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My little pony wall
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011Big milestone
Friday, June 3rd, 2011We have spent the better part of a week working on this, and the vertical vigas and glulam are now in place. (A glulam, for the uninitiated, is a long structural timber made of several layers of wood that are laminated together – the crossbeam in this photo. Vigas are wood beams made of a single piece of wood-the round vertical beams in this photo.)
The hardest part of all of this was that the vigas and the glulam are all extremely heavy. After we moved the vigas, Brad drilled holes in the bottom of each one and epoxied in a long bolt.
A metal plate that was part of the mounting kit went on the bottom.
We then drilled holes in the slab into which the other end of the bolt would be epoxied.
It was difficult to get the viga lined up with the hole, and we wanted to do a “trial run” first (sans epoxy) to make sure the placement was right. Once you epoxy them in, that’s where they’ll be forever.
The next step was moving the glulam up to the roof. It was heavier than the vigas, so we used the truck to move it and got a lot of exercise hoisting it up.
Then we cut out notches where the glulam would sit in the viga. We used a chainsaw for this, another new experience. I thought I’d really like chainsawing, but as it turned out, we both hated it.
The final work was done with a chisel and grinder. The grinder was really useful for this.
On one end, we built a little stack of 2x6s for the end of the glulam to sit on while we seated the other end. (Note the rope. It was very windy the whole time we were doing this, making it all the more difficult. You wouldn’t think a gust of wind could blow over a piece of wood that weighs several hundred pounds, but it can and did.)
After trying to seat the glulam in place, it didn’t quite fit. Not only does the notch have to be the right size, but how square it is (how parallel all the parts are down the line) makes a big difference. So we went through this a few times…trying it, grinding, and trying it again.
Eventually, the clerestory windows will sit above the glulam, and the room in front of it will have a high ceiling with vigas in the ceiling. Building the pony wall for those windows is the next task.
Make mine a double
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011We’ve gotten the first of the double exterior walls done now. The two 2×4 walls are about 11″ wide in total and will be filled with insulation. It makes more sense to see in a picture. The deep window sills will be especially lovely.
I have a really good appreciation now for why houses make such weird sounds at night. When you build, you want everything to be square, but the materials seldom are — boards are twisted, bowed, and warped; slabs have dips and uneven spots. You do what you can to twist, pry, and cajole everything in place to be square, but it easy to imagine all the pieces cracking and popping as they settle in over the years. Add to that a very heavy roof pressing everything down. If kids knew how houses were put together, they probably wouldn’t be so scared of all those noises in the night.
Update
Monday, February 28th, 2011Before we take a little hiatus from building, I thought I’d do a quick update on where we are.
It’s been an incredibly windy couple of weeks. We’ve been building walls and leaving them lying on the slab until the wind lets up enough to put the walls vertical. Sometimes that’s been several days later.
At any rate, we now have about two-thirds or so of the outside exterior walls up. (Remember that we are double-framing the exterior walls so there is still a lot to do.) The remaining outside exterior walls are the really tall ones. They will be so heavy that we will need a little help to stand them up.
We’ve also done of a few of the interior walls (of which there are very few). The bedroom and computer room walls are now up. Here’s a picture. Imagine the lovely double French doors!
We would never have gotten so far so quickly without our trusty nailgun (which we didn’t have for the other house — though we had no outside wall framing to do for that house either). It has not only saved us a lot of time but also made the walls more solid.
On other fronts, we saw a premier of a great BBC nature special that was shot in our very own Horseshoe canyon. It was fabulous. When it airs, I’ll let you all know.
And best of all, this week, we finally got a final certificate of occupancy with the right address and the right date. It’s been 10 months since we passed our final inspection. Hard to believe the effort required to get the paperwork right, but we’re very glad it’s done!
New kitchen counters
Thursday, August 5th, 2010I like the tile part of our interior work. I just do the design, pick the materials, and watch while the work is done. It’ s how I imagine other people “build their own house.” Ha ha.
Seriously, I am in the final stages of a big project for work, and so the timing was good for Brad to tile the kitchen counters.
Here is the work in progress.
Ick!
And the final results.
House #1 is done
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010Not that there aren’t a thousand things still to do, but with the final stucco on, I’m calling it done.
