Got Heat?

The radiant heat is beginning to be installed. Love it. We think radiant heat is the heat of choice. No allergens, no dust, no noise, efficient/green, no drafts, etc.... just dry radiant heat. And, you can adjust the temperature in each room, or cell of rooms. Maybe best of all is you can go in the bathroom barefoot and the tile will be warm. Can even have the heat come on at a certain time.... Another part of the house we believe will pay for itself over time with reduced utility bills.

We cleared both floors of the junk and then swept them clean. Here are a few pics of progress. The bedroom floor will be done tomorrow. And, if you look way back last April, you will see when we installed the tubes in the basement floor. Long time ago!

And, we finished chiseling out the stucco for the awning roof truss. Got the post brackets set in the concrete pads and away we go. We were talking about it today and both of us agree that this will really enhance the front entrance. We shall see.

We remain nervous about Don's mom, Margaret. No word on the blood test and now hear we won't know anything till next week. Ugh!

The week that was...

A crazy week. We continue to burn the candle at both ends.... maybe three ends. Work, house, and mom (with sandra and fred jumping in to help). Mom seemed to improve as the week went on with her attitude. But, she will be having a blood test to check on something the doctors saw when they did a catscan to look into her stomach pain... results at the end of the week. We are a bit nervous. Yet, the photo of us all at Rich and Joanne's cabin makes us feel better....

Mom certainly takes the top priority lately. Yet the catch 22 comes in to play - we try to finish the house so we have more time for her - yet, if we spend more time with her now, which is so important, we have less time for the house...

So, on the house front we had three inspections - gas lines passed, rough plumbing passed, and framing inspection potentially has two corrections that we can take care of, or may not have to depending on what the engineer says.... so we are on hold till we hear from him... But, we got the green light to start the radiant heat and insulation so here we go.

In the meantime, we started our trail to the house. Laid out the fabric cloth to prepare for many many wheelbarrows of gravel! Need exercise? Just try this one... it is great when you want to work outside of the house.... Reminds us of our endless work when we buried the electric and water lines..... by hand! We realize it my be a bit of cart before the horse but if we do a little at a time it is always there for a few loads..

And, we started the prep work for the "roof awning" that goes over the front door. Great fun running the skill saw while hanging off the ladder. Then chiseling the stucco off the AAC. Post and beams next, followed by trusses, plywood, facia, and metal roof. Gotta keep our eye on the ball.

ta ta ta.... ta ta ta

It's back. Yes, it snowed today..... can I tell you how many times we have heard the weatherman, and locals, say "this is so unusual.... it never does this.... I can't remember it ever snowing like this..." Well, way too many for our taste! But, this time it was a bit different.... other than causing unpredicted little issues and problems and delays, there is the relief that we can at least be inside the house where it is dry. Yeah. And, it is looking like we will have the plumbing and framing inspections this week. Maybe even have the radiant heat start.

Other than this, we are constantly busy. Been spending time with Don's mom and Sandra and Fred.... a good thing. Mom will go for a few tests tomorrow with the hope we can find out why her stomach hurts her....

All for now... late again. ....snow has almost all melted but these pics give you an idea how it looked. Tried the larger image option for the snow photo.

Dried In - all but one....

Let's start with the so so news.... recall the short term plan from the last post? OK, scratch that... Never got posts set for roof over front door - weather issues. Venting guy is now coming tomorrow - had a "discussion" with him and now it is over 500 dollars less than the bill we got and disputed... Inspection never happened but now it should soon for plumbing and venting.... Got bid for lightweight concrete for radiant heat... geez! Glad the radiant heat is something that should pay off in the short term but again the initial investment is always tough.

OK now the good news. Other than the front door we are officially dried in! Yes, all windows, doors, garage doors and a roof are in. Wow, never thought we would see the day. We continue to forge ahead.

Don's mom will be having a couple new visitors soon - Sandra and Fred will arrive to help out on all fronts. Will be great to see them. First foreign visitors so to speak since they were here in October. Attached pics are of the heater which is about 5 days away from ending the break in period so our fires have been getting a little bigger. And, we couldn't resist and actually peeled off some of the plastic on one of the big picture windows. Since is was a fantastic sunset we just did it..... we will cover it back up when we plaster and paint, but we just couldn't resist. It was a good thing.... The sun continues to inch northward everyday. It is beginning to get closer and closer to the islands directly in front of the house. Can't wait for that! All for now. Good Night!

