Time to hit the deck

Since I was rather late getting a new post up on my blog last week - in fact, it didn't go up until this week - I'm trying to get one finished early this week. The big news is that we've finally started installing the decking on the front porch and the back deck. Here are a couple of shots of the front porch before and after the workmen left, and I cleaned up a bit.

The deck floor is a composite material made from recycled plastic and sawdust. This selection is called Beach house Gray. The empty spaces under the porch are where two sets of steps will go. The picture below shows the beginnings of the rear deck. The two decks are laid with a system of hidden fasteners, so that there are no screws showing. Some of the boards here still have to be cut to their correct lengths.

When I took this picture, there was no decking behind where I was standing. I had to be careful not to step back in an attempt to get more in my picture. That east end of the deck is framed only around the master bathroom, and a ramp must still be added in order to reach the ground at the back corner of the garage.

Work continues inside, with our three painters still putting a clear finish on the doors and trim. They completed the basement level and have now started on the main floor. After they do that and the loft, they will, I assume, start painting the walls. Outside, they have a lot of Hardie Board and other surfaces to paint.

Also inside, our builder has constructed a divider between the living and dining areas. Behind the divider and in front of the stone wall is the hearth area. Although the wood stove is too dark to show up, it is already in place and can be seen (or at least imagined) behind the top horizontal piece of the divider.

In the picture below, our neighbor and cabinet maker Paul is in the process of building the kitchen cabinets. On his right are several of the base cabinets, on which he is building fronts and will soon be installing doors and drawers. The rest of his workshop is also filled with various other parts of the cabinet system, which he will be installing in about two weeks.

Many things still need to be done to the house; many choices must still be made (bedroom carpets, bathroom vinyl, and light fixtures, for example); and much work remains to be done on contents, both in refurbishing things that survived and replacing things that did not. And, of course, what furnishings we have must be moved into the new house. But I'm confident it will all get done somehow, by someone, sometime.

Take care, and have a good fall. It doesn't start until next weekend, but it feels like it already. It should be good weather for a housewarming.  --oc

More tile and carpentry

We had a short work week after Labor Day, but still made progress. Our tile men were very busy. In the picture below John is beginning to lay tile in the kitchen. The gadget at the bottom with a red handle is designed to score the tile in a straight line and then break it in two. It makes sawing tile necessary only where there are inside angles.

The second picture is a closeup of the tile, called Florentine Scabos, a kind of Travertine. Mixed in with the large 12X12 tiles are scattered 6X6 squares, which give some variation to the pattern. Within each 6X6 unit is a 4X4 tile with the image of a leaf or seashell fired into it, also to give variation and interest to the floor. The adhesive is called "thin set mortar," and here, where the floor may give a little, the thin set has a little latex mixed into it to give it a little flexibility and keep the tiles from cracking when walked on.

This past week John and his associate Herb also added tile to the oak floor in the living room to create a fireproof hearth to go under the woodstove and into the wood storage area.

This tile is called Espresso, although it looks more like capuccino. Whatever the flavor, it should go well with the surrounding oak flooring, once it is sanded and covered with a clear finish. The same tile has also been put in the front entry way (below) and in the area inside the door to the back deck. 

Finally, here are two picture to show that it was not just about tile last week. On the left is a shot of cabinets and bench storage for toys in the loft above the dining room, which looks down on the living room. On the right, one of the painters is putting a clear finish on the paneling in the stairway going down to the basement.



 It's been a busy week - even if a short one - and that, in part, accounts for my blog being a little late in coming out this week. But work continues in many areas, and by next week we may get a sneak peek at our new kitchen cabinets. Have a good week!  --oc

Little by little it comes together

Today, Labor Day, marks four months of labor on our new house. Last Monday began with our two flooring workers starting the job of installing an oak floor in the living-dining area on the main level.

The first picture shows John nailing in a piece of planking in the hallway from the living room to the guest bathroom with a special air hammer. After fitting the board snugly against its neighbor, the business end of the air hammer, which hangs from a handle in John's left hand, is held against the board at just the right angle. Then with a regular hammer the other end of the air hammer is tapped, and the it sends a nail through the board and into the floor.

The end result will be a floor that looks like that on the left. Once the entire floor is covered with the oak planking, it will be sanded smooth, and a clear finish will be applied. That should make the wood even prettier than it is here.

