Day 56: Neverending blocks and outriggers

Today we completed installation of outriggers on the south wall and continued fabrication and installation of blocks. It is time consuming work, but it looks nice when it is done. The roofline is really starting to take shape. The pic below shows the home from the southwest at the end of day 56. Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment.

Day 55: More blocks and outriggers

Today we continued fabrication and installation of blocks and outriggers on the south wall. The pic below shows completed blocking and outriggers on the southwest corner.

Georg and Raphael picked up a load of FSC certified plywood to be used for roof sheathing. The pic below shows it being unloaded. Thanks for reading. Please comment if you wish.

Day 54: Blocks and outriggers

Today we fabricated and began to install wooden blocks between the rafters on the east and west walls. The blocks serve several functions:

• Provide proper spacing and support for the rafters
• Provide a location to fasten the roof structure to the wall top plate
• Provide a mounting surface for plywood roofing material
  
• Create a boundary to enclose the ceiling insulation

We also began to install wooden outriggers that form the eave on the south wall. The pic below shows 10 blocks installed on the west wall, and 5 outriggers installed on the south wall. Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment.

Day 53: Last of the rafters

Today was a repeat of Monday on the west side of the home. All 16 rafters over the kitchen and dining room were built and raised into position. They were fastened to the hangers on the curved glulam and set in approximately the correct locations on the west wall top plate. Here are two pics at the end of day 53. The first is from the family room looking west over the kitchen and dining room, and the second is from the northeast. Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 52: Reclaimed redwood and more rafters

When I visited Heritage Salvage in Petaluma a few weeks ago, I picked up several hundred square feet of reclaimed redwood tongue and groove flooring material. On Saturday and Sunday, Cindy and I prepared this wood for attachment to the small curved glulam beams. When you look up while on the porch or in the utility room, you will see these boards. Here is a pic of 4 boards before preparation - gray, weathered and dirty.

Excessive dirt was scraped off with a putty knife.

The boards were run through a planer to remove about 1/32 inch.

The tongues and grooves were scraped and brushed clean so that the boards will fit well together.

Finally, the boards were sanded with 120 grit sandpaper.

It was very rewarding seeing the grain and patterns pop out when the old weathered material was removed. The wood has a very tight grain pattern - new redwood material like this cannot be purchased anymore. Here is a pic of the same 4 boards after preparation.

On Monday, we prepared 16 rafters over the loft with an eave support detail. This included notching the I-joists and fastening plywood spacers and 2X4 stiffeners. We fastened these rafters to the hangers on the curved glulam beam and set them in approximately the correct locations on the east top plate. Here is a pic looking east towards the loft from the kitchen at the end of day 52.

Stella status:
She is getting bigger every day, but is still mostly paws and ears attached to a nose.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 51: more I-Joists

Welcome back Justin! On Friday we attached more hangers to the curved glulams. We ended day 51 by placing all 16 rafters over the family room. It is exciting to see the ceiling taking shape. The 2 pics below are taken from the loft looking west and southwest respectively. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 50: Glulam and I-Joists

We had a small crew again today. We set the 2nd large curved glulam in the beam seats. Then we attached hangers to the curved glulams and hung 3 rafters over the great room before the end of day 50.

Green comment for today:
Consider using engineered wood instead of dimensional lumber. The I-joists I am using for rafters have the following advantages compared to the solid dimensional 2X10 members they replace:

• they are constructed with small leftover scraps from other wood manufacturing processes, thereby reducing harvesting of additional trees
  
• they use less material to provide equivalent stiffness
  
• they do not warp

The curved glulams are also considered engineered wood. They have the advantage of being constructed from smaller laminated pieces with custom curvature. The equivalent solid dimensional lumber beam would have been cut from one large log.

I can hear you asking why I used solid dimensional lumber for the loft floor joists. I needed to keep the floor as thin as possible to save ceiling height in the bedroom. I was able to use 2X8 dimensional joists. I-joists do not come any smaller than 2X10, and I did not want to lose 2” of headroom in the bedroom.

I’ll close today with a great panorama shot I got while up about 40 feet on the telehandler. Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks for the lift Trevor!