We finished the final coat on the house today.
We also got the battery house done. Now my beautiful door has a proper backdrop!
While we were working on this, I noticed that some of the varnish on the frame is peeling a bit. Probably a result of being taped several times and the hot sun. (It’s been almost 8 months.) I’ll need to put another coat on.
This was my first real encounter with the dreaded “maintenance” issue of home ownership. I mentioned this to Brad, and he told me that the Golden Gate Bridge is continually being painted. It takes about 2 years to paint it, and by the time they finish, it’s time to start again. Hmmm.
Looking like a real house now
Saturday, July 24th, 2010So we have two and a half walls done now and one and a half more to go.
The final coat of stucco is going on *much* easier than the first coat. (Good thing too, since it’s hotter than hell right now. We’ve been getting up early to start around 6 and be done for the day by noon to try to beat the heat. I’m sure appreciating our lovely onsite shower this week.)
We’re using an acrylic stucco (El Rey Perma-flex) that is supposed to flex and not crack as much in the extreme heat. It is very smooth to put on and the seems don’t really show at all (unlike the first coat). The only bad part is that the stuff really sticks to everything. Our hands and arms are coated in it, and I have scrubbed my skin with a brush until I feel like I have no skin left.
One thing that is very nice about this product is that it comes premixed. No adding sand; no cement mixer; no shoveling or hauling loads of it. (I especially appreciate this since this was my job on the basecoat.) Our division of labor on this coat is that Brad trowels it on and I do the finish.
Putting the tile on has been interesting. I had this idea to put tile accents on the outside and found some beautiful dark blue Japanese tile to use. I wanted to put some small 1″ tiles inside our arched doorway and a row of larger tiles along the top edge. I thought the arch would be really hard but the top edge would be easy. It was actually the opposite. The problem with the tile at the top is that it is relatively heavy and wants to pull off until it dries a bit. (After it dries, I don’t think it’s ever coming off.) We have had several strips fall off, whereupon they fall 12 feet and break, ruining the tile. We have extra though, and we’re getting better at it.
The results look really great, I think.
Happy July!
Friday, July 2nd, 2010We’ve been living in the house for one month now. (Well, at least, Brad has. I’ve been traveling a lot, but am home for a while now.)
When I got home this week, Brad had the glass block wall up in the bathroom. It’s really beautiful.
And these are the Amish hand-forged wrought iron hangers we got. They were inexpensive and look really nice. (The service of the place we got them from was great as well.)
My garden is doing well. We got the shade cloth up, and it seems to be helping with the wind. My peas are about to produce a second harvest, and they continue to bloom and grow taller. The cucumbers have blooms, and the beans look healthy. I am also transplanting some of my eggplant outside now.
The farm is good too. We go there every Friday to help harvest and continue to blog and add recipes and photos to their web site. This week we harvested lots of onions and garlic. On Sunday, we will be in the 33rd annual Rodeo July 4 parade with the farm. Should be fun. Look for pictures next week.
Nice work!
Saturday, June 26th, 2010Look what Brad did today (while I was working on other stuff — getting ready for a marathon of 8 presentations in 48 hours next week…why do I agree to these things?:)
The kitchen counters are next. (We finally have the tile.)
Celebrating with a few minutes of rest and reflection
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010Well, we did it. We are now 100% moved in!
Last night, we celebrated with a bottle of champagne, the first half of which we enjoyed sitting out by the greenhouse watching an awesome sunset with a pleasantly warm light breeze blowing.
It is almost one year to the day since we got our building permit and less than two years since we first came to Portal and found this beautiful spot. (Also, since then, this is our 200th post on this blog.) It’s hard to believe how fast this all happened.
Sitting outside last night, we reflected on all the people who helped us get here. We have a very supportive and loving group of family and friends. Thank you all.
Most of all, Brad was an amazing partner in all this. He not only was willing to entertain my crazy idea to do this, but then rose to the task of building a whole house ourselves with many challenges that were far out of the ordinary. He was a patient teacher and an amazingly hard worker. At the end of this, we not only have an absolutely beautiful house, but our relationship is stronger than ever. Thank you, Brad.
Now, for a bit of a rest, and then on to the next stage!
