We finally took care of a major problem that's been plaguing us, and now things should begin to progress and get back on schedule with the house again.  All my subs are back in line and ready to get to work.  In the next week we figure to have the drywall finishers in doing their thing, and concrete being poured in the garage, along with some concrete repair in the basement.  Plumbing and electrical are standing by and ready to go when we reach their portions near the end.  We went to our local Menards store and ordered some finishing items for our master bathroom and started picking out paint colors tonight.
I lost several days on the house because I was helping at work to cover shifts for a coworker who is out with an injury.  We'll have a couple of days to get some things done on the house, then it's back to work for another extra day prior to my regular weeks schedule.
Early this week I did manage to get quite a bit finished on the deck platform.  I'm just charging ahead with all the straight portions to cover as much surface as possible, then on a weekend when Debra is able to help, we will slice up all those angles between sections (it goes much faster with two pairs of hands).

The main portions of the deck floor are now around to the half way point.

It's measuring and cutting all those little transition areas between sections that really eat up the time.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but there are no top fasteners anywhere on the deck.  Everything is done using special hidden edge screws. Very secure and very clean.

Unfortunately, not all the lumber delivered with the deck was in as pristine condition as the lumber inside the house.  I'm trying to pick and plan so as to arrange and cut each questionable piece to get maximum utilization out of what I have to minimize waste.

6/8/2013 Delays, confusion and frustration.

6/8/2013

Delays, confusion and frustration.  The drywall taper was pulled from our job, so we still cannot get in and paint.  Unknown when (or if) he will be back.  On the good side though, we did get our rain gutters finally installed, and with all the rain we've had lately it is really making a difference.  They have drastically cut down on how much and how fast the ground around the house is washing away.  With the drywall inside the house now done, we have moved to the garage ceiling.  We were hoping to wait until the floor was poured to make it easier to maneuver the hoist, but decided we needed it done now in case our taper comes back, he can finish everything at once.  With nothing but gravel and dirt for a garage floor, we have to put plywood down to make a stable area to operate the drywall lift.  It's a real pain to work with and decreases our safety margin, but we do what we have to do to get things done.  After the nasty fall from the ladder recently, you'd think my guardian angel would be able to take a break, but no.  Closing up the house about midnight two nights ago, my foot slipped off the edge of the 12 inch wide ramp we use to get from the house to the garage, and I fell about four feet onto the concrete garage footing and the gravel floor.  Hurt my arm, my knee, and my ankle is still pretty tender.  My father was constantly doing something clumsy to hurt himself when he was alive, and I definitely have his blood in my veins.  Last Thursday I got a start on the custom shower base.  Because it is an odd size/shape, there is no such thing as a drop-in shower base.  I am making a concrete floor, with a layer of concrete, a rubber membrane, and a final layer of concrete.  The tile will be layer number four.
To take advantage of the beautiful (and rare) sunny day, we moved out to work on the deck today.  I believe I mentioned in a previous posting how incompatible geometry and I are.  I know we chose to build a round house and I should have expected more of this, but really, enough is enough.  It's not just angles, but compound angles and cuts galore.  Thankfully I have my lovely and ever so patient spouse there to assist and keep me moving on a constant, if slow track.  Hopefully things will work out one way or another, and we can get someone in to finish taping our drywall so we can do paint, flooring, staining, etc.

First layer of concrete laid for the walk-in shower base.

We had the gas company pick up our temporary propane tank this week.  With the Geothermal, we are now an all electric household.

Retaining wall block was delivered.

We decided to pump up the air mattress and camp out after working long and late last night.  I don't care if it does have doors, windows, and heat.  If there's no indoor plumbing, it's still camping!

One of our kitchen windows was broken way back in January during the unloading of the semi's.  We finally decided to fix it ourselves.  It took 15 minutes.

Enough with the damn geometry already!  The number of angles and odd cuts is unbelievable.  Add to that, our deck goes around more than half our house.  I keep telling myself, "the view will be worth it....the view will be worth it"........

We are using a Kreg hidden fastener system that will result in no breaks in the top surface.  That will make a cleaner look and should help eliminate splinters, and deck deterioration.  It is taking more than 2-3 times as long to do, but the results will be worth it.

