Happy Thanksgiving! We took advantage of the break to spend some more time down at the house pitching in. The week before Thanksgiving we were struggling to get crews to show up as it is deer season here in the Ozarks, and not much got accomplished. Things stepped up a bit last week despite the holiday, and we had progress on several fronts.

Malissa finished all of her work on the retaining walls and the flue - she is fairly petite, but definitely has no problem slinging around the heavy masonry blocks. The walls are ridiculously reinforced by now - we have poured quite a bit of liquid concrete behind each one, and filled the majority of the cells with concrete and steel rebar. In addition, Doug sealed the back of each wall with some liquid silicon (added bonus - it is an anti-grafittiant!) to keep the moisture from getting into the porous blocks.

The flue blocks are large squares with a cavity in the middle sized for a clay flue tile. This structure originates in the basement where our wood stove will be, and is stacked all the way up through the roof. Doug and Tim from Summit bent some roofing metal to flash around the exit point, and the exposed part of the flue got some of the liquid silicon as well. Our stove is on backorder, but when it arrives it should be a fairly simple matter to get it hooked up.

Speaking of heating, Tommy got back from his Elk hunt and spent some time at the site last week preparing his ductwork. We got some concrete on Wednesday, and in addition to extending the driveway another 25 feet or so and providing some of the aforementioned reinforcement to the retaining walls, Doug constructed a 4′ x 5′ pad for the outside heat pump to sit on. Not a lot of other visible signs of progress on that front, but he should be able to finish up tying in the ducts and setting the units next week.

The plumbers also spent a few days on site doing the rough in plumbing inside. They have the majority of the vents plumbed in, and in order to keep them moving we got all the tubs and fixtures for the bathrooms. I would have liked to support Buy Nothing Day but we succumbed and made trips to both Lowe’s and Home Depot on Friday to peruse their shockingly sparse selection. I knew there was a reason I bought nearly everything online. But I digress…the plumbers are planning to return tomorrow as well and should have all their rough in finished next week as well. They will make one more trip back after the drywall is hung to complete their work.

The electricians are following a schedule very similar to the plumbers - they are going to finish roughing in next week. The one big step forward was Webster Electric came and dug the trench to hook up the power to the house. We now have two hot outlets! It may not sound like much but after the rats nest of extension cords we’ve been using for the past several months it is a welcome addition.

We were also very glad to see Tim return from Summit last week following their temporary metal shortage. It sounds like in addition to metal they have been running short on love, and dealing with some internal strife. We didn’t get all the details but our salesman Jeff has reportedly moved on to greener pastures following a dispute of some sort. Tim and his helpers have pretty much all of the metal on now with the exception of the ridge caps. There isn’t any pressure for them to finish now but it would be great to be able to close that chapter and clean up some of the metal debris.

One area that we’ve been spending a great deal of mental energy is the application of the siding. I realize that Jill and I are both in hyper-critical mode right now given how new everything is, but there were several aspects of the siding that were just not up to snuff. We all knew that the application was going to be challenging going in, but I think it turned out to be more difficult than expected. The two main issues are that any variance in the width of the horizontal joints is HIGHLY visible given the dark siding color in contrast to the white Tyvek underneath. There are caulkable joints and there are joints that can’t be caulked, and there are enough of the latter that a few sheets will have to be re-hung. The second issue is the fact that despite being made of cement the siding is fairly brittle when you put pressure localized on a single point. This has represented itself with screws punching all the way through the siding in certain spots. This is a little more difficult to rectify, but Gene and his foreman Aaron have been willing to talk openly and address the issues that we’ve seen so far. The primary drawback is that we ran out of material, so they are ordering enough to fix the issues. The lead time on the siding is fairly long - six weeks or more. The silver lining is that I had to order some custom color caulk to caulk the joints and around the window, and that has a very long lead time as well. With any luck we’ll be spending a nice day in late January getting everything wrapped up.

You can obviously judge for yourself on the siding, but I’ve really enjoyed some of the comments we’ve had so far. Considering the part of the country we are in, you don’t see too many houses with dark siding, let alone exposed metal fasteners and all the trimmings. I love watching the look on people’s faces when they try to decide how to react, and we’ve had several people pause for a minute and say ‘Is that the siding?’ When I tell them it is, in fact, the siding, they say ‘Is that the color?’

I’m growing a bit long winded here, but the other thing we have been consumed with over the past few days is finding cabinets for the kitchen and the bathrooms. We found great options at IKEA but the procurement process is proving to be a nightmare. We resigned ourselves to making a trip and bringing them back in a U-Haul, but even that is proving to be harder than we thought. When we check stock of the individual pieces at the stores we are thinking of going to, invariably we are at about a 50% success rate. We’ll see how that turns out.

Our neighbor Eric was remodeling his pond and was kind enough to offer us some of the leftover dirt. For about a week we had huge piles of black dirt that were hauled from his house up to ours with a dump truck, and yesterday Doug went to town on them with Special K, and it finally looks like we have a yard. Amazing how the site went from looking like the surface of the moon to quite normal in just a few hours.

