Details

After making huge progress last weekend the rain kept us from doing much last week.  Which was fine. We all needed a bit of a break.  

The rains subsided by Wednesday and we finished framing the second floor of the addition by Thursday. That night Kent made a temporary roof to protect the floor from the rains on Friday. I will be so glad when we are totally under roof and we don't have to worry about the weather any more. That will probably be July...

This past weekend included a lot of detail work to be done by Kent and I. Putting in drywall catchers, roof catchers, filling ditches and other unexciting projects. 

On more exciting news, my grandmother turns 90 years old on Thursday and we are having a party in Cincy. Both my brothers will be in town along with much of the extended family, so it will be a reunion of sorts. 

Sorry for the lack of photos. Maybe next time.

Mission Accomplished

We set out to get the house under roof before the end of the weekend and we succeeded. Though it took a lot of effort and help from friends in the area. A special thanks to Korpi, Mike D., Weber and of course Danny and Jim.  After a raining Friday and expected snow and rain on Monday we had two days to get the trusses back up, sheath it and cover with roofing felt. 

Saturday morning I spent almost 2 hours unwrapping the tarp that covered the house like a circus tent to protect it from Friday's weather. A few

 finishing touches with the top plate and we were ready to roll. 

Here's Jason and Kent getting the trusses up to the roof. 

Our neighbor Jim had the best seat in the house. When he wasn't setting up the trusses he could enjoy the view. It's been suggested more than once to put a widows walk up there.

View from Rardin. Plastic is still on the windows to keep the rain out. 

View from Second St. side. We still have to finish the additional part of the house. But right now plastic protects the inside.

We finished around 6:00 PM on Sunday and that night it stormed. On Monday morning we found the inside dry so our hard work paid off. 

Thanks again to everyone who helped. And to Jason, Molly and Noah for bringing a "raise the roof" cake on Sunday, and to Danny, Patty and Naomi for celebrating with us.

Weekend Update

So the roof is off and the second floor is about done with framing. Besides the addition, all the walls are framed off except one. Now it's time for the trusses and a roof.

Here is a view of the Second St. side of the building. The photo was taken from up on the hill. The green tarp is covering up the old trusses that we took down and we will put them back on.


Here is a view from the Rardin side. The black stripes on the OSB are tar strips. These boards were taken off the roof so we could use them again. There will be a bedroom in each corner you see here. Another bedroom will be in the back right side and the bathroom and laundry in the back left. We are squeezing a lot in a little space. But it can be done.



Photo of Jim, our neighbor, who has been helping us this week. Notice his safety gear, glasses and ear protection. We are all about safety around here.

The roof, the roof...

The roof is gone.

On Monday, I went to work at noon and the place was intact. I come home and there are 3 trusses left. We finished that off in a mere 1 and a half hours. Kent and I spent another 2 hours taking down the rest of the garage walls that were in the way of the new house walls.

Here is Danny on the roof when we had a roof.

In the process of taking the panels off. Trusses exposed underneath.

The roof is gone. Ready for building!

On Tuesday, Kent, Danny and Jim built one third of the outside walls of the second floor. I don't have pictures of that yet, but we'll get there. Then it rained last night. boooo. We are waiting on a delivery from Carter Lumber and the rain to let up before we start building again. 

(BTW, Stacey, I really miss your left handedness, maybe you need to make a trip to Athens for the weekend.)

I have rough hands.

After a week back at work on the house, my hands are dry, cracked, and scratched to bits. But if that is what it takes to get this thing done, I can deal with it.

This week we put the addition on that will be the entrance/bathroom/mud room. Of course, we started it on Tuesday and then it proceeded to rain for 2 days. I might add that it hadn't rained for probably 2 weeks and as soon as we put up framing it rains. Go figure. By Friday, Kent had put up the last of the floor joists.

Here is the work we did on Tuesday. A few studs up , top and bottom plates.

Then the rains came and we couldn't get back to it until Friday. Notice the ceiling joists up in this photo.


Rainy weather did make it easy to work inside. We finished installing the floor which is big news. We've had this flooring since January 3. Kent was putting it up little by little, but cold weather and darkness made it hard. Once I had free time, we could work together and really bang it out. It looks great. It still needs to be sanded (though not much) and coated with a protection layer, but that will be done once we get the second floor done.

This is Kent cutting holes in the T-111 so we can extend the flooring outside the main part of the garage. I hope you can tell in this picture that the roof trusses are really low. We had about a foot and half between the floor and the truss, so maneuvering around this stuff was a pain.

Here is Kent peeking out of his newly created opening.
Stay tuned...

daffodil mystique

The daffodils have been up for about a week or so now propelling Athens into spring. The yellow wonders are so ubiquitous and ever lasting that sometimes they indicate where a house once stood. A new highway razes all structures in the way, but the buried treasures don't give away their location until March and go into hiding by June. 

The mystique came as I walked around town yesterday. How does a daffodil know which way to point its golden head. The likely answer is toward the sun, but I have some on the north side of my house that point north. Maybe the shadow of the house gives an indication and the flowers point toward what it thinks is the sun, the unshaded north. In my unscientific, limited observations, it seems that most flowers, if planted near a house will point away from the house, as if it knows where the observer will stand. But one planted in an open field could face any direction but most likely south. I wonder if I dig them up and turn them around will they point the same way or the way I turned them? 

Grow on.

The quarter is over...

Spring is here... and it is time to get busy on the house. 

I finished up my exams this week so I am free until September. So expect more updates. At least I hope to post more. One downfall, our little camera broke (Jeff, maybe you can look at it when you're home) so we only have the big dslr. It takes great photos, don't get me wrong, but it has many professional settings and sometimes I forget to put it on auto mode. Then photos come back out of focus and I don't realize it until I download it, blah blah blah. I came to rely on the dummy mode of point and shoot. One setting, no thinking. 

Also, spring means garden time and I already have my peas, lettuces, and kale in. Apparently, you're supposed to put in potatoes on St. Patty's day. But that may have to wait. I need to get the onions in too. This weekend we are working with our neighbors to establish a joint garden between our homes. More and more people are getting into the "victory garden" mode. I've just always been too cheap to pay for something I enjoy growing. The only thing I consistently buy is carrots because I can't grow those suckers in my lousy clay soil. Maybe in a few years after a bed is established with tons of compost. 

Other announcements, Kent's sister had a baby girl on Tuesday. So congratulations goes out to her and Ethan! In other news, I got a GA position at OU in the office of sustainability. This means I get a tuition waiver and stipend for the year. I will have to leave Hillel though, since I won't be able to work 2 20 hour a week jobs and go to school full time. I am not that ambitious. So starting next year, I will be a student again. Oh boy.