Journal of Progress--October 1-7
Monday, October 1, 2018 Both carpenters worked to finish putting up the trusses.
We drove into Salt Lake and picked up the pre-ordered metal roofing.
All of the trusses are up.
Tuesday, October 2,
2018
Terrible
thunderstorm last night. Ruined the Yeti. It still stores power, but
the A/C outlets no longer work. The light comes on, but no power
comes out. It wNOT plugged in at the time. So, what we now have is a
VERY expensive phone charger. Well, it lasted as long as it needed
to.
Clouds are really
low this morning, below the top of the canyon. Fall is here.
This is what the wind did with the plastic around the doors waiting to be placed upstairs.
Rolls of roofing
stayed on top of the roof, where the carpenters wired them in place
last night before leaving. It appears that the roofing felt stayed on
the roof. They put it on with gasketed nails instead of staples. My
idea. They also wired the ladder in place, and it stayed there, thank
goodness! It’s a heavy sucker, and would have done a lot of damage
if it had fallen. But the wind did have some effect. It unwrapped the
plastic wrap from around the steel doors leaning against the house,
and blew it straight out, far enough to wrap around the tree! We had
some serious wind last night!
Inside of the house
is wet on all three levels. Quite a storm!
Don off-loading the hot water heater purchased on our trip yesterday.
The plumber (or his assistant glued in the main drain pipe in such a way that the door is permanently held open. I want to get a photo, like one of those YouTube videos that begin, “You had only one job to do...”. Can’t even take the door off its hinges, as the screws are now inaccessible. But I think I’ve figured out how to do it without demolishing the door and replacing it. I have a right angle screwdriver I can use to remove the screws of the top hinge, which should allow me to lean the door away from the jamb enough to get it past the pipes. Pain in the butt, but I want to show it to the plumber before I do it. He should be here today.
Wednesday, October
3, 2018
Water truck carried
its first load with water tank today. Only 60 gallons, just enough
for the plumber to test the drain lines, as we still don’t have the
main house tank finished. Soon, soon. Neighbor showed me how
far off the road the snow plow plows in the winter, so I know how
long to make the inlet pipe. The valve I bought for the house is for
inch-and-a-half diameter pipe, but our inlet pipe is one inch, so I
need to go back to Home Depot to buy the right size fittings. I’m
getting really tired of the constant trips to Home Depot, since it’s
a seventy mile round trip. Also, need the right size hole saw to
install the inlet pipe, which I don’t have. They are very
expensive, especially since I probably will never use the thing
again. Maybe I can sell it online.
Upstairs bathroom is
nearly done framing, but we ran out of 2x4s-- again! Gotta check with
Kim in Stockton to see if he has any to sell. Plumbers having fun.
They are testing the system and finding all the leaky spots they
missed! Carpenters are also having fun, building the upstairs
bathroom and filling in holes in the roof sheathing. There are still
plenty to catch the rain from tonight’s predicted storm, but
hopefully not enough to inundate the whole house.
Now all I need to do
is empty the rest of the water out of the truck tank, and I’m done
for the day.
Hooray!
Thursday, October 4,
2018
Finished framing
both bathrooms. How great it feels to say, “Both bathrooms!” Got
the bottom layer of house wrap nailed up, and nearly finished the
second layer. House wrap is kind of a pain to put up, but it’s so
repetitive, you can just kind of tune out your brain most of the
time-- until you hit your finger with the hammer, that is! We’re
going through gasketed roofing nails at an amazing rate. Every stud
takes at least four nails for each layer of wrap. Looks like the
first floor is going to need three layers. With twenty-five studs on
each wall, that’s 100 studs x 3 layers x 4 nails = 1200 nails.
Plus, we’re using the same kind of nails for the house wrap on the
attic gable ends. That’s 50 studs x 2-1/2 nails each (on average) =
125 nails. Plus, we’re also using the same kind of nails for
roofing felt, which requires 13 nails per 4x8 sheet of plywood. There
are 12 sheets per roof panel, with 4 roof panels = 13 x 12 x 4 = 224
nails. So, all told, we need about 1500 nails. When we started, we
had somewhat more than half a tub of nails, so I’d better
buy another tub of nails. I do these kinds of calculations all day
long. And all night long, too, in my sleep. When I realize that I’m
doing it in my sleep, I tell myself, “Stop building the house!”
Usually, I can get back to sleep.
Friday, October 5, 2018
Just about finished all the building wrap for the lower floor. When
the weather dries out long enough, we can lay roofing felt on the lower
(steep slope) part of the roof and then begin actually roofing! It will
be so neat to have a house that doesn’t leak like a sieve. Finishing
the roof also includes sheathing the gable ends. Roofs and ground around
the house are just too slick from all the rain to be safe for high
work. Don’t need somebody seriously injured at this point!
Both
bathrooms are done, but I’ve still got some work to do on the shower
upstairs. The floor beneath it is so uneven that I’m worried the water
may not drain into the drain properly. Plumber says it will. Can’t
really test it until the inspection is done, as it’s plugged to allow
for pressurizing the drain system. Once that’s done, I’ll pour some
water in and make sure. If it’s not level enough, I’ll have to pull the
whole shower out, mix up some mortar, and level it. If it does drain,
all I have to do is squirt in some white caulk.
Slight
problem with the downstairs bathroom as well: the toilet enclosure is
two inches narrower than allowed by code. But the toilet is small, and
so are we. If the building inspector doesn’t measure it, he’ll likely
never know. If he does, we’ll have to tear out a wall and move it over
two inches, or turn the studs sideways, but I’m betting he won’t notice.
It’s the first short-cut I’ve taken. I’d have done it right the first
time, had I known the requirement, but who knew? (Besides the plumber?)
Very little framing left to do (besides the roofing):
Sheath and wrap the gables.
Wrap the dormer.
Build the balcony.
Install the balcony doors.
Fur out one upstairs window.
Build the main stairs.
install soffit
install stove pipe
After that, it’s finish work! The structure is nearly done.
Met our 41st grandchild in town from Arizona.
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