The Short Term Plan

Not too much new to report tonight but just felt like getting on. Deb is sawing logs and I will soon join. Been a challenge running around lately. OK, the short term plan is this.... Plumbers will finish rough-in this week. Kevin will line out Don for the "awning roof" that goes over the front door, and then Josh will construct with Don's help. Venting will be done tomorrow. Next will be a mechanical inspection. If all goes well, we will call for framing inspection. If we can get before the weekend we will work on corrections from inspection during the weekend. If not we work on next week after work. Once we get framing inspection we will start installing the radiant heating. After that comes insulation. Then, sheet rocking/taping - that will go with our plastering of interior walls. All of this will take some time since we plan to do some of the interior plastering/stuccoing ourselves..at least 6 weeks. While this is going on we will also begin playing with colors, make a decision on fixtures and kitchen cabinets, and tie it all together with carpeting and floor tile. WOW it sure does not get any easier as we near the finish line.

Here are some misc pics and even one of playing with photoshop to see what some colors might be. Don't get excited with the photo-it was only for fun but it does help a bit to play with ideas......

Doors

Finally back to our apartment after another weekend dominated by work at the house. It feels good to sit down. Things continued to move forward through the week/weekend. Our propane line and venting is done - however we have a major bone to pick with the contractor who did it. Parts were just fine, and other "efforts" are unacceptable. So, tomorrow morning will start some fairly intense "discussion."

On the other hand, we are about 85% complete with the stucco. Wow, it sure looks great. All we have left is the lower half of the west side and some detail/trim. And, another milestone came about today when Kevin came down and helped us install our french doors (master bedroom and screened porch/living area) and guest bedroom sliding door. Other than our front door and a little loft door, we are "dried in." We have waited for this for a long long time... but we have a step or two to go before official dry-in.

Don's Mom, Margaret, seems to be a bit better but her back is really hurting. X-rays and other tests were negative so we can only assume she strained or pulled something. We just hope it stops hurting her. We will keep our fingers crossed on all fronts.

Stucco West

Now that we can get on the internet at our "garage apartment" we can update our new and improved website more often. Mark finished the upper west side of the house today and it looks great. Really crisp look to the windows and the overall look of the house! It is exciting.

On the flipside, we are having a heck of a time "dealing with everything." Most notably is Don's mom-Margaret. She is suffering from some pretty intense depression - it seems it has built up over time since Barney died, trying to live on her own in Cleveland, and now living out here. Major changes on all fronts and it has to be hard for her. So, in addition to working full time and trying to work on the house, we are taking time off and juggling schedules to be with Margaret and taking her to doctor appointments. We feel sorry for her and try our best to keep her in good spirits. It is no picnic. Just today we were both up at 4 am. Don got home at 630 pm after taking Margaret to the doctor, working and then working on the house, and is still on the phone at 900 pm. Deb had a field day for work and won't be home till 10 pm! - maybe later because she still may stop at Margaret's place tonight to see how she is - St. Debbie is her real name. She defines Love.

Sunsets...... again.

Yes, we know it is a sickness but can't resist. This time the sunsets are a little different.... they feature the new view with the recent tree trimming Phil did for us in the fall. One shot is from the screened porch and the other is from the deck. And, get this, we were on the deck and we saw two "cicada"(at least we thought they were cicada?). We found that pretty odd since it is still February. They seemed to have flown in to the side of the house, fell on the deck, and then flew away. Yep all the wonders of nature right here in Bow, WA.

Be My Valentine

Valentine's Day was really different for us.... we stained the new garage doors... and, although they look good, the lighter wood is not the color we want. Therefore, we will darken a bit later -basically we wanted to get a coat of stain on them in the event it rains and drips on the raw wood. So, they look nice but they will look much better later.

Next - our neighbors John and Carol Penny stopped by to check on house progress. Then, Carol hands us a whole plate of handmade Valentine's Day cookies.... just look how cool they look and the work of decorating them is unbelievable.... And, above all, they are delicious! How nice was that?

