The Basement Slab

Making a basement floor is more than just picking a time to pour concrete. First, the house has to be enclosed from weather. Then the floor has to be kept from freezing. For weeks, John's been firing up Fred's generator and running an old propane heater to keep the temperature above freezing down there. He also rigged up fans to help circulate the air and remove moisture.

On New Year's Eve day, it was ready. We had a little picnic in the basement:

John's sophisticated fan hanging and cord management system are shown here:


The concrete arrived a few days later. It was sent down a chute through the basement window:


The Hampshire Concrete Team places the concrete:




Then they troweled it and the floor was done. Once set, George Propane brought in a cabinet heater (much better than the previous heater). John now uses this with the fans to manage moisture and keep the slab from freezing.

Utility Trenching

As you "locals" know, the last few weeks have been cold...really cold...way below freezing, single digit temperatures, and gusting wind (to make it more fun). Not suprisingly, this isn't Gary, Marc, and John's favorite condition for digging the power trenches, but they're up for the challenge. Since the utilities (electricity, cable and phone) are going underground, a roughly 2.5 foot deep trench needs to be dug from the house to the barn and from the barn to the utility pole at the roadside.
Some of the ground was covered in insulating snow which kept the ground unfrozen and much easier to dig. The bare sections, such as along and across the driveway, were a different story. Gary had to use his jack hammer attachment to loosen the hard frozen ground before trenching. He kept at it, and was almost finished at the pole when he encountered ledge. The jack hammer went back on, and he banged away at the rock. Meanwhile, conduit was placed in the rest of the trench and all but these last 10 ornery feet were backfilled. Short days and cold weather extended this process over several days.

Then it rained. The unfilled ledge section filled up with water:


The forecast was predicting more cold temperatures and soon. The trench had to be promptly pumped before it froze solid. John spent a day pumping water and digging in sub-zero winds. The remainig pipe was laid, backfilled and this phase was complete:



Conduit in the trench:


Marc the electrician poses for us:


Future electrical panel in basement:


Once the conduits are in place, Marc uses a vacuum to suck a string through them. These will then be attached to wires and fished through. It's a pretty high tech procedure ;-)

Pretty soon the electricity will be here and construction life will be much happier.

Closure

As temperatures drop, and and winter is officially here, we're anxious to finish closing the house to the weather. Now that the roof framing is in place it's time to sheath the gable ends, roof overhangs, and the roof itself. The goal is to accomplish this before the holidays. Realizing that some extra hands are necessary, John starts making phone calls. David (from next door), says he can be available starting the next day! Krzys rearranges his busy schedule and helps too. Back at the shop, John cuts and primes the gable brackets and pine board sheathing (for the overhang). Meanwhile, Gary is trenching for the underground utilities. More about this will be in our next post.

David and John pose with the sheathed gable ends:

Roof parts -- gable brackets:

Roof parts -- pine board sheathing:

John takes a break from making roof parts in the shop:

Installed gable grackets:

Brackets and pine board sheathing:

Rafter tails and pine board sheathing:

The roof is now ready for the plywood sheathing:

Finally, the roof is sheathed. It's the Afternoon of December 23rd, cold, and windy. The guys comment about hauling 4 by 8 foot pieces of plywood up to the roof in the cold and gusty winds. It's a challenge! And It's done ... well, almost ... John installs the last piece:

(click to enlarge)

On December 24th, the morning is spent applying the roof paper. This will protect it until the final material is installed. Gary, Kryzs, John and David take a morning break to refuel with eggnog and pastries:

Then it's back to the final pieces:

By mid afternoon, they're finished:

Merry Christmas!

P.S. to Roof Framing

By the time the roof framing was finished yesterday, it was already too dark to take photos.
Days are pretty short lately. John took these photos today.

Here are the rafter tails:


North side of house:


And the south side:

The finished and backfilled barn foundation:

Framing the Roof

Later last week and through the weekend, John prepped for framing the roof. Rafters, jack rafters and headers were cut and notched. On Monday Paul helped with finishing the rafter tails. These had to be cut, sanded, have the edges routed, and be sanded again. In all, 39 full length rafters were finished along with miscellaneous partial rafters and other pieces. These were ready for Tuesday's group of volunteers who also happen to be our neighbors. Talk about being neighborly!

Thank you Paul, Fred, Eric and David.

Here's Eric and his son David bringing up rafters from below:

Paul and David place the rafters:

Almost there:

We took another break on Sunday to celebrate Mr. Bean's 3rd birthday. (The candle was lit many times over...they're fun to blow out!)

The Second Deck, Thank You

The week of December 7th became a race against Wednesday's forecast for snow. The goal being, to have the second floor decking on prior to this event. Future work would be much easier if the first floor were enclosed. John spent Monday putting up the remaining second floor joists and preparing for a party of volunteers. On Tuesday our goal was reached with extraordinary group effort. (Because everyone was so busy helping, we neglected getting any photos during this work day.)

Thank you Paul, Fred, Krzys, Mariah, Ruthie and Rachel!

Sure enough, it snowed. Here's what the site looked like later in the week:

Knee walls were added too:


About one foot of snow fell followed by a delightful topping of rain:

The knee walls were sheathed and Paul put plastic over the window openings. Now there's a protected place to work:

Tarps are a very handy invention. This one will help keep the decking dry.:

View from second floor looking out toward the street:

The barn foundation was also poured. Because of the cold temperature, it was wrapped up in blankets to keep it from freezing (heat is produced as concrete cures):

After a long and productive week, we took Saturday morning off to cut a Christmas tree for the High Street household:

Wally World

Another week has quickly flown by. It's Monday morning Nov. 30th. The days are becoming very short and much cooler. Paul arrives ready to help frame the first floor walls with John. Rachel and Fred also help out during the week.

After a tutorial from John, Paul frames one of the walls:


Nice work! (yes, it's a different wall, but you get the idea...)




Sidenote: Paul also builds stone walls. Here's the one he built at his home down the street.



Fred arrived the next day to offer his skills:



And John used his wrassling skills to put this wall where it belonged:


By friday, the first floor walls were sheathed and ready for the second floor beams and joists.

John makes some last minute notes on his PDA for the next workday:

It was bound to happen -- a few inches of snow fell on Saturday night. Sunday morning, Krzy and Eileen shovel the floor decking:

John brushes snow off the top:

We nail MicroLam boards together and create two twelve foot carrying beams. Then Krzy and Eileen nail joist hangers into this very hard wood. We're experts by the time they're all nailed on, and still have all our fingers (we think....it's pretty cold).

Krzy and John then lay the two beams end to end across two thirds of the length. (The last third is a structural wall.) The beams are extremely heavy. These guys ace it:

Later on, Eileen cuts joists for John to put in place. It was a productive day.

Deja-Vu??? No, its footings for the barn. Once the barn foundation is in, trenching for electric power can begin.