The Dance Floor

The sills are finished. Next, John and our neighbor Fred set a heavy "MicroLam beam", (engineered lumber), which will support the floor. This is not a one-person job. Fred's muscle and willingness to help is appreciated. His loaned generator has really helped too.

Here's the MicroLam in place:



And the floor joists:

A few days later, it's the last day of a long Thanksgiving weekend. Many are traveling back home or shuffling through crowded holiday craft fairs looking for that perfect gift. Up at 105, we're about to embark on one of the funnest steps in house building: sheathing the deck.

Eileen cheerfully holds the chalk line to align the first piece of plywood:


Mr. Bean observes Papa Bean hammering a nail:

Now he must try it himself (with Mom's assistance):

Rachel prepares to spread glue on the joists:

And she's got it down:

John marks the plywood:

Then we pound the tongue and groove plywood into place:

Whoa! Rachel traded in the glue gun for the bigger nail gun:

And she's off. She had the entire deck nailed down by day's end:

John's 23 year old nail gun broke about 2 dozen nails short of finishing. Rachel's willing to finish nailing the old fashioned way:

Krzy and Rachel pound the last few nails.

And there are still plenty more left:

The deck is done. Time to put on our dancing shoes! It's really beginning to feel like a house. We spend a while wandering through the rooms before taking our weary selves home. It was a productive and enjoyable family workday.

Chop Chop

There's nothing like crisp fall weather and lots of logs, to bring on the powerful desire to chop wood. We've been working on stacking a wood pile for next winter. There's always someone nearby who wants to help. Here's Mr. Bean getting a log ready with the peavey:


He's a fan of loppers too:


As she so often does, Rachel quickly got the swing of chopping:


Rachel's great photo skills catch Eileen's lucky chop:


John gives a demo:

Our neighbor Paul is one with the maul. (He cooks too.)

John is very into the zen of stacking. Perfect cribbing is the key:

With Pauls help, we finished chopping and stacking this pile today. It's so satisfying!

Sills

The carpentry will now begin. It starts with sills -- the wood that sits upon the concrete foundation. It must be measured exactly and be perfectly square, otherwise we'll have a crooked house (not the first). We measure on top of the the concrete walls, a few times, measure again, then snap chalk lines all around. Perfect. In the trade they call this "dead knutz":

John bolts the sills down.

Getting there...

And it's done. It's nice when a job goes uneventfully. The next step will be building the deck.

The Foundation Part II

The Foundation Part II is about water, moisture and drainage. While we were "curing" in Forida, (Did I mention it was a sunny 80 degrees down there?), the outer walls of the fondation were sealed with a black waterproof coating. Gary also dumped piles of sandy fill for backfilling.


Next is drainage. The outside is outlined with perforated pipe laid in a bed of gravel. Over that is filter fabric to help keep sediment out of the gravel bed. All this pitches to the low northwest corner of the house. From there a pipe will be buried downhill from the house to carry away water. The photo below shows the start of the exit pipe:


Here is John prepping the outer drainage before backfill is added:


Next is inside drainage. Pipe is laid and covered with gravel, a vapor barrier, then sand. Again, it's pitched to the low northwest corner where it ties into the outer drainage pipe. Later on, a concrete slab will be poured to complete the cellar floor.


Now the hole is backfilled with sandy fill.


Wooden horseshoe??

The Foundation

A foundation begins with footings -- just like people. Soon after the hole was dug, Jim from Hampshire Concrete arrived with his crew and began the work.
Here are the footings which will hold the walls. Interior footings will be used for weight bearing beams and the chimney:


The boom truck carries and lifts the wall forms to the hole:





The Boss makes sure everything is going properly:



One of the three concrete trucks:



Cellar windows are set inside the forms:



This form is partially filled with concrete:



The crew at work:



Jim (the Dog Boss's owner), is enjoying this mild mid-November day:



Next day the forms are removed. The concrete needs to cure for a few days before back filling the hole.


We went to Florida for a few days while the concrete cured. Our contractor sure knows how to time things efficiently!

Dig Big

We begin from the bottom up -- with a cellar hole. Four stakes are in the ground to mark the corners of the house. Here's Gary assessing the situation:



Matt holds a stick at the bottom of the hole with a receiver attached to it. The receiver is connected to a nearby transit via a laser beam. This helps Gary dig to the proper depth.

Now it's Matt's turn to drive (or should say, "dig"):

The hole is dug and pins are set at the corners. The concrete workers will use these to set the footings and forms.

Building a Permit

The building process cannot begin without submitting paperwork and fees. John spent many hours putting it all together.

There's the deed, water test, energy compliance report, septic inspection, and more...



And the septic design (pretty impressive!):



House drawings, of course:

More forms:


Then, in return for all this paper, we get a pretty yellow building permit which must be conspicuously displayed on the site :-)