Back to School

Really, a super-cool project. I applaud you guys for doing such a great job.

Cycloptichorn

Hey, thanks! We're just crazy enough to enjoy this kind of thing

It's exciting for me, because I've always dreamed of building my own house.

Not paying someone to do it - doing it myself, with the help of friends and family. So, seeing all the pictures of stuff getting done by y'all is very inspirational.

Cycloptichorn

I am enjoying this thread tremendously too!
You and the Mr. are so accomplished, Thai Chi and it looks like everything
is done to perfection.

Building a home to my own specification, would be a dream come true for
many of us, and we are so fortunate to be allowed to follow your dream.

Enjoying it too...

Thanks Cyclo, CJ and osso. It's been a busy week framing. I'll post my daily log and some photos:


The Garage – Episode Three – Framing

If I had one word to describe ants it would be relentless. Uncovered our skid of 2 x 6’s in preparation for starting the framing and discovered carpenter ants and saw dust. It was wrapped too tightly, obviously, but there has been a lot of rain. Now the skid is seriously dusted with diatomaceous earth and ringed with containers of ant killer (borax and sugar). I can be relentless too.

Day One
The Mr. is working in 8 foot sections so they will be light enough for the two of us to lift up and onto the bolts <oof>. It starts off pretty slowly as there are allowances to be made for a window and it’s all new to us. (The sauna doesn’t count. On the other hand it hasn’t fallen down.) Two sections are bolted and braced by day’s end.


Day Two
We’ve decided to work a half day and so only two more sections are finished. Making a “post” in the corner was something new. Note the rope attached at the corner and tied to the trailer hitch of the car. This was to pull the frame plumb before nailing everything together. (Er…we pulled it by hand not with the car!)

Day Three
Spent the morning in town ordering building supplies. One more section bolted and braced by dinnertime and the next one laid out for tomorrow.

Day Four
The halfway mark. West wall framing finished. Taking our time to avoid mistakes, especially since the windows we’re using are mostly different sizes, so measuring carefully.

Day Five
Most of the east wall finished. Have left the doorways ‘til last as they are a new challenge and will take some planning.

Day Six
The Mr. works on the last regular panel. Need to go into town tomorrow for the usual (laundry, fish, groceries, internet) but also some 2 x 10’s for spanning doorways and more nails. He is getting calluses on his hand from the hammer – none of this sissy nail gun stuff – it’s a pretty good work out.


And now for something completely different:

Daylilies and creeping bellflower:


The results of some drastic pruning by djjd:

Looks like a bumper crop!

building looks great so far

looks like you'll have a few apple pies this fall

Hello again, Tai.
I see yet more progress has been made.
You two are certainly a great team!

Looking at your photographs, I'm struck by how vividly green & lush every bit of vegetation is! The trees, the apples, the flowers .... wow.
Summer looks like a great time to grow just about anything!
How many months of the year does it snow there?

p.s. .... Any new sightings of your resident albino fawn?

Day Seven
East wall finished including the opening for the man-door. A furniture clamp came in handy for pulling the corners together level.

Day Eight
All four walls are framed. Just have to add a second top plate, staggering the 2 x 6’s across where the eight-foot sections meet to tie it all together.

Day Nine
Any space in the corner “posts” is filled with rigid and/or expanding foam. Drip flashing is nailed to the bottom of the frame resting on the edge of the foam covered block. The OSB and siding will sit just above the flashing which will encourage water to drip off and away from the foundation and prevent moisture from wicking back up the OSB.

Day Ten
The Mr. finishes the second top plate. It’s a civic holiday today so we’ll just be kicking back I guess until we can go to town tomorrow for the OSB. Maybe I’ll flirt with the possibility of heat stroke and cut the grass.

First work site injury. The Mr. drops the very last board, it bounces back and smacks him right next to his eye. It looks like he said the wrong thing to the wrong guy and got thumped. Not a deep cut luckily and I cleaned it up well. Glad it wasn’t any closer to his eye.

Day Eleven
Finish one course of OSB (oriented strand board) aka chip board aka Aspenite (according to the bill) on one long and one short wall so we can take the bracing down to make room for a delivery of more materials tomorrow.

Day Twelve
Roof trusses arrive after lunch. I am in awe watching the truck driver maneuver a huge trailer through our gate posts without smacking our mailbox as he swings around.

We finish two complete walls with OSB, spacing the panels with large nails to leave a 1/8 inch gap so the walls can breathe (as they’ll be covered next with typar).


Day Thirteen
Metal roofing and plywood sheathing arrives. The Mr. phoned the yard and caught the truck before it left so we got another 5 pounds of badly needed nails too. Finish all four walls with OSB today with only a few scraps to spare. Is there is anything uglier than chipboard?

The apples have kind of a soft texture but should make a decent crumble at least.

Hi msolga. Haven't seen the albino fawn yet and nobody else in the neighbourhood has mentioned it. Hope springs eternal though!

It's still very green here. We've had a lot of rain -- the mosquitoes love it. Other areas in the north have been very dry though and plagued with forest fires so I'm not complaining.

We should definitely have snow by November and one year we had a snowfall in May (ack that's at least six months!) but the weather is somewhat moderated as it's an island. I'm told we got more accumulation where we used to live than we can expect here. I'll let you know in January !

The Garage – Episode Four – The Roof Trusses
We hired the guys who did our cement work to put up the roof trusses -- (they freelance on weekends if their boss doesn’t need them) -- and thank God we did, because the Mr. and I had no clue. They knew all about the bracing needed, built catwalks along the top of the inside wall, and even managed to work around our first somewhat wonky corner. (The Mr. wants a come-along for his birthday before his next framing project.) As I type this, they’re almost finished and it hasn’t even been 6 hours yet – with time off for a BBQ lunch!
Okay, I jumped the gun. There was still putting up fascia and marking the line for when the soffits go on to finish up and a few other little fiddly things but it took less than 8 hours.



LATER…
Mr. Fix-it saw the albino deer! I was doing the dishes, worse luck. He’d gone back to fire up the sauna stove and took a wander around the property perimeter and there it was on the other side of the fence. They had a five-minute staring contest. He says the front of it is fawn colour and the back is whiter – kind of like a painted pony. What’s weird is that the first time we heard about it was the first day the cement guys showed up and one of them saw it. They were back today, and it turned up again. Hmmmm…..

Great work - and great update!

Met someone on the weekend who is planning to move to Manitoulin within the next coupla years. Told her to come check this thread out, so there may be an extra lurker or two.

Very good - I'm enjoying every bit of your descriptions. What's the green/blue/gray on the chipboard (or is it just a different kind of chipboard?).

Wonderful about the fawn.

Hmmm...perhaps I should be more circumspect

osso, the blue is painted on a skid of chipboard before transport to protect it from moisture. The really blue stuff is just overspray from the factory.

We have periodic inspections from the building inspector as we progress. Just passed the most recent and after we roof (plywood then galvanized metal) we can start wiring and insulation inside. Prodigal son is around for a little while to help with roofing. Eldest just headed back to his job down south. We've had a few days off for visiting -- now back to work.

It'll be neat to get the roof on there, eh?

<catching up>

Looking fabulous TC - geez girlie, you do work hard! Hope you had a happy visit with the Prodigal.

Do give MrFixIt a quick smooch - he's a star.

Looking forward to seeing more pics and details when you can. You are utterly amazing at what you can do - am so happy that you are up there now tho I am starting to fret about the amount of snow. I know, your used to it Glad too about the local med facilities. Good. All sorted then

Carry on!

(((((TC&MrFixIt)))))xx