Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

A couple of summers ago we added a dormer to the "shack" to allow for some better ventilation in the sleeping loft.  Not able to leave well enough alone, I decided to add a bird house to the top of the new dormer as well as some solar-electric generating plates (Canadian Tire $79.95) which would recharge the 12 volt car battery we keep in the crawl space below the floor.  As the pictures show, the birdhouse idea and the solar-electric idea may have been good separately, but haven't worked out too well together.

45 Degree Sheathing

Sheathing has continued on the workshop-garage building using all of the 1" x 8" material that had been used as concrete forms.  Daryl and crew have applied all of the sheathing at 45 degrees which strengthens things a lot and is the best seismic application method

Room above Garage Takes Shape

The last three days has seen a huge development in the addition of the floor above the garage along with the north and south walls there as well as the east and west walls in the workshop.  The stairs up to the second floor in the shop garage building are also in place and looking great.

Garage takes shape

The framing of the garage walls, front, back and end are nearly complete and the framing has begun for the office (games room) above.  the bright orange coloured beams are LVL's (laminated veneer lumber) sort of like plywood, but with all of the veneers going in the same direction.  Lots stronger than solid wood of the same dimension and dead straight.  

Sheathing, Stairs and Shop Walls

Stairs up to the landing are now in place and usable and the sheathing has been started 12' up the house walls.  The first wall is on it's way up in the garage, as well, so lots of things begun that have both structures really taking shape.  

I thought that furniture makers were the only woodworkers who drew things out full size, but it seems Carpenters do as well (at least when they're building houses designed by furniture makers).  Daryl has drawn out a full scale detail of the veranda support post and beam structure just to double check that the fascia of both shop-garage and house veranda all meet up right the way around both buildings.

Can hardly wait for our next visit on the weekend to check out the slab in the workshop and more wall and sheathing progress.

May Long Weekend

A busy weekend as the garage half of the slab was poured starting at 7:30 Saturday morning. Brian Allen the finisher spent a good part of the day polishing and sealing the concrete floor while Greg and Grant from Aardvark excavating worked on  backfilling both buildings.  Greg also dug 8 holes for the footings that will support the piers that hold the veranda up all around the house. 

Heating tubes in Garage

Our heating specialist, Jim Reynolds and his crew have been busy today placing the heating tubes ready for the first slab which is to be poured on Saturday.  Daryl's crew have prepped the sand backfill adding the trench for the dust collection pipes in the workshop and placing the 2-1/2" styrofoam and wire mesh in preparation for the concrete.

North and South Walls continue

A rainy Wednesday evening shows the latest framing of the north and south walls.  Height and window sizes and placements are looking just great.  

Walls Up

With the floor joists in place and the floor sheathed with 3/4" T&G, Daryl and the crew have started to stand the walls up.  Because we are going to have internal timber to support the second floor the decision was made to "balloon frame" the exterior walls.  This is the way that most houses used to be framed pre-1960 or so, but involves some very long boards. Daryl had to acquire some 24' long 2" x 6"s for the walls as shown.  Also this rainy week got the concrete floor in the workshop where the dust collection trench will be located.

Things You Don't Want to Forget

This weekend's visit shows lots of the little details that have to happen before the foundation backfilling begins.  Daryl, Dean and Cory have been getting the perforated perimeter drains and rain water leader pipes in and hooked up as well as:

• Main electrical wiring from where it enters the shop to both the the mechanical room and on into the house.
  
• Preparing the pipe for the hot water and electrical lines for the in-floor heat from the boiler location in the Shop-Garage to the house.
• Electrical and water lines from the mechanical room to the well pump (out front) and more electrical lines to the septic areator (out back)
• Water drains from areas under the boiler and hot water tanks in both Shop and House.
• Toilet and sink sewage lines to the septic tank.