28 April 2013

Sunday, my day off!  Got up about 5:30 am, took some pictures, started this blog, went back in the house at 8:00 am to watch Power Block TV.  Then outside to clean up the job site after a week of work, stain the rafters in the hallway and get things organized for the next project.

Mother Nature is finally giving us a break with the weather.  We had another snow day on Monday,  our third snow day in two weeks - 10 inches of snow this time.  This snow came with a bit of blowing and Luke was snowed in.  Our first day of work was Tuesday, it was a cold and windy day, unsuitable to working outside, except in short bursts... that wind would cut us in half! The ground has been saturated with precipitation and is a slimy exercise in balance - if we needed supplies moved, we did it early in the morning while the ground was still frozen.  Saturday, Luke and I worked in tee-shirt sleeves for the afternoon.  The ground is drying up.  With the warm weather our efficiency has improved and we are making good progress every day.

I was reminded that I had not posted a floor plan in the blog, so here is the floor plan.

To the left is the garage,  The center section, from left to right is the guest bedroom suite, the great room and the tower.  The tower is connected to the master bedroom suite, upper right, by a hallway.

Like I said in the second paragraph, our work week started on Tuesday and it was too cold to work outside on the master bedroom so we worked in the tower to get some time out of the wind.  None-the-less the tower is un-insulated and unheated.  I was pretty chilled by the end of the day and enjoyed soaking in the bathtub after supper.

Luke and I installed several beams and posts in the tower.  I spent some time cleaning out the pond, I had been using it to store cardboard.  It looks much better now.  It will be the fall before we are able to move the fish to the tower.

Wednesday was nicer, the high temperature was in the mid 30s but there was no wind and some sunshine.  Luke and I spent the day working on the master bedroom suite.  All the framing work has been done and I am starting to rough in the electrical wiring... we will need an inspection and then we can put insulation in the walls.  Malon Insulation was here on Friday and blew fiberglass insulation into the roof cavity.

This is a photo of the ceiling in the master bedroom. 

This is our view of the rocks from where our bed will be.

On Thursday we started framing up the hallway between the tower and the master bedroom.  Here we are installing the ridge beam.  The two pictures below show the roof structure.  The alcove in the picture at the right will house the Samurai armor that I got from my judo students at Kangeiko 2011.

Here is half of the joinery used to splice the ridge beam.

Here is the joint assembled.

This is the view thru the window on the south side of the hallway adjacent to the tower.

Below is the smile of a happy house builder.

After work on Friday and Saturday evening I got a workout moving a few tons of gravel and shaping the landscaping cloth around the exposed rocks... I got a great workout and got to see the Gravel Garden, called "karesansui" in Japanese or a dry landscape appear in front of my eyes.  This is such a natural spot for a gravel garden.  We did some landscaping with a tractor in the Fall as this spot is bounded by rocks, the house or property line and so is essentially land locked.  We will build a fence along the property line to control the view to the east.

 I appears that we will start out our week in the mud again, it has been raining since about 5:00 pm and still coming down at 9:00 pm.  We plan to complete the roof structure on the hallway and get it sealed up.  Then we are going to tackle the tower and get a roof over the tower before we get a lot of rain.

I should add that Carol has been taking very good care of me and had been enjoying unpacking boxes.  There are good dishes in the kitchen and art in the windows.  I got the new range/oven installed last weekend and she got some new pots and pans so has been enjoying cooking with the new toys.  She is making the house a home.

We have been so enjoying living in the house, the continuous windows on the south face allow for a wonderful view of nature - snow fall, deer walking thru our yard and birds on the wing.  The  objective was the blur the distinction between the interior and the exterior and I think we have done a great job.  The house is a delight to live in.

Regards to all, have a great week.

Van

One year of sweat equitity

As I was taking pictures early this afternoon for this blog, Carol suggested that they were "pictures of one year of sweat equity"!  That pretty good description!

We started construction last year early April. It has mostly been fun swinging a hammer, getting into better shape, meeting and getting to know people and crafting a cool house.  It has been, at times, back breaking work but standing back and looking at what we have achieved it has been worth it!

Here is a bit of a timeline for the past two weeks.

The last week in March we started installing the floor in the great room.  We started with the radiant heated sub floor, here Luke and I are installing the PEX pipe.

Note the plaster coating on the walls along the left side of the picture.

Below is Luke installing the oak flooring in "gun stock brown".

Carol and I drove to Cheyenne WY and back on Thursday the 4th of April; we picked up the kitchen cabinets at Schroll Custom Cabinets.  Luke and I installed them on the 5th.  Luke did most of the work and a beautiful job he did.  I was mostly labor.