Day 49: Small curved glulams

We had a small crew today. We attached 9 glulam beam hangers to the utility room and porch roof ledger (brown horizontal board in the pic below). Then we made birdsmouth cuts for 5 small curved glulam beams over the utility room top plate. The glulams are 3-1/8 inches wide, 6 inches tall and 10 feet long. Here is a pic at the end of day 49. I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 48: Curved glulams and loft floor

The FSC certified curved glulam beams from Standard Structures, Inc. arrived this morning. Two large beams are used in the main home roof framing, and 9 small beams are used in the porch and utility roof framing. We rented a telehandler to hoist the large beams into place – they weigh over 600 pounds each. The following pic shows the east beam being hoisted into place. Raphael has the leash, Trevor is driving and Justin is waiting at the south beam seat.

The following pic shows the beam nearly in place with Joshua at the north wall.

From here, measurements and marks were made for the beam seat cuts. The beam was lowered back to the ground for cutting. The beam was then raised back into its final resting position.

Holes were drilled through the beam, and bolts were installed to fasten the beam to the brackets. In the following pic you can see the north beam seat bracket with 2 bolts and the 11 plies of 2X6 lumber that make up the 16-1/2 inch tall beam.

The loft floor was also completed today. Here is a great shot Raphael took from the lift earlier in the day while the floor was in work.

And a pic of the finished floor...

...and another showing the loft floor and beam.

I’ll close with a pic of a large beetle we found this morning upside down but still kicking on the slab. We named it Ringo. As soon as it warmed up, it was on its way. Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Day 47: Staining and sealing the concrete floor

On Tuesday, Joshua and I applied the 2nd coat of Soycrete stain on the concrete slab. We used the "desert sand" color in the bedroom/closet/bathroom. We used the "adobe" color in the great room. After the stain dried, we applied a coat of Acri-soy sealer.

The sealer will cure over the next 5 days during which there will be no foot traffic inside the home. After that we will cover the floors with plastic sheeting for the remainder of construction. Applying sealer now has at least 3 important advantages over waiting until after all major construction is complete.

1. The sealer will provide protection against plaster, drywall mud and other spills that may get around or through the poly film. These types of spills could permanently change the appearance of the concrete slab.
   
2. We avoid having to mask the plaster walls against concrete stain.
3. Energy and enthusiasm are still high during this stage of the project. These are important qualities to have when doing a finish that has such a great impact on the appearance of the home.
   

Here is a pic of the bedroom.

And here is a portion of the great room.

Many thanks to Joshua Drews for creating these beautiful patterns. The floors are truly works of art that will be cherished and talked about for years to come. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 46: Staining the concrete floor

Today, Joshua and I applied the base coat of Soycrete stain on the concrete slab. In preparation for staining, Joshua determined that a quick sanding of the entire floor would have the following advantages:

• remove the majority of concrete reinforcement glass fibers from the surface
• provide a more smooth finish
• provide a more desirable appearance
  

Joshua sanded the entire floor and we swept and washed off the dust. After a long day, we finished applying a base coat of the colors desert sand and leather brown to the bedroom/closet/bathroom – see pic below.

We also applied a base coat of leather brown and terracotta to the great room – see pic below.

Many thanks to the following:

• Joshua for working “like a dervish”
• KZSC for playing the tunes we listen to on the solar radio
• Jason and Lydia at Greenspace, the Soycrete material supplier
  
• You, the reader!

I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 44 & 45: Working for the weekend

Loverboy played the Santa Cruz Boardwalk Friday night concert on July 10th. They closed their second set before the encore with “Working for the Weekend”. That set the stage for Saturday and Sunday. Some of the work crew would be on vacation the following week at a music festival. The remainder of the crew (including me) will spend Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at a workshop. It made sense to take advantage of the lack of foot traffic in the home to stain and plan to seal the concrete slab on Monday and Tuesday. Joshua, Cindy and I spent Saturday and Sunday testing the SoyCrete stains for:

1. penetration into the slab
   
2. color selection
   

We sampled 6 colors of Soycrete on areas where cabinets will later be installed. The stain penetrated adequately. We eventually selected one color combination for the great room:

and another for the bedroom, closet and bathroom:

Green comment for today:
Consider using Soycrete if you are building a finished concrete slab floor. It is easier to clean up after and more environmentally friendly than the alternative acid stain products.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment.

Day 43: Loft floor

Several weeks ago, I picked up a variety of wood materials from Heritage Salvage in Petaluma, CA. Part of that purchase was 1-1/2 inch thick douglas fir tongue and groove from the floor of the dismantled Fort Hill Lumber Company sawmill in Grand Ronde, OR. The wood is dry, brittle, battered, beaten and torn. In other words, it has lots of character.

