Written by brad on August 12th, 2009
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Tags: animal pictures, animals, bobcat
Written by brad on August 10th, 2009
Building the parapet walls has been fun and not too challenging. The biggest concern was getting them attached in such a way that they won’t blow away later. The winds here can be intense.
Framing
The only issue with the framing was on the slope walls. You need to keep it straight in your mind that the studs run perpendicular to the top, not the bottom; it’s on a slope. On a slope this small, it’s seems unimportant, but when you go to attach the OSB, you won’t end cleanly on a stud if you do it wrong.
Erecting and Attaching
Standing up the walls and positioning them was easy. (2×6 walls are night-and-day easier than 2×4 walls in this regard.) Screwing down the walls was a little harder. We used ten inch long screws that go clear through the SIPS panels and into the 2×6 header on top of the walls. Karen pre-drilled holes for me. We have what I thought was a pretty big drill to do the job and it barely did the job. We had more than enough screws and used them all. I also had a lot of extra eight inch screws that I set into the 2×6’s framed into the sides of the roof SIPs. It’s very sturdy.
Covering
The whole thing was covered in OSB*. This went fast. A large part of the reason it went fast is that we are the proud owners of a used Bostitch stapler. (Putting up our SIPs walls resulted in our having a box of 1/2 inch wide by two inches long staples seven-eights full–ebay to the rescue.) The stapler made short work of attaching the OSB to the walls. (Karen did most of the stapling.) Cutting the OSB to fit was the most work.
One special touch designed to prevent leaking is that we put a one-half inch in six inches slope on top of the parapet walls. Six inches is not a lot of room for standing water, but we’re just making sure.
* Oriented Strand Board: A decking made from wood chips and lamination glues.
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Our new staple gun
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In progress
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working on a stormy evening
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A simple miter cut at the corner.
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finished from the back
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finished
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view from the north
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view from the south
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Tags: construction, parapet
Written by karen on August 9th, 2009
We were planning to put the waterproof paper on the roof this morning, but the wind started blowing enough to make it too difficult.
Instead, we worked on the greenhouse (which has been lagging since so much has been going on with the house). We now have three of the four sides screened in and a door frame built. The screen goes down about 8″ into the ground so that animals can’t tunnel in. (Stay tuned to see how that works out.) We also filled the trenches with small rocks.
All we have to do now is finish the last side, put in the door, run drip irrigation (Brad has already brought a water line to the greenhouse), and plant some things!
On a totally unrelated note, I got a giant bag of Anaheim chiles in town on Friday and am going to make a giant batch of chile rellenos tonight.
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Tags: construction, greenhouse
Written by karen on August 8th, 2009
Building a house is very satisfying.
On a big picture level, it seems very authentic….like growing your own food or fixing your own car (back when that was feasible). It also fosters a sense of independence, especially since we are doing most all of the work ourselves. Being able to get along (and even thrive) by ourselves was a big part of moving here for me. Knowing how a house is built and being familiar with every detail of the construction means that I will also know how to fix things when they break. (And I have learned how to use several tools and do many tasks that will be useful in other contexts.)
The smaller details of building are even more significant. I like the physical work. It is straightforward and honest. Every day, I get sweaty and tired. At the end of the day, the tangible proof of my work is obvious. There is a new wall; a ditch is filled; the floor has a new finish.
It’s also good to be working with my hands and doing real physical work. It’s different somehow than moving bits and bytes around. The evidence of accomplishment is much clearer than with my other work. Many days, I feel more capable in this kind of work than in my “real” job.
When I do something wrong, like hammer my finger or drill something in the wrong place, it is generally something I can fix myself. (There really aren’t a lot options, though I do sometimes ask Brad for help. Most often it is help in how to do it better myself that I am asking for.) And I am learning new things every day. Sometimes, they are things I am not very good at, and it is frustrating. Other days, I pick up new skills quickly and feel as though I have found my niche. Either way, the activity of learning and trying new things is good.
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Tags: construction
Written by brad on August 6th, 2009
The big oak tree at our front gate has become the favorite playground for the local bobby twins. Mom was around, but I could not get her in a picture. The pictures of the bob kittens are the best to date. I hope you like them.
-brad
(look how long their legs are)
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Tags: animals, bobcat
Written by brad on August 3rd, 2009
These are items I’ve grown to appreciate over the last six months or so.
It gets hots here. Little things matter more than they have in my past experiences. White shirts help a lot; much more than I expected. Recently I wore a black t-shirt as a test. Arg!
