It Looks like a House!

It's so nice to be able to say "I'm going out to the house." instead of "I'm going out to the building site." As of today, we have 1/3 of a wall to go, but as the high today is supposed to be 2 degrees, it's not a good time to mess with mortar. But before weeks end it should be done!! Then we can clean up - I am looking forward to the day when I no longer traipse sand and lime into the farmhouse - and can put up interior walls and floors! It will be nice to go on to something else, although it happens just as we've gotten really good at the cordwood. The northern wall has a tree bottle mural in it which turned out great. Unfortunately the flash on the camera overpowers the light coming through the bottles, so it's not super obvious in pics. The final wall that we're working on has the Big Dipper and Orion done in bottles around the window, although they're not done yet so no pics just yet. You'll just have to come visit to see them properly! As usual, Deb and Mom and Erin and Dave and Matt and Leya must be thanked - they've been dynamos of action.

Walls, Stove, & Windows

We're proceeding apace with the walls, which look so lovely when they're done - from a distance they look like stone. Labor intensive and messy, but beautiful. We also have the framework for the round green door done. So we're looking hobbity! The masons from Rock-n-Stone returned and gave us a chimney, so we've been working out the idiosyncrasies of our stove and seasoning it gradually. We've had loads of help from Deb in spite of a hand injury, plus Sam and Erin and Dave. Loree and Fran put in an admirable and beyond the call of duty effort last weekend- bless you both! Mom and Deb started on the bottle wall this afternoon while I was at work and it is lovely - the pictures don't do it justice. Matt's family has put in their two cent's worth too, splitting and laying up wall. Lauren likes to split wood - Matt starts her on the wedge and she pounds like a madwoman! Dad, our advisor cum laude, has been sidelined by rotator cuff surgery, but is healing up pretty well. It looks to be a long haul for him healingwise, but thankfully they were able to figure out what was with him and fix it.

Roof, Part 2,3,4 and more

So... we've got the waterproofing layer down with the help of the Hoy/Pate clan from Illinois. Cousin Tracey, her husband Lowell and their two kids Weston and Casen came up last weekend for work/airshow enjoyment. Saturday we got rained out, but as it was Lauren's birthday it worked out OK. Sunday we stuck down Hydroseal like mad and cut insulation. This week we've got insulation stuck down, with plastic, Enkadrain and dirt to follow and pending approval walls! The roof now must be blinding planes taking off from the airport, as it's a giant aluminum foil covered disc! It's also been wildlife central here - large treefrogs have visited the building, newly hatched snapping turtles have appeared in numbers on the road between the new house and the old, snakes have been seen, sandhill cranes have circled, turkeys have made a ruckus, and someone, an owl or hawk or eagle, ate breakfast on top of our roof insulation and left the innards for us to discover this morning. A charming way to start the day, I must say!!

Roof!

So we now have a giant gazebo!! Dan is ironing out a few tricky bits at the center and we'll be putting on the waterproofing layer this weekend. The camphering and splitting is all done. We have a start ont he round green door too. On Sunday I did a trial wall to see how several different mortar mixes work. This week we are building the temporary posts for the interior and framing out the windows and we should be able to do cordwood next week. And isulation and Enkadrain and dirt on the roof! Finally!!

Beam Me Up, Dan!!

So... we've got the central steel beam support up, followed by the Douglas Fir beams. As of 7/13, we have all of the beams up. Despite several moments of extreme fright, no one was permanently injured. We'll be centering and attaching with giant spikes for the next bit - the roof should be here in ten days, followed by the Enkadrain and then the great dirt extravaganza, combined with laying up the walls. And windows - Dan will be picking up about half of them Wednesday so he can frame them up with a drip edge. Deb and Sam have been a great help - we have roughly two thirds of the logs chamfered, in a shady tent kept upright by Deb in spite of the recent winds. Matt Hicks, Matt Hoy, and Dave Kranz have also been burly/wiry workhorses that we could not have done without - bless you all!! It's starting to look like a house - soon the boxes of tile in my porch will be of use!! Once the roof is on, the masons will return and give us a chimney, the walls will go up inside and the electricians and plumbers can work their magic!! Keep an eye out for work weekend e-mails - we'll be happy to see anyone who cares to wander out our way!!

Bricks and Beams

Spring has purportedly sprung, although you wouldn't know it from the frost advisory tonight in mid-May. What has sprung up is our stove! The masons came a few weeks ago and faced the heater with a lovely brick, a mix of reds and oranges and purples, oddly enough, and put on a nice limestone for the bench. They'll return to do the chimney and the insulating cap on the stove once we have a roof on, at which point we'll be able to fire the stove up and try it out. We've taken down the little straw shack and are putting up steel this week for the center supports. Which means we can go on to nice big Douglas Fir beams next week, since they have finally arrived!! We had a moderate delay when the beams arrived from the west coast with only two sides sawn, which makes it a little hard to balance. Kind of important, when you've got sixteen of them and they weigh about 300 lbs apiece. So they had to make a little jaunt back up to the Cities and visit the man with the giant plane. Now they look beautiful, all twenty eight feet of them. Doug Fir has a nice almost pink grain to it. I'll post pics shortly - my camera has been on the fritz recently, so I'm relying on the cameras and kindness of family for documentation. We've also got the flashing installed around the edge of the foundation so our insulation is protected. Now it's on to splitting the wood for the walls and getting the beams up. As ever, onwards and upwards!!

While it's Winter...

Welcome to 2008!! We've had a pseudo hiatus since the masonry heater guys were here, but it involved the holidays and the requisite cleaning and cooking and shopping, oh my. Plus several bouts of illness for both of us. In lieu of action, I thought I would share some pics of preparation that happened what seems like eons ago. Out wood has been stacked and drying for several years now, so it should be ready as all get out to be slapped in a wall in a few months. Some of the wood Dan cut from a stand of red pine and hemlock down the hill and we then stripped the bark and set it up to dry. Some of it we bought from a defunct log cabin building business by Bloomer, already stripped. Some of it had been sitting out uncovered for some time and has deteriorated into fuel for the test firings on the masonry heater when it is bricked over, but some of it was covered and has aged into nice wood for our project.