Full Steam Ahead

Greetings,

I left my readers 3 weeks ago just as the drywalling work had started. Prior to that, what with the amount of Roxul Sound and Comfort insulation I had been gradually putting into the internal walls and ceiling joists, the inside of the house had begun to look distinctly like a dark green padded cell in a lunatic asylum! Thankfully, as anticipated, the effect of the drywalling rapidly brought about a quantum change and at long last a feel that the inside of the house is now turning from a mere building frame into a home. At approximately 3,600 sq ft of living space plus the mechanical room and a 30 feet deep by 26 feet wide (780 sq ft) garage, drywalling is no small task, further complicated by three high gables, two of which require scaffolding, plus the work to cut and shape the drywall to join the ridge beams, rafters and tongue and groove (T&G) roof, but Bill McGonegal's team have worked diligently and made excellent progress. At the end of the working day this last Friday they had completed sheeting the internal building, and this next week will start the task of taping and mudding (plaster) the seams between the drywall boards and then sanding down - a process that involves 3 cycles around the house and much angst in getting temperatures right so that it dries sufficiently quickly but not so fast that it will crack. To give you a good look, here is a tour around the inside of the house.

In the next two photos you see the garage, sheeted, but you can pick out the seams between sheets where next week they will start that taping, mudding and sanding cycle I have just mentioned. To give perspective, in the second photo the wooden (knotty alder) door to the right is the garage to main entrance lobby/foyer/hallway (the name depending on where in the world you come from), and the steel door to the left is into the mechanical room.

With a much delayed end to winter and no external doors to the garage, it was becoming a worry about how to dry the mud plaster, but fortunately the weather has improved markedly this last few days and we have forecasts of dry weather and day time temperatures rising progressively from 20C to 25C by the end of this next week, so that will help progress. Internally I have raised the heating temperature to 20C.  As soon as the mudding and sanding work is complete I shall arrange to stain my cedar garage doors in the workshop of my supplier in Cranbrook, and then he can come and fit them.

In the photo above, besides the residue of my roof T&G pine hidden under the tarpaulin at the back of the garage, you'll note some fresh cut and stained timbers sitting in the middle.  These are a part of the stair system and were delivered by Bob Damstrom of Damstrom Log & Timber Homes at the start of last week in readiness for him to commence work on the stair build next week.  I'll write more on that in a while.

As seen in the next two photos, in both daylight walkout basement rear bedrooms, in addition to sound insulating the sealing joists from the floor above with Roxul, I have also had resilient sound channel bars installed as a further noise transfer reducing system, but did not go to this additional expense in the family room at the front.

In the next two photos you can see how those two bedrooms and en suite bathrooms now look - no longer a green padded cell. While I missed it in the angle I used when taking my photos, the big 12'x12" central column you see immediately above does remain exposed as a feature.

Next below is a view from the foyer into the family room, again ready for taping and mudding.  (My gas fireplace is hidden behind my boxed washing machine ad dryer - I hope to move these up to the laundry on the main floor level in a few weeks once I have tackled tiling that area).

Now, in this guided tour, we'll move up to the main open plan floor. The next photo below is looking from the Great Room back into the dining area on the left and the kitchen and a small pantry on the right.  One of the loft two LVL beams that attaches either side to the central column is now hidden in the drywall ceiling, but the front one, which is 18" as opposed to 12" deep remains exposed and will later be dressed in wood.

Below in the next photo, off to the left of the dining area is the laundry and half bathroom (loo in UK parlance). This area will be separated from the dining area by a barn type door.

Below we are now looking from the rear of the house in what will be the kitchen, back into the Great Room.  Off to the right of that you can see through the gap into what will be a 12½ ft by 10 ft landing and small office area.

Readers will note in the above photo the lower part of the scaffold that was built to enable the guys to work on the gable and around the ridge beam some 22 ft up, as in the next photo.

Next, up in the loft, we are looking at the master bedroom area.

You'll note the purple spray foam insulation remains exposed here and is not drywalled over.  I will deal later with the task of fitting ¾" pine tongue and groove (T&G) so that it aesthetically ties in with the rest of the heavy timber roof - see next photos.  (Some readers may recall that while the main roof has 2" T&G fixed above the rafters as a structural bed for the foam insulation that was sprayed from above, the bedroom shed loft dormer walls and ceiling were built using the conventional wood framing system used in 95% of houses on this continent, rather than the ICF walls I have used for the walkout basement and main floor, and the roof insulation was then sprayed from below in what is colloquially but rather incorrectly known as a hot roof).

Now, in the next photos, looking the other way, you can see the timber roof system, and on the left the walk in closet (wardrobe) and dressing area, and on the right the bathroom area.  The shower will be directly behind the central wall and the toilet and vanity sinks behind that ¾ height pony wall.

The next pictures give a further impression of the layout. First, on the left, the walk in closet ...

... then behind that middle wall a big shower with the internal window that I installed a couple of weeks ago to bring in some natural light from the stair gable trapezoid windows (perhaps not as much as the camera flash would like you to believe).  We used cement board as opposed to drywall for this area, and I know I will be busy planning the build of this shower in the next few weeks.

