Day 27

Hey!

Yesterday we had the electrical and gas piping inspection: passed! Although the inspector was nit-picking little things left and right. He gave me a few "suggestions", but passed me none-the-less. Yeah!

Today was the big test: framing inspection. Truth be told, I was pretty nervous about this since I headed up the framing crew. We didn't pass....yet. The inspector found 3 deficiencies, two of which can be handled with a letter from my SIP manufacturer. The third item is the metal brackets necessary to hold up my roof beams, which I already knew about. So that was FANTASTIC news! I gave Jeff and Nate an arm pump...I think the inspector saw it :-) After it was all said and done, I asked him if we could proceed with drywalling: he said 'sure, at your own risk". DONE! Jeff and Nate were into their construction clothes with superhero-like speed. We proceeded to rock the rest of the walls on the main level that needed to be buttoned up. Took us all night. Now we can move onto the ceilings and remaining walls that need to be rocked. YEAH! I'll get a final "rough frame" inspection next week when I get the brackets back from my welder.

Oh yeah, my roofer showed up today (unannounced) and wrapped up the shingles and all. So the roof is done. YEAH!

Now we have to throw on all the rock, go for a screw inspection, then we can start mudding, taping, and texturing. Hopefully be painting by next week.

Tired, very tired. And very dusty. Good night my friends.

Day 25

The weekend is over -- back to work!

Here's a shot of our fireplace as you walk up the stairs. There will be a pair of pocket doors in the hallway (with fluted glass) that we can close if we want privacy. But we'll probably just leave them open most of the time. What a view!

Let's see....last time I "blogged" I was rambling on about some inspections. Well, we passed two, failed one, and post-poned three more. Let me explain:


Mechanical -- passed. Yea! Thanks Jeff!!

Plumbing -- passed...sorta. Everything was fine with plumbing except for the piping to the fireplace. The inspector wanted to see a different kind of piping used or an extra shut-off valve. Fine -- we'll fix it on Monday.

Roofing -- those stupid roofers. If anyone is the least bit familiar with construction, you will share in my agony that getting subs to show on-site is BRUTAL! My roofers are very skilled at what they do, but horrible when it comes to committing to being at my project. I hate it, just hate it. I am at their mercy....or I fire 'em. But I've got two things, no three things going for me.
1. They've done great work, and we are completely flashed in and water-tight.
2. It has only rained one day at our house since we began this project.
3. I haven't paid the guys a dime!
Anyways, we will push off the roofing inspection until later this week. Stupid roofers!

Electrical -- my electrician wasn't able to button up the rough-in before 5pm on Friday, so I pushed off the inspection until Monday morning. Wish us luck!

Framing Rough -- since I didn't have electrical inspected, I couldn't get my rough framing inspected. Bummer. And the mech. inspector kept pointing out "deficiencies" in our framing...items that I'll have to find in the code book for exceptions. One thing he said was that ALL walls, full-height and cripple and pony walls need to have double-top plates. If this is true, we'll be busting out the saws-all for quite a bit of demo. But he also said it was to the discretion of the inspector. WISH US LUCK!!

We did get the okay from the inspectors to sheet-rock one side of the studs. So this weekend Jeff, Nate, and I labored to hang quite a bit of rock. It's fun, because this is the stage in which the interior spaces start taking shape. Two of our friends: both named "John" checked in with us this weekend to lend us a hand with drywalling as well. Thanks Johns!

This is a shot of our bedwall (looking east). Notice the pony wall at the bottom. Man, we're hoping the inspector doesn't make us double-top plate that sucker!!

So this week will be spent trying to get the rough frame inspection complete so that we can finish the drywall and get a screw inspection by Friday (hopefully!!!!!) so that we can spend the weekend mudding and texturizing.

While Jeff and Nate were working on the smaller drywall pieces, I was working on getting the fireplace chimney and window trimming roughed-in. I had to cut out early to go to my hockey play-off game...should have stayed and worked on the fireplace!









And a shot looking west to our balcony doors. From this angle, the fireplace is on the right, the pocket doors on the left. You can just see a glimpse of our bathroom in the distance, on the left. The beam in the middle is about 11-feet off of the floor. The door in the distance is 7' to the top of the transom window.



There you have it. It's looking great! Can't wait to move in!!


Nate made us dinner tonight: Pheasant Parmesan. FANTASTIC! I think this is an action shot of Nate cooking....taken from Kaleb's viewing angle. It's been great having him around this summer.....he's already asking if I plan on building another house next summer. YIKES! But it has been a fun one......and completely impossible without his help!







Here's a shot of the kids goofing off at the sidewalk art show today. Jade is turning 8 this week! AHhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Day 21!!!