5/26/2013

Well, finally.  I finished all but a couple sheets of drywall upstairs, plus part of the master bathroom before I ran out of screws today.  I'm letting the professionals finish that little bit, plus the lower half of the stairwell, and the basement hallway on Tuesday.  Taping and mudding will start on Wednesday.  Maybe if things go well, we can start painting next weekend?

We are greatly relieved to finally have our portion of the drywall finished.

The pros will come in and finish the lower stairwell and downstairs hallway next week.

I decided to share the orange from my packed lunch with the locals, and a whole bunch of Baltimore Orioles chose to take us up on the offer of a free meal.

We rented the crop land to a local farmer this year, so we will have acres and acres of corn growing below the house.  I think the deer will be most pleased.

5/19/2013

Yesterday I think my guardian angel must have been working over time.  I  had one of the ladders shown in the picture below extended to double the height you see there, and was using it to climb into the attic space over the garage.  I was putting some leftover building materials, siding, trim, shingles, etc, up there so we'd have extras in case of damage later on.  On this trip I had a whole bundle of shingles on my shoulder and was at the top of the ladder.  With the shingles on my shoulder I was too wide to fit between the rafters, so was twisting my upper torso to slide up between them when one side of the ladder shifted in the soft soil.  The ladder rocked out from underneath me faster than I could drop the shingles, and I made a decidedly unceremonious but rapid decent to the garage floor.  This has been the only time I have been glad we haven't had the garage floor concrete poured yet.  Nothing broken or badly damaged (except the bundle of shingles), but plenty sore, and the mega dose of adrenalin left me badly shaken and a little nauseous for a few hours.  By lunch time however we were back to full throttle and business as usual.  This morning when I got up, my neck and lower back were rather stiff, and one knee a little tender.  Other wise none the worse for wear, and back hard at it today.
Slowly (more slowly than we'd like), but surely, the drywall is being completed. Still waiting to hear from our sub as to which day(s) he is coming in to help finish up and to do the taping and mudding.

This is the north wall of the kitchen.

This is the master bedroom.  The back door will lead eventually to a small patio.
 

Living room and entry hall.

5/17/2013 More visible progress after a lengthy pause

5/17/2013

More visible progress after a lengthy pause.  The crew got the deck partially framed, the garage partially prepped for concrete, and the escape window partially installed in the basement bedroom.  There was some semi final landscape sculpting and repair of some heavy truck damage to the driveway and two new culverts were installed under it to allow for better drainage.  In spite of all our recent warm weather they still hit ice under the garage floor when they were putting in the drain, so we will have to wait another week or two before we can pour the concrete floor.

Deck ready for floor board and front step install.

Smoothed over and debris cleared up.  Looks much better than the mud field we had earlier.

looking  a little closer to being a house.

5/8/2013 Enjoying the nice weather of the past few days.

5/8/2013

Well, I cannot put into words how much we are enjoying the nice weather of the past few days.  I have been working in the house with the windows and doors (the ones we have actually installed) open, and the boom box blasting.  Listening to the oldies is a lot more pleasant than listening to the jet fuel heater roaring away.  The crew from La Crosse Fireplace came in yesterday and installed the fireplace core.  I say core because it is just the fire box, with no door and an incomplete chimney thus far.  They had to measure, then special order the chimney topper for our house.  We also have to wait for our stone mantle to be manufactured before we can finish framing in the opening around the fireplace.  Once the framing is done, then we have to put up the cement board and prep it for the stone work we are going to install.  This is going to be a multi-step process that will not be done any time soon.  In addition to the fireplace install, the plumbing tech showed up yesterday and finally installed our adjustable shower drain.  I needed that before I could begin to build the cement shower pan.  Also, the electrician showed up to hook up our well pump and the heat pump, so when the electric company shows up later this week to run the lines in from the transformer, we will have heat and water available for the drywall taper next week.  And  while all this has been going on, I have been busily sheetrocking the house inside.  As an amateur judging his own work, I'd say I'm doing pretty well so far.  This weekend Debra and I will be hitting it hard in an attempt to finish before next week, so the taper and his crew can get in and put the finishing touches on the walls and ceilings (hopefully doing an artful job of covering up any "amateur" flaws along the way).

