Little steps - Big reward

There are three season around here. Spring, Summer and Hunting Season.

We continue on with the walls and ceilings. The goal is to have the electrician back to finish his work in March. Until then, we will be working steady on the tongue and groove boards on the walls and ceilings. As you can see below we finished one bedroom. Well, 3 walls and the ceiling.

Sometimes we have to re-adjust our priorities.
It often depends on the weather, but then when hunting season starts. Well, like I said, we hunt.

In preparation for our Spring garden. My husband designed and built these beds. We had a successful crop last year, but we believe we will have better water control with this system. Will let you know.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Resting our weary bones and admiring our kitchen cabinets. We are going to clear coat the wall behind the cabinets before we install them. We are also going to stain the cabinets so they stand out more. It may be a clear coat, if that provides enough color. 

Started ceiling in the master bedroom. These smaller rooms are going fast. I suppose that was the ultimate plan. We did the largest room first, so these seem easy. In planning for the electrician and A/C man in March, we will complete every wall and ceiling to the point they require. Then if we have more time, we will just keep going. The cut outs are going well. 

Had to take time out for Christmas tree project at entry and decorate 9ft tree in the house.

Merry Christmas!

Life Happens and the ceiling is tops!

8-13-17 Life happens...
The tongue and groove walls and ceilings are slow going, but getting done. Life happened and we had to delay some building. We are back on track and working through the 100 degree heat to install the tongue and groove walls and ceilings.  The living area walls are complete with the installation of the 1 x 8 x16 pine T&G.  The North side of the ceiling from the wall to the center beam was finished today.

Left to do: trim.  We have had a long standing discussion on the color of the trim. Matching or working out the colors of all the permanent fixtures, floor, walls, trim, etc. is difficult.  Hours of discussion go into deciding on staining, painting, tile or wood floors. Today we decided (again) to go with paint on the floors. We will let you see how that goes when we get to that juncture.

WALLS !!!

Walls!  It makes me feel like we are getting closer to being done, although we are far from it.
We worked through all the hassle of getting the tongue and groove boards to the house. Now I am in training on installing boards as high up as I can reach (that is not far).  This way I can help while the Foreman works on other things. Here is my first wall. Short and sweet.

  

As luck would have it, the nail gun bit the dust and we both had to stop working. The process is relatively easy. My main goal was to get them on straight, level, tight, with the groove side out and nail in the top, not the notch, so the nail won't show. No problem....you can only see a couple nails.

Moving right along

  This last week has been exciting!  

  We are moving right along with our preparations for the electricity installation and heat pump install.  To have everything ready for the electrician we needed to finish attaching 2" wide wood strips to the metal wall supports.  This will enable the electrician to place all the junction boxes where they need to go. We had a walk thru with our electrician and feel confident he will do a great job.

  The electrical rough-in is this week!  Although this weekend was nice and cool 50 - 60 degrees, the heat is coming!!

  Since we have purchased the outdoor lights, they can be installed this week. We are very excited about this because we almost finished installing the shutters. Once the lights are installed we will just about have a finished exterior.




Here are photos of updated exterior with shutters on side complete!

The shutters were a bit of a pain. Each one took a bit more time than we expected. But then most everything usually does. 😊

  With the "R" panel sheet metal "hills and valleys" we had to insert 1" thick spacers strategically behind each shutter so that they were secure and flat against the panels. Occasionally, we had a bolt in a seam of the panel that required a slight cut out on the backside of the shutter. Using carriage bolts we secured the shutters nice and tight.

  We have two lower windows and the three upper windows on the front to finish another day.

  They look terrific and we installed all the ones the electrician will need to help him place the outside lights.

Wall strips installed above and below all windows and on all upright wall supports. The tongue and groove wood planks for the walls will be nailed right into those boards. We chose this route instead of installing another framed wall to keep the depth of the walls and window frames to a more desirable size.

 We are starting to be able to purchase interior items. The small bathroom dresser/vanity is being refinished and we placed our blue and white vessel sink on top and it looks fantastic. The copper exposed plumbing with the blue handles will look great too!

 The trees think it is Spring already!

Back to business

12-8-16 update

Beams up an installed over 1/2 of the house - bedrooms, bathrooms, washroom

The beams over the living area are a work in progress. 

Each 20' beam is being lifted and installed by myself and my husband. No small feat!  

Break for Deer Season

Just a quick post :: After our Break for Deer Season and our First Annual Thanksgiving Family Dinner, we are getting back to building.

The rafters are going in slowly and carefully. Ladders don't take kindly to your knees after continual usage. Never the less, as of today, we have rafters up and over 1/4 of the rooms.

Oh and deer season went well:

DAYS 57- to month No. 2 Interior walls

Here we are at DAYS 57-58

The builder, Huff Welding, finished most of the outside. The underpinning for the side porch looks great! They also installed the wind vane for us. So glad we didn't have to figure out how to get up there!! They will come back when we have the front porch ready for underpinning and wood burning stove stack ready to install.

LOOKS GREAT!!










We are pre fabricating the walls in sections inside the house and have installed the two 6" wall sections for the laundry room and the small 1/2 bath. Not as heavy to lift as we thought. Laundry wall includes cut outs for dryer vent to outside wall. All walls will be bolted to the foundation.

Bathroom and laundry walls - 6"

Next,  the framing is complete for the interior walls within the master bathroom. There are two interior 8' walls separating out the shower and toilet. These walls are 8' leaving ventilation space to the remaining areas of the bathroom. The ceilings will be 10'. Door for master bath is a 80 x 30 opening. We will be fabricating a sliding barn door with reclaimed wood and barn door rollers for opening and closing off bathroom.

Now we can see shape of master bedroom(lft), master bath and 2nd bedroom(rt)

Hummingbirds are passing through town!

The cedar shutters are coming along. Using cedar fencing to reduce cost and increase ease of construction. All will be covered with a clear polyurethane which adds a nice color to them.  Here are a few photos. First photo is of back side.  Each shutter will have 3 panels and angled cross support. We are still working on the process for attaching them to the house.  Note: scorpion stings HURT!

Next up: hallway walls, finish shutters, getting really close to contacting electrician and A/C man!
9/18/16

DAY 43-44 Installing interior framing - more changes

DAY 43-44 Interior begins

Now the real work begins!  For us anyway. The builder has almost finished exterior framing, roof and walls. We are just missing a few minor finishes.  So now begins our two man (one man, one woman) interior construction job.

Day 43-44 was spent putting up about 30 framed boxes that will hold the ceiling joists giving us 10' walls through out the house.

The boxes were originally going to be fewer and larger, but the exterior frame went up in such a way that we had to change plans. With teamwork, my husband and I made them all and they all fit! It took quite a bit longer to make all the boxes, every one a different size. But they are done and installed. 
 

Sam loves that the windows are just his height so he can keep watch!

MORE CHANGES:

After checking measurements for built-in kennels in laundry, we decided to move the 6" wall back a foot. This will give us about 2'+  space from the door framing to the wall. At first thought, with the plumbing pipe already in the foundation, we thought it would not be possible. But it will work out great and opening the laundry room a bit will really help. Since the back entry will be through that room, it just made since to make the change.   It will take a foot away from the large second bedroom, but that won't be missed. We will be adding one wall that will enclose the pipe, but we will gain a much better floor plan.

Planning the exterior lights we decided not to put any electrical wiring in the underpinning over the porches.  So we called the electrician and put him on hold.  We will be installing wall sconces along the porch and beside each door. There will also be one antique gooseneck light above the front door for additional available lighting.  No ceiling fans on the porches.. just don't make since when it just circulates the 100 degree heat.

Addition:  Needing a project (to keep me out of his way??) I have begun design and fabrication of shutters for the windows.  Still in the planning stages, looking at cedar with stain or clear coat to maintain a darker brown color over time.  Here is the test. He is checking my measurements! color is way to lite.