May 11, 2002 We're working to get Big Beatrice out today -- an enormous pine stump, 16 inches at the 3 foot level. It rains off and on, driving us in. Phineas, an enormous white oak stump, waits close by. The mud doesn't help. May 12 -- Mother's Day and Dad's 80th Birthday I worked on Big Beatrice for two hours in the morning before we went to Danville. Barbara and kids helped for another two hours in the evening. She fought us like a wounded rhino, but she came out! Phat Phineous is the last major barrier to get the foundation crew in. (found out later, it's Dad's 79th.) May 18 -- Saturday Phat Phineous came out this evening. What a relief! Now, only a few small to medium stumps stand in the way of the dig for the basement. I'm trying to persuade Barbara to let me fell four more large pines near the site. Mostly, this is to improve access and view. But, it'll be a lot of work to clear them up. May 19 -- Sunday All stumps now out of the site. One of those pines is down and partly cleaned up. May 21 -- Tuesday Richard Wallace, the foundation contractor, came out this morning. We talked about an hour. He suggested that we add some four-foot pieces of Superior wall to guard the basement door. May 26 -- Sunday After Barbara worked all week, we still had a few trees close to the site that needed to be removed. They're all finally gone, now. At last, an end to the stumps (for a while). I still want to get out one large pine to the south of the site. Barbara is considering. She is also digging -- the path down slope to the dry well. May 27 -- Monday -- Memorial Day We sat in our new living room and debated the altitude of the floor. The effect on drainage and steps and the north deck. Result: the house rose 4 inches. That should save more than 400 cubic feet of dirt for the mountain that we must find a place for. Kids are clearing space in the pasture area for the mountain. June 01 -- Saturday During the past week, Kira and Devon finished making space for the dirt and Barbara dumped a couple bucket loads that were in her way. We have felled the last of the trees surronding the site. One was an 16" diameter pine and I really want to make posts out of it. I left Barbara to do most of the clean up. Brevet helped her while I loafed at work. June 02 -- Sunday We got the batter boards up today. Carefully leveled with the water level and measured by pulling on the 100' tape as hard as I could pull, it defines the exact site at last. The place is beginning to look like a building site. June 07 -- Sunday This week Barbara has been digging a "canyon" behind the site. This is a gently sloping path from the basement door down to ... air! ...for drainage. The canyon will remain as the "walk out" for the basement. We will have a lot of landscaping to do, someday. Things should start hopping around here very soon. We talked to Cari, assistant to our engineer, today. He's the key road block. Can't get a loan without a contract for logs & timbers; can't order them 'til we know what we have to have. We CAN pay for the foundation without the loan, but it'll be tight. June 08 -- Sunday I put an overhead rack on the truck, today. I need a long piece of steel angle. We worked on the canyon some, too. Tractor busted a hydralic hose again. June 09 -- Monday Barbara scheduled the dig! It'll be Wed. or Thurs. She worked all day trying to finish the canyon before the big machines show up. Still some way to go on that. Hurry; hurry! June 13 -- Thursday The big dig begins. Phillipé dug and Jose carried. They dug all day and got ¾ of it out. We helped carry the dirt away, but Phillipé still kept ahead of us. I mentioned to Richard Wallace that we needed a 12" frost trench near the basement door. He told Phillipé... June 14 -- Friday Sixty tons of small gravel came, starting at 7:30. I went to Work. Phillipé and Jose didn't show until 10:00 (flat tire?). Phillipé agreed to do our basement landing and the trench in the canyon. Nice... but he forgot about the frost trench. I did, too. We have an enourmous mountain of dirt in the yard. It's 84 feet long by 25 wide and 17 feet tall. Wow! June 15 -- Saturday ExecCom Meeting in Charlotte -- no work. June 16 -- Sunday Got to get ready! The inspector is coming tomorrow morning. If he passes us (frost trench?), the the SW people might come in the afternoon. We put logs into the gully, stakes at the corners. I clean up the canyon some; afraid the inspector will demand a mud fence. June 17 -- Monday About 11:30, Barbara calls Tom at work: we passed inspection and SW is "on the way." Tom makes it home (35 miles) before SW gets here (8 miles), but not by much. There's this enormous crane. Later, there's this enormous semi with our walls on it. Then a van! Four guys install the walls in four hours. It was fascinating to watch Jeff lift the concrete panels 45 feet or more over the trees to the south, then drop the wall within ½" of the target. The guys were playing tug-a-war with a balky tape measure on top of those walls -- whee! We've got a basement! June 18 -- Tuesday Barbara checks the level. It's right on. So, she pays for the walls: $8½K. June 21 -- Friday I spoke to the engineer on the phone today for about an hour. He thinks LVL is very much stronger than dimensional lumber. He wants to replace my 7½" wide grider with a 5¼" width of LVL. Worse, he wants posts about every 8 feet along the front and back walls to support the band girt. !! We agreed I could move the band girt up one course so it "rests on" the second floor's joists. Next he surprized me by saying 1" oak dowels can only support 85 pounds of shear! I was so astonished that I forgot our design doesn't demand much of the dowels. I'll have to write the %^$# gonif and explain it to him. Next he wants to talk about wind load on the log wall! I would have to get a trainee. He also can't figure out if the log wall can support the second floor and roof. He's holding up the loan. If I ditch him and get another engineer, there'll be additional delay. I go shopping in the evening. The project moves. June 22 -- Saturday Today, we put supports in the corners of the basement and started the screed boards. Barbara finished digging the three footings for the basement posts. June 23 -- Sunday Finished the screed boards in the morning and starting leveling the gravel. There's quite a bit extra, which we are carrying out in buckets, literally. June 25 -- Tuesday Early morning, we put pipe under the wall, foam near (under) the door, re-rod down, and the vapor barrier. Then I go to work. About 10:30, Barbara lets me know that we passed another inspection -- no mention of the pipe under the wall. June 26 -- Wednesday Added another pipe under the wall ;-) We will say that's for water heater overflow, if asked. (Well, we're going to do that!) We're not quite done when the pumper truck shows up, but we get done before the crew comes and long before the concrete truck comes. So, they pour the basement floor -- five guys plus a supervisor and the guy who runs the pumper truck. They do okay, but not as good as the lone guy who poured the shop floor. I believe Graystone Concrete shorted us: the 15.5 yards we ordered barely, barely fills the 13.8 yard volume of the floor and footers. Oh, well, it was enough. It begins to drizzle. After all this drought, it wants to rain on my pour! Thankfully, it stops after just a couple minutes -- no harm. Later, it rains more. There are some small land slides in the overdig. I need to hurry with the subfloor, so I can back fill! I get to work by 12:30, leave at 20:10 and count it as a full day. I love my job! June 27 -- Thursday Barbara orders materials for the subfloor at Lowes contractor yard. Lowes says "we'll loan you the $2000 at no interest for a year, if you get a Lowes card." So, we do! Ain't gonna use it, though: we couldn't pay that part off! Barbara called me at work. She's found the 8x8 posts we need for the basement. I leave work to get them. They'll sit in the truck just fine until I head home. June 28 -- Friday Signed contract for logs & timbers -- $8K down and delivery expected in mid August. We have plenty to do, though. June 29 -- Saturday I got the major pile out of the canyon while Barbara was giving the keynote address at the "Independence Party" state convention (eight delegates). It's close enough to start trenching, but there is still a lot of dirt to be moved from that area. June 30 -- Sunday Work on saw horses. Radial saw is busted. Strings in canyon. Still a lot to dig. July 1 -- Monday Got a 20' piece of angle 3x3x¼. Fixed the saw. Wood for subfloor was delivered while I was at the dentist. Devon signed for it. Devon and I moved it into the basement (Barbara left for Indy -- National LP convention). July 2 -- Tuesday Devon and I moved more boards into the basement in the morning. I had to leave when there were a dozen or so left. Devon moved them during the day. He also covered everything up when it started to rain. July 4 -- Thursday Brevet came over about noon and the three guys worked on the sill plates until evening. We shot some fireworks before Brevet left. Though we worked hard, there doesn't seem to be much progress: just one short sill plate actually got on. Drilling the extra holes in the concrete top beam is hard. July 6 -- Saturday Drilling holes in concrete is easy! That little drill stand is wonderful for this. Devon and I have just over half of the sill plate on. Problem: there is a ¼" step at the south east corner. We saw wedges 55" long starting at a quarter and tapering to an eighth. July 7 -- Sunday The radial saw died during the night. Oh, woe is I! Barbara and Kira have been gone a week. August 11 -- Sunday Wow! It's been a month since I recorded anything. It's been a hectic month. The main work has been getting the sill plate, triple perimeter box, posts, LVL girder, and floor joists in place. We took time to measure where the stair well, first floor partititons, tub, and major plumbing would go before putting up floor joists. That meant doubling some and adding solid blocking to others. Notice I'm still working a full time job and webmastering for LPNC. We passed the framing inspection. Now we are putting down 3/4 inch OSB subflooring. It goes much slower than we thought. Some we shim; others need trimming; and it's hard dancing around on those joists. August 14 -- Wednesday We finish the flooring and the kids put water repellent on it. Barbara immediately orders gravel and begins the back fill, because tomorrow... August 15 -- Thursday We got our logs and timbers! Barbara, bless her, arranged for a fork lift to be delivered to our place at 7:30. The first truck, driven by Pete, showed