Sheetrock work station

Walls starting to take shape.

Getting ready for the install.  This is an ultra efficient fireplace with a sealed firebox.  The yellow tube draws air from outside the house for combustion.  Our house is too air tight to support a fireplace that used ambient inside air.

Not much to look at in its present state.  Still need framing, mantle, facia, and rock to be complete.

5/4/2013

Well we can chalk up another first for experiences with the house.  I spent the entire day up inside our chimney.  It was strongly suggested that we insulate the inside of our chimney race to (1) prevent any cold spots around the fireplace inside the house, and (2) to make the chimney draft better by keeping it from cooling off on its way out of the house.  Our contractor recommended we use sheetrock over the insulation.  The fireplace folks told us to insulate, and just put a vapor barrier in place to keep the insulation from falling out later.  However when the building inspector came through, he insisted we sheetrock inside the chimney race.  Since the fireplace is being installed on the 7th, we needed to prioritize this job and redirected our efforts away from sheetrocking the walls in the house.  Therefore, we spent the whole day, up to sixteen feet up in a fifty eight inch by eighteen inch box, stuffing insulation and hanging sheetrock.  For the most part, I wedged myself between the ladder and the back side of the chimney, and Debra passed up materials as needed, while sometimes hanging below me on the ladder and helping steady things while I drove nails.  I must say, I learned a new technique.  I've never had to drive nails back hand before.  I never even had that good of a back hand in tennis, let alone with a twenty ounce framing hammer.  But when the situation demands, you learn we can do most anything if we put our minds to it.  Tomorrow we go back to hanging the walls in the main portion of the house.

Not a job for anyone severely claustrophobic.

4/25/2013

The gentlemen from Ultimate Insulation have been great to work with thus far.  Professional and patient with the homeowner (that's us), and don't require that we interpret through our GC for every little thing.  I stopped in this afternoon after my conference and they were ahead of schedule on the insulation.  All the living areas, to include the basement are done, along with half the attic.  They figure on finishing up by lunch time tomorrow.  You can actually feel the difference in the house as soon as you walk inside.  I'll personally vouch for the sound proof abilities of Nu Wool.  It's difficult to explain, but the air seems so still, or the sounds so muted.  I can't really decide how to describe it other than you can really tell how the house seems to absorb sound.  We're very pleased with both the product and the applicators.
I had enough time to put up several sheets of drywall on the walls before I had to get home, so am feeling confident that the wall application is going to go much faster than the ceiling.

Blowing insulation into the attic

The basement walls have a protective mesh applied to hold the insulation in place till we get around to drywalling at a later date.

 

The upper gable wall is insulated since it backs up to the attic, essentially making it an outside wall.

 

4/24/2013

Well, they're about half done with insulating the house.  The basement is done, and tomorrow they will put the second layer on the main floor, and finish up in the attic on Friday.  They strongly suggested we insulate the chimney race behind and below where the fireplace will be to keep that spot from being a cold area.  I tried several quick work-around solutions, but to no avail.  I finally  wound up tearing apart the hearth structure and building an insulated floor below it, which we then filled up with Nu Wool before putting it back together.  There will be no chance of any drafts or cold air coming in from behind or below the fireplace now!

New insulated floor below the hearth and fireplace.  This was then sealed with foam and filled to the brim with Nu Wool before the top was put back on.

 

Basement walls and rim joists now completely insulated.

 

4/23/2013

Well, we have another block we can check off the build.  The insulators showed up this morning, and have been  hard at it all day.  We are using a product called Nu Wool Premium Cellulose Insulation.  Rather than trying to describe it here myself, I'll provide a link to check out the product: http://www.nuwool.com/footer/faq.aspx
It's applied within the walls with a pressure spray rig that mixes water with the cellulose to make it form and stick in every little crack and crevice.  The attic space will be blown in with the conventional dry method.  Because this is the first house they've done with full ten inch thick walls, they could not fill the cavity on the first pass.  They filled to about half today, will wait for the moisture level to decrease until Thursday, then fill the rest of the way.  The 2x6 wall between the house and garage was done in one pass.  Tomorrow they will do the basement walls and rim joists.  Thursday they will finish the main floor walls, and Friday they will blow the attic.
We've been using a 60,000btu multi-fuel shop heater to take the edge off when we've been working in the house on those cold days.  Even with the temperatures hovering in the 30's, the heater was only able to raise the temperature 10 or so degrees down at floor level.  Today, after only filling the exterior walls half way, that heater actually made it hot inside!  Combine that with the humidity from the wet blown insulation, and it actually got uncomfortably warm inside today.  When this place is done, we should be able to heat the house with little to no effort.

