Inside Chinking and Framing in the Gable

This is been a crazy week.
The lesson for this week: Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers.
That says it all....and saves me from going into a long dissertation, so I'll just leave it at that!

My central responsibility in this project is coordinating materials, directing the work to be done and the time lines to get a job started and finished and communicating between all the groups we have working here. I'm either in the middle of construction or on the phone, texting or calling someone to tell them what we need, when or telling them when they need to be here to complete a task. I try to plan out the next tasks well enough in advance so we have delivery of materials when we need it or have plans drawn out so they know what their objective is. It's not an easy job, mostly because I'm not a builder, I just know what I want. The stairs are a good case in point. They have to work where they are, no compromise or change of plans. Doug and Lee just have to make it work. I have full confidence they will.

This week we started out a little sketchy. At times, I wasn't sure if we were going to get anything accomplished. The project almost went into a downward spiral, then....all the sudden, things are popping all over the place.
Doug and Lee are framing out the gable end for the trapezoid windows and then will get ready to move to the other gable to close it in. They have to get it closed in with the fascia boards, bird boxes and board and batten before the week of July 24. Doug will be on vacation that week and the roofers will be here to put the tin on. We can't be on the roof with the tin, so it has to get done. Jason has to saw into the logs and chinking to fit the flashing in next week. This is on the lower roof line, the connector to both cabins.

Tony, John and Mark are putting in the insulation, wire mesh and chinking mortar in the corner where the stairs go . This has to be done before the stairs going up can be built. The chinking mortar for inside the house doesn't have to be as "wet" as outside. It's drier, but it's not so dry it won't stick to the wire mesh. So, I guess what I told you last week is not necessarily true. But it seems to work just fine. Many of you have asked how the chinking is done on the inside. You can see from the pictures how they put the insulation in and wire mesh over it. The walls they are doing now do not have electrical in them. I'll show you that process when we get there.

Monday, 1200 board feet of planed hemlock will arrive from Shoun Lumber, along with 1200 board feet of 2"x8"x 14' tongue and groove white pine flooring for upstairs. I ordered 2 western cedar gable vents online this week, they should be here by Saturday. The hemlock is for the gable ends, fascia boards, stair treads and soffit material. There is also a 20' x 12" hand hewn board coming for the fascia board to go between the log house and the cinder block for downstairs.

Next week will be a very busy week indeed!

Come around when you can!

Take Care

NoraBelle

Stair Stall

The stairway to heaven has turned into the highway to hell.

No one anticipated building the stairwell to be this difficult. We've been working on the stairs for five days and only have the steps going downstairs and a landing in. The root of the problem is the window is in the way of the steps going upstairs. The reason the window is in the way, in my estimation, it was cut out too long. The original window was not as long as it is now. If we'd kept the window the same size, or within a few inches, there would be no problem. The walls of the main cabin floor are about 9' tall and the window is 37" x 68". The window comes up 17" from the floor and the stairwell openings going upstairs are about 7' 8" and the opening going down about 8', the best I can tell. (I'm sure it obvious I'm not building the stairs). The difficulty has been keeping the bottom stairs out of the window and meeting the Virginia code of a 7-8" riser height and 9 1/4" tread and maintaining a landing clearance for head room at 80 inches. Head room going up is not a problem, but going down is. To add to the woes of meeting Virginia building code, I'll have to put bars on the long window to pass inspection.

Doug, Lee and Jason worked together this morning to figure out how to make the stairs fit and between the three of them, they came up with a solution. I don't think the guys are too happy with me, carpenters are a funny lot. They don't like it much when someone else is playing in their sandbox. But, the point is, we had a window that was too big and we were struggling to make the stairs fit. The end result, three heads are better than one. I feel much better about moving forward. Yesterday I was having serious doubts about getting the stairs in at all.

