Day 83: Swales, plaster preparation and another retaining wall

Steve completed creating 2 swales; one to the east (uphill) of the home and one to the west (downhill). I will plant fruit and nut trees in the downhill sides of the swales. Winter stormwater surface runoff is slowed down, spread out and sunk into the soil by a swale. Soil under a swale will still have water in the drought season after surrounding soil has dried out. This will reduce the amount of irrigation water needed for the fruit and nut trees. The east swale will reduce the amount of surface storm water reaching the home. The west swale will reduce the amount of surface water running off the property from the south yard. Here is a pic of the east swale.

Some of the other tasks started or completed today:

• In preparation for plastering, Joshua cut and installed pieces of diamond mesh metal lath to the exterior of several windows.
• Justin applied weatherproofing to several second story windows
• I applied foam insulation around the interior of several windows
• Alan Dodd of Live Oak Design delivered beautiful doors for the bedroom, bathroom, closet and entry. Alan is also building the kitchen cabinets. All of the wood used is FSC certified.
  
• Erik installed some Cat5 cables and began working on a conduit to run audio wiring from the north to the south side of the family room
  
• Trevor waterproofed the southwest retaining wall we built yesterday
• Trevor built a small retaining wall on the northwest corner of the utility room. The retaining walls were built from leftover pieces of APEX block.
  

Stella status:
She is still getting bigger and about 5 months old,

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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 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.

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