Ta ta from Tory Hill

This is our last posting from the rental house we've known as home for almost 2 years. Packing and moving is well under way as we write this. Although temporary, we've really enjoyed living on Tory Hill. Our landlords are wonderful people and we've made some good friends with our neighbors. The new house is not far so we can stay connected.

Over the weekend the refrigerator found its way to the house with the help of our friend Bob, the same great guy who helped put our roof on. Other things happening in the kitchen were the installation of the basic structure of the 7'+ pantry designed by Cheryl which when complete will have lots of slide-out shelves & baskets and circular lazy susans making its entire 19" depth useful space, the pot rack was installed, the floor was finished and the professional chef's floor gel mats were put in place (these make a huge difference to the bod when standing on concrete), and the plate rack from Great Britain was installed over the sink so just washed dishes can be placed to drip dry and then stay for permanent storage. This plate rack took forever to get to us, it was feared lost. When it finally arrived you should have seen the box, if only it could have told us the story of its voyage!

The entire first floor is bare concrete, which you may remember has radiant heat within, we chose to seal & finish the concrete with dark tung oil (the same natural product we used on the wall wood except it's dark brown instead of amber). The floor was washed & dried, oil applied and later in the day wiped with t-shirt rags, then 2nd coat the next day with another wiping. Then the floor isn't walked on with dirty shoes for 7-10 days (we did the floor in sections and made walking trails with waxed paper so we could still get around the place). The floors came out with a mottled look incorporating browns, grays and black and have these funky geometric shapes going on randomly which just occurred naturally. Each room is different in terms of how the concrete took the oil. The kitchen came out particularly cool and we figure people would believe us if we told them we hired an artist to create its effects! It was quite a bit of work but worth it as we are pleased. And we avoided the acid staining that has become very popular lately, which is hazardous and we hear its neat effects fade badly after a few years.

We'll be softening the look & feel of the floors with rugs. Cheryl had a ball finding rugs online getting some great deals on antique & new rugs. She also found some locally via Craigslist, one huge handmade braid rug made in the 1950's by a Newfoundland woman.

Halloween slipped past in a haze of sawdust and oily rags for Kirk & Cheryl, but Jayne who loves the holiday did it up right. She was Mother Earth, her friend Grayson, whom she met doing the production Hair, was David Bowie and they had a great time at several parties in Portland. They spent hours together doing their makeup & hair.

Jayne's been working on her new bedroom. The rug is a genuine hippie 1960's persian! which is a big hit with Jayne. Still to be done is the full wall mural which she designed and she & Grayson are going to paint.



The shower is done and came out nicely. We went with a soaking tub, 2' deep so you can soak up to your neck. The livestock watering trough, which will be our soaking tub (hey, don't laugh, Cheryl got this at the Agway for $83, compare that to several $100 for an actual soaking tub) is not yet installed but it's ready to be. Faucet and drain lines are in putting the tub next to the window for a great soaking view!

Here's our laundry room/extra pantry. It's upstairs and will only have a washer, drying will be on the line which we'll run from outside the window down to a tree. That way heavy wet laundry won't have to be carried downstairs & outside, but rather just pulled from the washer & hung out the window!




We've got ourselves a starter chicken coop for 3-4 laying hens. We're going to add an attached outside run and hope to get started with a few girls right after we get settled in the house. Ultimately we will be building a larger coop for a good sized flock. Then this coop will go to an urban-dweller like Jayne when she moves out.


In the sitting area upstairs we chose to break up the wood look with partially painted walls. This pic shows some of Kirk's beautiful trim work, but you'll just have to come to Maine to really see it! The rug is one of Cheryl's antique finds. We went with pale taupe on this floor rather than the deep sage of the other upstairs wood floors to bring more light into an otherwise quite dark space.

In non-house news...Kirk is still playing his bass at jams about once a week...Kirk's job is stressful and a music buddy suggests that he take up smoking pot...Jayne is doing fine grade-wise in her 2 college classes but hates the formal education gig and plans to seek adventures other than college in the new year...Cheryl was bit by a tick which Kirk found lurking out of sight almost on her back, it was engorged and thoroughly disgusting -- couldn't feel a thing, healing well and no signs of disease...bought ourselves a new used car -- 2000 Honda Civic with 83k miles on it -- for us that's a new car (our van now has 255,000+), we're going to let her stretch her legs on a trip to Michigan for a short Christmas visit to both families to celebrate getting into the house.