Jason and his crew are coming in tomorrow to chink the inside part of the cabin where the staircase goes. Once this is done and cured, Doug and Lee and can finish the stairs going up. I will be a happy gal with these dad-gum (I'm watching my language) stairs are complete! I know Doug, Lee and Jason will be too. We are finishing out the gable ends the rest of the week. The big hurdle now is getting scaffolding level on the side of the hill. That will be another story

More on the stairs as we make progress.

Talk to you soon

Take Care

Nora Belle

Chinkin' Chick

Chink -(chngk) intransitive verb. 1. To make narrow openings in.
2. To fill narrow openings in. 3. Slang. coin or ready cash.

Ready Cash? Readily leaving our pockets is more like it! In the grand scheme of things, I sometimes think "It's only money" and then I think about the alternative. You've heard "You can't take it with you", haven't you. Well........what if you can? Wouldn't you feel kinda silly when you arrive at the Pearly Gates and St. Peter asks.."Where's your stuff"? I don't know, but it gives me something else to think about while the chink, chink sound is pouring out of our pockets.

This past week was chinking week here at the loghouse project. Chinking is my favorite part of this project. It not only shows the character of the house, but it defines its charm. When we took the house apart several years ago, it had no chinking at all, just slats of wood jammed into the chink joints. The logs were covered in red oak planking, about 1 1/2" think and about 8" wide, on top of the red oak was years and years of wallpaper. When we took down the old McConnell house, the chink joints were filled with mud and horsehair with chits of wood.

The chinking we put in this week is made of sand, brixment N and S type mortar. I worked with Andrew to understand how this stuff is mixed. It's very important to mix all the dry ingredients together, much like mixing ingredients for a cake. Mixing is not just mixing, it's chopped using a hoe. This kind like hoeing out a corn row. Once it's chopped, then mixed again, just add water. Water is the real trick, you can't add too much or it's soupy, too little and it crumbles and won't stick to the wire mesh. When you clump it in your hand, it doesn't all stick together, but it doesn't exactly fall apart either. It's one of those tacit things you learn by doing over and over again to get it right. That is if you don't have a Tony Russell around to show you how it's done.

The mortar is put in with a small trowel in the chinking joints. Tony and Mark are experts at this and it's amazing to watch them work. They each have different techniques putting the mortar in but with the same result. Once the mortar is dried for a few minutes, they use wet gloves to smooth out the mortar and give it the shape it has. The mortar has to be sloped downward (concave) to allow rain to run off. It was so hot this week, it didn't take long for the mortar to dry out quickly.

So, now that the chinking is in on the outside, we'll starting cleaning out the joints on the inside and put GreatStuff along the top, bottom and sides of each joint to stop any airflow. I don't know what we did before Great Stuff came along. The Great Stuff we used 20 years ago isn't the same stuff we have today. 20 years ago it was a formaldehyde based. What we use today is silicone and doesn't deteriorate as quickly. Case in point,this summer we power washed the logs from outside. It took 2 days for the logs to dry out in the inside. At least the logs are clean inside and out.

Doug and Lee are back this week working on the stairs and closing in the gable ends, putting in the windows and board and batten. More on this progress later.

Have a great week!

Come around when you can.

Talk to you soon

NoraBelle

The Elephant and A Different Breed of Cat

Hello Friends,
Thanks again for coming by the house or asking how things are moving along. I laugh each time someone asks me if the project is completed. Only in my dreams. But keep asking, I love it that you're interested.

