More Shingles, More Fun!

We went back the next day (Saturday) as had been previously arranged with Karen & Tim and kids. Rob and Pete joined us, too. We were pleasantly surprised to find the roofers hard at work. They had mostly finished the back side of the house and garage.

Front and Porch
I am not sure how good of an idea it is to work on snowy roofs. We hope the cleared snow down the middle of the front of the house was created by some waste being pushed off the roof :).


Back Nearly Done

Looks Steep!

Since it had been quite a while since Tim had seen the house and Karen had never seen it, we took the tour.

Getting the Tour

More Tour

Of course, the kids couldn't care less about the house; not when there was snow to be played in. Norah (blue & green) and Kitty (pink) looked cute in their Christmas present snow suits.

What a smile!

Fun can be had wherever there is snow.

The snow didn't seem that deep, but we aren't that short either.
Many thanks to Rob for some great photos.

Shingles

It has been almost a month since I last posted :^( (today is 2/17). Shame on me. We had to do taxes so we could do the FAFSA which was due Friday. I am hopeful that I can stay on top of it better now that that deadline has passed.

On Friday, 1/25, Becca and Alex came to visit and prepare their taxes. We took the opportunity to check on progress. We had heard that the roof trusses and decking were finished and they were busy shingling. Sure enough, the south side of the house and the southwest side of the garage were shingled.

West side of house with porch and foyer, including overhangs.

Shingling the garage.

Too cold to shingle you say? Having shingled before, I would have thought the shingles would be brittle and prone to breaking. Apparently this is not the case. I also thought the cold shingles would be hard to cut, when that was needed. Applying some heat with what looks like a mini flame thrower takes care of that problem. One guy applies the heat, the other cuts. (I choose applying the heat!)

Flame thrower?

In the previous post (which you have probably forgotten by now), you saw me admiring my roughed-in office. Here is Marlene's roughed in pantry. I just heard her today saying how much she was looking forward to having a pantry where she could find things (as she was rummaging around the back a cupboard in our current kitchen).

Pantry Roughed In

We are both very excited about the 4' x 4' skylight in the kitchen. We are both big fans of natural lighting. We are also excited about using the skylight as a thermal chimney on summer evenings to cool the house passively.

SkyLight Installed

Looking Like a Real House!

Stopped by to check on progress today. Wow! We were greeted by the sight of a real house.

Real House

The main house has all of the trusses up and the roof decking is on. Same with the garage. The laundry room, foyer and porch still need trusses. You sure get a feel for the presence of the house (its size and shape) at this point.

The laundry room connects the house and garage and you can see the lack of trusses here and over the porch and foyer.

Inside, it is cool to look up and see the cathedral ceiling over the great room and kitchen area. The scissor trusses used for this look pretty cool.

Scissor Trusses

I am also pretty excited about the garage. It is huge! I am looking forward to having both cars housed nicely while still having room to park the tractor and plenty of workshop space. And, when needed, the tractor goes out and I have a big space for projects.

Len Enjoying the Garage

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the stairs to the basement were roughed in. We went down to the basement to check it out.

Stairs

Also Len's office was studded in. I am going to LOVE the view out the big windows. I hope I can still get work done and not be too distracted. You can see the framing for the south and east windows in this picture. They have not cut the openings in the sheathing in an attempt to keep some warmth in the basement. I am checking out the framing for the door out of the basement to the east. We cannot afford the door yet, but we had them frame for it so it would be easier to do in the future.

Len's Office

They expect the roofing (including shingles) to be done next week. The windows arrive the week of Feb. 4. The framers will come back to install them and the siding. I am not sure what happens the last week of January.

Lots of Walls

Saturday we stopped by to check on progress. Indeed, as the builder told us, the exterior walls of the house were almost all up, along with most of the interior walls. This is the view that greeted us as we drove up.

Southeast Corner

It is surprising to me how little our house looks from the outside. The porch looks tiny, as does the foyer. It will be different when it is finished, I am sure.

Front Porch and Foyer

Marlene wanted an exact measurement of a particular kitchen dimension. It ended up being 3/4 of an inch larger than the architect's drawing. This little extra was exactly what she needed for the cabinet layout she drew up! I am getting ready to take that measurement.

Lots of Interior Walls

The front and back garage walls are built but not raised.

Garage Walls

We are eagerly looking forward to our views. This is from our bedroom window. Not bad for being winter and having this scraggy-looking creep in the foreground.

Bedroom Window View

And the view out the west window of the great room is not bad either.

West Window View

Walls Finally!

It has been too many weeks of almost no progress. The holidays and a dispute with the foundation wall company delayed progress a couple of weeks. Finally on Monday the remaining backfilling was accomplished. Marlene went out to check on progress and almost got stuck in the driveway. All of the snow we got the first week of January melted and we got a lot of rain since. This has softened up the driveway tremendously.