Next, our neighbor Wayne stopped by along with his dog Kodi... next thing you know all three dogs are sitting pretty as Deb hands out her special dog treats that she keeps at the house.... just in case a dog stops by...

On Sunday we worked more on the house. Later on, we headed home and then took my mom out to dinner for Valentine's Day. Good food, followed by a trip to "Big Scoop" for a cone / sundae. Yum!

All for now. Have a good one!

D2 House Mini-Post

Hey there-been a crazy week. Some good, some not so good news. Main thing has been the two of us working and taking care of my mom with some doc appointments, while juggling a few house things. Again we move ahead. Rough electric inspection went great - not one correction! On the flipside the county wants us to have pressure treated wood against the concrete walls in basement.... we did not and may have to replace or put tar paper between wall and stud..... Since basement is underground everyone thought no need for pressure treated or insulation... oh well. Meantime, here are a couple pics of heater with pre-fire burning.... We are currently trying to do some final planning before we do radiant heat floors, insulation and sheet rock. Boy is it hard to think interior design at this stage...Ignore the mess but it's more tidy than it was.

Time to hit the sack!

Fire!

Today was a day we waited for a long time. We lit the first fire in our masonry heater.... well, we actually did not light it. Our mason, Jerry, came over and showed us how to work our heater and lit our first of about 3o small fires. We need to light one to two very small fires every day for about 25-30 days to ensure all the moisture exits the heater. If we were to light a normal size fire right now there would be a good chance we would crack our heater - and that would not be a good thing!

So, we will be patient and do what we need to do. Here are a few pics of the ceremony.... Deb took one of our "chimney.." Looks like we are living there...... not yet but soon.

Loft Porch Railings

One more step complete. We needed to construct the loft porch railings now so Mark could stucco the inside and outside of the railings. Now he can place tar paper and screening on the plywood which will prep the railing for stucco. The loft porch will be one very cool little place to hang out. We were treated to a very neat sunset tonight while we were putting in the last nails!

How much is that doggy in the window?

Although this may seem way premature, we actually had to build our dog door for our future doggy now. Since our screened porch will have a dog door so our pup can go outside on the south deck, we had to build the opening and finish the wall so Mark can stucco that wall and move around the house. So, there you have it.... its what has to be done.... Next we have to build our loft porch railings and facing so Mark can continue working around up there.... Yikes. Also note our aac channeling for the electrician!

North side stucco

For the past 10 months we have been coming down the driveway and turning a corner to see the house grow every day.... honestly we were getting sick of the "sugar cube" look from the aac block... Now, we have stucco and oh what a difference it makes. The house looks clean, the windows pop, the cedar trim is a great accent and our little window ledges are just so cool. And to think, we cut them from aac block back in july.... planned ahead heh? This was a big "up" for us. We have had many many ups and downs on this adventure - trust us on this one.... so, this was a goodie!

Flashing

Had to buy and install metal flashing along the deck ledger boards..... not absolutely necesary but Kevin and Mark said do it and you will be glad you did later on - like ten years from now when normally the water would work its way back behind the ledger and begin rotting it... not now, and not later do we want any mtc..... so just do it! We did.

Stucco King

Mark Sager is our man for stucco. Boy are we glad we found him. Here he is doing his thing - it is absolutely perfect. Trim around window is perfect, texture is perfect, and most of all his attitude is perfect. Just a joy to work with. Has great advice, great skills, and works like hell!

More pics and words

Thought it was time for a few new pics. Lots of things going on inside and out. We just continue to plug along - before work, after work, sometimes during work we have to go home and meet with a contractor and then head back.... weekends are a given we work on the house. Just want to get in very bad! But as we say, "ain't no one else gonna do it but us" so we just buck up and go. That includes cleaning which we are finding out is and has been a big part of building our house. There is just so much stuff on the floors, scrap wood, dust, dust, and more dust.... we just have to keep up with it and then start again. Last week Deb carried endless amount of wood to the basement (including a couple sheets of 1/2" plywood down two flights of stairs.- by herself!) Had i seen that one I would have had to kick her ass! That is just too much.

Here are pix of tub box we built....

OK here ya go.... the latest!