up around 8:40. Pete decided he could drive that 60' long thing into our back yard. Later he regreted that decision, but he did get out with only minor damage. I drove fork lift and was not unbearably clumsy. The forklift had big tractor type tires, but still it slipped around a lot. Pallets over 14' long from the second truck, we put on Patrick's trailer for the trip down WarmOak road. We unloaded 20 large pallets by 16:30. Then the rains came. August 18 -- Sunday I had to go into to work, yesterday, and we didn't get much done today, either. I'm afraid this is going to be a long project. I sweep and set up fans to dry out the basement. We moved the stair stringers into the shop in the morning. I buried the AC drain pipe out to the piazza by the basement door, while Barbara worked on the back fill. We got a little more gravel on my end before the rains came yet again. This is getting old! The subfloor in Kira's room is already buckling. August 19 -- Monday I went to work the whole day. Barbara routed the subfloor edges and water-proofed it. I went shopping in the evening and fretted about sealing the dovetail corners. August 24 -- Saturday Ron Wolfe came over today to see what we were doing and get his samples. We set up three pieces in the corner by the wood stove and discussed how to seal and protect the dovetail corners. Fortunately, we had a break from the rain for this. By afternoon, it was raining again. August 31 -- Saturday The blocks for the canyon were delivered, but we haven't done much more. Rain all week. September 18 -- Wednesday I've taken three days vacation, so far, plus labor day and we have yet to lay the first log. We did finish the canyon wall. Brevet did the final gluing on Friday. Saturday we went to Asheville for an ExecCom meeting; on Sunday, it rained all day. I have a good start on the front door frame. I'm enjoying it, though it's slow. September 29 -- Sunday We put up the front door frame this evening. It's really nice to have something added to the house, at last. Barbara has been sanding, measuring, and cutting the half logs. Soon, soon. October 11 -- Friday That door frame is up. It's beautiful. The back door buck is up, too. We have one (count it! ONE) course of logs on. Tuesday, we got stopped by uncertainty about how to put the outlet boxes in the second course. We went to ask the inspector (now, Larry) and it's a good thing, because our boxes were too shallow. I'm going to have to make another template. October 13 -- Sunday Some of our walls are now 15" high. Whee! Barbara had to go support Rachel at the calendar signing in the afternoon. I installed and activated our first outlet - west wall near the stove in the living room. It's much better than extention cords draped over the wall. I'll do another one tomorrow. October 20 - Sunday Progress still very slow. Tallest wall is 22½ inches. The good news is that the outlets are all in at the base and 6 windows begin at this level. The bads news is that I don't have the window bucks ready. I spent all day Saturday working on them and, with Barbara's help, got all the pieces ripped late that night. Only 5 steel angles are ready :-(. Today, in between helping with the three logs we laid, I routed the bottoms for six window bucks. Now, only the sides and tops must be routed (and the splines milled). October 27 - Sunday We "lost" half of Saturday going to Candi and Alex's wedding. Worth it. Now we have three courses on all the way around. Barbara is still optimistic. Not me. The window bucks are mostly milled, with only the splines yet to do. We assembled the first one late this evening. It's planning to rain again tomorrow, so I'll just go to work. I left the steel for the window sides too long, so we have to saw it and re-paint that end. October 31 - Thursday (Halloween) I took the day off. We got only one small log down. My cutting jig had gotten out of square somehow and I had to remake it. We then spent some time trying to get the Makita to cut square. The saw's shoe is floppy and not even flat. We spent the rest of the day preparing log pieces for the section between the front door and the front window. November 1 - Friday Seven logs today! Well, they were partly prepared yesterday and they were all 34½ inches long. Still, right by the front door, the wall is six feet tall. November 2 - Saturday This morning we started with the 11th course near the front door. Then the dining room window buck and two logs between there and the door. We filled in the fourth course on the north wall. Then... then the damn circular saw just up and quit. It cost an hour and a half to go get a new one (and $126). By the time I got back, it was almost dark. We put down the fifth log of the day and were just about to put down a sixth when Barbara noticed we had not put weather stripping on the window buck (dining room). With dark descending around us and caulk setting up on the log we preped, we jacked that window frame up from the one couse surronding it, inserted w-stripping, and squessed it back down. Then we put the sixth log of the day on in the dark. Hope it doesn't rain tonight. November 3 - Sunday There are three live outlets in the house (six plugs). We have two long extensions with three outlets at the ends. So, how come we always have to unplug something before we can use a tool? We have a belt sander, two pad sanders, one "skill" saw, big Mak, a drill, two routers, a planer, a shop vac, and a radio. Eleven things to plug in! Thank god for the battery drill. Barbara wants another router... I guess she's going to get one because the old one crapped out, today. It's going to rain again tonight. We covered things up a bit early and went to the symphony (courtesy Bob Dorsey). It was great. November 9 - Saturday Barbara took Mik to the specialty tool shop Thursday. They ground down part of the shoe that was binding against the case. Since then it has performed much better. It's still a bit flaky -- depending on how hard I push -- but we got acceptable cuts all day Friday and today. We've had a good couple of days. The north wall is now close to six feet. The kids left in the afternoon for Jessie's birthday party and overnight. FML November 11 - Monday The rains come again. November 15 - Friday Barbara had four pieces sanded and ready to be cut to length. We put them in the living room before she left for Charlotte. Tomorrow, I have the ExecCom meeting; she'll be in Charlotte. November 17 - Sunday The rains come again. It would be nice if it would let up long enough for things to dry out, just once. I have ordered an expensive, "low temperature" dehumidifier. Novermber 30 - Saturday We've had a couple weeks since that last rain. Still, the basement is damp, despite the dehumidifier churning away 24 hours a day. Barbara has been filling in between the windows on the back (East) wall. That's going pretty well. So, what have I been doing? Going to work, mostly. I made the crane. Tonight we cut the header for the utility window. tomorrow, I will start making a slot for the spline. December 08 - Sunday Ice storm! We've been without power for 3½ days and there are fallen limbs and damage all over. We lost many pines and cedars. There was damage to several hardwoods, too. The hardest to bear was the maple and the dogwood outside where our bedroom window will be. We'll wait and see how much they can recover. December 16 - Monday We did some clean up from the storm. It was pretty cold mostly, but warmed up nicely in the middle of the day. Still, the days are very short and we didn't get a lot done. At the corner in Devon's room, two of the left dovetails were too big. We had to shave 'em down to get the corner to fit. December 29 - Sunday We had a pretty good day, fitting the header over the bathroom window and putting up logs between the south windows (B to K) up to the height of the window bucks. Tomorrow, Monday, will be warm, so I'm staying home 'til noonish. Unfortunately, we have to take the truck in for repairs and get kerosene. We almost enjoy straightening a bowed log, now that the "rack" can be lifted into place with the home-made crane with a $15 winch. Yesterday, however, we had a log that was warped in two directions. The timberlock screws would not pull it down. So we counter sunk a ½" by 10" lag screw and cranked it down with a wrench. I'm glad that only one in a hundred needs such extremes. January 12 - Sunday (2003) It was very cold this week-end: highs in the low 30s and lows about 20°F. So, we start late and knock off early. Still, we managed to get a good start on the octagonal window. We made the buck big, then fit it to the window and trimmed it, little by little until it fit the window well enough, leaving room for some weather stripping when we install it, later. We haven't had rain in two weeks, maybe three. But the bottom on the subfloor is still wet. Today the basement defhumidifier shows 75% humidity -- about as low as it ever gets down there. February 3 - Monday "I really enjoy this," Barbara says. We're putting the headers over the windows. The place kinda looks like a house, now. But it's raining, again. February 22 - Sunday More rain. Barbara's in Houston for a state chairs' meeting. When the rain stopped this morning, I grumpily vacuumed both floors again and had time left to put two -- count 'em -- two logs on. These were the first logs of the thirteenth course. March 2 - Sunday Rain. We got nothing done on Saturday, except installing a new winch on the crane. The $110 winch is much better than the $20 winch. Sunday, we vacuumed two floors again and had time left to get two logs on. March 9 - Sunday Yesterday, Barbara had to go to Greesboro for their county convention. I didn't do much. Today, we built the wheeled scaffold. Most of the thirteenth course is on. I'm taking some time off; tomorrow I must work on the span over the front door, which is a tad uneven. March 16 - Sunday Rain, rain, rain. Barbara did some sanding and selecting on Friday, but we didn't get any spell long enough to uncover things. So, no logs installed. We carved the settling slots for the log that bridges the front door. Then we glued up a new table for the radial saw, which badly needed the help. March 22 - Saturday It rained all week, but we caught a break today and the weather was fine. We finished the log that spans the front door and got it on. It looks good now. We'll have to work hard to keep it dry. The thirteenth course is almost done. March 23 - Sunday Finally, the thirteenth course is done and we've started on the band girt. It's quite a task to pick out the pieces of 8x10 so that they'll match when on the wall. We milled the