Week 11 & 12 - Transformations & The Arctic Freeze

November 29- December 10, 2010

We decided to take a well deserved break over the Thanksgiving holiday. No construction. No thinking about construction. No going out and buying anything for construction (especially on Black Frigging Friday!) We avoided all shopping for anything and just went for walks, spent time with friends and each other. (see photo of our friends 'the Finches' carving the turkey on Thanksgiving for the first Thanksgiving in their new home. We joined them for this special occasion).

We also spent time walking around the house and appreciating all the sacrifices we are making to create a really wonderful new home for ourselves. We are so very thankful for the home we have created together.

There is a lot to share with all of you from the last 2 weeks, so I wont get blah, blah, blah about it. We are trying to beat the winter freeze, so there has been no messing around with the construction schedule. It's go, go go! Here are some photos to help explain:

The sheetrock delivery arrived between the rain showers at 8am on Monday, Nov. 29 . The crew was ready to get right to the job of hanging the 4x12 & 4x14 ft long boards. Thank goodness I gave this up a few years ago. Especially since we now have 10-15ft high ceilings!!!!

Pat, Chris and Rob got right to hanging the ceiling rock in the new dining room. Don't they almost look like Roman pillars?

The joys of sheet rock dust in the house! AhhhhhhhhChoooooooo! Almost like London fog :o)

That's Mike, in the middle, doing an awesome quad press to hold that piece of sheet rock up while Josh & Steve secure it.

The new french doors that go from the living room to the front porch

Here is Jim on his tape and mud stilts, no better way to reach those high places without a ladder. Ever since he brought these out, I keep calling him and his crew 'Jim Wright-Kaisers Flying Circus'. I have since realized that it is true! Watching them do what they do is like going to the circus. Don't try any of these moves at home without a net, or insurance or something :o)

Rob and Chris have been the chosen ones to go back up into the attic space to adjust a few light fixtures to the sheet rock. That space is now like a big cocoon womb since the foam insulation was blown in. It seemed like they were being shot out of the cocoon womb as they came in and out of the opening of the crawl space. It was HILARIOUS! They broke into a heat flash sweat after only 10 minutes up there. They were nearly born again!! :o)

December 3rd we woke up to this....

Suddenly we realized that things might not keep running as smoothly as usual for the project.

Temperatures in the low 20's and teens aren't great for working outside for sure, so the boys will be finishing the inside work in no time. The siding work will now be challenging. Lets hope we don't have to wait for spring to finish that! :o)

I have been keeping myself VERY busy priming all of the outside cedar trim boards for the windows, siding and porch ceiling. One good thing is that I have had the luxury of doing it inside of the house where we have the heating at 70 degrees to help the sheet rock mud dry in a timely manner. I worry about half of the boys still working outside on the trim in this 25 degree cold.

The temperatures kept diving as we went from week 11 into week 12, from the 20's to the low teens and finally single digits. Brrrrrrr! And, lots more snow too. The boys were able to finish lots of the window and corner trim on the outside of the house before the temps got to the low teens. I became more of a den mother as the days became colder, making afternoon coffee and running to get more propane tanks to drive the heaters the guys had on the porch to keep their sawing/work space warm so their hands could keep working. I was also the supplies runner for anything they needed to keep the job moving forward (something I have done from the beginning since I am the general contractor).

The icicles became dangerous as they hang precariously above the boys as they work on the outside window trim. They knock them down before they begin work in that area so they don't knock them down as they bang on the wall and get a ice spear through the brain! I just don't have enough first aid at home to deal with that!

I'm not quite sure how the guys can even feel their hands as they rip the cedar for the window trim. I guess it hurst less if you lose a finger and you can't feel it!!! :o)

The drawing of the exterior window trim measurements they guys made on an exterior wall. I love it! It will live on under the exterior trim forever :o)

The beautiful exterior trim

So, we had a very Wicked Witch of the West/Dorothy experience this last week. I came around the side of the house going for the front door and almost tripped over Chris as he was laying under the outside front of the window seat of the dining room. He was putting some blue foam insulation up under the framing. It was so perfect! Just like in The Wizard of Oz when the house fell on the Wicked Witch of the East (the Wicked Witch of the Wests' sister. All he needed was the striped socks and ruby slippers! IT WAS HILARIOUS!

The guys eventually made a blue tarp and Tyvec tent out of the new front porch area. They draped huge tarps around the openings of the porch and fired up a propane heater inside. This gave them enough warmth to proceed with the installation of the v-groove pine ceiling. Jenni was working hard the last 2 weeks on getting it all primed and stained and sealed. It is really going to look great.