Happy Holidays!

As usual I am ridiculously short on time but wanted to give a quick update. Things have started to move pretty quickly now, and everything is coming together very well.

• We poured the elevated concrete decks on Friday last, and everything went extremely well.  The day was VERY cold and overcast, which meant that we were waiting for them to set and Doug was finishing them until nearly midnight that night.
• The siding crew has descended, and despite a few fits and starts are rolling along.  First the metal flashing was the wrong size, and the screws were damaging the sheets without washers.  Both have been addressed now and it should go much more quickly.  We got the cedar planks and are testing some stain colors to determine how to finish the front wall.
• The spray foam team from Bolivar Insulation came yesterday and started applying the foam to the underside of the roof deck.  Amazing stuff, and a little bizarre seeing them in their tyvek suits standing on a ladder blasting it on.  They are about halfway done, and will probably finish today.  We got all of the walls built over the garage and the decks and front porch to give them something to spray against - they are just sheets of plywood scraps cut to fit into the intricate spaces.
• Micah and his crew finished polishing the floor on Monday, and they covered it up with a layer of rosin paper and some plastic sheeting to protect it from everything coming up.  I can’t say enough how amazing the floor looks, better than we had ever imagined.
• Malissa came and started building the retaining walls on the back of the house, she will probably be done by the end of the week.
• And finally, the only bit of sour news…Doug called Jeff from Summit on Monday wondering where the roofers were, and was told that they were *out of metal*.  Initially there was no ETA, that has since been updated to Friday of this week but I’m not holding my breath.  One has to wonder how they could fall that short, but so it goes.  It wouldn’t be an issue but we are at risk right now given that the foam decking has started - if there were a leak in the roof it would not penetrate the foam, and could get sandwiched in below the roofing metal when it is finished.  Clear weather is predicted through the end of the week, and we have asked that they come out and replace all the tar paper with heavier duty membrane if there is threat of wet weather.

Whew…enjoy some pics.

The Lid is slowly but surely progressing. The roofers are here almost everyday but every time we look up, we pause to wonder what changes are really happening. The good thing is that once it is on we shouldn’t have to think about it again for another 50+ years! We very happy with the look of the stainless steel roof. It does have more oil canning than we were expecting given that the 24 gauge metal is the strongest gauge available for roofing. I guess that is something we will just have to learn to live with.
Micah and his crew have been here on and off this week to work on the floors. It is hard to believe that simply applying a densifier, sanding and polishing a concrete slab could result in such a rich and vibrantly colored floor that resembles a high quality marble. Granted, the process is a little more than simple, but still…
The decks are soon to be filled with concrete! Last night we put the final rebar and steel mesh reinforcements down and with a last-minute decision to heat the decks from below the concrete pad, all of the prep work is complete! Citywide will be out with 4-5 yards of a high quality, fiber-rich mix in the next day or two and then the fun will begin. The concrete will have to be wheeled through the main living area in a wheel barrow to the main deck which will be somewhat time consuming and probably fairly exhausting, but with the recent drop in temperature we should have ample time to create our deck masterpiece. Brooming and edging will be rather interesting due to the height of the main deck, but with good planning it should go smoothly. The master deck should be relatively easy in comparison…
The cedar panels and painted hardi panels have arrived and we expect Gene and crew to be out Monday at the latest to begin the siding. Oh, how we will miss the ICF green–ha! We hope to have a whole slew of new pics for you next week but here are a few to get you through until then

The week before last our windows were delivered by Springfield Mill and Lumber. I don’t have much in the way of perspective as I’ve never carried windows before, but I can assure you they were quite heavy. By the time we unloaded all 20+ windows and doors from the truck I was more than a little winded.

Last week the framers came back to complete their final tasks, including wrapping the house in Tyvek, installing the windows, and framing in the walls in the basement. The windows look fantastic, and provide another big change to the look of the house.

As mentioned previously, the Tyvek was a little controversial in that the framers insisted it wasn’t necessary. Doug said there were some mild protests as they were installing it, but as far as I’m concerned $500 is very cheap insurance against water issues.

Additionally, the electricians completed their rough-in electrical last week. We’re not hooked up to the electric service just yet, as the siding installer asked that we wait until his work was done rather than have him side around them.

One other note, we completed the permanent columns for the back deck and the master bedroom deck. We got some larger diameter steel pipe and cut it to length, and after cutting away a square of the ‘b’ decking and welding a plate in place, we jacked up the roof, popped in the pipes, and welded them in place. For an extra measure of stability (how can you be surprised at this point…) Doug filled the back deck pipes with concrete. We’ll do the ones on the master deck sometime this week.

Once the roof decking was complete, the roofers arrived to do their magic. They had a lot of great feedback for the framers, saying that it was one of the most flat roofs they had ever worked on. That is fairly important to avoid ‘oil canning’ - the tendency for the 24 gauge metal to show any imperfections in the underlying surface.

