The Life for Me

I received a great Christmas present: the wormy maple floors installation is finished. The re-milling proved to be the way to go. Even with the checks and curls and bows we were able to run some nice long pieces. I can't wait to see how it finishes out. The tongue and grove pine ceiling was also completed along with the pine 1x wrap on the big ridge beam. The HVAC is almost complete as well. The electricians are finishing up their part today and soon as the drain line is hooked up she'll be good to go. It's really nice to see it all starting to come together. I think that I've come up with a solution for the dining room window (as long as the wife approves). Hopefully it will balance out the space nicely and visually tie into the kitchen as well. Look for an open-house invite some time in March (hopefully). I hope everyone has a great New Year!

The bulk of the furnace was installed over the last week. The three zone system with its returns, diverters, etc. made for a behemoth of a unit. Good thing there was plenty of space for it. It will be interesting to see how the unit will function in conjunction with the two wood stoves.

The wormy maple flooring is turning out to be very difficult to install. The random widths, floating tongues, and shallow grooves make every piece unique. I've learned a couple of tricks that have helped to get the floor looking better, but it is going very slowly. I think that the end result is going to be beautiful, but getting there is going to require vast amounts patience.

The drywall got finished and the painters were able to get in over the weekend and prime the whole inside and get one coat of finish paint on all the exterior trim. You would have thought that I would have taken a picture of the outside. On a separate note... the weather finally cooperated enough to allow the flooring to be delivered. That's a lot of wood. Thank fully I had a lot of help unloading.

I've been a bit slow in posting new information so this entry covers a couple of weeks. The insulation has been completed. The exterior walls contain blown-in cellulose (gray stuff you can see in the background) that has an R-21 value and the roof and attic have R-38 batts. It should be pretty cozy this winter. The drywall was delivered, hung, and finished in just about a weeks time. Muy rapido! Those 24 foot walls are going to be a chore to paint, but I've got a top-notch guy on the job.

Tim and Bobby got the siding finished up on Friday. It will be interesting to see how well the Pre-finished Hardie Siding holds up in the long run. Right now it looks great, and the color-matched caulk is spot on. They took a lot of care during installation as to not scratch or chip the surface.

This is a shot of the rock wall that is located in the basement behind the wood stove (which is not installed yet). Most of the choice stone was incorporated into the construction of the chimney, so the pickin's were slim for this bit although it still turned out really nice. I'll be curious to see how well the stone holds the heat once the stove runs for a few hours.

We still haven't worked out the details for the porch posts, but the siding is really looking nice. I hope that the pre-finished Hardie Plank holds up as advertised.

Things have gone a bit slowly this month, but we are still moving forward. The electricians have been out and most of the rough-in is complete. The stairs to the basement have been put in which saves a lot of running around. The siding is about 75% complete, and the decks are down on both the front and back porch. The weather has been nice although we could really use some rain. Clear sky days in August are a bit rare around these parts.

The remaining windows and doors were installed this week, and the fellas got a good jump on the siding. I was having some decision making issues pertaining to the window trim, but I finally got it worked out so that things could continue. Although new/modern windows have some nice feature, it's hard to make them look like they've been there for 50 years. The machine formed aluminum channel that runs around the exterior (to increase rigidity?) is hard to hide. I decided that finding a balance so that the trim worked with it was better (and cheaper) than trying to cover it up. It seems as though it's going to work out very well.

It's a shame that this image is a bit soft, but maybe it just adds to the beauty. As you can see from this picture, there is nothing quite like the Blue Ridge Mountains in the rain. With the bits of clouds laid into the valleys, it gives tremendous sense of calm.

Today we celebrated Independence Day by becoming truly dried in. Tim, Bobby and Peter sacrificed most of their day to finish up the front porch. Thank you all very much for all your hard work. The place is looking fantastic.

After a good soaking (somewhere between 5" & 7" fell in a weeks time) the crews were back. Tim and Bobby jumped on the front porch and Deibert and company knocked out the front retaining wall. It would have been prettier to do it in stone, but the brick was available and quite a bit faster/cheaper. The roofers got started on the back. I decided to go with copper flashing - a 50 year shingle needs flashing to match. The down side is that the copper is $12 a foot! Having all the separate parts and pieces make the house more interesting to look at, but it also drives up the cost per square foot.

If you are ever looking for a stone mason in the Charlottesville, Staunton or Central Virginia area I highly recommend Deibert & Sons. I think that they did an amazing job, but I would love to hear your comments.

The chimney is really looking great. Deibert & Sons are doing a fantastic job. I'm really happy about the brick/stone combination. The colors and texture really complement each other. The chimney will step down to 4 feet to carry the flues. We have decided to bury the size transition inside the porch roof to save time/money.

The back porch is just about complete. It's going to be a really nice place to hang out on summer days. The views looking to the south east are gorgeous. The fog settles into the valleys after the rain. I'm really going to enjoy coming home after spending a day in "the cube".