Black gloves… well gloves. It’s just that I bought a pair of black Mechanix’s brand gloves that I love. They are unbelievably ugly with writing all over them. However, they are the kind of gloves I can wear while doing tasks that require a certain sensitivity that gloves normally lack. I can pick between an 16d nail and an 8d nail from my tool belt without looking. Pretty cool. The main thing is that I wear these glove all the time and that’s what I wanted. A lot less splinters and cuts for me since I started wearing these.
I’ve never been one to carry a knife, though I always like the idea. I never needed one enough to go to the bother of locating (I lose stuff all the time) one and putting it in a pocket every morning. I had a feeling I might before we moved here and I bought a couple. One is a simple flip open and lock style. I use this all the time and feel quite lost without it now. The other is one of those multitool ones with pliers, wire cutters, and a pretty nasty locking blade. I use this one much less often, but when I do it always saves me a walk. I wear this one on my belt which is a bit of a bother to put on each morning, but I always regret it when it’s not there. My only unhappiness with the miltitool is that it has a little clip on its side that would only result in its loss if I used it, that causes it to get stuck in the sheath. I’d like to take it off, but I’m pretty sure it would spring into a million pieces if I ever took it apart enough to remove it.
The list is longer of course. Big leather gloves are on the list too. Oh yea, the big Toyota Tundra is probably the top of the list. We’ve hauled some pretty big loads and it gets us through all the nasty roads around here no problems.
Ice water… did I mention ice water? We’ve learned to keep a couple of plastic jugs three-quarters full in the freezer. When we head to the ranch (or even a long drive) we grab a bottle, add some water and go. It’s stays cold for hours.
-brad
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Tags: tools
Written by karen on August 1st, 2009
The rainbows here are amazing.
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Written by karen on August 1st, 2009
We have a big pile of dirt on our property that came from digging up the septic. It’s quite nice dirt and will be great for our greenhouse….except that all the dirt here is filled with rocks. So Brad designed this filter to screen out rocks. And I built it. It was fun and worked quite well.
It was basically made by ripping four pieces of wood and then screwing them back together with a piece of screen between them. The corner supports were glued and screwed in place to provide stability. We’ve been using it by putting it over a wheelbarrow and shoveling dirt on top. Now we also have a nice pile of small rocks. I’m sure we’ll find a way to put those to use as well.
And like all of our tools, it is stenciled.
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Written by karen on July 28th, 2009
We got the first part of the parapet up today.
Looking kind of like an old west saloon facade right now, but it will look great once it’s all stucco’d.
After the other two walls are up, we’ll cover the whole thing with OSB.
Today, we also got trenches dug for plumbing and electrical to the house and greenhouse.
Thankfully this was done with a trench digger not by hand. :)
We have also been looking for “green” alternatives to traditional formaldahyde-processed fiberglass insulation (which, as Brad tells me, every house we’ve ever lived in has had). We found a cotton insulation that is well reviewed and carried by our favorite green building product store, but it is several times more expensive than regular insulation (and there don’t seem to be other similar products). Another alternative is Johns Manville, which is fiberglass but is not processed with formaldahyde. We’re checking on pricing and availability. If anyone has any experience or advice, let us know.
By the way, this is our 100th post on this blog. Wow.
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Tags: construction
Written by karen on July 27th, 2009
We had a good day today. We’re starting on a new project, putting up the parapet. For me, starting new projects is more fun than finishing ones we’ve been working on for a long time (especially ones that I thought were already done like the roof panels. We spent most of the day yesterday putting more screws in the roof. I think it’s really done now.)
The parapet is especially of interest to me because it needs to be done before we can put the waterproof paper up on the roof and walls. (After that, we stucco.) Building the parapet entails putting down a long 2×6 and then putting a 15″ 2×6 perpendicular to that every 16″. Then two more 2×6 longways on top. (I’ll take a picture in the next few days.) The tricky part is that, because our roof is low slope, we first had to rip the bottom 2×6 on an angle so that it ends up laying flat. The parapet runs on three sides of the house. It will take several days to do all this.
On the weather front, it’s been really hot…107 today. One lovely thing is that the inside of the house is quite cool now even in the hottest part of the afternoon. There have been thunderstorms blowing through almost every afternoon, which cools things down a bit. About half the time, it actually rains where we are; the rest of the time we just enjoy the show.
On the wildlife front, we had the pleasure of seeing the baby bobcats (now getting quite a bit bigger) climbing in our big oak at the front gate. We also saw momma bobcat hunt and kill a bunny. Not quite so nice…
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Tags: construction, weather
