At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Soffits, vinyl siding, and gutters are now installed. The stonework is coming along. I didn't realize that laying stone takes so much longer than laying brick. Of course, we generally had 3 brickies working; the stone mason is working by himself. Because of the trees, I can't get far enough away from the house to get a picture of the entire front of the house.

Now I need to install drain pipes to run the roof water away from the house. There's more digging in my future.

 

[Obed]

The wife decided she wants the brick in the porch to go all the way to the ceiling. Originally we were going to put vinyl siding above the existing brick. So the brick mason will need to come back and finish the brick under the porch ceiling. The framer didn't fill in the house wrap when he finished the porch. I wish we had noticed it. Our ladder is storage so doing it ourselves is inconvenient. We'll probably nail up a strip of house wrap when the brickies put up their scaffolding.

If you look closely at the brick before the back porch ledger board was installed, you can see that the brickies installed the weep holes right where the ledger board needed to be installed (Note: see the two rows of bolts used for attaching the ledger board.). I'm amazed that they installed the weep holes there. They just weren't thinking. The weep holes should have been installed higher than the ledger board. Our fix was to install spacers between the ledger board and the brick wall to prevent water exiting the weep holes from being trapped against the ledger board. The spacers have a very nice side benefit; they keep the ledger board away from the brick and help slow down wood rot. If the spacers start rotting, we can always replace them. So in the end, I'm almost glad the weep holes got installed where they did because I like the fact that the ledger board is not sitting against the brick.

 

[Obed]

This spot is where the night light in the hallway will reside. I took EEPete's suggestion and replaced it yesterday with a deep electrical box to provide a little more room for the night light. Thanks Pete! Drywall work starts Tuesday so yesterday was my last chance to make this change.

I also moved an electrical box above the master bath vanity to be centered between the two sinks. I also installed a low voltage box above the vanity. A network jack will give me the option to listen to streaming audio from the computer and internet while in the bathroom. I also moved an electrical box in the kitchen. The framers had framed the kitchen bar wall 1 1/2 inches to low. After the wife noticed the bar was too low, she had the framers fix the bar wall. The framing re-work required the electrical box to be moved.

 

[MarkV]

Obed, you are making great progress and the house looks like a winner!!! Now that you are getting close to sheet rock you are also close to your last chance to add nailers to support future needs. I have always been a supporter of adding nailers for the installation of kitchen cabinets, stair railings, wall hung flat screen TV's and, maybe most important, grab rails in the shower, tub and toilet areas. We are all getting older each day and you never know when grab rails will be important. Today it is adding some scrap 2x4 nailers, in the future after tile is installed it is a big deal.

MarkV

 

[eepete]

Good deal on the electrical :thumbsup:. Insulation looks good too, we did all our interior walls on bathrooms and bedrooms.

On the blocking (wood to support future needs), we put the blocking up, then wrote the dimensions from the walls on it, then took both whole-wall and close up pictures of them. This made it much easier when it was time to go back and use them.

We blocked the cabinets (cabinet guy was happy, better support). We blocked toilet paper holders, towel holders, grab bars, where the curtain supports for the tub were, on each side of electrical fixtures boxes above sinks where the lights would go and doubled up 2x4 where TVs would float (easier to attach the support frames).

On the grab bars, I also used Gorilla Glue on the blocking.

Pete

 

[dcyrilc]

Soffits, vinyl siding, and gutters are now installed. The stonework is coming along. I didn't really that laying stone takes so much longer than laying brick. Of course, we generally had 3 brickies working; the stone mason is working by himself. Because of the trees, I can't get far enough away from the house to get a picture of the entire front of the house.

Now I need to install drain pipes to run the roof water away from the house. There's more digging in my future.

The house is looking great.:thumbsup:

...if you're not careful though, you're going to have a really, really, nice house to live in.

Looking forward to seeing pix after the sheetrock is up.:thumbsup:

 

[Defective]

I think we'll put screen on top of the floor joists and below the decking. Now the question is, should we do fiberglass or aluminum screens under the deck boards?

The wife was hesitant about screens under the deck boards because of collection of crud. However, she seems ok with it if we can powerwash the gaps between the boards.

Obed

Something to think about...

From your pictures, the bottom of the screened porch will be accessible after it's done.

Why not make (or have made) some screen panels to screw to the bottom of the joists. This would make maintenance pretty much a snap. If crud collects, pop the panel off & dump it. If the screen somehow gets damaged, pop it off & fix it.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Are you sure you can live in a house this big after the trailer? :laughing:

It's looking great! you are doing a great job!

