A New House – Episode 21 – The Porch

 

The past three weeks we have been on a mission to complete the front porch roof and deck. Unfortunately this is during a really unusually hot streak from 90+ to 107 degrees every day. 

The sonotube concrete footings were already in place, and we prepared to start the porch roof by pre-installing a nailer board for the rafters and completing the soffit boards on the under side of the main roof.

The porch roof support posts and beam are all log – which Debbie had spend weeks meticulously peeling and sanding.

 

Then I had to notch the top of the posts with a radius matching the beam diameter – more or less. So before we put up the posts, everything was notched and fitted on the ground. 

Once again, I cobbled together an extension on the tractor to be able to lift the posts and beams to the height we needed. Once a post was set on the footing, we braced it into place nice and “level’.

 

 

Well, as you know, trees aren’t perfect. The important thing is that the notches are all in alignment so the beam sits into the saddles nicely – more or less.

 

the posts are all in place ready for the beams. The porch roof is 32’ long. We used two 16’ log beams that were 9-11” in diameter.

 

Up we go!  But don’t stand under it – just in case!

 

Lifting the log beams went pretty smoothly. Everything is tied together with log screws.

 

Then up go the 2x6 rafters. Since the log is not flat, level, and perfect, each rafter had to be fitted so that the roof was level end to end. This meant lots to notching on the top of the beams. I screwed the rafters down into the log beam using 8” log screws.

 

 

Then up goes the plywood. Once again Debbie is doing the roof work :)

 

 

The plywood is all up.

 

Now after the posts are stained, we install the corner braces. Deb spend a couple of days peeling and sanding these puppies.

 

Each brace had to be fitted to the contour of their associated logs

I used my new ‘Turboplane’ to cut the notches on the top of the posts and for the log braces. It was a real time saver.

 

After the roof was up, I built the deck. Apparently over night since I took no pictures of the process. Deb was out of town for e few days and I plumb fergot. Anyway – 2x6 joists sitting between hangers along the wall and a 4x10 beam running down the back side of the posts – bolted. The deck surface is called “Elite Deck” which is pressure treated/pre-stained douglas fir. All screwed down with coated deck screws. The hard part was cutting the decking around the log posts.

 

Before we could put the metal on the porch roof, we had to complete some siding work that we needed the porch roof to access. Soffits under the front of the dormers, siding on each dormer, and fascia boards on the porch roof. Hey who is that up on the roof again?

 

Siding the sides of the dormers was a bit tricky. We had to sit a ladder onto blocking in the porch roof. It looks precarious but it really wasn’t too bad. The worst part was dealing with wasps. We also installed that short section of siding above the porch roof below the main roof.

 

The siding for this part of the house is 1x8 cedar board on board. All the cedar had to be pre-stained before we put it up. 

 

I’m beginning to think she really likes this roof work!  But hey – somebody has to be on the ground cutting the boards – climbing up and down the ladder all day. These sides were a bit tricky because the top is 5/12 pitch and the bottom 10/12 – all sloping at an angle.

I am pretty sure this day got to 107 degrees.

 

Today we installed the metal on the porch roof. 95 degrees today. Hot metal.

 

Yay  -all done!  Those short posts on the left will be part of a narrow deck that will run down the left side of the house and wrap around in front of Kyle’s bedroom.

A New House - Episode 20 – Electricity, Logs and Concrete !!!

 

The ditches for the water line and electrical feeds are backfilled and seeded. The bad news is that we took 2 weeks off to go camping and when we got back, saw that the ditches has sunk 6"-10” and had to be re-filled, re-raked and re-seeded. We now anxiously watch the grass slowly grow, converting that minefield into something resembling a normal yard again.

The great new is that we installed a new panel in the yard to give us the extra 200A feed we needed to energize the house – yay!!!

  

New electrical panel. In here we have a 200A breaker for the new house, 125A for the cabin, 50A for the garage, 30A RV outlet, and a 20A general outlet. Plus room for expansion.

 

Once we had power, the next step was to start checking each and every circuit, receptacle and switch to make sure everything is wired correctly. This is where I bow deeply to my lovely wife who singly ran 1/2 mile of wire to a gazillion places – and only two small issues were found in the entire house – one mis-wired fan switch and a loose wirenut (my mistake).

 

And now we have lights!!!

 

…and more lights and outlet power!!!

 

and a ceiling fan !!!  It is so great to get rid of those pesky extension cords!

Also in the works, is peeling and sanding logs to make the front porch. Deb has spent weeks on this task.

…and some concrete work. Sonotubes for the posts and a pad for the heat pumps.

  

..and the beginning of framing for the front porch. A board is nailed and bolted to the house with hangers added for the rafters.

Next step is to erect the log posts and beams for the front porch, add the rafters and plywood. Then the deck.

But today, we’re going to play golf :)

A New House – Episode 19 – Ditches, Wire, and Pipes… Can You Dig It?

 

We had a window of good weather and decided to go ahead and dig the trenches for the water and power lines down to the house. The end of the water line terminated somewhere in front of the cabin, and the power source is in the yard past the gazebo.

After evaluating costs for renting a mini excavator, we decided that hiring a local company was the same cost as doing it myself… and it took him only 3-1/2 hrs. We also considered a trencher/ditch witch buy most don’t dig 4’ deep as we needed.