They applied ice and water membrane around the edges of the roof, and then attached tar paper over the surface with button cap nails.

The rolls of metal are pretty impressive, as is watching them bend the metal into shape on site. They still have a few days to go but are getting close.

I don’t have much time for details at the moment, but wanted to get some pictures posted. The framers completed the roof deck which made a pretty amazing transformation in the profile of the house. The low slope roof (4:12) is exactly what we were hoping for.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we said to hell with Trex and decided to make the decks attached to the back of the house and our master bedroom a little more stout.

Each deck is supported by a total of six concrete columns, each with steel reinforcement at the base (’L’ shaped pieces that extend into the slab below) and vertical rebar through the center of each column.  Doug got several lengths of 6 and 8 inch steel in various shapes - C metal, Z metal, and receiver channel.  The C’s and Z’s look just like they sound, and the receiver channel is the same shape as the C but with a flat flange and just a bit larger, designed to fit over the C metal.

We measured and cut a large square out of the steel, with one piece of steel on each edge of the square.  It took a bit of coordination and ladder prowess, but before long we had the elevated square held in place with some small welds - the corners welded together as well as a few welds to hold the steel to the rebar sticking out of the top of the columns.

Each piece of steel got another beam attached to it for reinforcement, and we cut four lengths of the Z metal to run perpendicular to the house and provide additional support.  Each of the welds were cleaned and painted, and before long we had an impressive frame.

To cover the surface we cut sheets of metal decking to length, and laid them on top of the frame with a short overlap in each one.  This decking will hold the concrete when it is poured, and will comprise the temporary ceiling of the patio below.

We had been planning this for a while, but wanted to give the framers a surface on which to stand so they could build the roof over the deck.  To support the outer corners of the deck, we screwed some angle brackets that ran about 24″ out from each front corner, and they used stout 20′ boards as braces supported by the angle brackets.  We will build an outside edge for the deck, pour the concrete, and replace their temporary roof supports with the permanent columns on each corner of the deck.

I had originally planned to run some Pex tubing through the slab to be able to warm it to melt ice and snow, but I’m not crazy about having to drain the loop every winter. I’m going to look into the electric heaters that they use in bathroom floors, and see if it would be cost feasible to use those instead.

Here are a few pictures of the structure….

After a fairly long pause in major construction, Mike’s crew arrived and started slinging lumber.  In about a week and half they completed all the interior walls on the upper level, and made it most of the way through the ceiling joists and rafters.

The amount of precision in their measurements and cuts is pretty amazing considering the speed at which they go.  I’ll go into more detail on some of the more interesting bits in a later post, but wanted to get some pictures up.  Having the roof line established really defines the shape of the house.

They will finish up the roof deck hopefully Monday, and then Jeff and his crew will come out and put the tar paper and underlayment down in advance of the actual roof being put up.  Having it dry inside will be a huge step forward.

Not long ago we pulled the stair treads out of their forms.  They didn’t look too bad for the first official try, but the concrete was too dry and as a result there are a lot of voids in the surface of the treads.  We sealed a couple of them and it darkened the color quite a bit - they turned out to be a light brown color.

We’ll give it another go with a slightly richer mix (by adding some additional portland cement to the bagged concrete) and a little more water to see if we can get the faces smoother.

The foam that the ICF blocks are made of is fairly vulnerable to damage from impact (e.g. getting hit by a board or rock) as well as from UV damage.  Nearly all of it will be covered by the siding on the outside or drywall on the inside, but there is a small strip just above the grade that will be left exposed.  This is by design, as even though we are using cement fiber siding it is not advisable to fill up onto the siding and thereby bury the bottom edge of the siding.

In order to protect this strip, we started applying a product called Dryvit. I’m not sure about the chemical makeup of Dryvit, but you mix together a half of a bucket of Dryvit with 1/3 of a bag of Type I/II Portland Cement.  This creates a fairly workable mix that can be spread with a trowel.

To apply it, we spread strips of it vertically every 18 inches or so along the surface to be covered.  Then a strip of fiberglass mesh 24″ high is stretched out along the wall just above the ground and embedded in the strips of wet Dryvit.  Pressing the mesh into the surface with a trowel serves to hold it in place, and then you go back and cover the whole area with Dryvit, smoothing with a trowel as you go.

It sounds a bit easier than it is, and since it is a cement-based product, the length of time since it has been mixed and the temperature makes a big difference in how difficult it is to apply and smooth out.

One very important step is to remove the top layer of foam to make sure there is a clean surface to adhere to.  This can be done with a long handled broom or something similar.  The reason I know this is important is that I forgot to do it on the first wall that I did unsupervised by Doug, and he was able to easily peel it off a few days later as a result.

This is not terribly difficult to do, but is fairly difficult to do well so that the surface is smooth.  I can’t remember too many house projects that I’ve done so far that have made my arms quite so tired.  We still have quite a bit left to go, and it will need to be completed before the house is wrapped with Tyvek and the siding is put up.