Aftermath and Moving On

A week after a damn fine party, thrown by my lovely wife and about 50 of our closest friends. The house is still semi-decorated, though it's coming down daily. Thank EVERYBODY for your thoughts and wishes whether you were there or not.



Now our focus goes back to work and the house.



We are so close to being done with the siding, with basically two sections left to do. The master bedroom face and the back deck and dormer area are what's left, and still a bunch of caulking.



I want to extend the perpetual invitation to anybody that would like to drop by and throw-in, regardless if we are having an organized "work party" or not. I'm going to try to keep a running list of things that need to be done, many of which really can be done or severely impacted in an hour or two or three. Practice your skills, challenge yourself if you like, be an extra hand for something, it's all here and if you don't know how to do something, we'll figure it out. That's how we're building this house, in fact, figuring out how to do stuff as we go. We've made mistakes, we correct them, we learn and get it done. Immensly rewarding so far, but we're impatient to get it done!



Here's an idea of things to do:

• Install siding


• Caulking


• Cut and screen vents


• Install deck ledger spacers and siding to cover tyvek


• Install door hardware on two french doors


• Dig up rain barrel to repair leaking connection


• Spread gravel under house


• Dig out sump pump under house, build brick wet-box for pump


• Route, plan and install vents for baths, kitchen, laundry, water heater (pending material)


• Route, plan and install gas piping (pending material)


• Route, plan and install vacuum system piping.


• Install soffet boards front and rear


• Mask windows for paint


• Paint the house (pending material)


• Connect the shed 110vac wiring feed from the house, final the hose bib there and cover the hole.


• Insulate (freeze protect) the exposed water collection lines where they enter the house.

OK that's it for now. Check back for updates, we'll see if I can keep this maintained. Sandi will at some point continue with the picture-post, but as you loyal readers know we're pretty hit-and-miss on doing updates.

Siding... with PICTURES!

Ok, only about a month behind in posting these... On our anniversary weekend (17 years... woo-hoo!) we had some wonderful family and friends come over to help us side our house. Nephew Matt was the first to arrive in the morning. Here is Tom and Matt setting up our anniversary gift to each other. My...ahem... OUR Bosch 4410, 10" sliding compound miter saw... can you hear Tool-Time Tim grunting right now? I really love that saw considering we did the entire north wall of the house with a Skil-Saw, the straight cuts of the Bosch are AWESOME!

I believe this is Tom and Wayne in the bucket putting up the trim pieces around the windows in the craftroom.

Here are Nephew Matt, my brother Matt and the fabulous Andria working on the backside of the garage.

Ed was our cut master that Saturday. He did a great job cutting for all the installing crews. There are a lot of angles on the different roofs and he kept up like a champ.

Mom, with her broken wing still carried boards from the cut station to the installing crews. She is amazing.

Wayne and Tom working on the trim boards at the craftroom door dormer.

Wayne and Queen Betty in the mighty chariot...

Hailey and Tom working on the front dormer over the garage.

Here is the backside of the house after the weekend work party. Sigh... ain't it purty?

Here's a closer picture of Hailey & Tom working on the dormer.

What a Weekend!

Wow, so much done yet so much to do! It's a big shift from Sandi and I figuring out how to side our house to multiple people helping on the job, none of whom is a professional. But we dove in, figured out how to work it and knocked it in the ass! The most significant thing I learned is the difference in pace from working on the ground and ladders to using a high-lift and working two floors up.

SO much thanks goes out to our friends and family who took the time to lend us your time and your tools, and your help will be appreciated forevermore.

We will be siding and caulking over most of the Labor Day weekend, so feel free to drop on by if you want to check out progress.

I'll let Sandi post some pictures of the progress. It's almost her time to pick out colors for the house, though we don't really anticipate painting until next year.

Oh, and let's not let it slip by that Saturday was our 17th anniversary, for which this sidiing party was exactly what we wanted as a gift. That and the Bosch 4410L we bought each other. I sure love that girl!

Tom

Siding Party!

We're inviting anyone who wants to come by next Saturday, the 28th, to throw in with us to make the Big Push on our siding. We practiced a bit, then went and helped the Morelands on thier siding, and now we think we know enough to git-er-done! We'll have a lift, food, ladders, food, saws, food, multiple nailers and we might have some food!

Starting around 8 and going until we're tired, it's dark or the food calls. Anybody that want's to hang overnight it welcome, and we'll certainly keep on it Sunday.