THREE WEEKS!

It's hard to believe that it has only been 3 weeks since we ripped off our roof. Honestly, it feels like it's been 2 1/2 months and that I've lost about 6 months of my life. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But it definitely feels like the summer is FLYING BY!

We wrapped up framing today -- yea! Which means that if my electrical and roofing subs show up tomorrow and finish their stuff, I can theoretically be drywalling this weekend. CRAZY! I HAD to go into work today to catch up on some critical paperwork that had lapsed. But Jeff and Nate -- the loyal and hardworking friends that they are -- stayed on the home front and framed most of the remaining back-out walls and blocking necessary to wrap up the framing and return the nailing gun to my neighbor (Thanks Jose!) I made it home around 3:30pm with fresh lumber and the drive to wrap up the loose ends. We unplugged Jose's nail gun around 6:30pm - a very joyous and monumental feat. Sad, ain't it.

I didn't have a chance to snatch any completion photos tonight as we were pleasantly treated to dinner (in our own home) by our good friends Paul and Sarah. They were great company for the evening and gave us a chance to just sit and talk, fellowship, and revel in our accomplishment.

Friday is a big day: 5 inspections. I'm planning on passing at least 3 of them, maybe 4, hopefully 5 (at least a partial on the 5th?!!) Wish us luck!

Our house is completely filled with dust -- and just going to get worse after drywall mudding and sanding begins. All of us have tremendous allergies/sinus infections from the particles in the air. Does anyone know the exact composition of 50-year old insulation? It looks like a mixture of ground up newspaper + belly button lint + 50-year old compost. This crap is EVERYWHERE! We clean and clean and clean, but it keeps on showing up! Well, at least it's not asbestos!

It's tough....but we're almost there!

Good night...very tired.

Day 20

Greetings! Sorry for the "lame" blogs the past couple of times...just been very, very busy trying to crank out this project. Hopefully this blog will satisfy your craves!

Today I stayed home from work so that Nate and I could finally, FINALLY finish framing in the stairs. Adam from DIY was there to catch it all on camera. First we set the middle platform, then the upper landing and set the first run of stairs from the second floor down the the landing (6 risers). We double, triple checked our dimensions and took our time framing it all in. The first set of stairs fit like buttah. Yeah!!! We carefully measured for the second set of stairs that connects the first floor to the mid-landing. Measured twice, three times -- framed in the platforms and hoisted the stairs into place -- BULLSEYE! It was a great sense of accomplishment: finally being able to travel from first floor to second floor WITHOUT a ladder. We have a few more studs to frame in (tomorrow) and we'll be ready for our rough frame inspection.


Here's a shot of the stairs. Notice all of the spots in the picture. That's all construction dust floating around in the room. YUK! If you have ever visited our house, these stairs now reside in the middle of our former master bedroom. We removed all of our closets to make room for these stairs. But on a positive side we will frame under the stairs on the right and make a sizable broom closet for our storage needs!






Again, this picture will only make sense if you have ever visited our home. This is the new access to the stairway for access to our bedroom. What you are looking at is a new doorway cut into our existing hallway. The door in the distance is our hallway closet door on the main floor -- the bathroom door is just to the right. Make sense?








Today our roofer showed up! I was a bit steamed about the situation, as it has been very tough to get this guy to commit. But we have been very blessed (by all the praying saints) that we have had just one day out of twenty that brought rain for our project. However there were a few very close calls! WOW! That's one of the biggest fears with a project like this: exposing our existing house to the elements. But the roofer and his crew made it today, and they were GREAT! The foreman, Pete (that's him in the picture) worked really hard at this key location where the new addition intersects an existing leaking valley. While the rest of the crew worked on the new roof, Pete gave this particular location special attention and really brought a great deal of craftsman to this critical area. This picture doesn't do much justice to Pete's craftsmanship. It took him all day to fix this spot, which was a really bad spot. And it looks 100x better! Thanks Pete!




We're working really, really hard this week to wrap up the key elements so that we can hang drywall this weekend. Once we hang drywall and pass the screw inspection (Monday, Tuesday?), we can mud, sand, paint, and finish our electrical and tiling. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers and cross your fingers and toes as we try to wrap up the five inspections we need to pass in order to drywall this weekend: plumbing, mechanical, electrical, roofing, and rough framing.

(p.s. This photo was taken yesterday after I got the crud in my scratched eye while demo-ing the stairway opening. It may look like I was napping, but I was actually trying to rest the burning in my right eye. Although I do think I managed to catch a few zzzzzz's)

Here's a great shot of Jeff working on ducting our fart fans in the bathroom. Talk about craftsmanship! We welcomed Jeff back with open arms and an extensive punch list today as he returned from a week-long camping trip to Montana (jerk!) :-) We really missed his help last week but were glad that he and his family had a great time. Nate also noted that our pencils didn't seem to disappear as much! Now he made it back just in time for drywall and painting!