bottoms of the back side to that they'll fit on the logs below. The top needs some milling, too. ...later. March 25 - Tuesday We got two pieces of the band girt on. That runs from Devon's room to somewhere in the bathroom. It looks pretty good, so far. March 30 - Sunday Rain! Again with the damn rain. Water is an inch deep or more in the house because the holes keep clogging up. We didn't get to do anything yesterday because of an ExecCom meeting. Now we're losing another day. April 5 -- Saturday I took off Thursday and Friday and we made some progress on the band girt. It's going pretty well, but will require hand fitting on the outside to make it look right. Cirque du Soleil was great Thursday night. April 12 -- Saturday We started the day by vacumming several loads of water out the house, AS USUAL. The band girt is on, but there is much more to do to it. We worked all day on the plates at the back and the stub dove-tails. April 16 -- Thursday I took two days off. We got the band girt "clad" on the ends and outside. That's about all we did -- six work days on the band girt and we still have to plane the siding flush on top. Rain is in the forecast :-(sss May 4 -- Sunday Barely any progress. Yesterday was Julie Sabatka's service, but we still got two logs up. The chapel had 2x6 T&G valuted ceiling. The wood was stained a medium brown. Beautiful. Today we did the 16th course across the front. The wall quakes rather alarmingly when I shake it. One more thing: the forecast is for rain all week. :-( May 11 -- Sunday We finished the 16th course on Monday and we've been working on both 17th and 18th around the back between the two upstairs windows. The weather has afternoon storms in most forecasts. We almost got caught by one yesterday, but it didn't rain long. I have started the first "special cut," a dovetail with 16 inch overhang for the 18th course. It will support (at least visually) the cantilever in the 19th course. Cutting with the radial saw proved impossible -- too high. So, it's me and Slick coming after reference cuts from the circular saw. May 24 - Saturday Did I say "impossible"? Barbara bought me a 10" blade and now it's possible. Did I mention it's been raining a lot? Last week-end we got no logs up at all and it rained during the week, too. We caught a break today though; it only sprinkled on us for a few minutes. So, we got the first three logs on the 19th (square) course. That was on the end walls, east of the windows. We also figured out how and exactly where to attach the porch rafters and how to attach the top of the porch's ladder rake. Barbara undercut the SE cantilever ¼" too much. I was upset for a moment, but we decided to make the overhang a ¼" bigger instead :-). Barbara says I'll never let her forget this. That's why I wrote it down :-) May 26 - Memorial Day The day started off bad, with an inch of water in the house. I had to take off my shoes to wade in and unplug the holes in the floor. We wouldn't even have _gone_ to the basement, except the breaker was blown. Then the sun came out. Barbara cleaned up, dried out, then picked out and sanded pieces for the back wall while I cut porch rafter cut outs. We had to work all day -- until 9PM -- but we finished the 19th course on the back wall. We want to remember how many operations were needed for a corner piece: square end, cut to length, spline cut inside and out, caulk dado and 22.5° miter, sanding by belt and pad, angle cut the cantilever, sand the end, cut rafter pockets (3 or 4), cut jack post pocket, trim and sand that, measure and cut off bottom tounges in the cantilever, miter and sand all the exposed corners, then cut off the inside top tounge and sand that surface. Did I forget anything? (Like marking the screws!) Yes, check the wall for plumb. We sometimes plane 1/32" off one land or the other to keep the wall plumb. Now, that the log is "made," we put weather stripping in both grooves. Seal and caulk the dovetail in the corner, check the end spline for fit, and caulk both sides of that. Then lift the log in place and screw it down at the ends. If we're lucky, we then just screw it down about every 20". If we're not lucky, it's bowed and we have to lift the rack onto it and use the car jack to push it in (or out) to line up. A few (3 or 4) have been bowed vertically and needed ½" lag screws to force them down flush. That's all! So, the back wall is up to square. The damned air conditioning in the old house quit again. June 8 - Sunday It rained all week-end. No logs put up. Thursday, Barbara and I carried all four logs for the front into the shop. We made the cut-outs for the porch rafters. Nothing else done this week-end. June 10 - Tuesday We put up two yesterday and two today. Square! June 29 - Sunday After laboriously stacking just three course of the south gable, we took a few days off and built a temporary second floor. From there, we'll be able to reach the peak by lifting the movable, six-foot scaffolds on top of it. For now, we work from that new floor, adding small ladders as needed. It hasn't rained in a full week. This is the first such week since last September, I think. July 4 - Friday Deluge! Remnants of Hurricane Bill came through (and can Hillary be far behind?). But Barbara had some logs prep'ed and we got two on the north gable before the sun hit it. July 6 - Sunday We got the course over the tops of the upstairs windows, both sides. It's a big relief. We hadn't been able to brace the window bucks properly. They were wracked and out of plumb. We used the come-a-long to pull it up to "pretty good plumb" and we braced the wall three places. But when we put a log across the window, it jutted out from the wall a good inch at the end. So we had to hook up the come-a-long again, unbrace, and do a *good* job of alignment. Now it looks like it was always perfectly plumb. Despite getting only six pieces up in three days, it's good not to have to worry so much about the settling pocket and its spline dado getting rained on. Also, having built six courses of gable, we did some checking. The north wall is spot on center and within 0.3% of the planned slope. Pretty cool! The south wall is about a ¼" off of center; I'll measure the angle tomorrow. July 12 - Saturday Phil Jacbosen came over today to help. Phil is a good friend. We got the north gable up to course 30. Though it was braced at 24, it was quite wobbly at 30, so we braced course 29. It's going to be hard to brace it any higher. Hoping for luck. We straighten a couple of logs today by a novel technique. First fasten one end. Then I push on the other end (way out of alignment) until the second screw position on that end is aligned. Barbara or Devon fastens it there. Then we move on to the third screw position -- that requires the opposite pull (so far). And so on; at each new position, I pull or push. So far, it has worked out. We both got very tired today. (No nap.) I'm just barely able to enter this. Good night. July 22 - Tuesday Well, speaking of tired, yesterday was brutal. We laid the last, peak log and then turned our attention to gable caps. The goal was to get the first two up and the guy wires across. We didn't make it, then. But we were lucky: no rain or high winds overnight. Today, Brevet came over to help. With Kira operating the crane (Devon is at Driver's Ed), we finished placing the second (library) gable cap and got the guy wires in place and taut, with the wall plumbed, before noon. The wall is reasonably stable now. Barbara is being merciful, today, and letting me have a nap. The heat got to me, yesterday, and having to work in the sun was bad. We can't relax, yet, being way behind, but nothing is going to fall over, now. July 24 - Thursday Yesterday, it rained, so we got nothing. Today, we finished the two front gable caps. Next thing is to start the jack posts and, guess what, the timbers for those are underneath the stack of purlins! Barbara and Brevet moved the whole stack while I fiddled with numbers for the jack posts. 8-) We covered the spline for the MB closet in 1/8" rubber. It got a bit torn. We decided to use Sikaflex for the others and now I'm worried: Sikaflex is very strong. If I have to jack up the gable caps to compensate for shrinkage... will I be able to? August 2 - Saturday Yes, we spent more than a week getting ready to raise the first rafter/truss. Amazing! And much of that time I took off from work. Today we set the two #5 rafters on their stands in the morning. Then it began to rain again. After the rain let up, we lifted the crane onto the work table (with casters!) and lifted it onto the temporary floor. That's it; just one rafter! But it's up there and screwed to the wall. It looks a bit precarious with its end dangling overhead, not meeting the other rafter (which is still on the floor below). That was the morning. By evening, we had the other piece up and they met perfectly, with the peak being level with the gable end, as planned. What a relief! Pythagorus's Theorum actually works! August 6 - Wednesday Barbara wants to prepare all the remaining roof structure, before we put up any more. She's probably right, but that's a lot of pieces to sand, cut, label, and manage: 8 more rafters, 8 more collar ties, 8 more jack posts, 15 purlins, and 16 Z-braces. Fifity-five pieces! This morning, we cut the 8 jack posts. Barbara planned it well: we got two out of the busted up piece that was supposed to be a summer-end post and cut the other six so that we were left with two nice 9-foot pieces. One of them will become a summer-end post. We found a damn bee hole in one of the rafters. Looks like we didn't kill all the carpenter bees after all. August 17 - Sunday It was hot and muggy. We finished shaping and mortising all eight remaining rafters during the week. Barbara did most of the mortising while I was at work. We had a narrow escape: I miscalulated the length of the collar ties. A mere six inches, but they were tight. Barbara noticed it first, when trying to pair them up. We managed to fit them in, but one was only about an inch longer than what we had to have. Today, we finished cutting dados and preparing all eight remaining collar ties. That and a little painting of brackets was a full day. August 23 - Saturday The collar ties are all cut and ready. The bottoms of all the rafters are cut and they fit on their jack post partners. The jack posts all fit in their pockets. That's how we started the morning. So, it should be easy to put up one per day... maybe two, right? Wrong. We bring in the rafters pretty easily. Then we measure (and remeasure) span. Lay out the cuts. Double check. Maneuver the pieces into place for cutting. Make