December 2009

 Taken from the mossy knoll above the house.

 The moat around the house will be filled in and a planter box with moss and ferns will be built by the windows behind me.

 9' + chimney pipe, with two supports to keep it from blowing over.

 

 Warmth at last!

 

Vent plumbing, pex and wires -- exciting stuff ...

Wires and Windows

 

Kitchen switches and outlet

 Main electrical panel

 

French doors and living room windows

Loft floor

A few more photos of the loft beams, plus the loft floor. Actually what is shown will be the ceiling (3/4" T&G pine). It's pretty bendy (on 3' centers), so we'll have 1/2" ply glued and nailed on top, and then finish with 3/4" VG fir flooring. The original plan was to use 2x6 T&G ("car decking"), but the material available on-island was not very nice, and we have lots of the pine (it will be used for the ceiling throughout the house).

Loft beams go up

Work has finally switched from rough carpentry to things that will show. Last year's insane work week (during which we raised the walls) didn't scare Bart off, and he, Barbie, Brian and Alison came up for about 10 days, during which we put up the beams for the loft, and installed a set of pre-hung French doors.

Cutting a beam.















The human drill press in action.

















Sighting the hole.


















































Bolting on a custom bracket, made by Bart.
















Another beam goes in. ... Bart looks a little short!












Beams and a post.












A little R and R .









One of the bridge washers we used on the beams.

Let there be light ...

We picked up the windows (Andersen vinyl-clad wood) a few weeks ago and are now installing them.

First step is to remove the plastic and tarps that have been covering the openings, make sure that all the framing is properly nailed, the rough opening is the correct size, and the bottom is level.











Some of the rough openings are oversize, which allows for a beveled filler at the bottom of the window.






Here it is nailed in place.












A layer of 9" wide flexible flashing goes on next, and serves to ensure that any water that gets in does not rot out the framing.

The sides of the opening are wrapped in 15# roofing felt, which laps over on the outside, as shown in the next photo.



























A bead of caulk goes on at the edge of the opening, and then the window is inserted and screwed in through the flange.











After the caulk cures 6" wide butyl window sealing tape goes over the flange. When we get around to covering the plywood t-111 with real siding we'll butt tar paper up to the edge of the window, over the tape.
















The windows on the inside (minus trim, of course).

The final screw

The final roof panel goes on -- still a few bits of trim to go, but the hard parts are done.

Still more roofing

Finishing the north side of the roof.














Don't slip -- it's a long way down ...

More roofing

Here's the ridge venton the loft roof. The center of the roofing panels is bent up to form a dam so that rain can't be driven up into the vent.















The corners are realed with some very sticking all purpose flexible flashing.















The (almost) finished product.

Metal roofing at last

We had what is hopefully the last snow of the season a week ago, but today was in the 60s.

The metal roofing is finally going on.

A learning experience, but no serious misteaks so far.

The skylights are (temporarily) in -- they will come out breifly when the skylight flashing goes in. I've used some Grace's all purpose flashing around the skylights, which isn't leaking, even w/o the roofing.

End walls -- framing and sheathing

The weather has finally improved and the end walls are framed and sheathed.

Next step, weather permitting, is to install the roofing.