…but before we could have him come out and start digging, we had to find the end of the water line. “Let’s see.. if came up from the well about here, and probably turned here to go to the cabin, and …  do you suppose it might have been a good idea to make a drawing of the darned thing last time? huh?  it’s Jason’s fault – he dig the ditch.

 

So we started digging “pilot holes”. 4’ deep pilot holes mind you. Um, not here, not here either.

 

Finally we found a piece of conduit I (forgot) stuck vertically to mark the end of the pipe. Oh, yea, now I remember.

   

Luckily i was smart enough to stub off the water line just past where the electrical conduit crossed over.

   

So Erin from Dawson Trucking came out with his little rig and started digging.

 

What a mess. But he did really great work – nice and neat trenches.

 

Do you suppose we’re deep enough?  I decided to add a gate valve underground where we connected the line, so we can shut that line off when needed. I added a length of 8” diameter pvc pipe to serve as a riser so we can get to the valve later to turn it on or off.

 

 

Starting at the cabin end, we then laid our 1-1/4” pvc pipe down the length of the 4’ deep trench carefully gluing each connection. I added a gate valve inside the house.

We also teed off at the house and put in a hydrant next to the garage. After testing to make sure we had no leaks (we didn’t), we laid a layer of sand 6” under/over the water pipe to protect it from rocks and give it a “good bed”. Then we carefully back filled the trench leaving us 24” remaining depth for the electrical conduit. (For some reason we failed to take pictures of the water lines in the trench – but trust me, they’re there.)

 

Erin also had to dig the trench from the outside meter base/panel. That ditch is 2’ deep. Carefully around the gazebo

We started by reeling out each conductor and laying them in the trench.

Starting at the house end, we fed the wire up through the vertical piece and “lb”  providing the right angle into the house panel. The wire is (2) conductors of 2/0, (1) of 1/0 for neutral , and (1) of #6 for ground, all copper. 210’ of each. expensive too. ugh!

 

   

Then, starting at the meter end, we started feeding the 2” conduit over the four wires all the way to the house end. 210 feet. I guess I make it sound easy, but it wasn’t. Copper wire is heavy.

But finally we got the conduit fed all the way to the panel.

   

And started backfilling the ditch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And backfilling, and grading

 

… and grading and backfilling …

 

… and more grading

 

… until finally we got everything nice and smooth.

 

… and raked and seeded with grass. Hopefully we will have grass again before the 60th birthday gathering …

Meanwhile, we hired a differed excavation guy to refine the excavation work below the house because we weren’t really happy with the way it looked. This also gave us a bunch of good topsoil we needed to help with the grading and fill around the house and the trenches.

 

A New House – Episode 18 – The house gets a New Hat

 

During the past few weeks, while Debbie toiled away at pulling 3/4 of a mile of wire, we decided to pull the trigger and get the roof on the house. Being the frugal people that we are, we had always planned on putting up the roof ourselves. But, between already having multiple tasks on our plate, and not really wanting to tightrope on that roof 30 feet above earth, we went ahead and hired a local contacting company/neighbor/friend to put up the roof for us.

But first, we went ahead and installed most of the facia ourselves to save time and money

facia: stained cedar around the perimeter of the roof lines

Carrying a piece of drip flashing.

 

We also installed most* of the eave/drip flashing. Both the facia and eave flashing have to be in place before the roof can go up.

* Most=everything except the dormers which we couldn’t reach with our ladders.

 

Then came Brian and David from Bellevue General contractors to start the roof.

We had the roofing materials on site since last fall. (Aging them or something I guess.) The color is called “antique patina” which is same as the cabin – sort of an olive green that turns coppery when the sun hits it are certain angles. The panels are 26 gauge 12” wide snap lock hidden fastener.

 

Brian up on the roof of the living room. Ladder logistics was a big deal for our roof.

 

One thing important to getting a roof up well is that the house is built square. Luckily, I guess we did a pretty good job with that.

 

sometimes I helped by asking – “hey watcha doin?”

 

Ren did some ladder work as well.

   

The lake side of the house was the hardest to get done due to the height. I was on the ground fetching and handing panels up to the guys.

 

They cobbled together a ladder that hooked over the ridge to be able to work on the roof.  The flashing detail around the dormers was fairly complex. Brian did a great job.

 

Brian certainly has more guts than I do!

 

The cabin side of the house was a little easier to deal with.

 

Despite all appearances – I did some work too. Aside from handing up the panels, I cut most of the flashing and the additional facia for the dormers. The ridge flashing was a big question mark due to the different slopes of the main part of the roof (10:12 pitch) and the dormer roofs (5:12 pitch). My “plan” was such that the point where the bottom of the ridge flashing hits the two roof angles (9 1/2” below the peak) was the same for each roof. guess what – it was darn close!

 

The roof is finally done. It took about 5 days. So we hired people for the bottom (foundation) and top (roof) of the house, and we’re filling in between.

 

One task I accomplished since the last post was to build the deck for the master bathtub. fun project.

 

Poor Deb continued to toil away at pulling wire. So far, we’ve bought 3,500 feet of 12/2, and 250 feet of each 12/3 and 10/3. We still need to buy 8/3 wire for the range and dryer. We also just bought the main feeder wire – 630’ of 2/0 copper. big stuff around 1/2” in diameter.
 

 

Debbie also pulled all of the Cat5 network and phone cable.

 

Next priority: finish the electrical.