a cut; square it up with the sander -- four cuts like that. Barbara lays out the purlins and chamfers edges while I predrill holes for lag screws at the top and bolts at the bottom. The pieces were cut to shape by 13:00, when we had lunch and short siesta. Then we had to "clad" the bottoms so that the pieces could be lifted. Simon Percival and Paula came over to help. Maneuvering the pieces, the two scaffolds, and the crane on its table is very tight. We lift, screw on stands, lift, scoot scaffolds under, fit saw horses, lift and fit. Simon is big help; Paula operates the crane. Well, they're both up, on their stands by about 7 PM. We still need to set up the trestle ladder -- too short! We work around it by spanning between the scaffolds with 2x10s. Now, with dark approaching, I can adjust the two tips and lag them together. We're both very, very tired. Maybe we're too old to do this. Sept 6 - Saturday Too old or not, we're making steady progress. Four trusses are up and most of the purlins on the ends. Those two top purlins are yet to do and we have to cut and raise all the middle pieces in position to be slid over after there's support for them. I was ripping 2by for the nailers on top of the top purlins, when I saw smoke coming from the radial saw motor. That was about one second before it quit. Bummer! We got it going again after it cooled off, but I'll have to baby it. Sept 14 - Sunday In the morning, we finished the collar ties for the number three truss, then it was time to take the crane off the table. That was surprisingly easy, after setting up a pulley and ramp system, with five of us, and after Barbara reminded me to take the 85 pound block off the back. Then we cut center dadoes a pushed into place just three of the purlins for the center rack. Kira and Devon think this is fun. Well, okay, maybe we do too, just a little. There's a hurricane coming, Isabelle. But there's just no possible way we can get any roof deck up before she hits. Sept 21 - Sunday Today we moved up the last two purlins. What a relief. Nothing fell and nobody got hurt. Oh, Isabelle. She hurt us mostly by killing the power for 2½ days. I'm buying a generator. I took a little time out to cut down part of a tree that was downed by last winter's ice storm. I also discovered the wrong way to wrap sandpaper on the drum sander :-( Oct 12 - Monday I missed a week for a class, then cut diagonal braces very slowly, but now we have 12 of them up. So, we took down the guy wire anchors. Happily, the house still seems solid. I reinstalled one piece across the top purlin. I'm guessing it has 500 pounds of tension on it. Meanwhile, Barbara and Devon have been pouring footings for the porch posts. I should have put them up soon, because we can make the porch roofs. ANYthing, to get out of the rain! Oct 19 - Sunday I'm still cutting the confounded diagonals. One a day seems to be my speed; two to go. Barbara is cutting the tops of all the posts. We hope to cut all the channels at once -- on the radial saw. Oct 26 - Sunday Today, I finally finished the diagonals. Meanwhile, Barbara has done dadoes and cut to length all 18 of the porch posts. Oh, we've got the channels cut into the tops of all those posts, too. That was physically difficult; we carted them, one by one, to the shop and cut the ends on the radial saw. (That was after trying a couple with skill saw and chisels). Soon, a porch will take shape. Nov 02 - Sunday Barbara finished the dadoes (for header) and round-over on all 18 posts. Yesterday, we rasied 5 for the back porch. We're using the crane, but it's still slow. As I write, it's "second breakfast" and we've raised one. (sigh) Nov 16 - Sunday All the posts are up. We completed the beam across the tops, with it's little "Z laps". Those cost two days, but we like 'em. We got the headers on them last week-end; Kira and Devon have been nailing on floor joists. Devon was out there yesterday afternoon without being asked (he likes it :). Me, I'm making complex cuts again; you'd think I enjoyed that. This time it's the facia between the purlins over the gable cap. It's not TOO complex, but it has to be done before the roof deck can go on. Nov 21 - Friday I took the day off (one vacation day remains) and worked on porch rafters. I'm worried the inspector may balk at the cantilevered support for the last rafter at each corner, so I want to finish all the roof structure and get an inspector to sign off on it. I'll try to combine that with the inspection for the porch/deck floor framing. To aid the latter, Kira and Devon are digging a drain line under the edge of the deck (North). We need that and the sewer line buried before we frame the floor above it. So... I sawed the first two porch rafters wrong. I cut the "plumb line" on the bottom. :-[ We looked at it: I could still make the plumb cut where it should be, so I did. Then we put it up, next to last week's sample... And decided we liked it! Now, I've cut them all that way, with a bevel cut on the bottom -- symetric. Serendipidous. Nov 30 - Sunday The back porch has all its rafters. Barbara tarped about 2/3rds of it to create a "dry" spot replacing the one under the TSF, which she and Devon and Kira were finally able to remove last week. We had a blowing rain Thursday and it stayed reasonably dry under there -- this is the first time any significant amount of rain has been diverted away from the house :-/ Yesterday, we put up 10 rafters in front and put in the first couple joists under the north deck. If we have a good day, we can get the inspector out here Tuesday to inspect our roof structure. December 12 -- Friday I took off work today (last vacation day for this year) to meet with Building Inspector Larry. He showed up about 13:00; he's friendly and helpful. AND, he signed off on our roof structure! I can admit now that I was worried. What with all the cantilevers and notches and with me substituting ½" bolts in the collar ties instead of the 5/8 bolts our "engineer" suggested. I sleep better now. December 20 -- Saturday It's cold and windy. We put roof deck on the back porch when we could stand the cold. I had to go recue Brevet, who doesn't check his oil. By dark (17:00!) we had only 10 courses on, of 22 or 23 we need. And rain is in the forecast -- of COURSE. Tomorrow we have to do Soltice and see Lord of the Rings, Return of the King. January 3, 2004 -- Saturday Today, we put up the first course in the roof deck for the main house. It looks kind of lonely up there all by itself, but we're very proud of it. Barbara has sanded and stained enough for at least 8 feet on the back half of the house. That's our goal for tomorrow: 8 feet of roof deck over the dining nook. The front porch roof is up and both porches are tar-papered. Kira and Devon did a lot of that work. I'm hoping they will do much of the main deck, too. January 8, -- Thursday It was very cold yesterday. I took the day off, but we didn't get much done. There is now 8 feet of main roof up. With light snow expected, we covered that last bit tonight in the dark. January 22, -- Thursday Yes, it snowed. I had to shovel out the house :-( I finally finished the library window box. We surronded it with roof deck, so now there's over 11 feet of roof on the back side. I still need to do temporary flashing around that box and tar paper the rest. January 24 -- Saturday Barbara had a state chairs' meeting this week-end, it was Kira, Devon, and me today. It took me until 13:30 to get that rafter (#2) sanded and ready to be covered. Then the three of us put up 8 courses, then covered and flashed the library window box. But NOT far enough to cover the sanded rafter :-( So, I moved the sled ladder next to it and tarped it. I worked past dark with my little glow-bug head lamp to get that much. January 25 -- Sunday Okay, it's Sunday; snow and sleet. Nothing got done except shoveling snow out Kira's side window. It looks like the tarp is holding, but I won't know until the d@mn persipitation stops. January 31 -- Saturday It's 10:30 and I'm feeling guilty about not doing anything, yet. But it's 23° and windy. The tarp held, but there's rain in the forecast, so it has to hold again. We'll focus on window boxes today. February 14 -- Saturday Out late at Mike's last night (+115), but lazy this morning -- it's still chilly. AND there's rain, sleet, and snow in the forecast again. We got about 7 feet more on the back slope. That puts us over our bathroom, just. March 07 -- Sunday We're working on the front, now. There was a little rain, yesterday, and Barbara was gone for an ExecCom meeting, but I got the window box ready for our bedroom. The decking is up to that point now, on the front. BUT, there was a storm tonight -- strong winds. It tore a lot of our tar paper off. Fortunately, there was not much rain with it, so we're not ruined. We need to hurry. March 09 -- Tuesay I spent a day of vacation, today, just to get the tar paper repaired and ready for tomorrow's rain. :-( March 14 -- Sunday Back to the front -- we made it TO, but not past the center rafter, even after taking Friday off. It's raining, again -- surprize! March 23 -- Tuesday The window boxes weigh 88 pounds. Today, we lofted the last one (living room) into place. It was easy! We learned how, only AFTER raising the first three. It fits nicely, too. Cortez came by, to give us a quote on shingles. It was $1700 -- better than Mike's; Mike wanted $110 per hour. Per hour?! We measured the roof and will send drawings to Goshen and Murus for the SIP placement. Soon, soon, we'll be out of the rain. Tonight I saw Mercury. March 28 -- Sunday Out of the rain! Today, we finished the roof deck. It's beautiful. Now, we're dry as long as the wind doesn't blow too much. And Duke made it to the Final Four; Oh, happy day! April 3 -- Saturday Those vertical strips of stapled tar paper were coming loose yet again. Barbara convinced me that we should redo the entire roof, putting horizontal rows and using roofing nails. We think it might be quite a while before the SIP contractors can get to us, so that's what we're doing. Barbara made a start at cleaning during the week. She had some good results with bleach and TSP. May 1 -- Saturday The new, well nailed tar paper proved little better than the other. Luckily, Barbara found an enormuous tarp that can cover the entire main roof. In today's rain, the main house is dry. Just a couple of drips on the back porch. The walls have been cleaned (outside). They look pretty good. I caulked all day today and yesterday -- it's a long job. Meanwhile, Barbara, Kira, and Brevet were staining the ceiling of the back porch. That's going to be a long job, too. And