Wednesday, June 30, 2010

More work.


Got the last of the walls up today. That felt good. Got the flooring overlay done in the bathrooms and boiler room and removed what I thought was the last of the tear out. OF course tonight we decided that it would actually be more workable to remove another 6 sheets of flooring and replace it with 3/4 T&G plywood. It's the old kitchen and the flooring there was a little water damaged but not too bad and the sticking point is the two lays of really crappy and impossible to remove flooring that live there.

So tomorrow I'll maybe place most of the electrical boxes and then go to South Fork for more flooring. I need 6 sheets of 3/4 and 3 sheets of 1/4. Hopefully THAT will mean I'm done with tear out and reframing this weekend. The walls really really are up.

Really.

I'll post a pic when I get to where there are actual internets, and not the limpy kind we got here in the 5th wheel.

Framing nearly done

Today I got a good long work day in. There now remains only one wall and one floor to put down. (I'll probably beef up some of the rest of the flooring but that's all easy stuff. :D So yesterday's total was the wall dividing the bathroom/closet, the closet door wall, and I got that hallway wall with the 2 doors put in place. The master bathroom and small bathroom got their new 3/4 plywood overlay on the floor too. It all came out pretty good. The small bathroom floor came out so tight I had to beat it into place :D. Oh and I got some nice flexible roof seals put on the spots that were leaking where the old vent stacks came out. Didn't need them all and some of the old ones were just leaky, so I did that and sealed all the seams on the roof. That oughta help.

I love beating shit.

Today I'll build the arched door to the master bath and put down the plywood overlay in the boiler room. Then I have to get to town to pay my house payment before the late fee :D . I'm a REAL 'merican, I pay everything dang thing at the last second.

The funny thing yesterday was upon my return from getting materials the whole place was fulla cows. The fellas were driving a herd from one place to another and since this place sat empty for so long they'd gotten used to watering up here. I told 'em that was all just fine and invited them to rest in the shade by the creek. They were real nice.

OK, must be time to get to work. I'll post a pic or two when I get to where there is a real internet connection. We're still fighting that one.

Monday, June 28, 2010

More walls

Fueled up the generator and got a couple more walls built today. One of them is even in place and done. The other one... Crys is gonna help me with it later on. It's a 14 foot preframed wall with two doorways in it. It's a little tough by myself, I got it hauled down the hall and ready to go but that's about the best I could do.

It's been 4 days of hammering walls into place now. I'm a little tired. My parts are a little sore.

I even forgot to get a picture today.

Maybe tomrorrow.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

The walls are goin' up



Crys and I finished the wall Christie and I started yesterday. Then we got up two more small ones and a HUGE one. We did a bit of refiguring on the fly on the floor plan. It's a little bit more open and looks like we might even have found a place to put a closet into the bedroom. It's raining out there kinda regular these days so it's all green and pretty. Hard to keep working when the place is a wonderland all by itself.

I'll keep working on walls tomorrow, and we'll finish the floor plan idea and then hopefully Tuesday will be the last day for building walls. Then I can start on electrical. My favorite. :D

Hey, it's better than shoveling mouse shit.

Saturday, June 26, 2010




So there are Christie and Autum. They came out today and helped me put up walls. We got the load bearing walls up today which felt really good. Then we got the 2X6's cut for the wet walls in the bathrooms. We assembled on of them and I'll finish nailing it into place tomorrow. Maybe Anthony will make it out again, he's fun too.....

Had to wait till Crystal made it out to decide a couple things. You don't get to build a house every year so it's good to take the time and get it just like you want. Gotta decide where to put doors, how big to make the guest bathroom, left or right hand doors..... all time consuming decisions. I do see the end of removal of stuff in sight. Still pulling out a bit of wall or ceiling here and there because they're in my way.

So tomorrow Crystal and I will work on more wall stuff, Anthony might come out and I always like seeing Mr. Wonderful. We'll see how it goes. For tonight I'm tired.

Denman.......

OUT

Friday, June 25, 2010

Workin on walls


Yesterday was not a work day. I wish it was but I had other crap to do and I did that.

TODAY, I got the rest of the spray foam put in the cracks where I'd closed up the ends of the house. Then I put two walls together on the floor. See.... ya put 'em together on the floor and then slide them in to place. Of course I'll have to jack up the roof to get them in there but I think that'll be fine. I got help tomorrow and perhaps on Sunday as well. It would be nice to get most of the walls in. I foolishly thought I'd get them all done last weekend but there was just too much to get done ahead of the walls for that to happen.