The Elephant and Building Codes: There's a very funny email circulating, "Why Teacher's Drink". If you haven't seen it, you should. It's hysterical. In one of the scenarios, the student is trying to solve a very complex problem and is having great difficulty doing so. The answer requires an explanation for Yes or No. The student can't solve the problem, so he draws an elephant in the middle of the problem and says he can't solve the problem because there is an elephant in the way. Well, I don't have an elephant in the way....I have a whole herd of them! The issues we face everyday with the building of this house are a little like trying to move a herd of elephants. You have to be very, very careful. The decision making process of where to put stairs, for example is simple, but how to construct the stairs is another matter all together. The stairs are going in the log house, and this should be easy, but the stairs have to start in the middle of the window to make the landing and turn to reach the first 18' floor joist, which is over the front door. Are you with me? The devil really is in the details. The details of building codes, that is. Virginia says I can't have stairs in the window unless the window has tempered glass, or I have bars across the inside window. I don't know about you, but I prefer to be IN a bar, not behind them. Then there's the quandary of the rise and run and the variations on step height. Without going through the brutal details, we've spent 2 days trying to get the right specifications and we finally have them. That's one elephant out of the way. The other elephant is plumbing. You can't just run PVC up through a log! And how do you get upstairs plumbing down, up and over. Another day and half was spent on how to build chases and where they should be. We've gone through just about every scenario you can think of, but I think we're getting closer. The electrical is about to be notched in. Jason will use a chainsaw to make channels down the door facings for the light switches and drill through the logs for the outlets. He assures me this will work beautifully. I"m just waiting to see what little devil rears it's head when we start this. There are a few more elephants out there, we'll just have to move them one at a time.
We are putting in the wire mesh between the logs and getting ready for chinking on the outside. The diamond wire mesh has to be cut to fit in between the logs, nailed in with roofing nails and it's sloped to provide water run off. The slope starts fairly deep at the top of the log and slopes down to the outside of the next log. I've included a picture so you can see what that looks like. Jason thinks he can start chinking Friday or Monday. He will chink the side next to the existing house first. Once that side cures out, he'll use a chainsaw and cut into the logs and the chinking to fit the flashing in for the tin roof. I expect chinking will take the better part of next week. He'll use about 6 tons of sand and S and Brixsment N cement to make the mortar. The outside mortar will be a greyish color and the inside mortar will be a buff color.

A Different Breed of Cat: A special note to my dear friend Dr. Patricia Brown, my (forever) professor of English, American and World Lit and someone I adore and admire. She sent me this email the other day: OTHER FOLKS JUST DREAM NORA. YOU CALL UP A CONSTRUCTION CREW AND WHIP THEM INTO SHAPE. YOU CERTAINLY ARE ANOTHER BREED OF CAT!!!
Pat, You and a few other different breed of cats are responsible for this! You've taught me for years there's nothing I can't accomplish. And you, like the others, and you know who you are, set me free to dream. The power of education is liberating and empowering. I've learned through you and others to look at problems and situations from the outside in - upside down and sideways. Interpretation is the engine for imagination. Thanks for giving me a jump start...not that I need too much juice to begin with. Love ya!

Talk to you soon
Nora Belle

What am I doing?

How many times do you think I ask myself that during this addition project? The answer is all the time. I have a different way of looking at this project in my mind. Sometimes its in 3-D, sometimes I can see through walls that don't exist yet and most of the time I can visualize the color and texture of the walls, ceiling and floors. Most of the time it works, but sometimes it just doesn't pan out the way I think it should. Today has been one those days. I try to use "form follows function", but sometimes the function gets in the way. I've redesigned the washroom/bathroom 3 times today. I really thought I would have enough room for a utility closet with stackable washer/dryer. Well, the form is just not following the function today. So, I'm compromising on having a beautiful washroom with very unexpected features...without the W/D. And that's okay. I'd much rather have a bubble bath than fold clothes anyway.

The roof guys are here putting down the underlayment for the tin roof. Wow, that's pretty tough stuff they're putting down. It's a synthetic felt, much like house wrap material. They dropped off the flashing, but they need to bring the break to fold in another turn to fit back in the logs. Jason will have to notch out the logs on both sides and slide the flashing in the notch to prevent water from seeping under the roof material. I'm anxious to see how that works. He will cut through the chinking and logs on the existing house and cut through on the addition side.

Tomorrow, Doug and Lee will frame in for the trapezoid windows in the gables of the log house. The windows are HUGE. 61 1/2" x 4'. I can't wait to see them framed in. Last night I was looking at the moon glow from inside the log house, this room will be beautiful both night and day.