No need to RSVP, just show up!

Siding!

We are moving on to SIDING now! Tom and I started on the north end of the house so we could figure out what the heck we're doing before starting on the front that we'd see every day. There was a little bit of... spiced debating... while these walls were being done... Something like:

Sandi: Let's check this row with the level.
Tom: No, we checked the starter row.
Sandi: We don't really know what we're doing, let's check every other row so we can make little adjustments if necessary, not big ones.
Tom: Geez, if we have to STOP and check EVERY board, we're never going to get this house done! I don't know why you want to keep wasting time!
*** Get level and find that one end is starting to dip a little***
Sandi: Mmm Hmmm!
Tom: Whatever.

Or something along those lines... :-) Or...

Tom: Let's get the ladders and finish this wall up to the band.
Sandi: I'm not getting on the ladder.
Tom: Come on, let's just get this wall done.
Sandi: I don't do ladders.
Tom: It'll be fine and won't you feel good when this wall is done.
Sandi: Yes, but I'm climbing the ladder under protest.
Tom: Fine. Grab the end of the board.
Sandi: Ok, I'll hold it but I'm not holding it AND nailing.
Tom, grumbling, sets up a 3rd ladder between us so he can finish the nailing.

I didn't realize what a wuss I was until it came time to sway at the top of a ladder with a fiber cement board in one hand and a pneumatic nail gun in the other. And in case you didn't pass second grade math, that doesn't leave any hands to hold on with!

But I have to say, we have gotten MUCH better at this and the front has gone much quicker than the first side.

This is the first side we did. This will be beautiful when it gets painted. A craigslist find. At half the price from the box store, I couldn't pass it up.

I knew the 6" trim that Nick talked us into would be worth the extra expense when we got the siding up. It really makes the trim pop!

Even the girls got in on the action. The top boards are brand new and were my birthday present. The bottom boards were a Craigslist find. (as was the whole north side of the house) They are ugly now, but when painted, you'll never know the difference.

Here's the front porch with our door installed. If you have any fabulous ideas on how to finish the front door alcove, I'd love to hear/see them!! So far, I'm just thinking regular siding painted a shade darker than the paint.

Here's the whole house so far.

And here is Titan on his rock. That silly dog likes to jump up on this huge boulder in our yard and just survey his kingdom. He's so darn cute.

Plumbing

Mike & Wayne working in the dining room

Well, it appears that Blogger has KINDA fixed the picture issue. I haven't been able to put pictures into a post for months! From the threads I've read, it was a widespread problem. It seems I can add pictures now, but I can't move them! Anyway... Let's get updated!





We want to send a VERY belated but heartfelt thank you out to all who helped us with our plumbing rough-in. We are using the PEX tubing instead of copper for a couple reasons: 1. Ease of installation 2. cheaper! We also want to note that we passed our plumbing rough-in inspection THE FIRST TIME! Not bad for electricians playing plumbers!!

Henry and Howard working in the crawlspace

Plumbing Update

We've been off the blogging but not the working, slow but still moving. The plumbing system rough-in is complete and signed-off. The day after the inspection I found one leak in a soldered joint, but otherwise this 5-toilet, 9-sink house is tight for water and waste. I still need to make the final connection to the septic system, but that'll have to wait until we get rock for our driveway to the tune of about 5 loads.

Sandi will tell you about the siding system and the next work party, as she's an expert whom I'd hold up against any pro sider, as long as she's firmly planted on the ground. You go girl!

After the skin is tight we'll paint, then start thinking about the electrical systems. Amongst the thought and schedule process remains the vents and the propane gas lines, and the heating system will be later.

Our permit expires next month, which while being a part of our original plan, is still unpleasant as it's about $1500 tax to renew it for another 18 months. Most counties in the region, excepting Snohomish County, has previously dropped permit deadlines and renewal fees as a gesture to combat the unpleasant economy. We would gladly circulate that $1500 through the economy if the beaurocrats would allow, rather than fining us for responsibly building a home without taking on over-bearing debt.

OK, back to the mills on Monday. Drop us a line if you can or want to join a work detail!

Tom

Crap, where have we been??

I'm not even going to try to start a real post. But on the chance that somebody actually looks once in awhile I'll say "hi we're still here". Not a whole lot of progress on the house in the cool weather, except for rapt attention to de-watering the crawlspace.

We'll update with photos sometime soon I hope, and hopefully crank up the work parties to make some progress on our dominating project.

Tom