Below, just outside the shower is an area where one of the two valley beams reduces space. I am so far undecided whether to leave it open or build a wall and turn it into a storage area. No rush - I have bigger things to think through and deal with in the next few weeks!!!!

Next, in the photos below we are looking to the right behind the ¾ height pony wall where a double vanity sink unit will go.  I finalised the design and ordered this just over a week ago.

Next below we are looking through what will be a door on the right of the above photo, into the loo! (A very English expression always seems to amuse Canadians).

Moving back out onto the gallery landing, in the next two photos we are looking along the gallery towards where the stair landing will be.

Readers may notice in the two photos above that two beams are now in place between the gallery and across the stairwell void.  I mentioned earlier about Bob Damstrom delivering some of the timbers and a plan to start building the stair system this next week.  In prioritising and de-conflicting tasks to ensure progress is both easier and more cost effective, it made sense to get the drywall installed, mudded, sanded and then painted ahead of the stair installation - the alternative of leaving this work until after the stair construction would leave a drywaller and painter with a completely unenviable task.  So while Bill's drywall team of three have been working around the house installing the boards, significant focus has also been on getting the stairwell fully prepped and painted.  With no stairs in place and the best part of 30 feet height from concrete basement slab to the ridge beam, there was quite an ingenious scaffolding plan.  First, Bob Damstrom, using one tier of scaffold on the main floor, installed his two beams that will support the top stair landing, one end into the outer wall concrete beam pockets ...

... and the other end temporarily blocked into the LVL beam that sits astride the load bearing wall.

Subsequently this side requires added supporting strength, which will be provided by lug bolting two of the metal brackets shown below.  While not really necessary on the outer wall, as the concrete beam pockets provide the load bearing surface, two more brackets will be fitted in order to provide matching aesthetic symmetry.

With those two beams in place, Bill's team then built their scaffold  platforms so they could do their work at all three height levels of the stairwell.  Here are a few views.  First, looking up from the entrance foyer ...

... and then looking down ...

... and now looking towards the gable wall ...

... and then looking back at where the stairs will meet the gallery. (You can also see on the left the loft bedroom shower internal window that I am so proud of my own fitting - having watched Jason Olesen's team fit the external windows and associated waterproofing, I realised this is not rocket science).

Bill's team where completely confident working away perched up this scaffold system, although after one injury in this build (Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat - 26th November 2017) I must have sounded like an old woman with my repeated concerns about their safety.   Conversely, those who know my own fear of open heights, will not be surprised to hear I was somewhat cautious when needing to work out there myself.  I am glad and grateful to say one of Bill's team kindly offered to deal with spray foam sealing around the edges of the trapezoid windows, a task I had so far been unable to get too.

Suffice to say, as was shown in the photos 7-10 back, the stair well is now painted a subtle off white (Eider white) and ready for Bob to start building my timber stairs this next week. A long way ahead, the task of trimming the stair gable windows out in timber will hopefully be manageable with a ladder once the stairs are in.  Many blog posts ahead!

So that's the drywall in but a couple of more weeks work to mud, sand etc and clean up.  Moving outside the building, there is also another significant move forward as Bob Damstrom installed the guard rails around my main level decks last week, although it will be a few weeks before he does the small loft bedroom rear deck.  In the next four photos you see Bob, Kevin and Bob's faithful old hound, Tex, at work.

It will be a few weeks before I have the garage finished at which stage I will clear the concrete deck of the various material still stacked there.  Bob and I still have yet to come up with a plan for a gate and steps at the back of the concrete deck as this was a change from my original specification.  Nevertheless here are a few views of the finished product (noting that the single set of guard rails sitting on the concrete deck in the second photo below is a part of the loft deck guard rails still to be fitted). I am rather pleased with my decision to use black metal spindles - primarily chosen as a means of reducing the "Forth Road Bridge" ongoing painting and staining burden that is inevitable with this house, and because your eye naturally looks through them (unlike wooden spindles which interrupt the view), but coincidentally I now see they also tie in rather neatly with the black window frames when looking back at the house.

So, despite much of a hiatus in progress over the winter, it has to be said I am rather pleased with how things have moved forward in these last three weeks.  While I have been on site most days to be available to both contracting teams, I have also spent a huge amount of time researching options and just occasionally committing to the inevitable fact I have to spend more money in terms of ordering bathroom vanity units, bathroom floor and wall tiling, floor tiling for the daylight walkout basement, and timber materials for internal window frame finishing, plus materials with which to build shelves and hanging spaces in my loft walk in closet and kitchen pantry.  Time consuming but creative.  I have also been spending a bit of time thinking through options for the patio and garage aprons at the front (a major priority to finish what is visual to my neighbours) and what I will eventually do at the back of the house (lower priority) as well as making a start on clearing up around the building.  Needless to say, after the rest and warmth of winter sun and sea in Oman, it hasn't taken long for every joint ache and pain to come back and frustrate me.  I just have to humour those aches with the thought that in a few months I might be able to live in the house (even though work will still continue thereafter) and sit on one of those decks with a beer or a nice glass of wine and savour the views.  

I'll plan to do my next update possibly in two but more likely three weeks time.

TTFN.