The fellas got started on the brick work last week. Brick and mortar are both darker than I had hoped they would be, but they still look really nice. Something got lost in translation and room wasn't left for the window trim. Hopefully that can be corrected without to much effort, time and money. Some things go really well, and some... Hey but we are still making progress! Look for an open house and BB-Q some time this fall.

The majority of the windows went in over the last two days. No stone throwing please. Most seemed to go in without too much fuss. The triple in the back dormer and the two small windows in the front dormers were a little tricky, but once again Tim and Bobby (pictured taking down the hand rail) came to the rescue. There are still two french doors to set in the dining room, but those will have to wait until the porch decking goes on. The porch decking is waiting on the masons to rough-in the chimney and set the piers. Lots to think about.

So maybe it's not quite as pretty as the Toyota, but it's 4WD baby. When you've got a farm you need a truck to go with it, and this one should do just fine.

Well almost. We still have the porch to do, but that didn't stop me from doing a short "happy dance" yesterday after I saw the dining room roof go on.

I've been starting to feel a little guilty about the new blog name. So many have helped to get us this far. I wanted to give another big "thanks" to Tim and Bobby for their hard work and sharp attention to detail. Every day that I'm on the site I'm amazed at how professional and skillful they are. This has proven to be as rewarding an experience as I had hoped. Semper Fi

Things went a little slower this week, but then again most of the work was done while being up 24 feet in the air. We used the crane to get the main girder into position. The rest was done was brute force. Tim, Bobby, and "Part Time" Steve provided the muscle to get the four LVLs into place. Let me tell you it was no small task. Every day I'm amazed by the amount of engineered material that has gone into this house.

The crane arrived around 9:00 am and the tub, plywood sheeting, main girder, and roof trusses were lifted into place. The afternoon seemed to go somewhat slowly, but when I compare the pictures from yesterday to the ones taken today it looks as though we were quite productive after all.

Not really a festival, but still a nice picture.

The framing of the second floor went quite smoothly. The very pleasant weather and shorter walls were a help. Here are four shots starting with the front (south) side, then east, then north (the back), and finished up with the west.

We finished up the end of the second week by setting the floor joists for the second floor sleeping area. Things has progressed very nicely despite several days of strong wind. I got turned into a Tyvek burrito after one especially strong breeze. Tim and his crew are very impressive. They are all about precision. Everything is checked and doubled-checked. They are a great crew to work with. The pictures attached show the west wall of the bathroom going up. The wall gets laid out on the floor, checked for square, sheeting is applied, Tyvek is tacked on, and then we lift it into place and secure it to the floor and adjoining walls.

The truck with the materials came and my jaw just about hit the dirt when I saw the massive LVLs that were dropped off. Here are a couple shots of the SMALL one. I'll save the bigger one for later in the show. Things are obviously out of order here. We aren't deconstructivists after all -- are we?

It seems that the busier I am the fewer pictures I take. Here is a quick recap of the last week's happenings. Preparations for the concrete slab happened on Tuesday. There was one day delay because of a late materials delivery and the county required that there be an inspection to make sure that the slab was insulated properly before any concrete was poured. The pour went off very well. We only had a wheel barrow full of concrete left. (Just enough to fill one last core in the block.) I picked some ferns that were growing on a shaded north bank near the creek and laid them into the wet floor. Tim and James did a really nice job on the finish work. The colored concrete, leaf imprints, and saw cuts turned out really nice. The week finished with John and me taking a very long and bumpy ride from the house site to the barn on a large trenching machine. It was a bit scary at times, especially when going straight down the steep side of the hill. It was really good to get that part of the

Preparation work for the basement concrete slab was completed today. A very interesting crew came out and leveled and compacted the gravel. Due to a delay in the materials delivery, myself and one of the crew took charge of installing the 2" foam-board insulation and the vapor barrier. Tim came back in the afternoon to install the wire mesh and set the grade pins. We are ready to pour as soon as the inspector signs off on the prep work.

The plumbers came out on Monday and did the rough-in work in the basement. All the drain lines that would eventually be contained within the concrete slab had to be installed and inspected by the county before the concrete could be poured. The lines were run, capped and pressurized to 5 psi. The whole thing took two guys a little less than a day.

Central Virginia Waterproofing came out and sprayed and insulated the foundation today. They seemed to take a lot of care to insure that any holes were patched and the walls and footing were clean. They put a nice heavy coat of product on the walls. Afterwards, John and I spent some time distributing part of the ADDITIONAL 30 TONS of gravel that were delivered this morning by Backhoe Pete. I can't believe how much stone we are putting back into that hole!

Last Saturday's snowfall blanketed the mountains as well as the farm. We had a great time sledding down the hills. I'm sure that folks visiting Wintergreen Ski Resort were glad to get some of the "real" stuff. It was nice knowing that warmer weather was on the way so that the house buildig could continue on schedule. I took another picture out of the new window. It's fun having to completely different days so close together. Nelson County is proving to be quite a lovely place to have a home, or at least a foundation.