Wish us luck!

(Yes, this photo is REAL! He does a very nice job cutting my hair. Very impressive for a five-year old! He's very patient, thorough, and cheap -- cost me a popsicle!)

Good night my friends!

Day 19

Whew! It has been a looooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg stretch! I've been hearing back from a few of you....wanting to know when the next blog update was going to hit.

HERE IT IS!

Saturday was a good day. We put the attention into framing in the fireplace. The day began with Nate, Bruce, and myself trying to figure out how to get the 150lb. unit hoisted up into place. We thru a rope over the tree in the backyard, tied it around the unit, then Bruce hoisted the unit from the rooftop while Nate and I inched it up the two ladders we were climbing. Quite comical, a bit scary, but we made it! The rest of the day was spent framing the box for the unit and getting it set in it's location. We also managed to get the double pocket door opening framed in place. Great day! DIY was there to catch our moves...and mistakes.

Sunday -- Father's Day. We rested today.....yeah, right! Nate and I worked pretty hard to wrap up a bunch of the back-out framing we still had to accomplish: ceiling joists, the plant shelf, pileasters. Sorry, I know I'm rambling and I don't have many photos to show you the progress. Here's the bottome line: it's been Nate and I this past week while Jeff was camping on Montana, and while it has been extremly difficult to accomplish much with just the two of us, we're nearly there!

Minor hiccup on Sunday. Nate and I both suffered "minor" injuries. We were setting one of the pileasters, Nate and I walked away from it, both thinking the other was holding it -- but we weren't! And it fell. Nate caught it with his melon first, then his sholder. He's a little sore. Then I was cutting some lumber, wearing safety glasses, and a piece of lumber shot under my glasses and into my eye. It HURT! But I kept working for a few minutes until it became too irritable for me to continue. I had to go flush my eye. I found a huge chunk of wood in my eye, but I think I scratched my eye in the process. I took Kathy's advice and laid down for a bit (2 hours). I woke up and it was MUCH better!

Monday -- The electrician showed up today to rough in the outlets and switch boxes. Meanwhile Nate and I finished up (yes, finished up!) the back-out framing upstairs.

Our stairs arrived today -- yea! Nate and I began working on framing the platform and pony walls for the landings. It took a bit....but we got the walls framed and platforms set before quitting for the day. In the morning we'll be able to nail off the landings and set the stairs, which means that we'll be able to abandon the ladders.

While we were demolishing the stair opening, I managed to get more crap in my eye, which led to MORE irritation in my scratched eye. So I had to take a break again in the middle of work to give the eye some rest. Nate took advantage of the break to "rest" his eyes too.

Right now I'm just hoping to wrap up my mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and framing inspections by Friday so I can begin drywalling. It's dragging on for us, and we're tire -- but we're thinking three more weeks and we'll be done.

Good night, folks!

Day 16

Are we done yet??

This week dragged on a bit....Nate and I worked most evenings to wrap up some miscellaneous stuff. Like tonight: we worked on patching the west roof where it meets up with the addition so that we can get weathered in this weekend.

What's weathered in, you ask? You see, we wrapped the entire roof and walls with tar paper, but this is just a temporary fix and water barrier. Tomorrow my roofer should show up and shingle the new roof AND tie in the existing roof to the walls with flashing. Once this is complete, the only way water can actually get into the house is thru the window openings that have not received windows yet. I'm really waiting for my tub to arrive before setting the final windows so that I can slip the tub thru my bathroom window opening. And I haven't set the glass door unit on the west because I don't want it to get beaten up by the construction monkeys.

Anyways, with a little luck my roofer will show tomorrow, throw down the tile and I'll be ready for the inside finishes. My shingles arrived today -- here's a shot of the conveyor belt taking them up to the roof. Nate came around the corner and sighed....he said, "Man, I'm sure glad we don't have to carry those up to the roof ourselves!" True quote. Your welcome, Nate.



Tomorrow (Saturday) will be Nate, me, and Bruce. We will frame in and set the fireplace. Yeah! Then we will set the double-doors and frame the last two door frames. I've been waiting for my pocket door frames to arrive, which they did today -- fun!

Next week will be crazy. Monday and Tuesday will be spent with my electrician roughing in the electrical runs. Also, my stairs should arrive on Monday which means that I can finally frame in my hallway and quit using the ladder to get up and down (although the kids would argue that the ladder is more fun!)

I'll get my mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and hopefully rough framing inspection completed by mid week so that I can throw on the drywall. I'm shooting for a drywall screw inspection for Thursday or Friday so that we can start mudding the walls and maybe even painting on Sunday -- yea!

Whew. If it sounds like a lot: it is. Then to complicate things, my allergies are in full swing and I've managed to wear my body down and contract a sinus infection, yuk. So I'm not operating at 100%. But I find that the manual labor keeps my mind off of the crud and sweating is good for the mucus (too much info!).

None-the-less, we're pushing thru. Still hoping to be done by July. Once the stairs are in place and the drywall sheets up on the walls, I think Kathy is planning a camp-out trip upstairs for us in sleeping bags. Fun!

Hope all is well in your world....

Construction Monkey #1

Day 15

Wow! Can yo believe that just two weeks ago we began this project by ripping off the roof??!!!

Sorry my blogs have lapsed a bit. Truth be told, we're doing a lot right now, but there's not much to update on. Does that make sense?

Jeff has been out of town this week, so it's been just Nate and I. We finished up all of the exterior framing (the north barge, the fascia trim, etc.) We're now ready to get the roof on and the house dried-in. I conteplated doing the roof myself, but decided to hire a professional to git 'er done. This adds $$ to the project on the front end, but in the long term we're happy to leave the water-proofing to the pros!

So I'm told the shingles will go up on Saturday. Yea! In the past 15 days, we have only had rain once. But it was an all-day rain. And water did make it into our house with the dining room taking the biggest hit (rain buckets everywhere to collect the water). While I did have tar paper on the roof to prevent major leakage, there are too many spots: the valleys and connections from the old roof to the new house -- that are not yet sealed up to keep the water out. But hopefully by Sunday we will be nice and dry!

Interiors: we have have most of the walls framed and the ceilings. Nate and I finished up some of the ceiling beams last night and I have commissioned Adam to make a few more steel brackets for me. This weekend we are going to work on framing the fireplace, setting it, and roughing in the final interior details.

Next week: Monday the electrician will show up and get the wires and boxes roughed-in.
Tuesday-Thursday: with any luck I can get my mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and framing rough inspections completed!
Thursday-Friday: Hopefully get the drywall hung and a screw inspection.
Saturday-Sunday: Painting Party!

This will leave the following week for finishing out the trim materials and making the space purty.

I know, I know -- not the most exciting blog on the post. But I promise you once we start throwing on the drywall, the spaces will start electrifying this post!

Ciao!

Day 10

Very productive day. Jeff worked hard to finish the mechanical rough-in and pipe the double-wall exhaust out thru the roof. Yea! We're no longer breathing the carbon-monoxide fumes. :-) The rest of us (Bruce, Nate, Bill, and Me) worked to get the interior walls framed. Things went pretty smooth for us. DIY was there to film us whacking away at the nails. We [I] screwed up one wall, which they were a bit too eager to film for me....too many "so what went wrong?" questions! :-) It's all good. We fixed the wall and managed to get most of the second floor roughed-in.

I think Nate had a good time today. I tought his the fine are of framing walls. Swinging the hammer and pounding nails. By the end of the day he had honed in a bit on his skills. Give him a few more houses to frame (and a few more 2x4's to hold in place) and he'll be set!

Nate's been a great help for us this summer and we're very glad he chose to come out and stay with us. And he's been a workhorse!

P.S. Nate wante me to add a note: "Mom and Dad, please send money for a new hammer. I seem to have outgrown my "Jack" hammer. Jeff and Aaron keep making fun of the noise it makes. Also, can you send my utility knife so I can quit hogging Aaron's all day. I think he's starting to suspect that I've swiped his. Mine's on my dresser, next to the lamp."


We still have quite a bit of back-out framing left to do, but at least now I can get my plumbing and electrician moving on their stuff so that we can drywall the walls starting next week.

This image may look like a random bunch of sticks thrown into the space, but what you are looking at is the header for our 5-foot wide antique pocket doors that will serve as our entrance into the bedroom. That wood header weighed quite a bit -- took four of us to lift into place!






Here you see the beginnings of our master shower (right door) and reading room (toilet room, left door).









This window will rest above our fireplace mantel, which we will frame for DIY network next weekend. Wait 'til you see this area when it is finished!










Here you are looking at the inside view of our bedwall and the Pella windows that I raved about in my previous blog entry. They are gorgeous windows, inside and out, and I can't wait to move into the space and begin enjoying the room!





Tired. Very tired. Have a great night!

Day 9

Wow! We started demolition last Thursday. And this shot was taken from our roof this morning. It feels good, to be so far in so little time. Now we are turning our attention to the inside framing. Next week we will begin rough in for electrical, mechanical, and plumbing. I'm hoping to call for my inspection by Friday so that I can begin drywalling next weekend.


Today it was Nate, Jeff, and I again. We worked on filling in some of the loose wood trim and framing details. The house is really starting to look (and feel) great. We're getting a lot of positive comments from the neighbors, which helps us feel that much better about our decision to stay and add-on.

I've been getting a lot of questions about what I'm using for insulation. The walls and roof panels are all SIP's (Structural Insulated Panels). They are made with 1/2" OSB (stronger than typical OSB) and injected with an ozone-friendly poly-stryrene foam. Our walls and roof are 6" thick and have an R-value of 42. Most homes today are built with an R-value of 19 and roof R-value of 38. This means that both our walls and roof are super insulated! They feel great right now, and Kathy commented the other morning how much quieter the downstairs was with the roof up in place. SIPs are just a very efficient and effective way to build a home, even a custom home like our addition.

Not much more to add. I'll take some shots after we have the walls framed in, but it's going to be pretty boring until we drywall and start adding the finishes. Have a fantastic weekend and be thinking of the Zimmer Crew!


Ciao!

DAY 8

Hey Friends! Well, today proved to be another very productive day. It was just the three of us again (Jeff, Nate, and me). We managed to accomplish much, but yearned for one extra pair of hands. There was a lot of down time in between tasks, waiting for each other to mobilize. But we made it work! The weather turned on us today. Still no rain, although I did see a few very small drops! But it turned cold and windy. It was in the high 40's when we were wrapping up at the end of the day! And the wind blew ALL DAY LONG!

We have been trying to focus on the exterior work that requires use of the boom lift, because it is due back at the rental company tomorrow (Friday morning). So we worked on the North and South faces, the areas that we can't reach with a ladder. Managed to wrap the exterior in tar paper, hang 3/4" furring strips for the siding, and work on the fascia board and trim details.

I had to run out to the Depot to grab some supplies, so I put Nate and Jeff on a very important task. I had them repair the holes in the ceiling from the bodies that fell thru during demolition and framing days. This was important because Kat and I have been living with pink insulation hanging down in our bedroom and dining room areas, coupled with nasty, old, dark gray insulation that kept "drizzling" down thru these openings.

So a big THANK YOU to both Jeff and Nate for helping bandage up the wounds!

By the way, just to give you a glipse of what we are living in:

Here's a shot looking into our living room. The dresser on the bottom right will go into Jade's room (our current bedroom) when our space is ready to be occupied. Everything else you see is our clothes and storage from our closets (which were demo-ed out last weekend). Basically Kathy and I are living with about 4 changes of clothes. The rest are delicately balanced above our coffee table! And our power is disconnected in our bedroom: no lights or outlets. See that nice piece of wire hanging from our former closet light? Now if you went and stood at the blue dresser and turned around to face our bedroom, you would see this:

Well, except for Nate. I think he's still busy holding a 2x4 somewhere? :-)

This wall was opened to make room for the new stairs up to our 2nd floor. Consequently Kathy and I are sleeping (and dressing) in very little privacy, but plenty of construction dust! Our bed is just beyond the plastic drop cloth you can see in the distance. "Just one month of hell for 12 years of heaven!"

Both of these shots were taken AFTER Jeff and Nate patched, repaired, and cleaned up the ceiling mess!

We did manage to get 2 windows hung today: the north window over the fireplace and the east window at the bed wall. PELLA WINDOWS ROCK! When I was a framer, I loved hanging Pella windows because they always fit like they were suppose to and they were incredibly square. This was true today! The big bed window fit like a glove. Once we set it in the rough opening, it was dead-on square: bottom, sides, and plumb. Plus the interior space was noticibly warmer! Most of that was because the wind could no longer howl thru the space, but truth is the window is amazing! THANK YOU PELLA!

I'm sorry but I don't have any picture updates of the exterior of the house. We didn't get off of the lift until 8:15pm tonight. Hey, I lose track of time out there and it's still so light! But we had a great dinner (thanks Kat!) and rootbeer floats for desert (thanks Sonic!)

In closing I would like to share with you a kind email I received from my mentor, Bob Perrin. For those of you who do not know Bob, he was my neighbor growing up, an architect, and now a great friend. He is one of the biggest influences in my career path and why/how I chose to become an architect.

(picture taken May 19, 2007)

"History does repeat itself: you could have just used my notes from 30 years ago .

So on that light..... want to know what you will be doing, thinking and feeling tomorrow?

- Fortunately you are paying attention and will be a better architect because of it

- Some tasks are better left to those with muscles developed for that specific tasks

- Weather luck has a lot to do with how well things go.
- Something will go wrong, measuring twice isn't enough sometimes.

- Tradesmen will not follow the plans somewhere along the line, but the good ones will figure it out on their own.

- Living through remodeling is very uncomfortable. Wives, kids, and neighbors are affected. That's why I seriously joke to clients to include a psychiatrist or marriage counselor on their project team. :-))

and finally:
- Moving is lots easier than remodeling.

For a peek into the near future drywall phase, the dust will get inside your pants pockets, even if they are sealed in plastic bags in a locked closet.

And for peace in the family, Kathy should make all the color selections.......

Bob

Thank you, Bob. You make me laugh and cry at your words of truth and wisdom!



Ciao my friends!
a.Z. + fam

Day 7

Day 7:

One Week! We are DRIED IN!! Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

The wind picked up today, gave us some fits with the tar paper on the roof. But we got all nailed down and fastended, and I came down from the roof at 3:25pm -- grinning! I was in such a good mood the rest of the day, knowing that in just 7 days time, we had managed to rip off the old roof, frame the new floor, add plumbing and mechanical without removing the old drywall ceiling (but falling thru it several times!), erected the walls, erected the roof, and dried the whole project in. YEA!




Tomorrow we'll be wrapping the walls with tar paper and setting windows, so the house will be all buttoned up. A big thanks again to Jeff and Nate who were fearless on the roof, even with a couple of close calls! We even roped our wives in to helping us fit the monster double-door up to the second floor. We came in thru the big window opening on the east, but Jeff and I had to stand on the fork lift to move the door into position while Kathy, Selena, and Nate grabbed the door fromt the inside. Kat was pretty freaked with both Jeff and I staning on the fork tines, but we made it just fine (don't tell OSHA!)

Kat and I went out and celebrated our 11th anniv. (6 days late!) at the Blue Bonnet and relaxed to a caraf of strawberry margaritas, tons of chips and salsa, and the best burritos in Denver.

Ciao!


Here's a shot looking back thru our master bedroom. The far window will be our bedwall. The bottom of the main ridge beams at 12'-5".










Check out that custom saddle that Adam made! The main ridge gluelam beam is 18" deep. The other ones you see are 9" deep! The arched window is on the north wall and will be above our fireplace. We will have two ceiling fans hanging down from the main ridge beam.

Day 6

Day 6:
Whew! I can't believe it's only been six days! Today was very productive, and we only were able to work half-a-day (I had work commitments I had to attend to). ICS (the SIP manuf.) shared Sean with us for the half-day so that we could button up the roof, close it up. And it worked! We had the roof finished today at 1:15pm -- YEA! We couldn't have made it without the four horseman: Jeff, Nate, Sean, Aaron. We worked very, very hard these past two days, and although we hit a few snags again today, we pushed through and closed up the roof. Now all I need to do is put down felt paper (tomorrow) and set the windows and we will be completely dried in: No water penetration!!



So here's how the SIP roof was erected:

First Jeff and Nate drilled two holes into the 6" SIP panel (approx. 150lbs). They ran an eye-bolt thru each hole and rigged a tow strap to the bolts and the boom lift.

Then Nate ran upstairs to help us (Sean and I on the roof) while Jeff ran the boom lift from below.



Sean and I would prepare the surface for receiving the panel. We had to foam all of the edges, nail down roof jacks so that we could stand of the roof and not fall 25' to the ground. Once the panel got within reaching distance, we had to foam the panel and work it over to the approx. spot for placement. Can you see our squatting positions in this photo. My thighs are SOOOOOO sore from 2-1/2 days of holding this position for 36 panels!


Once the panel was in the approx. spot, Nate would pop his head in and say, "How long do you guys need me to hold this 2x4?"

Meanwhile Sean and I were busy lining up the seam to receive the SIP. You can just barely make out in this photo the slots in the foam. This is where the cam locks were located. Each panel had anywhere between 1 and 4 cam locks. Once we locked the cams, the panel was secured in place.


Check out that pulling action. Can you guys see why my back, knees, and thighs are so tired. Here Sean and I are "pulling" the panel to be in the exact position where it needs to be locked into place. Then, right as we're about ready to lock it into place, Nate hollers over, "Guys, really, can I let go of this 2x4 yet?" "NOT YET NATE". Heh, heh -- rookie! We thought it was too fun to tell him that we already nailed it off!


Now that the panel is locked into place, Sean and I begin the task of screwing down the panel. Each panel got about 20 - 8" long screws. Sean had a corded drill that drove those screws fast and quick. Even though I have a 14.4 volt, it was not nearly as powerful as Sean's.

Nate said, "Guys, my arms are getting REALLY tired holding this thing!" "Count to 100, Nate". "Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4, ....."


Once we had the panel secured, we checked the factory plans and moved onto the next chronological panel. Nate: "98, 99, 100. Guys, can I let go now?" "Yes. Thanks Nate! Good job..."

Actually, all kidding aside, we could not have made the progress we did today and yesterday without the 4 of us. We each worked our tails off to put it out, and I am grateful to Nate, Jeff, and Sean for making it happen.













Jeff Aaron Sean Nate


The rest of the week will just be Jeff, Nate, and myself. We will be working on backout framing, finishing up the missing wood details: interior walls, stairway, exterior trim details, etc. Then next we will have the plumber back to finish his stuff, and the electrician on-site (sparky) to wire up the new and old lines, and get the fireplace set.

Thank you to all of you well-wishers and those praying for good weather: we haven't had a drop of water hit our house since this project began! We've had a few close calls, and an occasional overspray from the hose, but overall we have been very fortunate and blessed to have such great weather!

My body is tired, burnt, wiped, and exhausted. Thanks for checking up/in on us! I appreciate and look forward to reading your comments and responses to this blog. It really is a fun project. But it's very difficult and stressful. Kat's having a tough time with the house being torn up and chunks of drywall and insulation hanging from the ceiling. I can't blame her. I've got foam stuck to my body part, and cuts and scrapes and bruises all over my arms and legs. This is what they call "Sweat Equity". I told her tonight, "Look, it's one month of hell for 12 years of heaven." If you see her, give her some encouragement....we all need it right now.

Ciao! XOXO.

p.s. If you are reading this blog and what to know a bit more about what I have learned about SIP's, here's my summary:

1. Make sure the architect has calculated and given the manuf. all of the CRITICAL dimensions.
2. When setting walls, two critical pieces.
a. Make damn sure that your floor plate is dead on.
b. Start from one prefab corner and work out. DO NOT START FROM OPPOSITE CORNERS. If there is a mistake, it's much, much easier to fix a corner than a middle wall.
3. SIP roofs need a boom lift, 4 guys minimum (6 preferred), and start from an edge. It's tempting to work from the middle out, but it's not as efficient or accurate, IMHO. Again, it's much easier to correct an edge than a middle section.
4. WEAR GLOVES!!! OSB splinters and that very sticky glue -- no fun on bare hands!

Day 5

Man, I am dead tired! It has been a lonnnnnnnnnngggggggg 5 days!!!

Day 4:
This day did not go very well. I had a dozen people on-site to help out, but we were tied up in confusion. The wall heights were not working out for us. Everyone was eager to throw out a solution, but I really did not want to jerry-rig my home just to keep the project on track. What I cared more about was figuring out where the problem exists, and how do we fix it.

The problem: 2 of our walls were built 2 1/2" too high.
The solution: sawsall the crap out of them and bring them down to the right height!


Since I used SIP walls, cutting these walls down was no easy task. They are packed full of poly-ethylene insulation, which means that there is a whole lot of foam to carve out! Needless to say, I did not get my roof erected on Day 4 as planned. (Sucks!) But I did get my structural steel saddle and gluelam beams all erected, as well as the entire south roof panel. Yea! By the way, this beam connection looks SHARP! I'll send another pic with the roof panels and valley rafters all in place!


Day 5: Monday
We knew what was wrong with the walls, now we needed to correct it. But there were only 3 of us worker bees: Jeff, Nate, and myself (sucks!). But we got on task to correct the walls that were too high. Then, like a beacon of light: a ray of hope, a new guy: Shawn arrived from the SIP factory early Monday morning. They sent one of their workers down to our project to help get this project back on track!



Here's a typical shot of how the panels are lifted into place. The boom lift (with a rafter jig attached at the end instead of the typical forks) lifts the panel into the right spot. Then two guys work the panel into place and lock it off and throw about 2 dozen screws threw the panel and into the structural support. Tiring, very exhausting work. But well worth the R-42 ratings!




The morning was spent fixing the walls and hanging a few roof panels. Noon came WAY too soon for me. It felt like 10am, and it was lunchtime. (major SUCKS!) But it was good to take a break. After lunch, the four of us went out and threw up the roof panels. We made MAJOR progress and got all but 12 panels erected. YEA! We're not back on track, still a day and a half behind, but at least we are making forward progress!


I gotta tell you though...I am SOOOOOOo tired. I need a break! Kathy and I haven't even had a chance to go out and celebrate our 11th anniv. yet (June 1st). I gotta make it up to her, somehow! She's been a tremendous help all throughout, having lunch and dinner ready for the crew and continuously cleaning up the house after us dirty construction guys! Thanks Babe!