Then we had a really lovely rain today. It only came in where I'd removed vent stacks through the roofing, and that's a good thing.

C'mon tomorrow! Oh and I freecycled my old trailer out there. Someone is coming to get it around 11

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Siding

Today was not a bad work day. I got the ends of the house closed in. They've only been open to the elements for 10 years now. So today I cut and applied rigid foam insulation to the walls, then cut and screwed in new siding on top of that. It looks pretty good.... the siding was a little dirty but the rain should wash it off if we ever get any.

Then I carried all the wood inside for framing the walls up next. I found some spare time to hang up two new chair swings down by the creek in the relaxation area. That was about it for the day.

I tired.

Monday, June 21, 2010

It's not all work. We have a beautiful little spot for reading, sleeping, stretching, hiding and relaxing... The colorful hammock is my birthday present. I love it so much...

Step Stool

Sometimes I am too tired to start with.

We had to pull inch wide staples (about 9 inches apart) out of the rafters this weekend. The ceiling is barely within reach when I stretch up with the lineman's pliers. I was using a milk crate to reach them on Saturday.

Yesterday morning we discovered that the milk crate was at Pablo's house. Oops! I wanted to give up and sit by the creek.

Instead, Denny made this little stool for me when I was struggling. It's perfect and I have a feeling it'll be around for quite a while...

The weekend's work.



We had a good weekend this weekend at the place. :D We started out like this:



To this:



Didn't get any walls up but it feels like a lot of progress. The floors are now actually all floors. The old kitchen wall is out and a couple posts put in to hold up the roof and all the staples are outta the ceiling thanks to Crystal/Anthony/Christie. :D

Today I'm gonna try to get all that junk in my trailer to the dump and get the building envelope closed in to keep out some more of the dirt.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Floors. And staples.

So no walls went up today. Like most of my fancy plans I forgot to take the limitations of functional reality into account. :D

Anthony (Mr. Wonderful) and Christie & Autum came out today to lend a hand. We all pitched in and got all the old water damaged flooring out (about five 4X8 sheets worth) and nearly all the staples out of the ceiling. Anthony got the trailer load all straight because I can't seem to hit a 5 X 10 foot hole, while Crystal and Christie pulled the old staples (BIG staples) our of the ceiling that held the old crappy ceiling material in place. The old ceiling was removed a couple weeks ago amidst much dust and mouse poop encrusted insulation coupled with virulent cursing. I worked on floor demo. Then when all that crappy old particle board was out I took the angle grinder to it and chopped off nails and removed old gobs of glue and wood barf so that the new flooring could go in flat.

We're bushed.

Will hit it again tomorrow hoping to get the flooring in, the two posts set in the living room to make it all one space and perhaps a wall or two thrown up.

Feels good to be about to build something and be done getting filthy nasty vileness with the tearing out.

Building and re-building

I've decided the rebuild out here deserves its own spot for pics and progress.

Background:

Crystal and I are rebuilding the old '74 doublewide that's sat here for 10 years. At the present moment it's gutted with just a little more flooring to replace before starting to put the new walls in.

The property has been in my hands for about 12 years. 10 years ago the well and septic were put in and the doublewide moved out there. Laura and Crystal and I put on new insulation on the outside and siding along with windows and doors. Gene Shilling and Tim Vanderwerff helped me put in the framing for some new window and door holes. Greatly appreciated.

Flash forward to now. Crys and I are living in a 5th wheel (courtesy of my friend Kevin who sold us his rather tired old one) and putting the place together. We've hauled out three 20 yard roll off dumpsters and I have my trailer full at the moment. All the old interior walls and insulation, wiring and plumbing are out. Today we're finishing the flooring and starting on the walls. Christie is coming out to help.

The 5th wheel is powered by solar panels and I've borrowed a generator for power tools which we really need at this point. I'm having a spot of trouble pulling an electrical permit since we live in one county and our rural address is addressed in another. We struggle to get decent phone and internet though our friend Steph is gonna hook me up with an expert this week (we hope).

I can't say enough good about Saguache County and their land use office. They've been wonderful helpers. :D

Updates as we get to 'em. Welcome aboard.