today, our contract came back from Thermocore. $12K for roof insulation; hopefully sometime this month. May 9 -- Sunday (Mothers Day) Barbara finished the second coat of Cetol 1 on the south wall while I caulked the north wall. Kira and Devon -- and later, Brevet -- worked on staining the porch posts. May 23 -- Sunday Got done with caulking yesterday. Otherwise, still staining and waiting for Thermocore to come with the SIPs. I'll start working on the rake boards, today. June 06 -- Sunday We're back from the LP national convention. Kids finished the staining while we were gone. The SIPs are ready and we're only waiting to schedule the installation. Now, we're installing electric wire on the roof and I must cut a hole for the chimney, today. June 11 -- Thursday SIP installation was scheduled for Thursday, 8:00 AM. The crane was here ($85/hour). The crew showed up about 9:30. No SIPs. Indiana is on central time, so it took us until almost 10:30 to discover that the truck had broken down Wednesday night! They couldn't be bothered to call us about it. I went to work about noon (after stopping to pick up my Tux -- couldn't; it's on a truck somewhere unknown). Barbara got assurances that a new truck would be here with our SIPs, probably late tonight and surely by 8:00 AM Friday. June 12 -- Friday AM The crane got here at 8:00. The crew showed up soon after. Can't call about the truck (central time!). By 9ish we get assurances that the truck will be here at 10:30. About 10:30, we finally get to talk to the actual truck driver; he's in Greensboro! We finally get the truck in here at 12:30. And the good news about the truck is that he was able to jack-knife that thing into a tight circle and drive out again. He only damaged one beautiful oak tree and needed the wasp infested mail box removed. June 12 -- Friday PM The crane had lifted the SIPs onto the ground, so the truck could leave. Now, we have to get 'em up. The crew does most, of course (to justify their $2700 fee). I advised them a little and fetched tools that they forgot to bring. Oops, there are no screws in the package; I find 21 that they can use. Nuts to Thermocore! The installation goes fairly well: they don't have to cut anything to fit it. They did have to beat some of them pretty hard with our 18# mallet. I have work to do if the singles are to lie flat on that. I also have to foam some of the seams where the crew left a gap and couldn't be bothered to finish it out. That'll have to wait until Sunday, since we have ExecCom and an IOPL dinner on Saturday. Addendum -- Therocore says the screws were in the cab of "the" truck (which truck?). Anyway, they sent us a box full and they voluntered to accept back charge for the wasted crane time. June 20 -- Sunday This week we cut, sanded and stained boards for the North rake. The main pieces are now up. Brevet and I put up the shadow boards at the peak to measure the lower pieces. Barbara came over to see and was very impressed. The shadow boards are a nice touch. We still have to cut all pieces to length, stain the cuts, and put everything back. Then... on to the South end. ;-) July 25 -- Sunday Has it really been a month?! We have the roof all framed and winter-guard on the porches, but I have yet to install the plumbing vent. The tarp leaks horribly when the rain is heavy. I'm worried that the wood below the winter-guard will take forever to dry. July 31 -- Saturday The WinterGaurd is on -- finished! We got a break this morning with the weather: overcast most of the morning allowed us to work well past the time we would have had to break for direct sun. Tomorrow, we lay the first shingle! August 6 -- Friday I took the day off and Brevet was here all day, too. With Barbara, we got two roof windows on the back (library & loft) and singled around them. Despite the season, the weather was mild: 80° high with low humidity. That was definately a factor. We were able to work straight through until 1:30 to complete that first RW before lunch. Then we broke for sunshine in midday, starting again about 16:30 and finishing up at 20:45. Long day. (We have to break for sunshine. The Winter Guard gets so hot we leave foot prints and it's painful to touch.) August 9 -- Monday The back is done to below the skylights and it sheds water. In front, we got the chimney in on Sunday and now it sheds water. Whew! I came home early so Barbara and I could put the ridge row on. Looks good. August 11 -- Wednesday I came home a bit early, this evening. Brevet and Barbara had the living room skylight nearly ready. We put it up and flashed and shingled around it, barely beating the rain. We'll finish shingling up to the previous block in the morning. It was good to get that much, because there is a lot of rain in the forecast. Our bedroom skylight still has only OSB over it :-(. August 22 -- Sunday Last night, we finished shingling. Hooray! From this point, it's mostly inside work. As we were laying down the last dozen shingles, the sky darkened. As we finished, a few drops were falling. Ten minutes later, it was pouring. Ah, but that was fine. The whole family sat on the front porch -- in the dry -- and enjoyed the shelter, watching the rain. August 28 -- Saturday I made a dump run in the morning; the banal must be done too. We're sanding the walls inside and preparing the summer beam. September 14 -- Tuesday The summer beam is done! We worked late into the night -- well, ten-ish -- several nights to get this far. September 18 -- Saturday Today, we took the crane apart. It was sad; we never gave the crane a name. It was a good crane. The rest of the day was sanding: walls and joists. It'll be the same tomorrow and tomorrow. I gotta call Tim about the joist hangers. October 16 -- Saturday Politics has been interfering with progress. We have four beams (second floor joists) up, all in the kitchen. November 13 -- Saturday Putting politics aside, at last, we finished the joists on the back of the house tonight and put up 3 on the front. Barbara had got 7 beams ready to go up and had finished fastening the end piece in Kira's room. On the morrow, I will start making a jig to cut the rabbets around the windows. We're cold and looking forward to getting some windows and doors installed. November 27 -- Saturday We went ahead and put in the windows and the back door without the rabbets. Brevet helped; Devon, too. It's pretty nice inside, even without a front door. Barbara stayed up until 2:30 AM last week getting ceiling boards stained and varnished, while I went to bed early so that I could be "fresh" at my cushy office job. Thanks to her hard work (and mild weather) we got to put up Kira's ceiling last night and today. So, Kira has a ceiling ... and, upstairs, we have a floor! So, I moved the card table up there and I'm drawing stairs, there. Early last week a "mold remidiation" guy came out and quoted us $1300 for treating the basement. So, we order chemicals over the web and today I sprayed the ceiling of the basement. That's fungicide; another chemical, preventative, gets sprayed tomorrow. I just have to record the name of this fungicide: it's called 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyldimethyloctadecyl ammonium cloride. Now you know. December 11 -- Saturday Barbara went to the EC meeting today, but I skipped it to work on the trim in the utility. I thought it was a fairly rough job, Barbara said it was fine. The next one will be done a little differtently. Barbara and Kira finished the ceiling over Devon's room. Barbara has rigged a cardboard cover for the front door, to block the wind until we decide to install the door. With that in place, on a morning when it was 20° outside, it was 46° inside. Toasty! December 19 -- Sunday Barbara finished the deck over all the upper floor this week. Then she went to work on the second sub-floor on the main level. That's right: second sub-floor. We had the first one out in the rain so long that it was soft in many spots. We decided to add another 3/8th OSB, with glue and screws to stiffen it. Meanwhile, I worked on the Fran Oak, turning some of it into material for treads of the basement steps. I sized it with the drum sander (36 grit), then jointed and ripped it to get 24 pieces that will be glued edge-to-edge to make 12 treads, each 9/8ths thick. Yes, an inch and an eighth is an odd thickness, but it was sawn rather haphazardly and I wanted it as thick as I could get it. I figure it's 42% stiffer than one inch thick boards. December 25 -- Saturday The main floor now has the additional three-eights (or 7/16?) OSB glued and screwed all over it. It is really much more solid. We're glad we decided to do that. I'm still working on the stair treads. Nine of the 12 are now glued up. The urethane glue plus buscuits plan is working well, even though clamping time is about 5 hours. Barbara has laid out most of the first floor partitions. Walls?! We're going to have interior walls! January 1, 2005 -- Saturday Barbara raised walls around the pantry and along the hall with help from Brevet. My Fran Oak Treads are glued up and sanded flat. I spent all day Friday and this morning drawing the master bath & closet on the floor upstairs... then sanding it off and redrawing. The closet got bigger as the framing got ... not "easier," but less horribly complex. Also, the plumbing got just barely possible ;-) In the afternoon, we went shopping. It's time to buy bath tub, shower stall, and some of the cabinets. We didn't get any of that, but we looked and got some ideas. January 5 -- Wednesday Today, Barbara framed Devon's closet, which is Kira's east wall. She also ordered our shower. I framed the raised floor under our bathroom. Plumbing will be a challenge. I routed out for all the wiring that needs to be in the floor up there. We'll get the 1/16 steel to cover it soon. January 8 -- Saturday Did I say plumbing was a challege? Maybe "enigma" is more like it. I've redone the tiolet piping to avoid a 90° horizontal bend. Now that vent is barely under wall and I'm not sure how to run the vent from the shower up. Meanwhile Barbara, with assist from Brevet, continues to frame the walls downstairs. They're over half done. January 29 -- Saturday Some of the wiring for main floor lighting is embedded in the ceiling. Since the floor is solid wood, I routed a groove for the wiring. Code requires this to be covered by 1/16th steel; fine, I put that in. But also the inspector needs to see the steel before we put OSB over it. So, he's coming out -- hopefully Wednesday -- to see that. This is actually good, because we have a host of questions for him. March 5 -- Saturday Fooey! My job is taking all my time; I