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.

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.

Roof and chimney flashing

The roof is finally covered. We actually got it done end of September, but I haven't had time to update. It's good to get it done, though, especially with these torrential rains we've been having. It was one of those things that kept me up nights. The unfinished roof was actually covered by a black, water-proof membrane that held through the winter and summer, but there is nothing like the security of 26 gauge metal over your head.

Lisa and I were originally horrified by the flashing around the bottom of the chimney. Then we looked around at some roofs with brick chimneys. Flashing is just not pretty. You just don't notice it until you really look.

The flashing is important. It keeps the water from infiltrating in the crack between the chimney and the roof metal. We have a leaky roof now in the old place. Not fun. We'll keep the flashing as is.

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.

Doors

Well, the trash clutters up the view a bit, but here's the door trimmed with the white Maibec and with a temporary step leading up to the porch. It will look better once the siding is on. Still haven't decided on a permanent solution for the stairs, which will get dripped on by runoff from the roof.

One thing for sure now that I see it is that we will go with a red door. paint is not appropriate as it will chip, so we'll have to get a nice bright red stain for the door. That will add a splash of color on some rather neutral colors.

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.

Project evolution: before, during, and after

Saturday, Sept 4, 2010
Thursday, June 23, 2010Thursday, June 2, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010Wednesday, March 3, 2010Friday, January 22, 2010
Erected frame: Dec. 18, 2009Insulated foundation: Nov. 10, 2009
Foundation done before backfill: Oct. 25, 2009 We're on the rock. About 1-2 ft of soil, clay, and sand was removed. Seems the site is a little flatter than anticipated.

During excavation: Oct. 1, 2009Before excavation: Sept. 10, 2009

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.

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.

Delivering heating system

Lisa caught me delivering the heating system from Vermont. The solar collectors took up the bulk of space on the truck. The big tall thing is the water tank, which needs to be kept upright (the other one is me). Yes, it's a tall puppy, about 6 feet high, and will keep the plumber on a ladder when he installs the cold water intake and output. I wish I could claim credit for this packing job, but I cannot. The guys at the radiant floor company really know how to pack a truck. I drove extra careful and avoided potholes for fear of damaging the collectors and glass-lined tank.

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!