Meanwhile, on the inside of the balmy 70 degree new addition, Steve was sanding away on the sheet rock portion of the job. He almost looked enough like a snowman that we could have put him in the front yard with a carrot up his nose and he would have passed for Frosty! He was so cute covered in all of that sheetrock dust (yeah, he really thought so too!) :o)

Steve did a stand out job sanding and priming the entire space.

Jim and Josh also worked inside on laying the new oak floor.

Jim was also able to start trimming the inside windows this last week. I have been following him around like a puppy, filling nail holes in the flooring and trim, caulking and installing hardware, painting and arranging for wood floor sanding and vinyl installation for week 13 and getting the electricians to start the finish work for the can lights, switches, outlets and automatic this and that. The details are endless.

Jim says he will be out of our way and we can have the inside of the house back by Christmas! YES! Our best present will be to have our washer/dryer back and our stove SO WE CAN COOK!

Cooking in the garage on a camp stove when it is 10 degrees outside aint fun, but it is funny having to wrap up in 3 pairs of pants and 3 coats just to go boil some pasta! :o)

Things could always be worse..............

We are thankful.

We are grateful.

Happy Holidaze!

Give Love. The real gift.

Jenni & Rowan

Week 10 and A Little Break

November 8-23

The weather has finally started to effect our work schedule. The temperatures are diving into the 20's now at night and it's only getting into the low 40's for a high during the day. There has also been some rain that we have actually welcomed as we have been in a drought since summer. Our nice landscaped yard is basically gone and has been replaced with piles of dirt and clay. We have decided to get the eves on the new roof painted so that we can have the gutter work done as soon as possible. Sinking up to one's knees in the mud around the house is no fun!

Luckily we had a couple of sunny days this week to get the eve painting done. Here is Rob clinging to the side of the house like a gecko.

And Patrick doing a ladder move you should not try at home! Yikes!

Rowan and I have also been very busy staining the bead board for the porch ceiling. We are using pine boards, the kind that snaps together (sometimes called Carsiding). Because of the cold temperatures it is taking longer for things to dry, so we have fired up the space heater to help. We must first stain the boards and then add a coat of spar urethane to protect the wood from the humidity and cold temperatures we have outside here during our ever changing seasons.

As Thanksgiving week approached, we packed our bags and headed for San Francisco for a much needed break from our construction. The American Academy of Optometry international conference just happens to be in SF this year, so we jumped at the chance to attend as we have many friends and lots of family in the area too. We stayed the first 4 days in downtown San Francisco. What a fabulous breath of fresh air! The excitement of The City with it's shopping, art and culture and food, food, food!!!!! Rowans' commitments at the conference kept her busy for the first couple of days. I spent most of my time eating, going to museums, shopping, eating, hanging out with dear old friends, eating and eating some more. Oyster and crab season just started in SF so of course I was in PIG HEAVEN!

A photo of the Pacific Ocean as it comes into the SF Bay at the Golden Gate Bridge. This photo is taken from the observation tower at the new De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. I went there with some friends to see the Impressionist/Post Impressionist show. Fantastic!

Here is a closer photo of the Golden Gate Bridge towers in the right side of the photo. The Marin Headlands and Mt. Tamalpais (hidden by fog) are the mountains across the water.

Rowan had a free day from the conference, so I took her off to the new Academy of Sciences in GG Park. I had visited there while we were on sabbatical in California last January, but Rowan wasn't able to go then, so now was the time. Just a FABULOUS experience.

Here is a photo of Rowan watching a Golden Helicon longwing butterfly that has landed next to her in the rain forest biosphere. It is so cool to walk around in the biosphere with butterflies and birds native to Costa Rica flying all around you. Sometimes they will even land on you!

Here is a real Magnificent Owl butterfly sitting on a plaque that pictures itself. Pretty cool.

The aquarium part of the Academy is so fantastic. So many interesting things to look at - from fresh water fish to sea creatures. Here is a spiny purple anemone sliding up the window of a huge sea tank.

The architecture in the park is exceptional. They were able to save the c.1900 band shelter that sits between the Academy and the new DeYoung museum after it was heavily damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Thank goodness because it is a fantastic example of Beaux-Arts architecture. The stone carvings are just beautiful.

Our west coast break was just what the doctor ordered. Spending some time with our dear friends, eating our way across the city and drowning ourselves in sea food, seeing some art and wading around in the progressive culture that San Francisco is was so refreshing. We also took a couple of days to visit Jenni's parents and have an early Thanksgiving dinner with all of those down home favorites on the table. YUM!

Now, back to finishing up this house before Christmas!

Week 9 - Cave Dwellers, Cocoon's and The Dance Floor

November 1-5

First, since we primarily live in the basement and have turned into cave dwellers, this is what we look like when we come out 'into the light'.

Jenni

Rowan (her nose really is that long! :o)

And, this is our good friend Sally, who spends a lot of time with us. Poor thing.

Now, back to serious construction matters........

This was a really exciting week at the house. We have been so curious to see how the whole spray foam insulation thing is done, not to mention it has been getting into to 20's at night here and has been FREEZING in the house! All of a sudden we are ready for this project to be finished. Our electrical & framing inspection went off without a hitch on Monday (whew!) so we can plough along with the next phase. WARMTH!

Here are the photos from this week:

The spray foam guys arrived and immediately started covering every inch of the inside of the house with plastic to keep the excess foam particles from sticking to absolutely everything.

As the guys suited up in their martian suites and hooked up the long hoses that will shoot the foam into the ceilings, it didn't take long for us to realize we were about to be in a science fiction movie . The first thing that came to my mind was the 1985 movie Cocoon. We now live in one! :o)

The foam comes out of the sprayer at roughly 120 degrees C and takes less than 7 seconds to expand 5-7 inches as it is sprayed into the rafters. Extremely cool to watch it happen.

Later that evening, Rowan and I couldn't wait to inspect our new cocoon of warmth. It was amazing how we immediately noticed a temperature difference as we entered the 'under construction' portion of the house. It was about 50 degrees instead of 35. Yahoo!

A view of Rowan down in the kitchen from up in the new vaulted ceiling.

I had to get right up there and touch the foam to see how tight it is in the rafters.

The next day, our boys (that's what we call our construction crew. They consider Jenni their mother now :o)) arrived early to start insulating the exterior walls of the new construction. They will be using a layer of sheet foam first that will be caulked around the edges and then a layer of fiberglass batting over that. This will achieve an Energy Star rating for our region for the exterior walls. Since our winter months here are generally very cold, between 32 and 5 degrees with snow, we will welcome the extra warmth this system will provide.

Who is this masked man? That's Josh, master sheet foam cutter.

The other exciting thing that happened this week was the concrete porch was poured. Our concrete guy Justin, came with his crew to prepare the base for the pour and set the rebar and get all of that beautiful stone covered with plastic to keep the concrete from splattering everywhere. This is the same crew that came to pour our garage slab a couple of years ago, so it was fun to see them all again.

The guys worked 'til it was starting to get dark so everything is ready for tomorrow's pour.

The next day the concrete truck arrived about noon. The temps in the morning were too cold, about 35 degrees, to start any earlier. Instead of going for the typical grey concrete color for the porch, we chose to use the color Sierra. This will bring a warmer, natural stone/earth color to the floor.

Here is the view towards the house where the new french doors will open onto the porch. We have decided this will be our new dance floor. Now, all we need is a mirror ball :o)

So, it looks like our cocoon wrap has extended to the porch! They have wrapped up the concrete to keep it warm when it gets down to 30 degrees tonight.

Time for another culinary interlude..........sort of....

Our good friend and master cabinet builder Steve Neuenschwander just returned from a 7 week building trip to New Orleans. He phoned us to say we needed to get together for an Absenthe party. You see, while in New Orleans he discovered the Absente House and the magical properties of this very controversial and still illegal drink in some states in the US. It is basically an anise based liquor made with wormwood - go here for a VERY interesting history of the drink: http://www.absintheonline.com/acatalog/History.html

Anyway, Steve came over and we were very afraid (for a second) about what he pulled out of his bag. He had 4 different bottles of Absenthe with all of the mixings and ointments we would need to try 4 different drinks. Oh, dear! I feel a flashback coming on :o) Rowan and I made dinner while Steve made magic with the Absenthe.

Just taste it. I promise it won't hurt you! This man is hilarious!

So, we did live through the evening. Thank you lord! How age and experience continues to save my life! I began the weekend by working on staining and sealing our new front door. We had it milled in Eugene, Oregon out of Pacific Cherry. It is going to be a stunning addition to the new look of the front of the house.

We began by doing stain test strips on a piece of the cherry brick mold that we will not use.

Staining the door frame

The door is in the bungalow style. It looks like it is going to be just beautiful.

Oh, and by the way............Happy Halloween!