Finished upstairs flooring

Upstairs view of the finished floor, sanded and varnished. There are three coats of varnish on the hemlock floor. You can't quite slide on it with your socks (which is probably a good thing), but it is a nice finish.

Francois did a nice job, filling in the knots and some of the gaps that opened in the joints (it's what hemlock does).

Finished railings and floors

Here's a look at the finished railings with the finished staircase and the finished floors. The railings, stairs and window trims are ash that was cut in the woods (click here!).  and finished and installed by Willy the timberframer. Good view in this picture of how it all works together. The yellowishness of the hemlock timbers and ceiling planks matches the lighter birch floor planks, the knots in the timbers go with the knots in the floor planks, and the bright hues of the ash are brought in the brighter floorboards. The floor brings it all together.

I sound like an art critic.

The flooring detail shows how the lower grade wood actually works better in the farmhouse. The higher grade hardwood would have made it look like a concert hall or museum.

Wood flooring isn't the ideal covering for a hydronic slab. It does not conduct heat very well, and it requires a high-grade OSB subfloor to keep it stable with the expansion and contraction as well as the high humidity associated with a hydroninc slab. When Francois (the current tenant of the house)  is  not supplementing with wood, he needs to keep the temperature of the slab at 79 or 80 degrees F to keep things comfortable, about 5 degrees F higher than the recommended temperature for a "naked" floor.

One last finishing touch to go: the floorboards. We've got some hardwood at the sawyer that we'll use for this. It will probably be ash like the staircase.

Floors ... at last!

We finally had the floors installed downstairs and they look great. We had them installed on house II, but decided at the last minute to have part of the hardwood installed on house I.

We chose 2 1/4'' yellow birch in horizon grade (that's actually 3rd grade) from BSL (hardwood floor company from the Gaspe). This grade has knots in it, but that's okay because because the timbers also have knots in them, and the multihued daeker planks bring  out the hues in the knots of all the other wood finishing we have.

Yellow birch (as the name implies) has a nice yellowish hue that matches the Hermlock timbers. It's also cheaper than the other hardwood species.

The only thing left to do now is the bedroom whcih will be done with black cherry from our own woods.

Staircase II: Half done

It looks like the staircase is going to be one of those things in the house that will come out more beautiful than we ever imagined. Here's a detailed view of the landing. The false stringers along the back wall meet with the baseboard of the landing at a 45 degree angle. Willy had actually intended for the stringer to move down to the landing, but cut it too short and had to improvise the joint. It actually looks better than the original plan. You can see the profile of the baseboards with the pieces leaning against the wall at right. 

 The second image shows a view similar to the one given in the previous posting, but with a better view of the false stringers (along the side of the upper staircase) and of the the upstairs windows. After looking at the unfinished staircase for months, it's good to see the finished product taking shape.

If you look carefully, you'll notice checks (cracks) in the posts and the beams. This is what hemlock does as it dries. It actually tightens and strengthens the frame. The staircase, though, should not do this. 

Staircase and Balusters

The balusters were installed around Christmas and the staircase should be ready next week. They too are made of the ash we sawed ourselves. It's hard to get a picture with all of the railings in it; it's a small house.  Here you see the finished ash balusters near the top of the staircase.

The staircase is about half done.Lisa did a nice job painting the drywall at the side of the staircase. You can see the false stringers in the upper components of the stairs. The treads are still not installed and will fit on top of the structural stairs.

Washer/Dryer

We bought our Kenmore washer/dryer in St. Jean during Sears days. They are now installed and doing our wash. No more trips to the laundromat. They are here temporarily until we finish Project II. This is the view from the bedroom. If you keep all the doors open, you'll be able to get undressed and do an underarm softball pitch to load the washer; everything on one floor!

The well tank is on the top right and keeps the water supply pressurized. The lighting fixture on the top of the image lights the hallway between the living area and the bathroom. Eventually, there will be a door to cover the utility room.

Kitchen

The kitchen cabinets are installed, awaiting their hardwood doors. Again, we've put our stock of ash planks in Willy's capable hands to build the cabinet doors. The light fixtures are installed in the roof, and you can see the kitchen drawers at the bottom right.

Kitchen counters

I thought I'd posted these earlier in the year, but I guess I overlooked them.

Kitchen counters are a funny thing. You can either buy really cheap ones or really expensive one. There is no such thing as a quality countertop that won't break the bank.

Fortunately we have these kiln dried hardwood boards we got form our woods and a carpenter not afraid to use them for a nice mid-range option. This gave us hardwood ash countertops. These are protected with 5 oats of non-toxic polyurethane. Here they are with the sink installed. The only weird thing is that it will feel like you are preparing food on a nice bookshelf.

Kitty approves!

Busy looking house site

Lots of work going on inside the house lately. Bathroom accessories, kitchen cabinets, washer driers, light fixtures, and staircases all make for a pile of cardboard boxes, wood scraps and assorted packaging junk. Lisa doesn't like this picture of the mess, but to me it means things are getting done. of curse, Lisa has been busier in the house than I have lately, so she has to look at the pile a lot more than I do.

Willy is in finishing the stairs and kitchen, while Eric is finishing the shower this week. The workbenches you see here are Willy's portable workshop.

In the bedroom, we're storing the pane of tempered glass that will wall off the shower from the rest of the bathroom (while allowing light to shine everywhere) as well as the screen door (minus the screen) that will face onto the front porch. Storage makes for strange bedfellows.

Sun for the solar collectors

If you want solar hot water,you need to keep the snow off your collectors. Lisa did a fine job this morning. You'll notice in the photo that the snow has been piling up copiously on the rooftop. I bought a nice long telescopic pole from SKWEEG (RONA's house brand, I think). Not wanting to scratch the collectors, we use the car brush attachment. It does a fine job, but with anything that freezes to the glass we have to wait for a thaw.

This is the solar controller in the utility room showing the temperature in the solar collector. When this temperature in the collectors gets a set number of degrees higher than the temperature in the water tank, the controller turns on the pump and transports the heated anti-freeze to the coil inside the hot water tank. the reading of 28.7 degrees is good for January! As a matter of fact, the collectors were actively collecting heat when the sun was out today. It's been so cloudy through all of December and January that it's been rare to hear the solar hot water pump going. When the cloud sets in, unfortunately, the collectors do not warm enough to heat the water. Let's hope for sunnier February! The sun starts getting stronger in February, and we could use a break on the hydro bill.

A Handsome Looking House

Here's a nice winter scene of the house. The snow has been pretty unrelenting this winter. I think we've had four days without snow. A scene like this makes me feel like I'm wasting heat. The solar collectors on the roof are covered snow and the sun is shining brightly. You can see the telescopic brush for clearing snow off the collectors leaning against the wall on the porch next to the door.

Woodstove delivered

Here's the woodstove all ready for installation. It's a Vermont Castings Intrepid II that we bought at Collette's plumbing in Orleans, VT. We got a nice October rebate. We were told at Collette's that we should start with about 8 cooler "stick fires" before cranking it full bore. It's an efficient little stove with a catalytic secondary burner (a little box that burns all the fumes and particles before sending them up the chimney.

Here I am lighting the inaugural fire. The stovepipe gets really hot, giving us extra heat. I think we've had the requisite number of fires, so we should be ready to crank it really soon. It's a nice compliment to the slab heating. The slab takes about half a day to heat up, so if you need to heat the place up quickly, the wood stove is the way to go.