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.