worked 10 hours today. But I guess this project will be done in a month and I can spend some more time on my house. Meanwhile, Barbara is still doing some things. She's got all the framing for the main floor except the wall beside the stairwell, where I asked her to wait. She's put down the extra OSB on the upper floor and (almost) framed the library. I have put the staircase together for the basement. Later, Barbara and I made the landing -- up to its finish floor. Maybe we'll do that tomorrow. April 17 -- Sunday Well my job has been eating 70-80 hours a week since I last wrote. But I think that's over now. Anyway, I took off this whole week-end off! It was a beautiful week-end, too, except that Brevet called mid-morning to tell us his car had been stolen. It was a small Toyota and 11 years old; why would someone risk prison for such a pittance? Mean people suck. It took some time for us to get him transpotation to his job and we stopped by Lowes to get two 16' 2x12s. They're for temporary stair stringers upstairs... Wait! I haven't reported that we got the basement steps in place, finally. Barbara varnished them almost two weeks ago and it sure is nice to be able to go down to the basement without going around outside. Whee! But I was writing about the upstairs stringers. Our REAL stringers will be made from two 14' 4x12s that I have in the shop. But they require custom made steel hangers that I haven't ordered, yet. Also, I'm scared to cut into them without having a full scale template that I know is correct. So, we got these 2x12s and started cutting them to fit. I made a small mistake, but we can compensate and they will serve as stairs until our brackets are fabricated and then they'll be the guide to cut the 4x12s. Our treads are 4x10s that will cantilever almost 10" beyond the stringers on each side. I think they're gonna be real nice. May 30 -- Monday I haven't written much lately because there's been little to report. We've been busy with outside activities and I'm still busy at work. I've put down P.T. sole plates where walls are needed down stairs and also around the platform where the water heater and treatments go. Barbara has just about finished (re)sanding the whole upstairs all the way to to 22' peak. We bought a bunch of deck boards for the porch because of a 5% discount on Discovery purchases at Lowes/HD. The kids will do most of the work on that. Today, we glued up the plumbing for the washing machine and dry fitted most of the plumbing in the basement. Barbara had good idea: connect the drain for the bathroom lavatory through the connection for the laundry. Much simpler. It sounds boring to read of "dry fitting" plumbing. But it was exicting for us to see it coming together. We weren't sure it would. August 8 -- Monday Okay the "little to report" excuse is wearing thin. I still claim to be affected by overwork, but that can't be all of it. Barbara is about finished with the porch decks, while I have been taking forever to frame the odd shaped wall between the master bath and closet. If you're still designing, beware of walls of 45° (with two bends) that meet the 40° sloped ceiling. If you do such a thing, cut the studs at 28° miter and 28° bevel. We have decided to install a water source heat pump. It will use water from the well (55° year-round) as source/sink and has no "outside" heat exchanger at all. It costs more than $5K extra, but we think it will pay for itself before we can pay off the mortgage -- it is far more efficient than standard heat pump. August 21 -- Sunday While I'm still working six days a week, Bababra is making progress on the electrical front. She mounted the subpanel in the pantry and has wired most of the kitchen to it. Today, we discussed powering that panel with #2 wire, having 95 amp capacity. That's plenty for the kitchen and my old plan of using larger 1/0 wire was based solely on my expectation of difficulty finding a 95 or 90 amp breaker to protect it. We'll look for that breaker. To feed the porch lights, mounted on the face of the beam, I found I needed a U-shaped conduit. Not finding any, I resolved to make some from "rigid" PVC conduit pieces preshaped at 90°. First, I tried using propane torch. That turned out scorched and misshapen. On to plan B. Taking two #14/2 cables back to back, I wrapped them in paper and sprayed the bunch with Pam (cooking lubricant), then stuffed that into my 90° elbow. Then I got a pot of water boiling and set a bowl of cold water nearby. Using oven mitts, I dipped the center of the ell in the boiling water for about 45 to 60 seconds. Then I could bend it into a U-shape while the Romex inside kept it from kinking. Even hot, it wanted to spring back, but after a 10-15 seconds in the cold water, it set into its new shape. That's my big accomplishment for today. September 21 -- Wednesday I'm finally in a position to take some time off from work. Until Thanksgiving, I'll be on this job five days per week. We found 90 amp breakers and a 125 amp one, too. This is good because there was a problem with my plan A for electrical. I didn't know it, but the main electrical panel must be within two feet of the service entrance. (Why??!) That wasn't practical with our home, so we got a combination box, having the service entrance, main breaker, and 8 1" breaker slots in one box. Six of the 1" slots will be occupied by three 220 breakers that will feed three subpanels, inside. I had been considering using subpanels all along, so this suited me. Besides that one in the kitchen, we'll have one near the mechanical room and one in the corner of the basement near the service entrance. The latter is now mounted below a big distribution box just inside the basement and 2½ conduit connects the box with the service entrance. Did I mention the 40% fill maximum for conduit? I suppose that's enough detail on the electrical for this journal. Barbara has been keeping on top of the HVAC boys and framing new chases in closets and corners and nooks to allow them to run their ducts. I came home one night and blew my stack. There was an air distribution box in the finished side of the basement at a height of only 6'5". The ceiling in that area can only be 7' anyway to leave one foot for ducts. But having that area another 7" or 8" lower would be a big headache. So I e-mailed the HVAC subcontractor, Bill, and he came out (on a Saturday) to work out another plan. We did. September 24 - Saturday The HVAC rough-in is done. The emphasis should be on "rough." They did fix the particular problem I complained about, but the whole thing seems rather haphazard. Much space has been lost to low ducts and we have more creative framing to do. Bill told Barbara that we should have made our basement ceiling two feet higher. ?!!!? I'll let the reader look at our pictures and see if we could have reasonably pushed the basement floor (and the canyon) deeper into the ground or what it would entail if we lifted the first floor two feet higher toward the sky. I'm not sorry we chose the basement size as we did, but I am sorry that I didn't spend more time working closely with Bill to design a neater (and more expensive?) duct system. The Southern Ideal Home Show is in town. We are taking time off from building to go look. We saw some heart pine recovered from the Cape Fear river. It makes a really beautiful floor, but it's quite pricey ($8-$9 per sq.ft.) plus installation. We'll have to consider that expense carefully. October 7 - Friday We're doing a water test; filling the drain-waste-vent system with water, after blocking off the exit point outside the house. On my next house, I'll do this before the HVAC guys come and block access to things. It did not go smoothly. At first, two of our clean-out plugs leaked. So, I ran outside and undid the hose clamp that holds a rubber gasket on the open, bottom end of the drain system. Whoosh! We removed, taped, and reinstalled the two clean-out plugs. Start again. It takes about a half hour to fill all those drain pipes from the garden hose. We measured flow rate for the hose, so this means the DWV system holds about 65 gallons. Start again. This time, Devon shouts from the first floor: the tub is leaking. Sure enough, it leaks right from the bottom of the drain. Outside; remove clamp; whoosh. Now we redo the tub drain with the rubber gasket below the tub, where it belongs. Half hour later, we find that a third clean-out is leaking. It's so buried in HVAC ducts, that it leaked a lot before we noticed. Whoosh... start over. Next trial, we got water up to the second floor level. ...and discovered that one of the joints in the vent system just wasn't glued at all. (Chagrin) Luckily, it was in a place where we could pry the pipe far enough apart to get PVC cement brushed in there. We wait two hours for that joint to set up good, then start over. Excitement! The fill pipe at the very top is filling up. We hear the increasing pitch as the water rises to the necessary 3' above the highest joint in our system... Fhoooump! Fhoooump? What's that noise? You have to understand; there's a lot of water in our new home, confined by an untested pipe system. What means Fhoooump? I race around the house, looking for damage. Upstairs... no; First floor... no; basement... not here either. We think maybe air has escaped from some trap inside the plumbing, so Barbara goes back to filling the stand pipe upstairs. Then I wander outside. Hmmm. It seems "Fhoooump" is noise made by a rubber gasket being blown off under 8 psi of pressure from high water inside the system. After all these restarts, it's now 8 PM. We'll try again tomorrow. October 9 - Sunday The water test went okay. Water is slowly leaking INTO the bath tub. No problem: it's the test plug that's not quite tight. Two of the clean-outs have very slow leaks -- one drop every two minutes. We think this is acceptable; the joint will never be under pressure when in use. A friendly plumber we met at Lowes told us inspectors will "sometimes" agree to this. Sunday was all electrical. Pulling wires and neating them up. Not nearly done. October 15 - Saturday Barbara found the parts we need to pressure test the supply side plumbing. It's a bunch of fittings with a T-joint between a pressure gage, a air inlet like a tire inflator, and a fitting that matched a garden hose. The garden hose fitting also matches that for the washing machine. I refer to this multiple fitting thing as "the gizmo". Since we need to pressurize the system to 100 psi, I look on this as an excuse to buy an air compressor. I've wanted one for a long time and my darling wife encouraged me to get it. We started by connecting the gizmo to one of