These are the folks making our house cozy.

This stuff is messy as all get-out to apply, but one sprays, and one vacuums it back into the hopper to recycle it back through the pumps.

Doing the basement stairwell 2x6 wall.  After it's pumped into the wall cavity, they have a special raking brush to shave it flush with the studs.

4/21/2013

Screwed in the last few pieces of drywall on the ceiling today (yay!).  I'll go back tomorrow and place a few little corner pieces that have no effect on the insulation going in.  One of Debra's girlfriends, Diana came out to visit today and wound up rolling her sleeves up and helping out for the afternoon. 

Again with the snow storm this morning.  It snowed very hard for a couple of hours and put maybe 1-2 inches on the ground.  The good news was it stayed warm enough that by the end of the day it had all melted away again.

This has absolutely nothing to do with building our house, but thought I'd show what my view is like when I'm working at my job.
 



4/20/2013

Almost done with drywalling the flat ceilings in the rest of the house today.  Just a few pieces plus the front portion of the garage to finish tomorrow, then the insulation folks can come in and seal it all up.  The new attic stairs came Friday.  We had to return the ones we purchased earlier because they were not "fire rated".  The firewall between the house and the garage is actually the 5/8 drywall garage ceiling, and a regular set of wooden steps would have compromised the firewall according to our building inspector.  No local big box store handles them, so had to go online to pick up a set. 

The crew was there Wednesday and Thursday finishing the siding and putting in the exterior doors.  The permanent front door has not arrived yet, so we have a "blank" in place temporarily so they could side around it and get the frame installed.

Here it is April 15th and there are snow flakes the size of chicken feathers pouring down!  We got about 3 inches in a couple of hours of very wet slushy snow.  Enough already!!
 



Almost finished with the flat ceilings.
 

We can finally visualize what the house will look like with all the siding on (minus the actual front door for now).  The basement level will be finished later with a trowel on stucco kind of finish, and Debra and I will put mortar and stone on the chimney.  Still waiting for the ground to dry more so we can get the pilings in the ground and finish the deck portion.
 

4/11/2013

No pictures today, just sore muscles.
Well, Mother Nature is not done with us yet.  Last night into today, we have had rain, snow, and freezing rain making conditions miserable, with more on the way.
Watersource was in yesterday and finished hooking up the in-floor heating system and the rest of the Geothermal heat pump.  Now all we need is the permanent electrical hookup to the house and we are in business.  While the HVAC work was going on, I was upstairs starting to drywall on the flat ceilings.  Because the builders went with 24 inches on center for ceiling supports, rather than 16 inches, I felt the additional strength of 5/8 sheetrock would be appropriate to prevent sagging.  Holy crud, I didn't realize what an 1/8th of an inch difference would make in how much this stuff weighs!  That plus, I used all 1/2"X4'X8' stuff for the sloped ceilings, and am using 5/8"X4'X10', and 4'X12' for the other areas to minimize seams.  Our drywall lift works great, but requires you lift each sheet up about chest high to get it on the cradle.  Eighty three pounds doesn't sound like much till you realize you are essentially lifting it about mid sternum level with one hand while steadying and balancing it with the other.  That's just the ten foot stuff.  The twelve foot sheets weigh about 112 pounds and I could not lift and balance one of those by myself without breaking either it or me or both.  Debra drove up after work to help me set the first twelve foot sheet, and even then it was quite a workout.  After a day of that my hands are so sore I could hardly close them this morning, and my shoulders ache like all get-out.  After this long stretch of such hard physical exertion, I decided one day off was needed for body recovery.  I'm afraid we'll have to put off the insulators for a little while longer till we finish the ceiling.  As soon as the weather cooperates a little better, the crew will come up, install the exterior doors, and finish most of the siding.  We are sooooo ready for warmer weather!