The cabinets are constructed with quarter sawn oak, one of my favorite cuts of wood.  Schroll's did a wonderful job of building the cabinets, they are very handsome... and reasonable in cost too.

I built some temporary counter tops from some scrap plywood. 

We are in the process of getting bids for soap stone counter tops.




Carol and I started moving furniture into the house on Saturday.  I moved the TV over and we watched a DVD to relax at the end of the day.  We slept in our bed in the west guest bedroom on Saturday evening.

On Sunday afternoon we pulled the '71 Chevy pickup up the hill with the tractor; Carol drove the tractor and I steered the pickup.  We got to the top of the hill and allowed the pickup to roll into the garage... we needed a little push for the last few feet.   So now the garage is finally going to be used for its intended purpose... as a garage!

I started coming down with a cold on Sunday and by Monday I was miserable.  I haven't had a cold in 3 or 4 years and I caught a doosey.  It worked out that Luke was finishing up a siding job on another house on Monday so I putzed most of the day, Carol and I picked up the freezer and a bunch of boxes at the storage unit.

It started snowing on Monday evening... wet snow on warm ground, it compacted down and turned to ice when the temperature dropped.  It snowed all day on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning.  We got about 18" total - we needed the moisture.

Tuesday was a snow day.  I was feeling pretty wiped out from the cold virus so I sat around most of the day and watched the snow fall and started a new adventure novel.

Carol woke me up shortly after 4 am on Wednesday morning, she had a bloody nose - a concern as Carol takes blood thinners.  We got her nose packed - Carol has had these nose bleeds before and they stopped on their own, so I went back to bed.  I awoke at 6:30 and checked on Carol and the bleeding had not stopped... I told her, "I am taking you to the emergency room."  I went outside and discovered the 18" of snow.  I have 4-wheel drive pickup but I also have bald tires and didn't want to get stuck on the road to Custer. 

I went back into the house and called 911, explained the situation, saying I needed to get Carol to the hospital but it didn't require flashing lights.  Twenty minutes later a snow plow pushed thru, followed by an ambulance without flashing lights and three Search and Rescue vehicles and six Search and Rescue personnel, nine people when you include the ambulance crew and the snow plow driver.

I got Carol up and out to the waiting emergency personnel.  I got into my truck and we all headed down the road.  I almost got stuck in the middle of the intersection at highway 16 and Upper French Creek Road, it was at that moment that I figured out that the 4 wheel drive was no longer functioning.

It was slip and slide all the way to the hospital.  I couldn't get up the hill at the hospital entrance and slid down the hill sideways.  Carol got good care from Dr. Joy.  At one point I passed out, they gave me some toast and orange juice and then I was good to go again.  Without the proper equipment the Custer Emergency Room transferred Carol to the Rapid City Emergency Room.  I drove Carol to Rapid City in a pickup that was volunteered by our good neighbor Mark Radulovich.  The ENT Doc was called when we got there and an hour later we were heading home again.  Holy buckets were we tired!

Wednesday was also a snow day.  Driving thru Custer on the way home from the hospital, Custer looked like a ghost town with an 8' tall snow bank that ran down the middle of the street, the entire length of the main street.

Luke installed the pantry cabinets on Thursday and then started working on the master bedroom suite
again, installing rafters. 

I started the final installation of the washer and drier in the pantry on Thursday afternoon.  The pantry is turning out great don't you think?  I also stained the rafters.

On Friday I finished up the installation of the washer and drier and started working on the kitchen sink.  I had a vintage 1950s single bowl with a built in drain tray in the basement in the Fargo house - used mostly for cleaning up after art projects.  Carol spent an hour scrubbing the sink and I installed it.  In the afternoon I hooked up the "touch to activate" water faucet that Carol had chosen.  We have chosen soap stone counters for the kitchen and a farmers sink.  We are currently getting bids and based on some early returns I think we are going to Denver to pick it up in about a month and install it ourselves.

Saturday I pulled wires from the garage to the house thru underground conduit for the satellite dish and internet.  I completed the installation of the satellite early afternoon and the installation of the Internet on Sunday morning.  Getting to be more like home every day.


Here is a picture of the great room from the kitchen:

I wanted the house to have an open feel to the outdoors, blending the distinction between inside and outside.  After living in the house for the past week I am pleased with how it has turned out so far.  It is a treat to watch the deer foraging for grass in our yard.  We watched the snow fall on Tuesday for hours.

and a picture of the progress on the master bedroom suite:

Luke thinks that we will have the roof waterproofed by the end of this next week.

You all have a great week!

Van