Monday also saw the delivery (below) of the decking material that will make up the floor of the front porch and the back deck. We expect that to be laid this week. Work will also be done soon on the porch steps, the lattice on the front for the porch, and the posts that hold up the porch and its roof.



Meanwhile, our builder George continues his carpentry work, for example, on shelves in the cedar lined basement closet shown here, and on trim and bookshelves under the windows in the basement den.

Finally, here is a picture of a pleased Manita, who has just made a great discovery. She found out that the black soot covering an ancient rocking chair could be removed with Murphy's Oil Soap. That chair came from her grandparents' home, and its antiquity is indicated by the price of $4.50 that is written on the underside of the seat.

When we had it refinished years ago we were not pleased with the glossy finish they put on it, but that seems to be the key to the ease of cleaning off the soot. The pieces of furniture we have that have a satin or matte finish are much harder to clean, and some cannot be completely cleaned up. By the way, we will be having a furniture cleaning party in the next few months and would be glad to have some volunteers.

Well, that's the news from the Deans. We're a little later than usual this week, but then it is a holiday. Tomorrow begins a new week of work for our contractor and subs, and a new week of choices for us (I think it's light fixtures this week). Come again next week for our continued rebuilding adventures.

--O. C. and Manita

Covering floors and doing more wordwork

As our rebuilding process continues, the time has come to start covering floors. We have already shown the basement tile itself in a previous post, but this past week they laid most of the tile in the downstairs den, hall, and bathroom. And it looked so good, I decided to put it in my corner office, too (below).

The next picture, taken in the den, shows the frame I created in the floor around the hearth area, using a border of 2x2-inch square tiles. The extra space by the sides of the stove will be used for fire tools, kindling, and wood storage.

If the mantle above the stove seems bowed, that's only because it is. That was probably the result of 12 years worth of little fires, rather than the big one on 12 January 2012. The two mantles were made from the same 12.5 foot plank cut from one of the hickories that had to be felled to make room for our last house. When the mantles were salvaged from the ruins, the one in the basement was still almost pristine, but the one upstairs had to be planed to remove a black coating of soot left by smoke.

Meanwhile, our builder George continues to make things out of wood, such as the stairs and railings you see here. The black hole in the picture to the right, by the way, is not a black hole or a vent, but a missing riser, which will be installed before the stairs receive the carpet that our grand kids requested.

In the background, George is sweeping up sawdust and other debris from his use of the living-dining area as a carpenter's workshop, so that the area will be ready for our tile workers to begin installing the oak flooring this week. Later they will switch back to tile for the kitchen floor and the upstairs hearth and entry areas.

Finally, we have a picture of a hole in the wall between our walk-in closet and the laundry room. That hole is also only a few feet from the master bathroom on the other side of the walk-in closet. On this side of the hole are two plastic containers for light and dark dirty clothes. Leaning against the wall on each side are doors for the cabinet above the dirty laundry space, which will have its own doors. The hole, which is squeezed in between two studs, will be somewhat smaller and neater after it gets its wood trim.

We have chosen a composition deck material called ChoiceDek for the front porch and back deck. They will start installing it soon - maybe also this week.

It's been sixteen weeks since the start of framing. We are pleased with the progress and hope it will continue. We want the tile workers to get to the kitchen floor soon, since the cabinets should be ready by mid September. Then there's painting to do inside and out, as well as door locks, light fixtures, bathroom vanities, counter tops, etc. to install - a lot to do, but our fingers are crossed for an October move-in date. Wish us luck!  --oc

Pictures of past and pending progress

Lots of little things are happening at our house, and lots more are about to happen. First, the front and back yards around the house got cleaned up, and two truckloads of fill dirt were added and spread around. Here is a view of the nearly finished west end of the house.

A great deal of the current construction is going on inside and involves wood. Below left , for example,is part of the oak flooring that will be installed in the living room. It is stacked in the way shown, so that it can dry out a little more and get accustomed to the house before installation. On the right is some knotty pine paneling and wainscoting our builder has installed in the stairway down to the basement. The two-by-four treads shown here will later be replaced by plywood and carpet.

The space occupied by the flooring is in the kitchen, and it will eventually be replaced by cabinets that are being built by our neighbor, Paul Pringle. Here he is planing oak planks for that purpose; they were sawn from trees that had fallen in a neighbor's yard here in Kenney Ridge. They will be a fitting replacement for the living room hickory paneling that was sawn from trees cut down to make room for our previous house.

