Keep it under cover

It is such a pain to have to dig the piles of snow and ice off of the stack of lumber.  Martin made room in the barn to be able to store more of the lumber he needs for building. Which meant that I got to shovel about a foot of snow off of the lumber pile, then move the lumber inside.

We had another snow storm last night. It dropped at least 6 inches of snow on us.  Today will be spent shoveling and roof raking, once we dig ourselves out of our current house to be able to get to an tigin.

bay window

 We've begun to frame in the bay window.  Martin built the west and south bay window walls inside the house. Then we dragged them out and set them up.

The hole in the south wall that we dragged them through isn't tall enough for us to drag them out standing up.  Also, we are moving them out over the bulk head hole.  So we have to take them all the way outside, then stand them up and lift them onto the top of the concrete wall.  Don't forget, the ground is covered in ice and snow, which we don't want to drag the walls through.

We will have a window seat with bookshelves underneath.

We have the two walls wrapped and a temporary roof on.

Martin needs to build a header for the bulkhead stairs to set the next wall for the bay window on.

Also the 4 foot addition to the south wall is now sheathed and wrapped.

We will be putting in the old storm windows into the bay window temporarily until we are ready to install windows in the whole house.

two steps forward and one step back

Have you ever had the wonderful experience of trying to walk on snow covered ice? We had an ice storm that lasted all of last weekend.  Then two days ago, we got an inch or two of snow. Our driveway would have made a fairly decent ice skating rink.

My job was to shovel and then sand the driveway.  Of course we dug the sand out of the basement.  There is some benefit to having an unlimited supply of sand.

After the driveway was shoveled and sanded, Martin roof raked the front of the house. Then I got to shovel that snow out of the way and sand the icy parts of the path.

South wall

Martin has framed in the additional four feet that we are adding onto the south wall of the house.

Slow progress

The roof shingles on the east side of the house have been removed.  The wall under this side of the roof needs to be taken down so the joists and underlayment can be finished.  The shingles were loaded into the trailer, which had to be dug out of the snow.

 That section of the roof is tarped.

Everything needs to be tarped at the end of the day to protect it from the weather. That takes time from actual construction work.  Then at the beginning of every day, Martin has to untarp the area where he is working. If he is working in the rain, the tarps need to stay in place.  Tarping, untarping, and working around tarped areas just slows everything down.

tidying up

Martin likes to have things tidy.  He likes to know which tools are where and he likes to be able to get his hands on the correct piece of lumber when he needs it.  With the focus on getting the joists and underlayment in, plus finishing up the west wall and supporting the roof in preparation to take out the east wall, things were starting to get disorganized.

Today was spent cleaning out scrap wood that isn't going to be used and tidying up the barn and the house.

Sunday, 12/15, is supposed to be our first real winter storm. We are going to stay home and hunker down.  When Martin gets back to an tigin next week, he'll be all set to go on the next step of the project.

I overlooked publishing this post. As you can see, these pictures were taken before we got dumped on!

more snow than pictures

Well, I haven't been posting much lately, and I do apologize.  We had a foot of snow on Sunday 12/15, which meant a day to stay home and not work on an tigin.  Then Monday, Martin spent the day shoveling.  The driveway is shoveled and a path around the house to allow work to continue is shoveled. Tuesday we started in the negative degrees Fahrenheit. (Sanford, ME registered -15 degrees F.)  Martin worked a short day at an tigin roof raking the snow off of the roof and then moving the resulting new piles of snow on the ground out of the way.  It snowed again Tuesday night, which meant that Martin dealt with more snow removal before being able to get to work on construction.

To make matters more interesting, we have another storm headed our way.  We are expected to get freezing rain starting tonight and continuing off and on (with some rain, sleet, and a bit of snow mixed in) for the next 3 days.  It has been predicted that we could get up to a half inch of ice.

limited daylight + intense cold = slow progress

Martin didn't make it to an tigin last Monday (12/9).  Between a dentist appointment and a wintery mix, it ended up being a non work day.  Tuesday ended up being an errand day and Martin didn't make it to an tigin that day either.

However, the rest of the week was spent sheathing the new section of the west wall and then covering the whole west wall with Typar.  

weather

We had a wintery mix of weather today.  It started snowing as I was headed to work at 5:30 this morning.  Later the precipitation switched to sleet, freezing rain, and rain.  Needless to say, Martin did not work at an tigin today.

west wall

We framed in the west wall yesterday (12/8)

current west wall

Martin took the windows out of the west wall and rearranged some boards, which he will use to sheath the new section of the wall (to be built sooner).

He then framed in for the new window.

This storm window is being used to temporarily fill the hole until we get  the windows for the whole house.

The window looks really high.  The top of the old window was much lower than where the top of the new window will be.  Also, you can see the original 6 x 6 sill that we are still using.  The bottom of the joists are level with the top of the sill. With the flooring going on top of the joists, the new floor will be quite a bit higher than the old floor; therefore the window needs to be higher than the original.

the new old front door

Martin put in the old front door where he framed in the new opening for the new front door.  This is a temporary measure.  The new front door will be insulated and wider. 

west wall

Martin took off the soffit and facia board on the west side.  Some of the interior studs will need to be replace.  The current windows will be coming out.  Martin needs to frame for the new window that will go on the right and for the door that will go on the left.  The next step is to build the rest of the wall.  He is planning on using recycled (taken from the house) boards to cover the outside of the 11 foot "extension".

underlayment done

Martin has all of the underlayment down on the main floor of an tigin. 

The front wall at the top is bowed out a couple of inches, so he has a rope and winch on it in hopes of pulling it in a bit.

Also the north side of the house, which isn't under any roof, is tarped. Unfortunately the tarp is a bit leaky and we have had a fair amount of rain and a bit of snow lately.  You can see a small puddle of water on the floor just past the board that is leaning against the tarp.

As soon as we get a bit of dry weather,  Martin is removing the leaky tarp, letting the floor dry out and then retarping with a new tarp.

changes to the front (south) side

Martin took out the front door and windows.

He then framed in the new spot for the front door on the west (left) side and framed in for the bay window.

joists in

We have most of the joists for the main floor in.  The only ones that need to be finished up are the ones that go in the front section of the 4 foot addition toward the east, plus the one that will be put in as soon as we take the east wall of the house down.

 We also have some of the decking down.  We have to keep it well covered!  We've had a bit of weather lately.

Thanksgiving

Martin and I are headed to my mom's today, through a very heavy rainstorm (better than snow). We won't be posting tomorrow, November 28th.

first floor

The first set of joists for the first floor of an tigin are ready to be installed.

delivery

 Martin's first big order of materials has arrived.  Now he can start framing up the last two exterior walls.

sill plate

Martin put the double sill plate on all of the foundation walls where we aren't using the original sills.

deshingling??

We are back to demolition. I had the pleasure of removing shingles from the east side of the house.

Martin finished the deshingling job and then took out the doors and windows. He is getting ready to frame out the bay window and move the front door to the left corner of the house.  Also the new windows will be a different size than the old ones, so the window openings need to be reframed.

The old windows are going to be reglazed (my job) and used in the barn.

foundation is back filled

Our wonderful neighbor with the backhoe stopped by again to help Martin finish up back filling the foundation.