our outside hose bibs. We let air into it to 100 psi, then pulled the air compressor off and waited... just seconds... the pressure fell depressingly fast. We found a big leak in the gizmo pretty fast, but matters didn't improve much. It took much exploration, looking for leaks and not finding any, until we figured out that the hose bib had a one way value in it. The only thing we had pressurized was the gizmo. So we decided to move to the laundry room to test. But our fancy laundry room value opens the hot and cold side together. We need to cap off the hot side. Barbara says we should hook another hose to the hot side, but all our hoses are kinda leaky. We decide to check for leaks by hooking the well water via the looooong garden hose. This turns out to be a wise decision. We discover several very slow leaks; these leaks consist of a tiny dot of water that forms over a period of a minute or so. Every leak is a screw-on fitting; all the crimped joints are perfect. We tighten and retest, tighen and retest. Finally, only the hot side of the laundry is still leaking; it will not tighten any more. So Barbara Dremeled off the crimp ring and we started over on that joint. Great! It works; there's no leaks under the 40 psi our pump delivers... is more required? (Later: Yes, the inspector really wants 100 psi of air in the pipes.) We go back to pulling wires. There's a lot of them. October 25 - Tuesday We passed the rough-in inspection for framing, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. You can't imagine our relief. There are so many things we did, based on what seemed reasonable and safe; we didn't KNOW it all matched the code. The inspector we like best, Larry, came by about 9:30. He looked around, pulled a few wires out of boxes, just glanced at the DWV pipes we had so carefully measured, then... "You need nail plates here and here." He added, "you should have fire stop in all these holes between floors." We had thought the fire stop caulking would be inspected in the insulation inspection, but we were wrong. But none of this would be obsured by the minimal insulation we need; Larry knew he would see it then, so he passed us. When you, the reader, get a strict inspector (AKA asshole), you can be jealous of us :-) October 29 - Saturday During the week, we finished (we hope!) two -- just two of the branch circuits, by installing switches and duplex outlets. Yesterday, I pulled a 100 foot piece of #6 cable over to the main panel and energized the electrical system. The most important reason for this is to test our wiring plan. Everything has to work before we hide the wires under gypsum board or paneling. We test the two that are finished, including a "weird" load-in-the-middle three way switched light -- it's perfect. The cable is heavy enough to pull a few lights and tools, so we do that -- and we get an unreasonable amount of joy in doing it. Today, Barbara had to go the the LPNC ExecCom meeting, so Devon worked on the trench for the power. He is digging the part near the trees south of the front porch. We think the trees will have a better chance to survive the experience if we hand dig that part. I mostly hunted for the water line to mark it. That doesn't sound like much and it isn't, but that's what happened. By the end of the week-end, we had most of the switches and outlets installed. We had tested most circuits, including the three-switch (4-way) band girt lights and the load-at-the-start 3-way for the hall light. It's very satisfying to see these things work as intended. November 6 - Sunday All the electrical outlets and switches have been installed and tested. We had a little excitement tonight as I was hooking up the breaker for the dryer: I was feeding the ground wire through, behind some others, when it touched something it shouldn't. There was a spark and all the lights in the house went out; it got very dark. Nobody hurt; no damage; we turn the breaker back on and continue. Now days, insulation is much on our minds -- that's the next official inspection. We'll combine that with the well hook-up and septic connection. Then we can basically finish everything before the next/last one. Also, winter is coming: we would really like to get the wood stove in usable condition. I'd be laying tile for it right now if it weren't for the problem of reaching the wall above it later. It's 22 feet to the peak in that area and putting on finish and insulation and final trim in that area is pretty difficult even when we can roll our scaffold under. It'll be unimaginable when the stove is fixed below. So Barbara spent two days putting finish on the wall and I worked some on the insulation for that area. Then, when we finally install the wood stove, everything in that area (except paneling opposite the library wall) will be done. The finished wall is beautiful. We are carefully positioning and final fastening the windows. Three of them will be hard to reach after scaffolding is removed, so I spent a lot of time making the outside trim for those. We're staining them walnut, over the next couple days. When they're installed, we can remove some outside scaffolding that has served us for many months ... and begin work on the south section of the deck. November 13 -- Sunday Last Thursday, the power company's people came out to bury their line to the new house. They connected to the trench Devon had dug and put conduit in that part because it will later be under the south porch. Next day, we rented a trencher and dug for our sewer and fresh water lines. I started by digging two trenches either side of the old (but still in use) sewer line. Barbara dug in between and found the Wye that we had forethoughtfully put there 17 years before. Thus we can connect the new house's sewer, without disconnecting the old. Did I mention that Devon had been digging for the fresh water line under the front porch? I used the trencher to connect that trench to the well house, nearly 200 feet away. For the next two days, our main work was digging out by hand under the well house and getting the water pipe in it. We came close to buying $440 worth of #8 copper cable to go in there before switching to $165 in #6 Aluminium. Sometime in there, we found time to finish three window frames for outside trim and get them on. We also centered, fully fastened, and insulated all the windows. November 23 -- Wednesday Inspector Larry was away when we called for water/sewer inspection, so Dale (:-!) came out.in He was a hurry, so he didn't even go in. We passed the water/sewer inspection and he blessed our footings for the south porch, but he didn't look in the well house. I put a small subpanel in there; don't know if anyone will want to look at it. I got off work early (Thanksgiving) and met the family at Lowes. The kids were going to pick out flooring and color for their rooms and the down-stairs bath. That didn't happen -- Kira is thinking about ceramic tile -- will she install it? In the evening, Barbara and I moved the shower stall back in place and "connected it." :-( It leaks. The drain pipe has a tilt on it and we can't squeeze the gasket all around. November 25 -- Friday I finished the air inlet for the woodstove last week, so the rest of the insulation could go in. On Tuesday, Larry came out and blessed that. Now, we can begin wall covering !!!!! So today, Barbara and I went shopping this morning. (I think this is the 1000th time we've been to Lowe's.) Barbara will start dry wall in the bath while I work on the hearth for the wood stove. So, the first thing I bought was a light fixture for the spot over the tub. It improves the light in there a lot. So, tonight we put up the first piece of sheet rock. One of the things we bought was a 2"-2" rubber connector. After the success with the sheet rock, we cut the shower drain pipe and spliced it back together with the rubber. Now it rotates flush with the bottom of the shower stall. After three tries, it fits tight; doesn't leak. Say, what was the water test for, exactly? December 7 -- Wednesday I couldn't write about this until it was over. We got a registered letter from the bank; it was the Friday after Thanksgiving, exactly two weeks ago. The letter said we had been declared in default and foreclosure would begin if full payment had not been received by December 15. We had paid those &%$#s every month on time and in full. AND at a rate considerably above market! "because of the age of the loan." Barbara called Monday to ask them to reconsider -- no, just no. She asked to speak to the manager, but he never even called back. We owed about 84 thousand dollars. I called our credit union. I'd been a customer there for 20 years. They were very friendly, very encouraging, but in the end all they could give me (without a CO) was $16K in unsecured credit. We borrowed all we could from our IRA (aka TDSP); that was only $6½K. We had about $12K in stock. Almost $50K to go. Here's where Barbara's began to shine. She had saved several credit card offers with "balance transfer" arrangements, some as low as 4½%. (Our credit rating is really good.) We cashed those "convenience checks" and by Tuesday, we could see where the 84K was coming from, if all credit was accepted and the mail came through on time. It all worked. On Monday, December 5, we paid the USPS $15 for overnight delivery and by late Tuesday, our account was marked "paid in full." Whew. Now all we have to do is hold the credit card companies at bay, while paying for the rest of the materials (paneling, flooring, counter tops, light fixtures, etc.). December 10 -- Saturday While all that was going on, Barbara continued work. She put up dry wall in the downstairs bath and we both worked on the hearth. Today, we moved the stove onto the hearth and hooked in the 18 feet of stove pipe and the outside air feed. Then... fire! We did the break-in fire mid-afternoon. I played poker late and Barbara took Kira and Devon to see Narnia, then we had another break-in after midnight. Looking forward to real heat on Sunday! December 21 -- Wednesday, Solstice The stove keeps the house between 55° and 63° when outside it is ranging between 22° and 50°. It's not quite what I had hoped for, but it's warm enough to work the compound on our dry-wall. I'm having to attend to my job, full time, so there's not much progress on the water treatment, but the water heater and softer stuff is here. December 31 -- Saturday My dad has been ailing, so I made two trips to Danville recently to cheer him up (and to give Mom a break). Barbara has finished dry-walling the storage area (close enough) and begun to move junk in there :-/ We connected the water heater and softner