back to build the floor in the loft area and build some more walls on the main floor. We really don’t have many walls to build, so soon we’ll be on to the rough plumbing and electric. I’m already dreaming of sitting on the back porch and sipping my morning coffee!

While the official summer didn’t come until Monday, the summer weather was already here. It has been hot and muggy. That’s not very condusive to getting up on the roof, but we needed to get the roof covered.

Foam in the roof seams

 The Goshen crew finished up all the details including foam in the roof panel seams.  It really looks weird sticking up on top of the roof.  We had to cut it off to cover the roof. 

Titanium for roof protection

 We’re using a titanium material that has little grids in it to make it easier to walk on the roof. I don’t think I’ll find out first hand if it works. Ladders are okay, but roofs……not so much.

Side porch pillars

 There’s plenty to do other than climbing. We got two more porch piers built for the side porch. There’s one more to do in the front, and four in the back. They will eventually be covered with rocks, so they don’t have to look that great right now. They just need to support the porches.

Hope these steps are replaced soon

 We also built some temporary steps to get in the front door. They don’t look  good either, but they work. They are nailed together, so they’re not as dangerous as they look.

We did have a pretty hard rain one afternoon and discovered that the back yard really drains the water well. It all goes to one spot, but the rain was so hard and fast the soil couldn’t absorb it, so it took out a portion of the bank that hasn’t been planted yet.  Back to the drawing board.

Drainage pit in back yard

 We installed a pit drain at the spot where the water gathers and there’s a pipe that sends the water down to a lower level in the woods. We didn’t need to wait long to find out that it works. We’ve had thunderstorms almost every afternoon. The drain works great! Yay!

The "handy hut"

 The only part of the back yard that survived the bulldozer is the area in front of the “handy hut.” The ferns are thriving and the day lilies are blooming. It’s nice to see some green back there. I hope it won’t be too long before we can plant some grass. It looks kinda bare out there.

Checking the built in electrical conduit

 Back on the inside, the walls come with the electrical conduit already installed, so we fished the tape through them to make sure they were clear. We’ll soon pull the wires through and run all the rough electrical and plumbing in the rest of the house, but first we need to get the interior walls built. There are no load-bearing walls, so that shouldn’t take too long.

Staining the beams in the dining room

 In the meantime, I started staining the beams in the dining room and kitchen. They are going to look so great! It got pretty dark one night while I was working, so John brought me a present the next day……a headlight. Now I can work all night if I want to.  Thanks John, that was nice of you. 

The headlight

 It really does work well because you can really see the details when you’re up on the ladder working close to the beams.

The roof is covered

 All in all, we have made a lot of progress. The roof is covered and we’re protected from the rain. It’s been so hot and muggy that it’s hard to work for long periods of time without taking a few breaks. We have a great floor fan that has helped a lot. We work outside for a while and then move inside, so we’re getting it done despite the heat.  Hopefully by next summer all the chores will be those that we choose to do…or not!