The house is closed in, all the doors and windows installed except for the door to the crawlspace, which has a sheet of plywood over the opening... the crawl space is not full height so a shorter door has been ordered and should be here this next week. The house is staying warm with one portable heater, 1500 Watts, equivalent to a hair drier, which on most days I turn off during the day. In the morning the temperature will have dropped to about 60F and if the sun shines the temperature rebounds into the mid 70s by mid day.
It was a chilly Monday morning (17 December) when Mark Lyndoe, owner of Mile High Masonry and Concrete, his crew and the cement mixer arrived on site to pour the slab for the master bedroom suite. Steam was rising out of the top of the slowly rotating drum on the cement mixer. The concrete has been mixed with hot water and 1% calcium to keep it from freezing. The crew got busy and soon the concrete was sliding down the chute and into waiting wheelbarrows for a short trip to the other side of the slab. I set up forms for footings for the main entrance and mud room entrance bridges and filled them up. The forecast was for temperatures in the low 40s. We had been worried that we would miss a window of opportunity to pour the slab due to the arrival of cold weather... it was touch and go for a few weeks but we got a nice day to pour... a few days later and we would have been out of luck. The sun was beginning to fade as they finished troweling the concrete smooth and covered it with insulating blankets. Two days later the temperature had cooled off by another 10 degrees... so we lucked out. We are thinking that we can start framing up the walls in early February.
Luke was here a couple times the month of December, he is working on another project so is limited to working here on Saturdays. Luke and I built the bridges to the main entrance and mud room entrance. We also completed framing in the main entrance, caulked the sheathing, put on house wrap and hung a temporary door for the tower entrance.We have had a dickens of a time trying to find someone to hang and tape sheet rock. We started looking way back in November, we left a lot of messages and got few response, one said at least 2 months... wow, that was not what we wanted to hear. Finally we found a guy who said he would be available on the 3rd of December, then he called and said he would be here on the 10th, and then the 11th, 13th, 17th and then the 20th and then I told him I would find someone else to do the job. Mark Lyndoe recommended Scott Snyder, an independent contractor who had just returned to the Custer area. Scott started on the 26th, has been here for two full days, one by himself and another with a helper and they completed hanging the rock. The house really changes when the sheet rock goes up. He plans to complete the taping and texturing this week.
After Scott completes his work Carol and I are going to prime and paint the walls right away, get that chore done before we start working on the floors.
Carol and I started installing the radiant heating system. I purchased some 3/4" boards with routed circular groves (see photo above). These are installed on opposite walls and the space between is filled with strips of 3/4" plywood that we ripped on the table saw and glued and screwed into place. Then aluminum heat transfer plates were stapled down to the plywood and the PEX pipe pressed into place. The last step was to glue and screw down a thin layer of plywood. It is a pretty easy installation and we can do one room a day. We completed one bedroom and the bathroom. We dropped the project so as to not interfer with the sheetrocker and will get back to it after they are completed.
As Carol and I look back we are amazed at how many unexpected gifts life continues to bring, even for someone who has lived as many years we have. We truly never know what to expect, but that keeps us young at heart and still filled with wonderment. May you all live long and prosper. Here's to a great 2013.
