Porch S & S

Porch S & S (Sheathing and Shingling) is underway. Below are some before and afters. Most of the windows were also put in. There was an error in our order for the front door and rear double door, we are in the process of correcting the issue.

The back porch is shaping up nice.

 And .... from the other end

 With the completion of the porch, water will now be funneled out of the addition, now maybe things will dry out a bit inside.

 One of the windows that was put in was broken :( 
It's being taken care of :)

Photo from afar..  hmmm... maybe there is a barn renovation project in my future.

Roof & Porch Progress

The roof on the existing house is moving along.

The lines on the house are already looking cleaner. It will take a little summer heat to get the shingles flattened a bit more and sealed up. We had the chimney taken down to just under the roof line. The chimney gave the house a little more character from the outside but it was a non functional chimney and keeping it would just create another possible leak point in the roof system.

The decking was installed on the back porch and the header for the porch roof was started.

Eventually we'll put columns in to support the back porch.

Porch Underway, Windows, Roof

Portions of the new roof were put to the test with a little snow this week. Some of it melted and made it's way over to the areas that don't have a roof yet and down into the interior. Then the temperature dropped again and created an ice rink in the living room.

Our new ice palace came complete with stalactites.

This manicured yard has to be the envy of the neighborhood.
Can't wait to put the toilet out there, the white porcelain should tie in nice and contrast with the red dumpster.

Windows and doors were delivered today.

A few days ago the porch posts were set and joists were put up.

Today the porch decking was started.

Construction on the roof has also been underway. The dumpster is filling up with old cedar shingles.

Framing, Snow, & Clean Up

We were lucky to have our sister Lauren come visit this week to help with laundry and taking care of the babies. Thanks Lauren! While she was here we thought we would try to get some pictures of the kids. I assure you I personally have very little brand loyalty but one of the pictures ended up with everyone (even the dog) in their John Deere gear.

We had about 2" of snow today. The roof was tied in and buttoned up yesterday in preparation for this weather. I used the tractor to move a couple pallets of left over material into the barn. The eldest son helped me steer the tractor and clear snow out of the drive.

As for the construction, here are some pics of the upstairs framing and how it's tied into the existing structure.

 Rake sofit.

This is where the new roof is hipped into the existing.
We'll eventually cut an access hole between a couple of the old rafters.

Plumb cut eave fascia, sofit area at eave and rake.

Ceiling joists in upper room.

Rake and transition to inside.

The way we are getting material up to the second floor.

Shing-a-ling

Crews have been finalizing the rafter systems and the lower pitch section between the two peaks. The new roof was hipped into the old one, a portion of the metal roof was removed for this. There were old cedar shingles under the metal roof then thick wide horizontal boards perpendicular to the rafters. The cedar shingles were taken off and OSB was placed on the thicker material to secure the new rafters to.

The house as of today.

 

 

I'll try to get some more detailed framing pictures later this weekend. I was running low on daylight and wanted to get some areas of the construction site cleaned up.

Also, this little guy has been keeping us busy. We were lucky to have his aunt stay with us for a few days to help out with the babies.

Drying Out & Going Up

Rafters were built today and placed in line for match up with the existing structure.

Here is a view from the road, hopefully we have salvaged some of the old farm house character.

A view of chaos acres from the master bedroom.

Here is the roof tie in.

A view from above of Buster's new room.

A lot of the asbestos tile was removed today in preparation for breaking through to the old part of the house. This revealed a hidden window. On the other side of this window placement is the bath tub of the main floor bathroom.

House of Rain!

Compared to the previous week, this was a warm and rainy day. This weather melted any hint of snow left on the ground and expanded the mud bog throughout the yard. The all day rain made it's way into the addition.

I had previously laid out some hay to help the crew and myself keep some traction on the muddy ground around the addition. I know it won't last for long but it seems to have helped considerably for now. 

Here are some pics of my lovely new liquid floor coverings. This low maintenance floor covering creates a tranquil water fall effect as it permeates from above and self renews.

The electrical cords laying in the puddle is a nice touch, I did not go inspect to see if they were live.

For my own sanity I checked the stamping on the OSB. It is stamped as EXPOSURE 1 which means it can withstand a fair amount of this type of abuse. They use water proof resins and seal the edge (not effective on cut edges) when they create this type of OSB. The next grade up is EXTERIOR which would be permanent exposure to the elements. Our OSB should dry out and hold up well.

The crew drilled 1" holes in some strategic spots to let the floor drain. Down to the basement it all goes. Maybe if I stock the new lake in the basement I could have a man cave you can fish in, who has that!

Clean up and Chase the 2yr Old

The weekend was spent organizing scrap from the construction and cleaning up around the job site. It may seem a bit miserly to go around stacking board cut offs instead of just pitching them but experience tells me that some of this scrap could be put to good use at a later date on other projects. As it was, my bucket of scrap wood was looking a bit thinned out.

I thought it would be fun to have my 2 year old son help me pick up some of the smaller blocks. He was more interested in splashing in the mud and running around between the studs in the new construction. Any concept of productivity is woefully lost on him so we just enjoyed ourselves squeezing through the studs and running around the roughed in rooms.

 Eventually he had enough and I put him inside with Mommy.

After mucking around in the mud I built a couple of piles of good scrap.