A Day for the History Books

Dateline 1955: Walt Disney opens the most famous theme park in the world …. some say to celebrate the birth of baby Dana. Walt was heard to say “I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a little boy*”… People came from far and wide in hopes of catching a glimpse of baby Dana, born a few miles away in Pomona, CA on July 23.

footnote: * the PR people didn’t like the way that sounded, so they changed it to “it was all started by a mouse”.

60 years later, people flock to Anaheim, California and Valley, Washington to celebrate the 60th birthday of Dana…. and to a lesser extent, Disneyland. Gee… why didn’t we all just go to Disneyland instead?

left to right; Sheila, pat, Frank, Reggie, Mack, Gary, Carolyn and Eric

L to R: Dave, Teresa, Janette, Kyle, Xin Xin and Jason

L to R: Frank, Katherine, Eric and Kyle

L to R: Sue, Reggie, Sheila, Maria, Victor, Mack, Frank

About 1:30, the sky let loose with a downpour

  

So people grabbed chairs and ran for the safety of the new house

  

Frank didn’t want to play reindeer games

 

Then Dana led a couple rousing chorus of happy birthday

 

Then blew out the candles

 

Folks enjoyed hanging out in the gazebo

 

and playing games…watch that slice, Carolyn!

   

Who’s teaching who here? Carolyn and Maria

 

Isn’t that a ball still on the ground Victor?

Maria chipping into the net

   

Victor, Katherine, Maria and Sue at horseshoes

 

L to R: Xin Xin, Jason, Sheila, Pat, Frank, Kyle, Reggie, Mack and Gary

then around 4pm, the power goes out for a couple of hours. Good thing for backup generators

Dana and Victor setting up the generator (after killing the wasp nest at the outside plug)

    

Katherine cooking beans by candlelight.

 

Then the power came back and the grub was on. Jason digging in on Salads, brisket, pulled pork, rolls, beans, pies and carrot cake

 

 

Dave, Maria and Jason

 

Sue, Dave, Gary and Carolyn

 

Kyle all by himself

 

Teresa, Janette, and Maria, with Dana, Victor and Sheila in background

  

Debbie, Dana, Jason, Xin Xin, Dave, Reggie, Sue, Sheila, Maria and Victor

 

Victor, Mack, Frank and Katherine

 

Carolyn, Gary, Dana, Jason, Reggie

 

Jason, Xin Xin, Reggie, Sheila, Dave, Sue and Maria

 

Reggie’s legs, Sheila, sue, Maria, Victor, Mack

 

Katherine, Eric and Kyle

It was a great weekend. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us.

A New House – Episode 22 – Stained Glass Window, Soffits, HVAC and Insulation

 

The past couple of weeks has been mostly a jumble of “ miscellaneous stuff on our list” that we’ve been trying to finish up. Most of it fun, rewarding work, some not so much fun …

 

The “not so fun” part is putting up soffit boards on the underside of the left gable end. Easy to put up, except for fighting wasps at the top of a 100’ ladder (or at least if felt like 100’).

 

We also finished the underside of the porch. Fitting along the logs was tricky. On my next house:), I’ll put the rafters on a 1x4 on top of the logs to make room for the soffit boards.

  

We also built the frame for the stained glass window Deb made many moons ago.

  

Inside view from the foyer. Pretty cool, eh?

  

   

I also finished the installation and setup for the mini split heat pump systems. We have two – a 12,000 BTU system for the upstairs, and an 18,000 BTU for the main floor.  The Fujitsu units will both heat and cool and are efficient from –13 to 115 degrees. I installed these systems without professional help, but had to buy a vacuum pump and gauge to purge the copper lines before the refrigerant was released into the system.

  

Our mini splits are “ducted” so that the indoor components are hidden. Most mini split system use wall mounted indoor units. This unit for the main floor is located in the ceiling of the basement freezer room, and is ducted up to the dining/kitchen area.

The upstairs unit is located in the bedroom closet above the ceiling. ducted to the bedroom and the loft areas.

 

Deb took the opportunity to install insulation on the basement walls, where we knew we would not have any plumbing.

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.