Day 134: Another mosaic

On Thursday, Joshua began cutting granite material for another tile mosaic that will go in front of the large sliding glass door in the family room. Here is a pic of the work in progress.

Marty stopped by to do a few small items off the punch list. Joshua filled some cracks and holes in several pieces of the old wood tongue and groove loft floor material. He used a mix of Elmer's glue and sawdust saved from sanding beams. Once this filler dries we will test how it responds during sanding. More to come. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 65: Porch roof

Today we started installing the reclaimed redwood tongue and groove flooring material over the porch roof framing. Here is a pic looking up at the northwest corner.

Trevor continued digging a trench to connect the main power to the utility room. Erik and Ryan continued to install electrical wiring. Our thoughts are with the people fighting and affected by the Lockheed Fire. Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment.

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 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.