On Friday, Joshua did a great job selecting nice looking pieces and cutting them to length. Justin did a great job persuading the boards to line up and nailing them home. We drilled holes in the boards for each nail to prevent splitting. Screw nails were used since they resist backing out. Subfloor adhesive was applied between the rafters and floor boards to provide additional strength and prevent squeaking. Anyone trying to remove this floor in the future will invent some new swear words. Here is a pic of part of the floor, some nails, a big hammer, and a bigger hammer. Sometimes the boards need much persuasion.

Here is a pic of Cindy on a sunny part of the 40% complete floor. It looks awesome (she does too). I can't wait to see it sanded and oiled.

Green comment for today:
Use low VOC adhesives for improved indoor air quality compared to more commonly available adhesives. We used OSI Greenseries subfloor adhesive. I hope that low VOC adhesives soon become the common or only choice. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 42: Wood framing, continued

The wall separating the family room from the bedroom and bathroom was built today – see pic below. The wide opening to the left frames the bathroom door. The wide opening to the right frames the bedroom door. The framing between the doors is part of a structural shear wall.

We also assembled all of the floor joists for the loft above the bedroom, bathroom and closet – see pic below.

I will continue watering the porch slab for the next few days to help it cure slower.

Cool fact:
The full moon nearest the summer solstice follows almost the same path in the sky that the sun follows on the winter solstice (and vice versa). Last night was a full moon near the summer solstice, but not the nearest. The full moon on June 7th was closer by 4 days. I was up during the middle of the night and took some long exposure photographs. The first one is of the moon low in the southern sky – right about where the sun will be around noon on December 21st.

The following pic looks into the home through the big sliding glass door opening.

The large rectangle of light on the floor represents about how far sunlight will penetrate into the family room at noon on December 21st. The 3 smaller rectangles of light creeping up the back wall are from the window over the sliding glass door. You can predict daylight sun penetration into rooms for any time of any day of the year using 3D CAD modeling software. I think it is more fun to see it in action on the real home.

I'll close with a pic of Justin, Joshua and Mike - the framing crew enjoying a brew in the loft at the end of day 42. Thanks for reading. I enjoy your comments.

Day 41: Wood framing

The interior walls for the bedroom, bathroom and closet in my home are of wood frame construction. The ceiling framing over these rooms functions as the floor framing for the loft above. Hayward Lumber delivered a beautiful load of framing lumber in the morning – see vid below.

We started framing the wall separating the family room from the bedroom and bathroom. We also attached joist hangers to the east wall ledger – see pic below.

I watered the porch slab again at the end of the day to help it cure properly.

Green comment for today:
Please purchase Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified material if you need new lumber for your project. The FSC helps ensure that lumber is harvested in a sustainable manner. Generations from now, the same forest that produced my wood will still be able to produce wood for building. The pic below shows the FSC stamp on a 2X4.

Thanks for reading. Leave a comment if you like.

Day 40: Wall top plates and ledgers

Today we cleaned up after wall lift #3. We spent the remainder of the day installing wall top plates – seen in the following pic.

The top plates are 2X10 inch pressure treated boards. They are attached through J-bolts to the top of the wall all the way around the perimeter of the home. The roof will be securely mounted to the top plates.

We also installed 2 ledgers for the loft to the north and south walls. I watered the porch slab at the end of the day to help it cure properly.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 39: Wall lift #3

We were ready for the final wall lift after our preparations last Thursday. Pacific Coast Concrete Pumping and Las Anamas Concrete showed up mid morning. Joshua, Justin, Marty and Trevor filled, consolidated, managed the hose and cleaned up - repeated for about 100 cores.

Four seats like the one shown below for a pair of curved glulam beams were positioned and leveled.

Joshua and Justin finished the porch slab.

A pair of porch post brackets like the one shown below were pushed into the slab and leveled.

We cast the year and an oak leaf near one of the porch slab corners.

There was a bit of concrete left over. Joshua made forms with some APEX block cutoffs, and we cast 3 simple pavers in place on the ground.

Joshua did the finishing work on the porch slab. Here is a pic of the completed slab at the end of day 39.

We had a successful final wall lift with no blowouts. The walls are up, and all the concrete work is complete. The home looks deceivingly more complete than it really is. Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment.