Kitchen window sill

A nice thing about timber frames over conventional houses is that the walls are made of light trusses and can be made thick. A side benefit of this is deep window sills. Lisa made an executive decision to have Willy finish the kitchen windows with the same ash as our kitchen counter tops so that we can treat it as an extension of the counter. It was kind of hard to capture this because of the glare you get off the finished wood near windows, but these pictures illustrate the effect. The window remains unfinished for now, but eventually (i.e. when we have money again) we'll have the ash lining the entire window. Lisa is putting on a urethane finish on all the windows to protect them from mold and condensation in the wintertime. I wish I could say it was worth the effort, but I can't because it's all Lisa's effort; we have occasionally discussed the advantages of PVC when faced with the work necessary for maintaining wood windows. This will be the only window finished for the winter. We thought we'd leave it all until the spring, but Lisa figures she likes her time in the kitchen and that it will be all the more pleasant with a finished window supplying that extra counter space. .

South-side door

The south-side door actually looks a lot like the east-side door, but it is framed by the porch. It still works as that splash o' colour on the natural neutral tones of the wood.

The little step is a temporary measure made of hemlock by Joey because he was sick of using blocks (stacked on the left in the photo) as steps. Oh yeah, the insurance required it as well. I kind of like the steps. With a more suitable footing, we can probably keep them for a while. The stacked blocks are actually off cuts from Willy's timbers, and the carpenters use them to keep the good lumber off the ground.

I'm kind of looking forward to the metal going on the porch roof. Once the solar collectors are installed, that should get done quickly. You want to step on the metal as little possible.

Here's a picture of the hardwood threshold that came as part of the doorframe. It's protected by the porch and made of ash, so it should now be quite durable. Hardwood is susceptible to weathering, so Lisa put 5 coats of urethane on it last week. I guess you can say Lisa gave our ash a good shellacking :-).

East side progress

Well, it's beyond progress now ... it's done!

It's all done but the south side and the porch. We delivered the last load of siding to the site today, and the boys finished off the south side. The electrician was in today too and was finishing a good amount of switches and sockets (to be shown tomorrow).



9/14/10
It was relatively dry today so the carpenters got to work on east-side siding. Wouldn't the door look good in red?

It's good to see this with the siding on. That unfinished look is getting old real quick. It's encouraging to see that it looks better than we imagined.

Framed staircase

We went with Plan A on the stairs, which was to enclose the area beneath them for closet and storage. The option was open risers, but those usually need a bigger space to look good. This was the right decision.

Will will soon but in ash railings and steps in. These will make the stairs better than the current temporary carpenters stairs.

Completed upstairs floor

Here's a picture of the completed upstairs landing. The edge trim of the floor was added this week on a rainy day. Nice job on the corners. I'm glad we have carpenters that like making it look nice.

The sink bothers me. We put it too far to the left. It kills me that I can look at that gorgeous ash counter top and only see the sink. There's just too much stuff to do on a house to think of everything and get it all right.

West side story

Well, the saga of the west wall has nearly come to an end. The siding is all done, and damn it looks good. I love wood.

The only thing left on this side is the fascia along the gables of the roof, and maybe some white trim on the fascia of the porch.

It also helps to see the sun after several days of drizzle. The blue sky looks extra good against this cream coloured wooden siding (soon to be gray).

Still have the front sides of the house to cover. There are more windows here, so they could be a while. The siding goes up quick. It's the trim around the windows that needs careful sealing to prevent water infiltration.

Window trim detail

This is the north-side bedroom window. All the windows will look like this when we're done (well, maybe the photographer won't be reflected in the panes all the time). The Maibec ultra-white trim is 4'' wide and 1 1/4'' thick, matching the white cladding on the windows. If you look carefully you'll see that the trim on top is covered with a little "roof". At this close range you can actually see the candle distort the perspective slightly.

The picture below shows the detail of the bottom right corner. You can see the white painted nails in the trim and the stainless steel nails in the hemlock siding. You can also see the paint seal used between the horizontal trim below the window and the vertical trim to the right of the window. Also visible is the white caulking used to seal the window and trim.

Corner moulding trim details

Here's a picture showing the moulding details on the corner trim and siding. The white mouldings were first nailed down using zinc galvinized nails from Maibec painted and textured to match the siding. The natural hemlock siding is nailed down using stainless steel nails to make sure they do not leave ugly rust streaks on the wood siding in a few years time. We chose a clear (as opposed to white) seal to close the gab between the two. Hemlock does not shrink lengthwise as much as other wood, so hopefully this gap will stay closed.

I think Alex, Gord, and Joey really enjoy this part of the job. They are paying extra attention to detail. It's worth the extra time they take to seal up the joints nicely. It assures we won't have to do this again in 5 or 10 years time (knock wood!).

Soffits

What's a soffit anyways? A soffit is a decorative piece of wood, aluminum, or PVC that covers the underside of a roof overhang. It keeps critters and water from infiltrating the underside of your roof. It needs to include vents because you want air to be able to circulate between your roof covering and your insulation to prevent condensation and to prevent nasty ice dams from forming along the edge of your roof when temperatures start dipping below freezing. Unless the underside of your roof covering is vented, heat from the house will melt snow on the upper reaches of your roof. This will then freeze when it trickles down to the overhang, causing the water to pool and the roof to leak.

So here are the vented soffits on the edge of the kitchen. We used leftover boards from the ceiling. We had plenty leftover because the supplier of the planks sent about 20% more than ordered; dried hemlock usually splinters quite a bit. We've been handling it carefully, so we had maybe only 5% waste. The carpenters brought in strips of white coated aluminum for the vents. They will look much better when the fascias (roof edges) are also covered in white Maibec.

Time to put on the soffits!

Here's Lisa checking out what was a humongous hornets nest growing under the gables of the south side of the house. Apparantly, the wasps and hornets like our house almost as much as we do. Gordie and Joey knocked down part of the nest with a long piece of Maibec, and Alex proceeded to finish it off with a can of raid. The warm weather we've been having probably helped to keep the nest growing. There are still a few angry looking hornets swarming around up there. Hopefully the cooler weather will keep the nest from growing again.

Several creatures have alrady visited the home. Early in the spring, chickadees would fly in the open doorways and not be able to find their way out again. Phoebe's made a nest in a few cornices, and the cat already hunted down a few mice that may their way in through open doorways. I think I heard a few squirrels scratching around in the roof above the kitchen too. Hopefully, having the doors installed and sealing up the soffits will prevent these visits in the future.

Foundation covering

I know this picture isn't pretty, but this part of the job has been put off and has kept me up nights, so it's a big deal to see it getting done. We covered the exposed part of the foundation insulation with about 1 foot of coated white aluminum flashing. Note that it is folded over the bottom of the wall furring to prevent vermin from crawling in the walls between the siding (not shown), sheathing (white), and furring strips (wooden). Gord has a special tool for bending metal like this.

The blue foundation insulation is already discolored from the morning sun beating down on it all summer. It was about time we covered it up. Hopefully, it didn't lose too much of its insulation value. This is on the east side of the house. The corner trim actually helps to hold it in place for now, and it will eventually be covered by siding. Alex was worried that the white flashing would look too white and get too dirty looking once it's been on for a while. As it turns out, it actually takes on a little bit of a grayish tinge when contrasted with the ultra-white of the Maibec trim, so it doesn't look too bad.

Trim and mouldings

Despite having enough hemlock boards for trim, we decided to go with Maibec for the corner boards, window trim, and fascias. The reason is that we wanted a little colour in the hose to accent the natural wood of the rabbeted bevel siding, especially when it starts turning grey. Maibec is wood coated with several layers of factory-coated paint with the paint lasting about 20 years (we don't want to paint it every two years). We chose ultra-white because it matches the cladding on the windows and because it makes for a nice bright contrast to the natural wood siding (and with the grey once the siding is weathered). The guys managed to finish the bottom half of the west side of the house and are getting the scaffolding up again to finish the upper part of the house.

Here's a picture of an outside corner with the west side finished with siding and the south side unfinished. The corner is constructed using two 2'' boards painted on all sides. It is nailed to the furring lats and over white aluminum flashing that covers the blue insulation on the foundation. We should have covered the foundation insulation before back-filling it. Styrofoam is resistant to just about everything except UV radiation from the sun.

More siding

Darn, this looks good.

I think I might put a sealant on the bottom two planks to keep them from turning grey prematurely.

Up goes the siding

Here's the siding going up on the North side of the house outside the bedroom window. Wow does it look good. This is the siding we had sawn from logs out of the woods. Also shown is the window and corner trim from Maibec (white). Maibec is wood treated with paint that's supposed to last 20 years. The effect of the white trim will be to offset the hemlock siding (which we will let go grey like an old barn). The hemlock tends to crack, but there doesn't seem to be more than 10% wasted for now.

Also shown is the white flashing covering the foundation insulation. Hold have put this on a long time ago. Better late than never.

Finished painting

Here's a look at the upstairs following the drywall, mudding, and painting. It pretty much sums up all the nice work and contributions: the timber frame from Willy Lemaitre from Sutton, Alex Courvoisier (from Dunham) assembly job, the ceiling planks from Nicholas Hamel in the Beauce, the windows from Elite courtesy of the Liptak family near Ottawa, the flooring planks sawn up by Martial Marois in Granby, and finally the mudding and painting by Luc Tremblay in Frelighsburg to bring out the colours in grains in all this wood.

With the afternoon sun provided by mother natures, it makes for a really nice picture from the staircase.

Tongue and groove flooring

The flooring is almost done upstairs. This shows the 2'' tongue and groove hemlock planks on the timber rafters. They double as the floor upstairs and the ceiling for the first floor. This wood was kiln dried in Cowansville then planed and dried in Granby. Not drying it would have meant cracks opening up between planks as the wood dried.

The 2'' thickness (okay 1 13/16'' after planing) makes for a solid floor. It also reinforces the frame. When the big bad wolf blew down the wooden house, it was not a timber frame.

Siding

Here is another load of wood from the sawyer in Granby. This time it is hemlock siding. It's been drying in the woods for a year and a half now, so it is semi dry. This is ideal because it won't split when nailed to the house like dry hemlock, but won't shrink like green wood. Most pieces are longer than Alex's trailer, which makes the trailer fish tail if you go too fast, especially down hill whe the full load pushes the truck. We take it very slow.

We actually had to make two trips to get this rabbeted beveled siding. Each 6'' x 1 1/2" board was cut diagonally into a wedge and then contoured to make a ship lapped wedge. We're storing it in the woodshed to keep the elements of it until it is ready to be nailed to the house. The plan is to keep the hemlock natural and let it go grey. Hemlock lasts forever as siding. All the old barns you see in the Townships are made of hemlock. The old timers knew their wood.

Finished porch

Finally finished the porch (only the metal roofing covers remain). The porch serves the practical purpose of preventing water from dripping on your head as you exit the door (or worse, getting walloped with snow sliding off the roof), keeping the summer sun from overheating the house, and giving you a nice place to sit, rain or shine. The ends of the porch are flat so that you can leave the porch without getting dripped on the rain.

We went with 6x6 posts which aren't from our woods. I thought we could use 4x4 posts as we have with our current balcony, so I sawed up a bunch of those last summer. However, Will recommended 6x6 posts. Thinking about snow sliding onto the porch from our rather large roof
convinced me to go witht the more solid 6x6 posts. The rest of the porch is straight out of the back of the property. It's hard to see in these pictures, but the wood is unplaned and unsanded. If you click on the imagery, you can see the rough texture. My philosophy on porches is that sitting on them should make you feel like you are in a farm in a western (one with good carpenters). We will eventually sand the floor planks once the project is complete and people are done trekking dirt and construction boots across it. We'll probably seal it to protect it from rain, snow, and sun. Hemlock is somewhat resistant to rot, but it is a soft wood and prone to scuffs.

Here's a detail of the timber ends showing how the rafter rests on the rafter plate . The roof actually overhangs the rafter plate, which in turn overhangs the last post resting on the deck. Also visible are the 1'' planks that act both as roof and ceiling. I thought I'd sand these, but others say they like them rough sawed. Great! Less work!

Judge presiding

Although it doesn't look it here, Don was not just watching the carpenters all day. Don was actually pretty busy loading boards with us for most of the day. In fact, he was quite tired by the end of the job, although he wouldn't admit it ... at first. Loading boards is a grind.

In the picture, Willy has finished the job and left his timbers for the day, but you will notice the specialized carpentry equipment remaining. You see a portable table saw used to cut the deck boards, and the specialized DeWalt boom box, with protective railing and a durable yellow casing, lest a workman dissatisfied with the choice of music bang it up.

The artiste returns

William (timber framer and ébéniste) was measuring the kitchen for cabinets last week when I mentioned the porch going up. He mumbled something about doing the notching for the porch. Later in the week, I mumbled something to Alex about Willy doing the notching, and Alex mumbled something about Willy doing the notching on site. Well, the deck was going up the morning of June 2, so I called Willy on the evening of June 1 to confirm ... too much mumbling going on ... Willy hadn't heard about it.

Fortunately, he came out and did the notching, bringing all his tools with him. It means that the frame of the porch will be as nice as the frame inside. When we got back from delivering our first load of planks to Cowansville, Will was halfway though the job. We got one shot of him in action, and one of him looking at the camera. I didn't get pictures of all the specialized tools he had along, but you can see his giant chisel and giant circular saw here. It's quite a specialized craft with specialized tools.

Unfortunately, we did not get the porch up and will have to wait until next week before we see the final product. I can hardly wait.