Tomorrow we should be able to wrap up the roof, dry it in, and turn our focus to the interior. Wish us luck! Good night!

** update** Just got word from the SIP manufacturer that they are sending Shawn (Sean?) down to us for the morning to get the rest of the roof slammed out....THANK YOU!! YEA!!

Day 3

Wow! The walls are up!!!! Today was a very productive day. But let me back up and talk about day 2:

Yesterday
was a very important day, as we had to get all of the structural in for the floor system, plus the plumbing, plus the mechanical.

The SIP walls were delivered on-site. We still had a lot to do before they could be raised, though.





Yes, this is me driving the boom lift. You know, when I was a framer this was an hourly task for me. Actually, most of my framing skills are still there. Sadly, though, my framing "muscles" are LONG gone. Sucks getting old :-)





We made great progress, but the building inspector showed up about an hour too early. He said we were not far enough along to approve the rough framing inspection. Bummer. This kept up from installing the floor deck (3/4" plywood), but it actually turned out okay. It gave us one last chance to fix all of the little things (mechanical connections, electrical wiring, door bell wire!) before putting on the floor deck. I had to pay an extra $100 for an early morning inspection, but the inspector came out on day 3 at 6:45 in the a.m. and approved everything with flying
colors! Yea! We could put down the floor deck!!!


Yikes! The one dangerous thing about home remodeling is avoiding the existing ceilings! The double hole here was the result of one bad step from Bruce. He about ended up on the floor of our bedroom after dropping thru the ceiling. Fortunately the guys around him grabbed him in time. It's all funny after the fact, but truth is I punched 3 good size holes in our ceiling by taking faulty steps. It's scary dropping down there! Throw some spackling up there!!




I have to say a very big THANK YOU to the ladies who loaded up this dumpster on Day 2!!! Kris, Kathy, and Oma -- thank you soooooo much for helping us clean up the job site. This was a HUGE help!!



Day 3: Inspections approved, floors on, we putting up the walls!
We had to square up the wall layout, snap lines, and nail down floor plate. Once the floor plate was all in, we took a lunch break.

12:45pm. Lunch break was over, we began erecting the walls. We were done with all of the exerior walls by 6:30 pm. Would have been about 4:30pm, but we ran into a 1/2" snag on the west wall and a 1/4" snag on the east wall. Minor hiccups, but we pushed through it and made it. THE WALLS ARE UP!!



This cheesy smile is just because I know that I'm going to have my104 linear feet of walls completely erected in just 4 hours!!






Here is a typical wall, as it is being erected into place. What we are trying to do is line up the bottom slot so that it fits over the bottom plate. Once it is seated on the bottom plate, we slide it over to the adjacent wall, lock it in place and move onto the next wall. I think we had about 30 walls to place. Each wall get foamed to the next on, not glued. And each wall has cam locks built into them -- once they are locked, they are solid!



This is an important picture. In the foreground is Luella. She and Brian own the company that built our walls. They came up for the day to instruct us on how these walls should be properly erected, and even rolled up their sleeves to participate in the fun. They were a tremendous help, and Luella was every where we needed her to be (locating the proper walls, hauling over the sledge hammer, supplying us with plenty of foam guns, and all around moral support!) A big THANK YOU to her for supporting us on getting the walls up so quickly!!!!

A few members of my framing crew. From right-to-left, there's Brian (owner of ICS Colorado), Jeff (my neighbor and brewing buddy), John (Shilling, a great, great friend), Bill (the only guy who really knows how I enjoy my coffee!), and Jose (my neighbor and lead framer).






Here a shot of setting a typical window header. What you can't see is the boom lift, fully extended, holding that header in place, gently lowering it to rest in place.








Just a shot of me and Jeff, poised on top of the boom lift (completely non-OSHA compliant, insurance-voiding technique!). But hey, those walls gotta get cut somehow!!





After it was all said and done, we sat down for some great dinner provided by our friend, Mary Shilling (Thank you Mary!) And enjoyed a fine helping of Barrio Brew,ESB and Kolsh. It was all very tasty!

I was a bit nervous at dinner, though. You see, we've been having some bad rain storms here in Denver the past few weeks. Day 1 and 2 we had GREAT weather, and even though there were rain clouds in the sky last night, they didn't looktrecherous . But tonight's clouds looked
menacing. We don't have a roof, and our stairway completely exposes our main level. So John [Shilling] and I went up during dinner andtarped the opening. Came down, enjoyed dinner, enjoyed some home brew and the clouds passed over. After tomorrow's work (the roof), it can rain all it wants to because I'll be dried in and ready for the party!!

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO tired!! Gonna hit the dusty sack...