Messy Driveway

On Tuesday the lumber was delivered and they started framing the main floor on Wednesday. We drove out Thursday to check it out for ourselves. Our builder mentioned earlier in the day that one of the guys on the framing crew had gotten stuck in the driveway. He recommended that we park on the road and walk in. As we approached the driveway, we saw headlights coming at us out the driveway, so we waited. A small car and two pickups came out. I decided that, if a car smaller than mine was able to drive through it, I should be able to too. I let neither Marlene's desire to not risk it nor the fact that the first 100 feet of the driveway was under water disuade me from driving in. Once we got back to the house site we saw a little pickup (that had been parked off the driveway) being pulled out by a bigger pickup. In fact, it was very near where we had gotten the minivan stuck weeks earlier. We parked on the large gravel part of the driveway and looked around.

The first thing we saw was walls!

South and North Walls

Looking ESE From the Drive

Then we started exploring our new house from the inside. Only two of the walls were actually standing, but we had to celebrate with our first kiss in the new house.

View of the woods from the great room.

Mar looking out the kitchen window.

With all the rain and melted snow, everything is incredibly muddy. (Something tells me this is a 'feature' of our new place that we will be dealing with for decades.) The framers built the back wall of the garage, left it lying down and used it as a work surface for building other walls. Smart!

Improvised Work Surface

We heard today (Friday) that all of the exterior walls are up and most of the interior walls, as well. We will try to get out and take more pictures this weekend despite being very busy both days.

Cheers!

Basement Slab Poured

Friday our builder called to say that the basement floor was poured. Further, he was fairly convinced that they had beaten the winter weather. They should be able to proceed with the house even if the weather turns nasty. If it gets super cold, it may mean a delay of a few days. But we have enough done now that we don't have to worry about being delayed until spring.

When we arrived after Mass on Sunday, we found the makeshift door blowing in the wind. We had a lot of rain Saturday night accompanied by a lot of wind. The tarps were not covering all of the 'roof' (actually the main floor underlayment). Water covers about half of the floor. It was dripping from above.

Wet basement floor.

Power float used to smooth the concrete.

We were expecting the slab to be poured on Tuesday and the backfilling to be done the next day. Since the slab was not poured until Friday, the backfilling is still not done. With the holidays this week, it may not get done until January. The good news is that the excavator is still on site.

Excavator still on site.

With all of the snow melting and the rain, there was a lot of water inside the basement. They put it to good use digging a trench for the water to drain from the basement. We have our own mini Erie Canal (kinda reminds me of trenching around tents when we are camping).

Trench to drain basement.

I wanted to see how much of the main floor was exposed when the wind blew the tarps.

Checking the tarps.

It looks like only a quarter of the floor area is exposed to the weather.

Tarps blowing.

Nearly Ready for Basement Slab

The next big step is to pour the concrete basement slab. Once it cures a bit, they can back fill the basement walls that are below grade. The concrete slab keeps the ground (especially the water and frost in the earth) from pushing in the basement walls.

The rough plumbing is already in, but it still needs to be buried better.

Bathroom drain needs more gravel and less water around it.

We are concerned about the water inside the foundation. You can see it in the trench next to the foundation in the next picture, as well as around the drain pipe in the previous picture.

Water inside the foundation.

We will be insulating under the concrete slab to keep the basement floor comfortable and to reduce energy costs.

Insulation

While Marlene was on site, she investigated the amount of tree shadow that would be blocking the sunlight coming in the windows. This was the day before the winter solstice at a little before 12:30PM. This is quite representative of the longest shadow of the winter. It looks like the tall cottonwood tree to the south is far enough away from the house.

No tree shadow on the house.

It was estimated to be about 80' tall and the house is about 165' from the tree. My experiments, carried out at home, showed that a 22" vertical ruler cast a 48" shadow at the sun's peak on the solstice. This gives a ratio of about 1:2.2. However, the base of the tree is several feet below the basement floor level. We will get a better read on this next year when we are actually living there, but for now it does not look like a problem.

Basement Closed In

Thursday and Friday were busy days on the house. They framed in the south and east basement walls, set the steel I-beam, put the floor trusses in place and put on most of the floor decking. Expecting snow this weekend, they covered the openings with visqueen, covered the main floor with tarps and even put on a temporary plywood door.

Northeast corner.

Plastic window covering.

With the OSB sheathing in place and the "gangplank" leading up to the door, it almost looks like we are ready for extensive rains rather than just winter.

Anyone seen Noah?

Ready for snow.

It is a good thing they were thinking ahead. As I look out my window on Sunday a little after noon, I see a lot of snow blowing. We probably have 8 inches already and it is still snowing.

Framing Started

This week they frame the basement and put on the main floor trusses and decking. On Wednesday we visited with most of the kids (Heather, John, Becca, Alex, Rob and Pete). We watched them swing a little steel and walked in the woods.

Some of the wood framing is in place.

They had a crane on site to lift the steel I-beam pieces. We watched them pick up one.

Lifting the beam.

Guiding it over the house.

We were expecting the beam to be put in place, but no, they just laid it on the basement (dirt) floor. How anti-climatic!

Lowering it to the floor.

We availed ourselves of the opportunity to take a walk in the woods. This was the first time John had seen the property and only the second time Pete had.

"Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland"