November to 2013

Two months without a blog post...wonder what I was up to...searching plumbing fixtures, perhaps? Dragging toilets to the shed to store until we need them in the building? Learning more than I wanted to know about frameless glass shower panels?

Thankfully, Neal continued to work, moving the scaffolding around the house.

Can you tell how high this is? 

 He did the shakes on the front gable (with shakes he split from our land) during a HUGE wind/rain storm.  Yikes.

Coming In

Here's the latest project, done in between setting up scaffolding for shingling, and dealing with the door issue.

Setting rocks

The poles are cedars from the land, peeled in the spring.  

It POURED every day he worked on this.

Now all this side needs is the door (and the final fill, to bring up the ground level).

Now he'll juggle painting and finishing the doors with doing the shingling. Two of the three doors are here now...

Tarring and Papering

While we were on choose-the-woodstove detail,  Neal cranked away at WACK WACK WACKing tar paper on, installing windows, and detailing the beautiful cedar siding on the lower half of the building. He was almost done, but not quite.

The first rain of the season brought 1 1/2 " in two days. On the second day,  we broke out the buckets to catch drips from the unpapered areas (south facing windowseat roof, maybe?).  Uh, time to get the rest of that paper on.

Neal, Uma and I finished the east face on Sunday afternoon, windows and all.

This was taken around the 24th:  gutters and downspouts are on.  This is a big step.  We're trying to remind each other of our progress. It helps when dealing with the myriad of small problems that come up.  Like what?

Like, the reason why no doors are installed...
We're still waiting the 5 week leadtime for the doors that have the required low-e glazing, that was expected. 

But the clear glazed front door was supposed to come in 7-10 days.  Twenty days later, it arrived - an inch shorter than expected.  So what's an inch?  Well, trim that no longer aligns.  Windows next to the door that don't align.  And a stumpier look (we had wanted taller doors, but balked at the increased cost of the "special" size).

So, now we're waiting another 7-10 days for a door that is the height Neal framed for it.

And look, the roof and the gutters are on!!

50 year hat

The upcoming rains became the daily topic with everyone...when would they start...when was the last time we've had so many days of sun in a row?  And in the sun, Neal & Kenny got the upper roof on.

 

Neal started on the lower roof, but had to hold off.

Why?

This little guy.

Before Neal could put it in, he had to know WHERE.  And that depended on the stove it was connected to.  The best draft happens with a straight pipe, no turns.

Masonry stove?  Wood stove?  Steel (convection)? Cast iron (radiant)? Soapstone (slow steady heat)?

We went on a massive stove researching week.  Which stretched into two.

And finally, we chose a combination stove that has a steel firebox with an enameled cast iron casing.  It's a little clunky looking, but from what we learned, it will be the stove for the way we use wood heat.  Check out the Alderlea T5 here:  http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/pacaldert5.htm

It even has a cooking surface with warming wings - the only one we saw with anything like it.

So then he could continue.

And fuss through the skylight details, with Bruce's help.

What's that?  The first rain of the season, right after the roof went on?  Yahoo!

Yet another Big Truck

Lopez Ready Mix (Bob) is getting good at backing their cement trucks down our driveway and around the corner to the house.

 Huck, thank you!!

As he was driving the truck away, Bob asked:  "What is that room anyway?"
We love that question!  The front entry is a response to our site and this (I've lived here long enough now to be annoyed by our 'temperate') climate.

It's a wind break.  There is an exterior door opening to the south and french doors opening to the inside of the house.
The new concrete floor will be thermal mass (for collecting heat and releasing it at night).
The skylights and the windows (all with clear glazing, not low-E, because this is "unheated space"!  ...brilliant...) will bring in heat, which we can move into the house by opening the inner french doors. 
And, not to be ignored, this is where Neal's citrus plants will live...he's a lemonhead...did you know?

And as a foil to all the trucks and cement, here's a shot of Uma in the orchard.  Note the shadows! Must be sun coming through the clouds.

Ms. LULL stops by

Mitrebox sent over the Lull to help out today

Tom squeaked her in past the studio

And held our second floor sheetrock outside our bedroom window.  Then Neal, Bruce, David and I brought it through the window and stacked it inside.  No, we're not ready for hanging sheetrock.  But we want to install the upstairs windows, and it would be a trick to bring all that rock up the stairway.

What a monster machine - and what a break for our backs!

August was for playing

But now he's back. Quick, get it dried in before the rain starts!

 First window, installed and trimmed out

 Uma's room, all three windows in, with reverse board and batten done on the first floor.