4/9/2013

Rain, rain, go away.  We are shin deep in mud out at the site now, with no end in sight to the rain.  Well, it might stop raining for a little while, but only because it's going to change over to snow later tonight.  They're talking about a potential 12 inches of snow only a few miles to our north!  The exterior doors and the metal interior doors were delivered this morning, but no installation, and no more siding work until the weather clears a little. 
My geometry lessons are coming along nicely thanks to the templates Debra set up before she had to go back to work Monday.  It really helps make consistent cuts on all those individual angles.  Not every angle is perfect however so there are still plenty of "adjustments" that need to be made in order to get things aligned.  Debra had to attend a conference in the cities today, but I was still able to finish the vaulted ceiling in the south half of the house.  Tomorrow I'll begin work on the flat ceilings in the rest of the place.
Debra and I went out last night and put down what are called "straw blankets" on much of the hill in front in an attempt to stabilize it and minimize washout from all the rain.  Hopefully we can hold things in place till it warms up enough for the seed to take hold and put down roots on that bare slope.

The mud is making everything more difficult.
 

Straw blankets to stabilize the hillside.





Lots and lots of cutting and fitting.  We used both glue and screws.  we do NOT want popped screws or a cracked ceiling from movement later.

4/7/2013

For all those times I may have wondered out loud, "what on earth will I ever need to learn geometry for out in the real world?"  Well, lesson learned, and I'm ready to cry "uncle".  Drywalling the ceiling in a round house ranks right up there with the top reasons to pay attention in geometry class.  I'm sure if we had turned this job over to the professionals it would have been done in a day or two, but hey, where's the fun in that? It's turning out to be way more challenging than we thought it would be, but that has just made us all the more determined to stick with it to the finish.  Debra and I are going to sheet rock the whole house, but our imagined timeline is going to stay on that same fantasy list as our original building budget.  This is the sort of thing that will test your relationship with your spouse or partner when you tackle a job like this together.  I'm happy to report that we work well together and complement each others strengths and weaknesses.  We really love working together on projects like this, especially when the end result is going to be such a special dream home.  There will be an incalculable amount of sweat equity invested in this home that will truly make it our own.



 We're gradually building speed on this project as we "learn the angles", so to speak.
 

4/5/2013 Well, the north slope has claimed another victim.

4/5/2013

Well, the north slope has claimed another victim.  This time it's the mud not ice.  Our first load of drywall for the ceiling arrived and the delivery truck got a little too far out in the area that is melting.  It took some digging and cribbing, but they finally got out without having to call a wrecker.  Before I knocked off to go to work tonight, I symbolically raised the first piece of drywall to the ceiling in preparation for hanging it tomorrow.  Debra and I will go to work and try to finish as much of the ceiling as possible this weekend (we're hoping all of it), so that we can stay on track to have the insulators in late next week.


Before.

After.
Mud has replaced ice as our largest obstacle now.

All large tasks must start with one small step.  The first of many sheets of drywall going up.

Starting to get the rest of the siding on.  Still waiting for the front door to arrive though.

4/3/2013 Final measurements for drywall

4/3/2013

Had to run down to the farm last night after work to get final measurements for drywall so we could place the order today.  If the stars align we will be putting the sheetrock on the ceilings this weekend so we can get the insulators in next week.  When I got there I found they had gotten the basement windows and patio door installed, the electrician had finished wiring in the panels, and Watersource had been there to install our Geothermal furnace.  Today the crew are there finishing the soffit and putting on the siding.

The primary electrical panel fully installed.  We also had them install a sub panel so we can safely run an emergency generator in the event we have a lengthy power outage out here in the country.

Our new Geothermal heating/cooling system from WaterFurnace.

Windows and doors installed in the lower level walk-out.

4/2/2013 Not much in the way of visual progress

4/2/2013

Not much in the way of visual progress to show since the basement was framed and the stairs in stalled.  We have had electrical and plumbing doing a lot of work within the walls, but are now waiting for electrical and framing inspections so we can get in with insulation and drywall.  I wanted to ad this picture, which my builder labeled as "a masterpiece of trusses". :)

Artistry in wood.