last week. There seems to be a problem in the discharge; it splashes over the drain cup. So, I'll have to work on that. This morning we lifted the vanity in place in the bath on the main floor. That vanity is let into the wall 4" and it was cool that the three holes in the vanity floor fit over the hot/cold/drain lines very closely. After I got back from Danville, we set the vanity top in place. Barbara had installed the faucet while I was away, so we connected the water and drain when I got home. We used hose clamps on our PEX instead of crimp rings, since we're currently lacking a ½" crimp tool. It was hard to get a non leaking fit, but -- in the end -- there is running water! January 1 2006 -- Sunday Barbara had her second cup of coffee in the new house this morning. Finished, she rinsed the cup in the newly installed lavatory and annouced, "I've just washed my first dish in the new house." That's a kind of milestone. In the evening, we made Smores over the fire in the wood stove. I got chocolate on my hands, then washed up in the new house. What a kick! January 3 -- Tuesday I took the day off and worked all day on the trim around the mirror in bath, using Fran Oak. Not done, yet. Barbara and I (mostly Barbara) varnished the wood walls & exposed joists in the kitchen. January 9 -- Monday Finished the kitchen trim yesterday and got the shelf under the bathroom mirror. During the week, Barbara had fininshed the dry wall in the kitchen and painted it. After cutting the cove trim and varnishing, we tacked it up using finishing nails and a nail set. (I'm shopping for a nail gun.) Then we installed 6 of the cabinets without too much trouble. Next cabinet is too long. It's just too long. We'll have to order another, shorter one. Maybe we can use the long one somewhere else. Then came the sink base. There was a little trouble getting the hole for the drain, but we worked it out. Then Barbara discovered that she had meant put a spacer to center it under the window. So we pulled it up and changed the plumbing hole again and reinstalled it ¾" to the left. At bed time, it seems to need to move another 1/8 inch back, but I can't see why it won't. March 19 -- Sunday March? Yes, I have not written in a while. My dad took a turn for the worse soon after my last entry. He died February 7. I went to Danville several times... Besides that, things heated up at my job. I have not been able to take any days off. Catching up is, unfortunately, not too hard. I did manage to finish the Fran Oak trim around the bathroom mirror in the main bathroom. Barbara has been making steady progress with drywall (despite basketball;-). The laundry room got finished first. As soon as the walls were painted and dry, we move the new washer and dryer onto their 16" platforms (they're front loaders). The drawers aren't in; that can wait. But Barbara can now do our laundry in the new house. She likes it; so, I like it. This past week Barbara laid Hardibacker (with thinset) in that main floor bath. During the week, she cut all the tiles including the border pieces. So, today, we were able to lay the tile floor. We're quite pleased with it. March 21 -- Tuesday Barbara caulked the edges, then she grouted the tile. You know what comes next... March 25 -- Saturday Toilet! It's nerdy to be so excited over a toilet, but we love it. Barbara hung a big towel over the door, so we can use it. It works much more smoothly than toilets in the old house and we don't have to trek over there. The shower trim kit is on order. Soon, we'll have a shower, too. April 2 - Sunday The new cabinets are here to replace the one that was too long. Putting them in required reworking the ones to the right, a lot of work that Barbara did while I was at my COJ. We had to "fill in" with extra hickory. Barbara cut that, too, and we glued it (them, actually) to backer slats, so that we could attach them securly to the sides of the spice drawer unit (basically it's just particle board). Meanwhile, I routed a "drain" line from the water-furnace across the basement to the 1½ pipe that was originally intended to handle condensate from the planned conventional heat pump. Since this water is under pressure, the line can go up and over. Now we're ready for the HVAC contractor to finish his work. Then we'll have air conditioning in the house. That's getting to be important. April 15 - Saturday The south deck has a pair of 8x8 posts, centered on the house, to frame some steps on that end. During the week, I cut three stringers for those stairs. Today, I cut posts for the bottom end of the steps. Barbara and I dug out for the foundation at the bottom, then we set the posts in concrete. Meanwhile, Barbara has nearly finished dry wall in the pantry. That's important to me, because I want to put up some of the shelves in there and USE them. April 21 - Friday While I was at work, the trim kit came in (second time - no flaws this time). Barbara installed it by herself, including reworking the tub overflow. Then she took a shower! Then Kira took a shower! They report the new shower is far nicer than what we're used to. April 23 - Sunday I'm taking Mondays and Tuesday off from COJ again, but another big project is lurking. Hurry! Barbara's new range came in and we hooked it up. We immediately carried a fry pan out there and grilled sandwiches (that being an easy thing to carry). It works. Barbara wanted to bake apple crisp out there last night, but when we turned the oven on, odors and visible vapors escaped, so we "cured" the oven and baked in the trailer. The out-gassing will end soon, I'm sure. Meanwhile, Barbara is still putting up dry wall; she's such a tropper. I got 5/4 x 6 decking to cut for the treads of those south stairs; cut 'em and routed a round over. May 6 -- Saturday Barbara has now hung all the dry wall! I help a bit on the high parts in the master bedroom and library upstairs (14' peak). Now we need to compound it and sand it prior to painting. I assembled handrails for that south stair from a piece 2 by 3 under a 5/4 by 3 to a form a T shape in cross section. All edges are rounded over at ½" radius. The T shape makes it stiff enough to span 8 feet between the posts. The HVAC contractor came Monday. Air conditioning is fully operational :-) May 15 -- Monday Today we drove to Gibbsonville to buy wormy maple for paneling the living room walls. It was an educational experience: wormy maple comes in "random widths and lengths." You can panel anything you like with it, provided you're prepared to rip those random widths to make uniform rows and then deal with the random lengths (1' to 8'). ... up to 22 feet above the floor! One of the offices there had cypress walls finished in Danish oil. It was beautiful. Cypress comes in 5½" widths and lengths of 8, 12, and 16 feet. We bought cypress. Cypress is cheaper! Later, we called and increased our order -- the master bath will have cypress walls, too. May 27 -- Saturday Destruction. When we installed the tub, we didn't quite follow all directions. There's not enough support under the tub and it squeaks loudly when stepped on. So, out comes the gypsum board above (installed too low); out comes the shower walls (breaking silicone); out comes the tub, itself. Will cloth under tub work? We tried it -- still a lot of noise. We tried very hard to make concrete work. No matter what you do, a stone will sneak under something and the tub won't go down where it belongs. Finally, we mix up some thin-set we had left over. Barbara had found a discussion on the web, where that was recommended. Tomorrow, we'll see how sticking a tub into glops of thin-set works. May 30 -- Tuesday Globs of thin set works just fine. The tub is acceptably quiet. We also finished and installed the Fran Oak frame around the lighting above the tub. The plastic transulucent panel that fit in that frame is very fragile. I tore it trying to put it in, but it'll do for now. Brabara insisted that we remove, disassemble, and remake the basement door. I knew we had to, but I dreaded it. That door was just made wrong -- also installed in a hurry, three years ago. Barbara feared the return of the centipedes. So, we spent most of Saturday working on that door. In the end, I'm proud of the result; no centipede or air draft can get thruough that urethane foam sealed door! I started the short paneling above the tub while Barbara worked on the cedar paneling in the master closet. How much is left to be done? I started a list -- things like 1 Paint Devon's room 2 mech room door 3 Den hanging ceiling frame 4 Master Bd lighting 5 Living room ceiling fan 6 varnish log wall, library I now have 66 of these things. Despair! June 17 -- Saturday I finally finished the new trim for outside the basement door. The old, white trim was ugly (sez she who must be obeyed); the new trim is 5/4 pressure treated, ripped to 5" and milled for a 22° chamfer inside, 45° outside, and mitered at the top, then finished brown like the log above. SWMBO pronounced it satisfactory. June 19 -- Monday Master closet is all paneled and lighted. Barbara is starting the cypress paneling on the south wall of the loft area. We're putting them on at right angles to the roof, which puts them at 40° or 50° from everything else. Outside, I started making new front steps from 5/4 boards with "T" under each one like the hand rail. These are stiff enough and they don't warp like the 2x12s we had there before. Three of these T-boards on each board mean 6 for each step. I can only glue one at a time. July 8 -- Saturday Barbara has finished the cypress paneling in the loft area. Last week we put up pre-finished paneling on the high wall (22') in the living room next to the library. The 2x12s now adorn the back steps, where we will build a deck someday. On this list of 66, we have completed 6%... in two months. I told Barbara this; she said "shut up." July 16 -- Sunday We drove to Gibbsonville, today, to shop at Wood Worker's Supply. At Lowe's, Danish Oil comes in quarts. Since we need 10 gallons to finish our living room and loft, that's not too practical. WWS has Danish Oil in five gallon pails, but they want $22 each for "hazardous material" shipping and that's ON TOP of the normal shipping charge. So, we saved about $60, but took a whole afternoon (we had to eat!). August 3 -- Thursday We (mostly Barbara) have finished the cypress paneling in the living room and loft area. Part of that -- the part that is really hard to reach -- is prefinished with that Danish oil. Outside, I have built two sections of porch railing from P.T. 2x4s and 5/4 by 6 decking. I ripped some of the decking to make a varied pattern between 2x4 top and bottom rails.