Another recent accomplishment is the completion of the geo-thermal heat pump installation. The picture below shows the electrical power coming in on the left, and on the right are the pipes to and from the underground water loop and the two pumps that circulate the water through the heat pump and the loop.

Meanwhile, in the backyard is a stack of tile conveniently left by the door to the basement den, where it will be laid starting tomorrow (Monday). Manita shows how well the tile goes with the brick wall behind the downstairs stove shown in last week's blog post. 

That can also be seen in the second picture, which shows the tile stacked by the door to the room where it will be laid. It also shows some of the red Georgia dirt fill that was necessary to bring the ground level up to the basement level.

On the list to be completed soon is the covering of the front porch and rear deck with composition planking. I'll save that coverage, however, until later, when there's something to show.

Until then . . .   --oc

Rebuilding continues and wood stoves return

Last week I mentioned that we were out of town for a while, but I didn't mention that our builder George was also out of town with his family - way out of town, like in Alaska (we were envious). But he was back on the job by Thursday and did some more carpentry work in the form of bookcases in the loft.

In addition to storing books, the loft will be an area for playing with our grandchildren, Sophia and Ezra, and for doing various projects, such as wrapping presents. The window air conditioner is a temporary measure to keep workers cool and help dry out the house. Hopefully the HVAC folk will be back soon to finishing installing the ground-source heat pump system in the basement.

On Monday we got the final brickwork done in the basement behind the wood stove, along with a refinished mantle that was made from a hickory tree cut down on the property to make room for the house. Both it and the upstairs stove (below) survived the fire and were returned in newly refinished condition.

Actually, they arrived a little early, and we would have preferred a later delivery, since we have not yet installed the floor tile for them to sit on. With a weight of about 350  pounds each, it's not a simple matter to move them around. I have figured out the solution to that problem, however: I'll just let George do it.

The upstairs also has its own mantle - the other half of the same hickory board - but the tile has not been installed there, either. Both tiles have been picked out, however, and will be installed soon. In the basement, the whole room will be tiled, but upstairs we'll have tile only under the stove and by the front door and the door to be back deck. The rest of the floor will be covered with hardwood.

Finally, we have a picture of the front of the house with the garage on the left, featuring the flagstone - called Mossy Creek - and the board-and-batten siding. The next step (so we can take steps) is to put down the decking here and on the back deck. We'll also be adding two sets of front stairs and horizontal boards in between to hide from view whatever's under the porch.

On Saturday Manita and I purchased six major appliances for the kitchen and the laundry room. Then on Sunday we bought a nice dining room suit. So, it's gradually coming together.  --oc

More stonework and HVAC

During the past week Manita and I were out of town for five days - the most since January - taking part with our granddaughter Sophia in a Road Scholar intergenerational program at Callaway Gardens. We had been away for only one overnight since construction began. So, when we returned, we were very impressed with the stonework on the front fascade, which you can see below.

As in the previous house, there is now stonework in the livingroom surrounding the mantle over the woodstove. The stone is still a little damp here and will look more like the outside stone when dry.

The opening to the left of the flue is for kindling (top) and firewood (bottom). We're already looking forward to a cozy fire on cold winter days.

Meanwhile, we found Preston, our HVAC contractor, in the basement, working on getting the ducts hooked up to the ground-source (so-called geothermal) heat pump, which will pull heat out of the earth in winter to heat the house and during air conditioning season pull heat out of the house and put it in the ground. 

Here Preston and an assistant are installing one of the supply ducts, and in the next picture the helper is painting the seams to seal them. Another worker is preparing to make another connection to the the heatpump unit behind him.

Once the supply ducts for the two heating and cooling zones, as well as the return ducts, are hooked up, the underground water loop, which circulates through three 240 foot deep wells in the front yard, will be connected to the unit. After all electrical and control connections have been made, the system will be ready for testing and hopefully will pass the test without a lot of correction and adjustment. We'll let you know in our next blog post how it all comes out.

It has now been thirteen weeks since framing began, and a lot has been accomplished in that three months. Hopefully, about two more months will be enough to finish the house. We'll be ready for that to happen. We don't look forward to moving, but it will be worth it. At least we have less to move this time.  --oc