 

[dstig1]

Looking darn nice!!!

 

[Obed]

Great suggestions. We did add some blocking for some things, bathroom grab rails, curtain rods, etc. We did not add blocking for all the things you guys mentioned. Probably should have but didn't think of all of them. The cabinet guy never mentioned adding blocking for his cabinets. I hope he doesn't need them.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Something to think about...

From your pictures, the bottom of the screened porch will be accessible after it's done.

Why not make (or have made) some screen panels to screw to the bottom of the joists. This would make maintenance pretty much a snap. If crud collects, pop the panel off & dump it. If the screen somehow gets damaged, pop it off & fix it.

That's actually not a bad idea. I wouldn't be surprised if the wife would agree with you. However, the least amount of effort at this point would be to go with screening on top of the floor joists. There's so much stuff we need to accomplish, we will probably go the easy route. If at some point, the wife doesn't like the screen immediately beneath the deck boards, we could consider adding screen panels like you suggested. That is something I hadn't considered.

 

[walleyed]

Looking good. Getting down to the short strokes. Once the drywall is done and painted its all finish work from there. Floors, cabinets, trim, electrical and plumbing.

I hope you meet your goal for moving in. Like someone said you and the wife are going to get lost in there after living in the trailer. I bet you will love it.

Did you hire someone to do the finish trim yet. That can make or break the look of the house IMO. What kind of trim are you using?

I'm getting excited for you. I have been looking at land and if I find the right place I will be right behind ya. It has to be right though because this will be my last house.

 

[srs]

What about a large "outdoor" type area rug to be placed out there in the summer time? It would be the type that could even get wet. Would probably cover most of the floor area and prevent the little bugs from coming through. Wouldn't cost that much either. Just a thought!

 

[firefighter9208]

Do you have your cabinet guy lined up??? I don't remember if you said or not. As soon as the sheetrock is hung he needs to come out and measure. It will probably take 6-8 weeks on a set of custom cabinets. Expect to put 50% down and the other 50% after completion.

Chris

 

[Danno1]

.

Some words of wisdom fr Fine Home Building magazine:


Owner-builders doing their own work are often tempted to move in to their house before the finish work is done, thinking it will be easier to do when it's close at hand. After a while, they don't notice the lack of trim, especially if there's furniture in the way, and it becomes harder and messier to set up the tools and work around the obstacles. It can be a strain on a marriage if the bathroom doors aren't hung after a few years of residence. I advise owner-builders to get everything done before they move in, and contractors to finish all work before they move on. They'll be glad they did.


.

 

[HiddenHollow]

Beautiful house, you're doin a great job!

 

[Obed]

Did you hire someone to do the finish trim yet. That can make or break the look of the house IMO.

We haven't hired the trim guy. We have a real good recommendation on one who is supposed to be very detail oriented and picky, traits you want in a trim guy.

What kind of trim are you using?

Finger joint wood trim. The wife doesn't like MDF.

I'm getting excited for you. I have been looking at land and if I find the right place I will be right behind ya. It has to be right though because this will be my last house.

I hope you post your building project on TBN. I'd look forward to following it. Hey, I've got 61 acres for sale on the river if you'd like to move down south.

Obed

 

[walleyed]

We haven't hired the trim guy. We have a real good recommendation on one who is supposed to be very detail oriented and picky, traits you want in a trim guy. Finger joint wood trim. The wife doesn't like MDF.

I hope you post your building project on TBN. I'd look forward to following it. Hey, I've got 61 acres for sale on the river if you'd like to move down south.

Obed

Its good you have a recommendation for good guy. They are hard to get. Thats what I mainly do now, trim and cabinet installs. Getting too old for the heavy work. Your wife is wise on the mdf but it has its place. Most new construction up here is mdf.

I saw that property you have for sale in one of your posts. I'll give ya $1Canadian ..haha A little to far for me but I could resell it for 2 and make 100%. I wish it was up here. Looks like a very nice place and kinda what we're looking for. If I ever find the right property I'll post the build for all to see. The plan is a house and a shop. And early retirement if I can swing it.

 

[Obed]

Do you have your cabinet guy lined up??? I don't remember if you said or not. As soon as the sheetrock is hung he needs to come out and measure. It will probably take 6-8 weeks on a set of custom cabinets. Expect to put 50% down and the other 50% after completion.

Chris

Yes we do.

 

[Obed]

Beautiful house, you're doin a great job!

Thank you.