Log Home Update: Part 31Windows and Doors and Decking

As mentioned, Don and Adam were able to finish the roofing last Friday before calling it a week.


The finished roof as I found it Monday morning.

Jim was called back to his factory job but we picked up a high-school neighbor of Don’s named Kyle. He has worked with Don before and, while quite around us older guys, seems a willing enough laborer/helper.

Windows and doors were the order of the week and lots of progress was made to that end. All but the front door are Anderson products.


Kitchen, bath and one bedroom window on the first floor as well as a bath and two bedroom windows on the second floor. All on the west side of the home. (Unfortunately, the upstairs bathroom window was damaged either at the factory or in shipment and will have to be replaced. Both plastic/rubber stops that prevent the upper sash from being banged into the lower sill were broken. One was bent out of shape and the other actually driven right through the vinyl casement and down to the wood beneath. Beaver Mountain will be sending us a new one as soon as they can but it will take several weeks.)


Two bedroom windows on the south end of the first floor.


One bedroom window, the laundry window and one garage window on the south side of the home.


Two garage windows on the east end of the home. A semi-circular window will be installed in the gable end above these to give some light to the "attic" storage area above the garage.


French doors and a couple of casement windows installed in the basement by Adam and me. We had to frame in the rough opening and sheath it before fitting the door and windows.


The sliding door to the covered porch installed by Adam and me. (Don and Kyle were working on some of the first floor windows while we were doing this.)


The front door has been installed. This was a team effort. Adam, me and Kyle did the installation. Don helped carry it from the trailer to this location. That sucker is heavy!


The deck frame was erected on Friday as a team effort. Don, Adam, Kyle and I worked all day to set the posts and get all the floor joists in place for this 10' x 36' open deck that is above the walkout basement and in front of the French doors to be installed in the first floor living area. The floor to be put down on top of this is 2” x 6” pressure treated wood and it will be fastened with specially coated screws because of the new chemicals used in treating “green wood” these days. The screws have square drive heads that provide much better control than a Phillip’s head screw.

We had to wrestle a couple of the concrete piers back into position because the heavy rains had allowed them to shift in the soft earth immediately around them. Then we worked off ladders all of Friday since the deck is a good 9 to 10 feet above the very uneven soil. Let me tell you if you’ve never had to handle it, a 2” x 10” x 10’ pressure treated board can be very heavy. Additionally, it drizzled most of the day making everything muddy and everyone damp.

Friday’s was the only real rain we had all week. As you can see, we made some remarkable progress this week in several areas.

Log Home Update: Part 30Doors and Decking

Thursday was a door day.

After much searching of different things in the trailer and rearranging of boxes, Adam and I installed the sliding glass door leading out on to the covered porch.

Then we went to work on the front door. With two glass sidelights, this door is very heavy. We hauled it from the trailer and up the slope to the front of the house only to find it was actually 1/8 inch wider than the opening in the panelized section. We needed to widen the opening and succeded in doing so after some furious...thinking.

The last three hours of the day were spent preparing to erect the 10' x 36' deck for the north end of the house.

Log Home Update: Part 29Windows and Doors

It's Wednesday and we have made some remarkable progress on the home this week.

Monday Adam and I framed out the basement windows and door. We also installed the four double hung windows in the garage and laundry room. It was a simple thing, but coming just two months after delivery of the log package, it really made the place look like a home.

Tuesday was a wet, wet day. It didn't rain but we appled Mill Glaze and bleach to the interior walls and beams to clean up the water stains that had formed before we had the roof in place along with the spray from the application of those products, we pressure washed all the interior wood surfaces. All day long I was sweeping water out of the house. (When "work" was over, I spent 3 hours with a chainsaw cleaning up some of the trees that had been bulldozed over by the previous owner to created a driveway and several trees that had been ice damaged last winter.)

Wednesday was window day. Early on Don finished the last little bit of roofing as he shingled the small fly off the south end of the gable. It doesn't really cover anything and serves as a decorative element to set off the shed dormer. Adam and I installed the French door and two windows in the walk-out basement. Then we all started on the windows in the living area. We did seven windows on the first floor and then three windows in the dormer wall on the second floor.

Log Home Update: Part 28Up on the roof: sheathing and shingles: Part 3

Roofing was the project of the week.


Tuesday we worked on the front roof of the house.


Despite losing three hours due to rain on Wednesday, all of the front was finished and it was on to the back of the garage.


When we knocked off on Thursday afternoon, the rear of the garage was shingled and all that remained was the top six feet of the house roof.


Friday morning we were down to just Adam, Don and I...and I was leaving at noon. Even so, Adam (seen here applying the ridge vent and cap shingles) and Don report they were able to complete the roofing. That means no more water inside when it rains. Wahooh!

The "bare" spot seen on the right side is where the chimney will be located.

The LoadAll provided a huge help in lifting the roofing materials to the roof. Unfortunately, Rob came for his machine at the end of Friday to take it to a different job. Everyone was sorry to see it go. With the heavy windows and doors on the gable ends yet to be installed and the chimney work to be done…well, we’re hoping to get it back for a day or two some time in the future.

Log Home Update: Part 27Up on the roof: sheathing and shingles: Part 2

We've made steady progress at the shingling of the roof at The Aerie this week.

Monday and Tuesday were beautiful days that allowed us (Don, Adam, Jim and me) to finish the plywooding of the dormer roof and shingle it before moving around to the roof over the front of the garage.

Unfortunately, our luck with the weather didn't hold and a series of showers--some of them quite heavy--swept through the area on Wednesday morning halting all work on the roof. Instead, we headed down to town to have a hearty brunch. After three hours, the rain had stopped and we could get back to work.

As things stand, about two thirds of the roof is done and pump jacks and such have been positioned so we'll make a real big dent in that remaining third Thursday. The entire roof should be done by Friday afternoon.

An advance man for the heating contractor showed up this afternoon and started setting things up for a crew to install the remaining PEX tubing for the first floor heating system tomorrow and Friday soon.

Log Home Update: Part 26Up on the roof: sheathing and shingles: Part 1

This was another long and busy week.

It started on a drizzly Sunday with a barbeque and golf tournament sponsored by Beaver Mountain Log Homes for invited contractors and their guests. Other participants included the Beaver Mountain workers and owners and suppliers of BMLH. Don Adam and I attended. I don’t play golf, but Don and Adam teamed up with a pair of folks from BMLH and finished 8th out of 13 teams in the best ball tournament. The food was great and the French Woods Country Club was a beautiful place with several BMLH structures along the course and a clubhouse also manufactured by BMLH.

Then Monday rolled along and we were back to work. Jim rejoined us. The four of us made quick work of the remaining plywood roofing.


Monday was spent finishing the plywood sheathing on the roof. The place is very definitely starting to look like a home.


You can get a feel for the window placement in this view. The 1/2 inch sheathing still needs to be applied to the gable end.


A before view of the western elevation taken on Tuesday afternoon before we began constructing the covered porch.

On Tuesday we were back to just three of us as Jim had some business to attend to. We started on the construction of the deck of the covered porch. After wrestling with a concrete pier or two to get it in the correct position, we framed out the deck’s floor joists.

Tuesday night, Don and I spent some time dismantling a bunch of pump jacks and loading them in Don’s trailer for use on the log home. We had the help of Troy, Don’s older son since the jacks were at a neighbor’s home.

When Jimmer returned on Wednesday, we laid the deck floor, erected the posts, header and rafters. We even got a start on the 2x6 tongue and groove roofing. I did most of the cutting while Jim and Adam positioned and nailed or screwed everything together.


The covered porch nears completion as Jim and Adam install the last of the 2x6 tongue and groove roofing on Thursday morning.

Thursday morning Adam, Jim and I finished the wood roof on the porch and moved on to the final roof. This involves drip edge, ice and water shield, felt paper and finally shingles.
Don erected the pump jacks on the front of the garage and the east side of the house. He then put up the drip edging all along that part of the house so it is now ready for the final roof. We got chased off the job a little early due to a chilly rain that interrupted us twice in the afternoon. When we left, it was drizzling but just a few miles down the road, there was no rain at all.


Don applies some drip edging to the peak of the gable.

Friday also promised rain and we got some early that chased us off the roof for a bit. (Plywood gets mighty slippery when wet. Not that I would know, Don, Adam and Jim were on the roof while I did cutting of shingles on a table under the roof.)


Ice-and-water, felt paper and shingles get applied to the porch roof and one quarter of the house roof.

After a half hour delay, we were able to get back to work with the sound of thunderstorms all around us. Eventually, we even had a couple of hours of sunlight. Regardless, we worked through lunch and finished about a quarter of the house’s roof before quitting around 4 in the afternoon. (Those thunderstorms were bringing torrential rains to the valley just to our west. I know because I had to drive through them on my way back to NJ.)


One quarter of the house is roofed.

Sweep, sweep

Cutting lots of plywood, 1x8 and 1x3 has produced copious amounts of sawdust and little pieces of wood ends. When I’m not cutting, I’m cleaning up the workstation. (Sawdust on your sheet of plywood when you try to stand on a sloping roof is quite slippery and small chunks of wood can easily turn an ankle.) Having a broom in your hands, rather than being idle, is something I learned back in high school when working at Burns Hardware on West Oakland Avenue and relearned at the Arrow Metals warehouse in Wanaque.

Mr. Burns hired me on as a store clerk and general helper around the store. His Dad, the elder Mr. Burns was in his 70s at the time and a veteran of WWI who had lost a leg in his life’s sojourn. The store was small and the garden supplies in the garage filled it to the rafters and wall to wall so there was hardly any floor space. Nevertheless, I was instructed that should there be no customers in the store and should I have no other instructions I was to grab a broom and sweep. Sweeping would keep me busy and make the store look cleaner to the customers when they did arrive. Once the sweeping was done and if no customers had come in or instructions had been issued, then I could sit back and relax.

The foreman at Arrow Metals’ warehouse gave much the same speech—without the customer being included. His concern was to justify four of us on the payroll during slow nights knowing full well there would come nights when we were going to work our butts off loading tractor trailers. Dirt and grim came from the forklifts going back and forth out into the yard to drop off empty pallets. Stones, sand and grit could make moving a forklift around on the concrete floor a little tricky—especially at the speeds college kids could attain. On really slow nights we might be told to sweep the warehouse two or three times. Or we could be told to get lost in the stacks of product after the first sweeping.

Like a man with a clipboard under his arm, a man with a broom is never questioned—and seldom approached to be given a new task. After all, he’s already busy.

The Good Enough Construction, Corporation

Working at ground level and cutting pieces of wood for Don and Adam to install provides me with time to think (and sweep—but more about that later).

While asking whether a piece was cut correctly, Don responded, “It’s good enough.” That phrase, “it’s good enough,”—a phrase heard frequently around a construction site during the rough construction stages—struck a spark of inspiration.

Suppose there you were starting up a new construction company called the Good Enough Construction, Corporation, what could you use as a slogan? We started tossing around that idea and came up with the following list:

“If it works, it’s Good Enough!”

“Nobody’s perfect, but we’re Good Enough.”

“If it’s Good Enough, it can’t be wrong.”

“It’s not right, but it’s close.”

“It’s not perfect, but it’s not wrong.”

Log Home Update: Part 25Concrete floors and Plywood roofs

Despite the Memorial Day holiday on Monday and construction limited to just four days, considerable progress occurred.


Early Tuesday morning the crew showed up to pour the floor for the basement. After hauling the concrete to all corners of the area, only two men remained to put in the final touches. And they did a great job—working the power trowel over and over and over through the long, hot afternoon.

While the concrete crew worked downstairs, Don, Adam and I worked to install the 1x8 and 1x3 fascia trim to the eaves of the roof. We continued to install fascia and some roof sheathing in the afternoon and on Wednesday when they poured floor for the garage.



By Wednesday afternoon, the garage floor was curing nicely.



And by Thursday, it was hard as a rock and smooth as glass.

With the concrete pouring finished, the LoadAll came into use again to install the plywood sheathing to the roof.



While Adam and Don installed the sheathing upon the roof, I manned the cutting stations on the ground.



Don installs plywood on garage roof.



Adam helps Don install roof sheathing.


By midday Friday, plywood sheathing had been installed upon half the house roof and nearly all of the garage. (Only the west side of the house and a few panels on the back of the garage remained.)

Log Home Update: Part 24Heating, Phone lines, Deck footings and more

We started our second month with numerous visitors. The heating company sent out a crew to install the PEX tubing that will form the heating system in the basement floor. (A second installation will be done under the first floor to heat the upstairs.)



The heavy-duty gray plastic elbows will protect the tubing when the 5-inch thick concrete floor gets poured next week.

The phone company sent a pair of men and a ditching plow to run CAT-6 cable from the underground box on the road to the cabin via the electric company’s right-of-way. A couple of rain showers after they left, you can hardly tell where the cable lies. (Sorry, I failed to get a picture of either the heating crew or the phone folks.)

While these professionals were doing their thing, Don, Adam and I were doing ours.

We made use of the temporary platform Don and Adam built last Friday to finish framing out the northern gable.



We rented a tracked mini-excavator for a day. Under Adam’s skillful control it made digging 4-foot deep holes for the sono tubes for concrete piers to support the decks fairly easy. It also dug trenches for the drainage pipes that run from the corner of the basement shown here and backfilled and graded much of the foundation and trenches.



The building inspector had to come out to check the tubes and also looked around at the rest of the construction. He seemed suitably impressed.

1/2-inch plywood sheathing got installed on some of the walls.


Dormer wall sheathing.


South end gable sheathing and lookouts with flyrafters.

Lookouts and flyrafters were also installed on the two gable ends of the living quarters. The south end was relatively easy to do since all the lookouts are the same length. The northern end was more difficult since it is a prow, i.e. the top sticks out further than the bottom so each lookout has an angled end and a flat end. And each one is a different length.


The LoadAll served well as a working platform on the outside of the building.

Friday turned out to be a short day as showers moved in around 10 AM and were forecast to stick around all afternoon. After installing two of the basement windows and trying to get started on the trim facia, Don called it quits. I took some borrowed materials back to Beaver Mountain and headed home to NJ for the holiday weekend. (Well, maybe just for a day. The grass up north in the Adirondacks needs cutting and some trails in the woods need clearing and the sun is supposed to be shining this weekend—unlike last weekend when it was out for—maybe, oh, 5 minutes in two days.)

Later.

Log Home Update: Part 23Framing gable walls and roof rafters

After several beautiful weeks without any rain, the weather gods turned the tables upon us this week. It has been overcast and cloudy with spritzes of rain three of the five days—the other two (Monday and Friday) it poured. Even so, we were still able to accomplish much.

Wet, wet, wet.
The only ones really happy about all the rain were the robins who now had ample mud (and straw) with which to build their nests.

Monday, Adam and Don were able to finish framing out the dormer wall with window headers and jack studs before the rains came. (I had remained in NJ to get my truck inspected at DMV. A task that was actually a joy as I got to the inspection station early and there was no wait. And it passed.)

On Tuesday the three of us framed out the rear gable wall. (Rearranging the window placement while we were at it.)


Wednesday and Thursday we spent time cutting and installing the jack rafters and roof beam that ties the garage to the main house. Don also began framing out the front shed dormer wall. (It’s really a small wedge above the main roof and the shed dormer’s roof.) The roof line looks much more real with the tie being made between the two halves (garage and main living space).

The tie that binds.

Friday was a wet drizzling day so we worked in the basement laying out the plumbing for the drains and basement bath, laying down the plastic vapor barrier, the insulated styrafoam sheets and the wire mesh to which the pex tubing for the radiant floor heating will be attached. It is now ready for the tubing and then the concrete pour.

Basement work.

If the weather holds next week, we should be able to frame out the front gable and start installing plywood on the roof. When the plywood is up, it will really start to look like a home!

The three of us stopped to marvel at the progress we have made in the month since we had the materials all delivered to the site. It’s really difficult to believe that on April 19th we had only the foundation and deck in place and everything else was in piles under tarps, in the tractor trailer or in the shed. And nearly all of this was done by three people as Jim hasn’t been able to join us as much as we—or he—would have liked.

Log Home Update: Part 22: Views

With just a little bit of rain last week, the fields and woods were greening up nicely.

Here's what you can see from up on the roof ridge.



And when sitting on the loft, we'll look through windows in the gable to see a view like this.

Molson Monday

Came across this Molson ad over at Pirate’s Cove and thought I would share with you.

You can see this and other Molson commercials at Google Video.

A "pizzly" or a "grolar bear"?

Seems there is now conclusive proof that grizzly bears and polar bears can and do cross breed.

Let's see...white with patches of brown fur. At least it can't sneak up on you in either forest or on the ice. I still wouldn't want to run into one in the wild!

Location, location, location

The log home we are building is located upon a 10.36-acre parcel of woodlands in north central PA. On the map below it is lot number 1. The home itself is only about 100 feet from the road in the upper right corner of that lot. (The actual location of the home is not shown and the one indicated here was the previous owner's and has long since been removed. But it does give you a general idea of how little of the land will be "improved.")

Lot number 2 on the map is the 6.94 acres up the hill that we also purchased. Because of its shape, the driveway (a very long affair) to the approved septic site—and therefore the most likely building site—runs right behind (on the south end) of our home.



I’ve yet to explore the land but can tell you that there are lots of slate/shale outcrops in the area of the road and driveways. I am told it was clear-cut not too long ago and can see the evidence of this in the size of the trees near the home site. I am also told there are some overgrown fields in the far end (the west side of the lots).

Make your trip to the grocery store pay for the gasoline

MorningGlory 2 provides commentary on The Grocery Game. (And a link to same.)

It looks like a great way to save on your grocery bill. MG2 reports saving an average of 37% each week with a peak of 56%.

(Registration and a nominal fee is required to enter the site to obtain coupons and lists.)

The LawDog Files: Go. Read. Now.

LawDog is at it again with some very funny stories and one liners.

First there is a list of Lines I'd really like to hear wherein Dog transcribes the commentary made by him and his buds as they watch some horror movies.

My favorite is:

“Oh, my God, Mr. President, the Alien Overlords crashed a family reunion somewhere in Southwest Louisiana. Early reports indicate that the Conquerers of 10,000 Worlds made, and I quote: 'A damn fine jambalaya.' Unquote."

Then he gives us the tale of the night Benny attempted suicide. (Why me?)

Go over and read ‘em. They’ll make you laugh and his other posts will make you think.

Log Home Update: Part 21b: Photos of a Ridge beam rising, and rafter and prow placement

Monday-Tuesday:

While awaiting the arrival of the crane, Don and I worked on the prow problem while Adam and Jim prepped for the ridge beam.


Prow on the end of the garage is finally installed. The top is 40 inches out from the wall and the bottom is only 18 inches.


Posts are erected and some rafters are in place to accept the ridge beam. The beam itself has had the metal brackets attached.

Early Wednesday morning the crane pulled onto the site.

A couple of hundred dollars well spent!


Within a few minutes, the very heavy ridge beam is in the air being lifted to the tops of the posts…


gently lowered to its position…


and then attached to the waiting rafters.


An hour after the crane arrived, it has departed and the ridge beam is high above supported by six rafters.


By the end of the day, most of the rafters are up. Some will have to come down to make way for the shed dormer that will be on the right. These were put up to provide temporary support.

Thursday and Friday:


Despite working with a short staff (Jim had to report to his regular job Thursday and Friday and Adam had a doctor's appointment Friday morning) the shed dormer has been framed out and the dormer rafters have replaced the temporary support rafters.

Log Home Update: Part 21a:Ridge beam rising, and rafter and prow placement

Another week of progress on our log home.

Things started off slowly as we faced the problem of lifting a 44-foot long glu-lam ridge beam into place. Don had decided last week that four guys were not going to be able to do this without getting hurt so we had to wait for a crane to be available. Adam and Jim prepped the beam and erected a couple of support posts and even a few rafters so when the crane arrived, we could get it hoisted in place quickly and safely.

Don and I worked on getting the prow on the end of the garage framed out, backfilling around the scapewell windows and prepping the area where we thought the crane would park to do its job.

First thing Wednesday morning the crane showed up and an hour later the beam was in place. The rest of Wednesday and Thursday we attached more rafters, began the job of framing out the wall for the shed dormer, and planning the connection between the loft and the garage attic.

The rains came late Thursday and continued through the evening hours and well into the night. The forecast is much improved for Friday, although it will be just Don and I. (Jim is at his full-time job and Adam has a doctors appointment.) We'll see what happens.

I'll be posting more, along with pictures, when I get back to NJ on Friday night.

Log Home Update: Part 20Panelized walls, roof trusses and floor joists

As I said, there was lots of progress made this week.

On Monday we installed two-thirds of the floor joists for the second floor of the living area (master bedroom, bath and loft).


On Tuesday, the remaining floor joists got installed…


and the two smallest panels for the mudroom/laundry were up.


I took the day off on Wednesday to close on the 7 acres adjacent to our lot but Don, Adam and Jim continued to work. By the end of the day they had installed the remaining panels for the garage and about a third of the trusses to go over this area.


On Thursday, I found out how they were able to accomplish so much:

The LoadAll made placing both the garage panels and the trusses relatively easy. (Unfortunately, it can't handle the 44-foot ridge beam for the main living area. After all, it is well over 30 feet high and 14 feet in from the outer wall.)

We were able to hoist the remaining trusses into place on Thursday.

By the end of the week: All the trusses are up. The ridge beam for the living area is ready for lifting. (All we need is a crane.) All rafters are stacked and sorted on the deck.


There wasn’t a drop of rain all week and the temperatures were in the 70s much of the time. A super week.

Log Home Update: Part 19: Progress and Purchases

It’s been another very busy week here in PA. The panelized walls of the garage are up as are the prefab trusses for the garage roof. While the attic space above the garage is huge, the garage itself seems small. It’s a good thing Terry has such a tiny new car! The Aveo could probably drive in one door and make a U-turn out the other. The Silverado however…well, that’s a different story.

The weather just could not be better and the heavy equipment (read: LoadAll) has made moving some very heavy and cumbersome pieces a snap.

The closing on the adjacent 7 acre parcel went smoothly after we got some clarification on an alleged right-of-way. (A neighboring hunting club (Club A) claims there is a right-of-way though our land—not for them, but for another hunting club (Club B) that has an existing right-of-way through the first club’s land. Club B has been using the current ROW since 1972 but the challenge only was raised this passed year. The realtor and attorney we dealt with both agreed that the ROW Club B is using is the correct one and that it goes through Club A’s land. This conclusion was based upon a copy of a ma[p frpm the county surveyor and a previous deed for the land prior to subdivision.

It should get interesting when this spat gets to court. Especially since the current ROW is only as wide as a truck but the deed says (and county rules call for) a 50-foot wide ROW so the road may be maintained. I think Club A may be in for a surprise.

Anyway, I’ll be back in NJ Friday evening and will have pictures to post showing the progress being made.