That's all for now. I'm getting behind on so many things, weeding, assignments and tests, so I need to concentrate on these things this evening.

Hope to see you soon

Take Care

Nora Belle

You Got The Right String Baby But The Wrong Yo-Yo

June 18, 2010
It's been that kinda week friends!

This week I've been more than a little worried. At the end of the week, looking back at the some of the problems we've had, they seem very small compared to the progress we've made in just a week. There were times I expected the whole project to come to a screeching halt. At the end of the week, the roof trusses on the log house were on, the exterior stud walls are up, ready for the roof trusses for the breezeway. Jason has notched the logs for the electrical and window and door jambs are ready. The big challenge here has been finding the old forged nails in the logs. Doug and I had a long discussion about making nails. Imagine how long it took to make enough nails to build a house in 1820. They had to be forged,,,think about that the next time you're watching a blacksmith work.
Jason uses a chain saw to square up the openings and has had to resharpen his chain saw several times. A metal detector has really helped (Thanks Ricky). The wiring for the light switches will run through a channel down the door jambs and the electrical wiring for receptacles will run down through the logs, some will run through a channel under floor (which is the ceiling downstairs, 2" tounge and groove) There will be a fake beam running between each floor joist to carry wiring. Next time your here, notice the beam in the dining room, where the lights hang from. It's the same concept.

I learned something new this week about floor joists. Doug is a master builder and he knows how these old codgers built stick and log structures. I was worried about the floor trusses that came from the old McConnell house. (The existing 1896 house where the great room is today). All the trusses had a bow in them and I thought they'd bowed due to the being stored for 20+ years in a barn. The bow in the joist is intentional and is critical to the floor joists - the bow is what gives the joist its strength. Doug calls it a camber or an arch. The span of the joists is 18' across the log house. Think about how strong the arch is in building (just look at the Forum in Rome, or the old bridges in Spain). I'm still not convinced the floor will be level, but at least I know, "it ain't goin' nowhere". Doug says the weight of the floor should make the floor mostly level. If its not, it's just another layer of character.

I'm sure you're wondering what goes in between the two log houses, what it will look like, etc. I'm attaching this link of one of my favorite places (I have so many!), in the Florentine Chianti region, in the little town of Greve, Italy http://www.lacantinettadirignana.it/lacantinetta/index.php I plan on using a lot of the same elements such as the heavy beams and textured walls. The exterior will be stone with a similar look. I hedge between composite stone and real stone for several reasons. I'll make that decision when I need to.

Okay, that's all for this week. I promised the guys margaritas for happy hour. See you soon. Have a great weekend

NoraBelle

What a Week!

June 11, 2010
Thanks for hanging out with me this week.
Is it Happy Hour yet? While the guys are taking a break, I thought I'd send you an update.

Wow, what a week! We started tearing down on Tuesday and by Friday the log structure is up, pinned, joists in, (except for the stairwell joists). Amazing! We've had a couple of logs that have been "twisted" by the southwest exposure, but Jason and his amazing brothers made the logs go where they wanted them to go. We have 3 courses to go and should wrap up this evening around 5ish.

The next step is to power wash the logs and water seal the top and bottom of each log where the chinking goes. This weekend we will debark (although I would much rather embark,,,,sorry, couldn't resist) and seal. Then the floor joists will have to be sanded to get over a 120 years of dirt off and get them ready to paint. I'll give you a lesson in faux painting in a few weeks.

The roof trusses go on Monday. I mentioned earlier tying the two together will be the real trick. I'll show you what that means later too.

I truly appreciate all your interest and your responses to this "little" project. The blueprints are in my head, along with the final result. I know its difficult to see what the final product will be,,,,,,but stay with me baby,,,you'll get the picture.

Okay, I'm not going to write on the blog everyday from this point,,,only occasionally, The exciting part is over and it's time for real work to begin. The devil is in the details, so that's what they tell me,,,we'll see!

Drop by when you can, would love to see you, (and take a break)