ADVANCE! ADVANCE! ADVANCE!

We've reached the hardest part of the project: it feels almost done causing increasing fantasies of it truly being done & images of living in it, almost done is relative meaning there's actually a fair amount still to do, and we're tired of working on it in nearly every available moment. But we are committed to a November move in so we keep on keepin' on. Current tasks are plumbing for Kirk and painting and other finish work for Cheryl. Jayne makes a periodic guest appearance to function as helper to a job needing 2 people or to sling a little paint and then she's off to much socializing with new friends she met doing the show Hair or to work on her 2 college classes, writing & history or her voice work.














In the interest of getting a living space quicker we decided to go with temporary countertops in the kitchen. On the left is Kirk's handiwork in using some used laminate pieces and filling in with a wood section made from the beautiful pine used throughout the house. On the right is an old interior door cut down to form a section of counter, papered with Paper Illusion to look like stone and polyurethaned to help it last for a while.

The middle of September saw red letter days at Anam Cara when our 800 lbs wood cookstove was delivered to the end of our drive and hauled to the house by Kirk & Ollie, our tractor. The next day the guys came with our heating wood stove and installed both beauties in the house. Here's to being toasty & cooking without fossil fuels!


















This is our water boiler to provide hot water to our radiant floor, which is our backup heat, and our domestic hot water until we get our solar hot water put in. Above is the bathroom vanity Kirk made with the vanity top that arrived with both corners broken. Still waiting for another we'll go ahead and use this one temporarily if need be since the damage doesn't affect its functionality.










This is the prep sink. It's handmade from copper in Mexico. The cabinet is handmade from white pine by Kirk in Maine. Our approach has been to use frugality as our guiding principle and then to here and there accent with something more expensive.

Stairwell to the right with Brian's pine sheathing handiwork and an antique light fixture we've been moving around with us for years.







We take time out to notice the beautiful New England autumn all around us. We all celebrated together our first fire in the wood stove. Kirk & Cheryl celebrated their 30th anniversary with dinner out and a dozen gorgeous white roses. And we'll be gathering with friends, the Weyer family, at their off-grid house for Thanksgiving. So we're not completely obsessed with housebuilding.

By the way, the inspiration for the title came the retired general in the movie "White Christmas". Being big movie buffs, we tend to think in terms of great lines from movies.

H.T.S.

I'm kind of late this month getting the blog update out. Brian, our loyal building helper was injured playing frisbee. He has been off our job for a couple weeks, slowing progress considerably. So Cheryl and I have been working even harder to make up the difference.


H.T.S. has become our favorite acronym. Jayne's rehearsals for HAIR or working on the house, this acronym says it all lately. The weather has continued to be hot and humid. Despite that, all us are pushing hard to reach our goals.

Cheryl has become the queen of staining and finishing. Single-handedly she stained 1800 sq. ft. of shiplap siding, both sides. She even did two coats on the finish side. Showing her trademark smile here, she kept at it day after, despite backpain and heat. We did have to finagle a worksite for her that was in the shade all day. With that and a book on tape, she was went at the job with a will.

While Cheryl was hard at staining the siding, I was having a blast wiring. Since this house is basic a timber frame structure, the usual wiring method of drilling holes through stud walls was of virtually no use. After a false start that I'd rather not give the details of (especially since it cost me, time, pride and money), I came upon the idea of notching the foam and burying the wire. This method is similar to what is used to wire a SIP (structural insulated panel) home. So I got an electric chain saw and went to work. WHAT A MESS! Everyday I said to myself, "this job really sucks but I'm one day closer to done!" Last weekend, I finished installing the wire and sealed up the channels with spray foam. Thank you Jesus!


Part of the wiring required a lot of work about 8ft. off the ground. Rather than trying to use the ladder, I made a poor man's scaffold. The 5 gallon buckets are partially full of water. I used ratchet tie-downs to secure the plank and buckets. It may look hokey but it was a very stable work platform. Good ol'e ingenuity strikes again.


















With the exterior wiring completed, all that remains before installing siding is installation of 3 exterior doors. We hope to get the doors set this week. We will finally be weathered in! The siding may take awhile unless Brian can come back to work soon. Let's hope he heals quick!!

The heating/hot water system installation is set to begin soon. We are putting in a tankless combination radiant heat boiler/domestic hot water unit. They are very efficient and fairly compact. We also have 3 cords of firewood on the way and a woodstove to be delivered in early September. None too soon.

This is second floor stairway. I told Brian I wanted an angled pattern to make things more interesting. The only additional criteria was the angle couldn't be 45 degrees. So he picked some other angle and here is the result. It is beautiful. I also went with vertical sheathing on the stairwell walls to emphasize the stairway verticality and relieve the horizontalness of the outside wall pattern.

















Oh yeah - H.T.S. That's Cheryl acronym for Hot, Tired, Sore. With all the manual labor, we both been getting plenty of H.T.S. It is gratifying to see the progress though. The house is actually starting to feel like a home.

Hot, Damn Hot!

For at least the last week, it has been in the low 90's, sunny and very humid. Not the kind of weather a person wishes for when building a house. We finished about 2/3's of the metal roof installation when the hot weather hit. Since then we've been working on installing windows and inside work such as partition building.

The well installation was also completed - yahoo!

Cheryl and Brian have also been busy applying two coats of tung oil to all our beautiful wood. The wood has a golden glow from their hard work.

The chimney people came and installed two Metalbestos chimneys. One is for our high efficiency wood stove and the other is for a wood cookstove. We'll be warm and fed even if the power goes out.

Our friend Bob came over to bail us out on the metal rood installation. Has a quite a bit of experience installing metal and showed. Here Bob and Brian are putting up the first two pieces. They are the most critical as they establish the "squareness" of the rest of the installation. It is difficult to locate these panels square to the house since there little in the way of reference points. Bob is a careful worker and he did a great job getting the roof on the right track.

I was especially impressed by how comfortable these two guys are the roof. No safety harnesses - just furring strips to keep them from sliding off. It's a 9/12 roof and I've been up there a couple times. Not that easy to stay on!











Here I am cutting the metal roof. I'm using an abrasive cutting wheel in my old circular saw to do this job. With sparks flying all over the place, it's not the most fun job. But like many parts of home building, ya just have to do it keep doing it until its done.















Cheryl is busy applying tung oil to all the wood in the house. It looks so nice! And it has a fine, fresh citrus scent.

She always seems to smiling, no matter how mundane the job.












The chimney folks came and cut two big holes in my beautiful roof. Kind of hard to run a woodstove without a chimney though. They did a nice job installing the stacks.



















Unfortunately Brian and I had the unenviable task of installing metal roof and flashing around these stacks. We finally finished yesterday. If we'd know how hard it would be we probably would have never done it. Kind of ridiculous thing to say though since the this part had to get done to have roof.

















Brian and I installing the first roofing panel over a stack. Every part of this job was hard!



















View when you walk in the front door. This is pretty close to the finished lo0k of the house. We decided to go vertical with the wood on the stairway to emphasize height. We are very pleased with the look. It is already very homey.














A view of our bedroom. The wall on the left will have multiple small shelves installed for storing food preserves. We plan on utilizing every bit of space in our new house to store food. There is not much storage space so creativity is a vital ingredient.

House and House and More House!

Yes, our lives are dominated by building a house. It's sad and somewhat demented but true. So, without further adieu, here is a photo montage of this month's progress.

The photo of of me hanging over the edge might need some explanation. The way we sheathed and insulated the roof was from the inside of the structure. The insulation is 4ft. x 8ft. foam panels. In order to attach it, we had to hang on the edge of the sheathing and reach out to screw it down. Definitely made for a sore body at the end of the day.

Jane is enjoying our newly minted stairway. Stairs are a simple thing and so much nicer than a ladder for getting upstairs!!

With the completion of the mudroom (the little room that Brian is standing in front of), the structural portion of the building is complete. We are finishing it this weekend.

With the help of new friends Paula and Rob, we also put up a 20ft. x 12ft. canopy this week. Then we installed plastic tarps for walls and door. Initially we will be using it for material storage. Eventually it will house the tractor and miscellaneous outdoor stuff. Great to have more covered storage finally.

Soon we will be putting on the roof and installing doors & windows. Cool bananas!

The Elephant in the . . .

My wife Cheryl recently remarked this blog has basically become a construction progress chronicle. And she's right. Building the house has come to dominate our lives, pretty much as we knew it would. We still manage to eat out occasionally, watch DVD movies at night, play some music and visit with friends. But house building, paid work, basic housework, car repair and bill paying are the priorities. We have been falling off a bit on the housework lately when we come home beat from building. But we will survive a messy house.

To provide a little variety, the photo above is our little fruit tree nursery. Cheryl and I went to a tree grafting school and produced 20 grafts. The grafts are mixture of various apple varieties, some plums and pears. We had them in the basement (cellah around here) for several weeks until planting time. Most of the grafts were already starting to bud so it was time to get them in the ground.

Jayne is also quite busy with music theater. She is currently performing in "Guys and Dolls". Rehearsals for "Hair" will start soon after Guys and Dolls closes. She is also beginning the process of looking at colleges with an eye on a vocal performance degree, specifically opera. Part of the application process is a vocal audition for which she is preparing with her voice teacher. Auditioning has gotten much easier for her as she has now done several for theater
productions. Having received her GED with excellent scores (her graduation ceremony is June 2), she is now engaged in studying for the SAT. Aren't tests fun?

On to the house building. We accomplished much in April as you'll see from the pix. Starting to really look like a house. One of our best moves in this endeavor has been hiring an Apprentice/Construction Laborer to help us build. We chose a 26-year-old man named Brian who has turned out to be a real treasure. He knows his way around tools & building, is intelligent and enjoys engaging with us in figuring things out, and has a great sense of humor & easy-to-be-with personality. We're thrilled with him!

We decided to paint the floorboards before installation. This saved much neck pain and avoided getting paint on the floor joists. We had quite a little production setup to handle the painting. The floorboards were spread out on long 2x4's, supported by saw horses. With three of us painting, we were able keep up with the flooring installation needs.

The bottom (ceiling side) was painted Antique White wash to allow the wood grain to show through. The top side was painted with a primer to protect the wood during construction. Later we will apply a durable enamel, color to be named later.

Installing the flooring was a bit of a job. The flooring is 2x6 tongue and groove. Many of the boards were curved or twisted. Thank the Divine Presence for the Bow Wrench - that's the orange handle sticking out from under my hand. This is the tool have when dealing with curvy deck boards. It clamps onto the joist and gives you tons of leverage to bend virtually any board into place. We were happy campers when the last floor board was nailed down.
The result - a very stout floor indeed. And the white ceiling will reduce the "cave-like" feeling wood houses develop as the wood ages and darkens.




















At left, Cheryl is busy building roof trusses. There are 11 of them altogether. I've been traveling quite a bit lately so Cheryl and Brian have teamed up to fill the gap. They built and installed 11 floor joist and beam assemblies. They also built the first three trusses while I was out of town. They developed a well organized system to make sure the trusses were built right. When we installed them, they fit perfectly.

The picture above shows Brian fitting the truss over the "goal post" 2x4's that stick up through the floor. This joint is referred to as a mortise and tenon and is very strong. Sandwiching 2x lumber makes it easy to form mortise and tenon joints.

Our neighbor and landlord Andy came over last Saturday with the "Lull" to set the first three trusses. The Lull is a 4 wheel drive lift/loader that can handle just about any job. Brian thought the machine was really cool - no doubt! Andy is a commercial mason so he is no stranger to lifting and placing heavy things. His wealth of experience helped make the lift a piece of cake.

A vital part of framing construction is bracing. Until the sheathing boards are installed, the structure is vulnerable since nothing is really tying it together. We braced the truss to the floor and then braced the three trusses to each other. Once all the trusses are installed, which will happen this Friday, we will go back and adjust them for plumb and equal spacing. Then we check the walls to make sure they are square and plumb one more time before installing sheathing boards.

We are having fun doing this project it's very rewarding... so cool to watch a home coming to life in the beautiful Maine woods.