Farmhouse Addition - Week 21 Updates

After a little bit of rain Saturday morning, this weekend turned out some great weather for working outside.  We moved to the north elevation and completed the soffit and fascia, angled trim, and board and batten detail at the peak.  This is as far as we can go until the new roof is installed.

Angled trim, soffit/fascia and board and batten peak detail are installed and caulked.  This week I will hit with 2 coats of white paint.  I could only reach the left half of this peak from the lift, so I had to build a work platform to reach the right side. 

View from the ground.  It's great to be able to see some progress on the front of the house as you drive in.

Here's a cool picture Mike took of me in the lift.

Sunday morning we pounded in more 3" nails than I would ever care to do again to get the joist hangers fastened to the beam.  The existing roof is better supported now than ever!  

Here's a picture from the other direction.  Pretty solid!

 Mike tackled installing all the insulation baffles.  These keep the loose insulation from dumping out onto the soffit and also keep a channel for air to flow up along the underside of the roof. 

Here's a picture of the top work platform to reach the top of the peak.  It's not quite tall enough, so I had to set up a ladder on top of it to reach the peak.  It's not the most secure feeling being up there, but is definitely stable!  (note - the ladder is not setup - its just sitting there in the picture!)

 We also spent a while cleaning out the garage.  There was leftover siding trim, lumber, etc.  Now there isn't much of anything left!  This cleanup is in preparation for filling the rest of the garage with sand and ultimately getting the floor poured!

Cleaning the garage involved moving a lot of lumber - what better way to do that than with the concrete buggy!

Down in the basement you can see the final column placement.  This puppy runs 3 stories!  It is sitting on the new thickened pad.  With the joist hangers in and beam fully supporting the roof, we also removed the temporary support walls.

And, of course, the Shop Kitty pic of the week!  Hangin out on her corner of the couch, limbless.

Farmhouse Addtion - Week 18, 19 & 20 Updates

Progress over the past 3 weeks has been very strong!  Things are getting finished as fall is quickly approaching.

Siding was completed up to within 5' of the peak.  From here up will be a board and batten detail.  Notice the two green things on the siding - these are Gecko Gauges (http://www.pactool.us/geckogauge/).  You simply flip a lever and the pair of them will hold a 16' piece of siding up all by themselves.

Moving to the inside of the house - I had to cut out a 2' x 2' hole in the basement to pour a 12" thick pad footing to receive the column for the new truss beam support.  It was not fun chipping out concrete, digging a hole and pouring it all back.  It was endless buckets of material up and down the stairs.

To install the column in the south wall involved displacing the furniture in our bedroom.  Then I put up a plastic enclosure to contain the dust.

Here is the column partially installed.  It is made up of (3) 2x4's that run from the top of the concrete block wall in the basement to the top of the 2nd floor ceiling to support the new beam.  The joints are staggered for strength, which you can see in this picture.

 

Here are the three beams that will support the existing and new roofs.  Instead of a wall supporting the roofs, this beam will in its place.  The beams are 14' long, 14" tall, and weigh a lot (+100lbs each).

Looking from the top of the stairs to the west.  Lots of dirty old wood.

Underneath the carpeting in Erin's craft room turned out to be some retro flooring!  Might come back in style some day!

Standing south, looking north towards Erin's craft room.  The ceiling has been removed and rafters exposed.  The new beam will support everything you see in this photo.

More plastic was installed to protect Erin's craft room contents from dust.

Looking west - Here you can see the beam in place.  The wall you are looking through will now no longer be needed and can be removed to create the future open stair concept.

Beam insatlled!  It is crazy beefy.  To the right of the beam you can see the "sandwich" we had to make to stiffen the existing rafters.  2x4's were pieced in, then a piece of plywood was fastened to either side of the truss to stiffen it.  Just to get the trusses reinforced took a whole day.  You can also see the temporary support wall under the rafters.  There is one of these on each floor to the basement to carry the load of the roof while we cut away material to get the beam in.

This week we also received the trusses for the existing house!  The last big item left to complete this year! 

 

Back to siding now...here's a picture of the top condition at an outside corner.  Quite a bit of cutting/fitting to get these corner pieces to integrate with the horizontal trim and trim board that follows the roof slope.

 By the end of this weekend, soffit and fascia were installed, board and batten finish painted, and one coat of grey on the next level down.  I'm pushing to get this high work done, as my lift is disappearing shortly and the scaffold you see here won't go much higher than it currently is!  It's starting to look like something now!

 Saturday morning, 9/13 - first frost of the 2014 fall season!  Not ready for this!

Thanks to my father-in-law Mike, I am the new Owner of this cool free shed.  His neighbors loaded it on to the trailer and Mike drove it out on Saturday.  Now...what to put in it?  I will probably stick my my firewood for heating the house in it to keep it snow free this winter.  It is 8' x 10', so it will hold a lot!

Shop Kitty pick of the week - owning the couch.  You may notice the scenery has changed - Erin and I decided to adopt Shop Kitty and bring her in the house.  It was hard to see her get all wet during rain and didn't want her to loose anymore of her only 6" stub tail this winter.  Her and Tippy are both adjusting to having a room mate!