Fireplace

The Owens-Corning stone veneer is still waiting to be placed onto the chimney. We have aproximately 500 SF worth of Buck's County Country Ledgestone to be added to the interior and exterior of the chase. We decided to bid out this job and currently have 5 open bids that we are looking into. In the meantime, Ade has been busy placing 2 layers of Cement Board above the fireplace, 1/2 inch each (per code and fireplace directions). Above the cement board will be 2 layers of 1/2 inch OSB. On top of all of the wood product (inside and out) will be placed a vapor barrier and then sheets of metal lath. The mason will then use a thick scratch coat of mortar and fix the cultured stone pieces to this with a drystack look.

HVAC, Electrical and Plumbing pre-drywall

Last Thursday, October 9th, we passed our rough electrical inspection . . . the last of all of our "rough-in" inspections. Here are some pictures of the interior of the walls before being encased in drywall. We took approximately 75 pictures to digitally document the electrical, plumbing and HVAC runs, so that we will be able to access them in the event of any "emergency". As soon as Mr. King, our electrical inspector drove down the driveway, we were on the phone with Jerry's drywall of Jackson to schedule the drywall team to start hanging.

Interior and Exterior Pictures of the Home

Here are some interior and exterior pictures of the house taken a few weeks ago (pre Labor Day). Most of the exterior siding has been finished now. I will take some updated photos and (hopefully) post those shortly.

Interior Rustic Stairs

Ade and his dad took a brief break from the rigors of plumbing and electrical work to construct the "open" stair system that will connect the first and second floor of our home. This needed to be done before we could get our rough framing inspection, so it was something that had to be done anyhow. We received solid pine stringers and treads from Rapid River Rustic as a part of our log home package. The stringers and treads themselves were rectangular (verses half log round like many loggies prefer for their rustic look) with rough hand hewn facing. This was a nice blend for us of contemporary verses rustic. They constructed templates for everything before beginning and practiced on scrap lumber since there was little room for error. Bill constructed what our stairs should look like, angle, rise over run, etc. using his home CAD software (this is where Ade gets his engineering and mathematical mind from). From what I understand, stairs are a difficult thing to do, even for those who make the construction world their career. Anyhow, the strings each had the appropriate angle of "bird mouth notching" cut out at the bottom to straddle the subfloor opening into the basement. The tops of the stringers had enough cut flush so that they rest up against the LVL at the top of the stairwell opening on the second floor (and to allow for enough height for the hardwood flooring). They tops of the stringers will be bolted in later incorporating the solid cedar newels that will be at the top of the stairs here for the railings and spindles to attach to. Ade decided to use mortise and tenon joinery for the treads into the stringers (simple and strong). This took quite a bit of time. Ade used quite a bit of construction adhesive when wedging the tenon into the mortise. We finish sanded the sides of the stringers and will do the same thing with the treads once construction traffic is done to remove any scuff marks, etc.

Front ("back") Porch

Tim Davis and Brian Engel, two of the gentleman from Harrison who Steve has had do most of the work on our home, have done our front (really "back") porch on our home. They did a great job bolting/retro-fitting the ledger board for the shed roof to the second story of our home. They also have done a great job fitting the full log structural rafters together in combination with the cedar tongue and groove roof decking for the underside of the roof. They still need to finish the sides of the porch with the railings and spindles attaching to the cedar support posts/newels, and the front steps which will span the full 8 feet of the deck. There are also some little things that need to be finished like the squaring off of the rough sawn cedar fascia boards where the sides meet the front. We will eventually complete a full flagstone paver walkway to the driveway and to the first side entrance door to the garage. For now, we have done a rough laying of 1 ton of flagstone so that they can plan for appropriate heighth for the rise of the stairs.

Rapid River's Last Delivery

We received our last delivery from Rapid River Rustic at the beginning of August (I am 2 months late from our last post . . . we have been busy!) They delivered all of our plank cedar decking boards (2 x 6) for our cedar deck surrounding the first floor "front" of the house (the side of the home with the view of the property). We also received all of our spindles, railings and newels for the front porch, interior stairs and the deck. The solid pine stringers and treads also came for our rustic look interior stairs up to our second floor as well as some extra cedar 1 x 4's for our interior trim. Mike from RPM excavating came across the street with his dad Ron to help us unload the truck with their equipment.

Reflections on Past Adventures, cont.

. . . Backcountry in Denali National Park Alaska, Scotland/trebuchet at Urquart castle, Roman stadium in Arles France, Angel's landing Zion National Park and Ade's many running adventures . . .