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.

"We're Building A FirstDay Now"

"We're Building A FirstDay Now", sung to the tune of "You're In The Army Now". We shifted into 2nd gear with the building of our FirstDay Cottage. Although the directions and drawings are pretty clear, there is still a good bit of adventure (read head scratching) involved. We are moving forward though!


A lot happened and is happening at Anam Cara this month. First thing is we found a tractor. Originally we were looking for a gas tractor with front loader. The main driver was cost. After looking at several gas tractors from the early 60's, we realized these machines offered low purchase price but often require a good mechanic. Since I am not a good mechanic and don't have the time, this was not a promising route. I also learned these tractors were gas hogs.

So switched gears to diesel. We had to raise our budget a considerable amount but we got quite a tractor for the money. After I found this tractor with a backhoe, we had a couple of major rainstorms. This revealed our land needs considerable drainage work to properly channel the water away from our new driveway. I was thinking we had all the excavation work done. Reality is I will be doing ditching for several years. In addition we plan a root cellar and several outbuildings. All will need excavation. This machine will pay for itself in a short time and be easy on fuel in the process.

The thing dangling from the bucket is a York rake. It's used to grade landscaping and gravel roads. Another handy tractor accessory on our place. By the way we call him "Ollie". The first tractor we looked at was an Oliver and we like the name.











The "boardwalk" was constructed after part of the worksite turned to clay soup. The area in front of the tool crib doesn't drain well yet. With all the rain we've had, our path to the crib became impassable. So I found yet another use for "useless" pine slab wood. Now we can walk through despite the rain. Not pretty but definitely functional.

We put Ollie to work immediately as part of the "goalpost" raising. Goalpost is the name given to the basic timberframe - like structure that is the first step in building a First Day Cottage. Ollie allowed Cheryl, Jayne and I to erect goalposts by ourselves. We do plan on getting help later but it was great to get going with our little team.



























The third construction picture shows the initial stage of building the roof truss. At this point we were building a portion of the truss to test the design. The actual won't be built until the 2nd floor deck is in place. We will build the trusses on the deck and bring in someone with crane to lift them into place.















Another major happening in March was rain. We got tons of it!! In fact an all-time record was
broken last month. There were two major storms - one with high winds and rain, causing much tree damage. It was a classic New England Nor'easter. Following that storm, another showed up dumping much more rain. Luckily there was gap between, allowing time for water to go down some. This pictures shows washout damage on Salmon Falls Rd. which runs right along the river.















Finally, "Henry" our Mercedes got a Maine antique auto plate. Jayne was especially pleased to have the Maine black capped chickadee on her favorite car!

House Building

Spring has come early to Maine. Couldn't be a better year for it for us. Although we are mentally prepared for winter weather returning, it seems less and less likely.

Last Saturday, we officially restarted construction by removed all the styrofoam covering the foundation. We were very happy to see the concrete came through the winter just fine. What a great day to work outside. I think it was supposed to be in the 50's but it felt much nicer. Not a cloud in the sky either.

We spent the rest of the day installing pressure treated 2x4 sills around the edge of the slab. Unlike a house built on a basement (cellar in New England), the sills on a slab have to be straight and parallel to each other. So I spent a good bit of time adjusting and re-adjusting until the goal was achieved. Sunday we laid out the support post locations on the newly installed sills. Getting the layout right will save a ton of grief later.

We did run into a layout problem that had us stumped for awhile. No matter how did the layout, the total was 1/2" wider than the foundation. This was not good or logical! Then Cheryl theorized problem was "cumulative error" - she was right! In lay person terms, cumulative error happens when a bunch of little errors add to create a big one. 1/2" in our case. Thankfully the errors were only pencil marks.

Cheryl and I took our time and cross-checked each other to make sure it was done right.

Jane came along to check things out too. Since there wasn't anything for here to do yet, she relaxed with some knitting.

The Present Moment

Many traditions teach the present moment is all we have. What a challenge it is to really live there. Our culture is often all about the future. Sometimes we look back. Rarely are we content with the present. But it truly is all we have.

Cheryl and Mojo are doing a fine job of modeling "present momentness" here.

Here's an example of a guy who is not doing as well with present moment.




















When it comes to work and me, its always been about increasing productivity. But I'm gradually and sometimes forcibly learning to let go.

Jayne had a banner month! She is a cast member of not one but two musicals. She landed a part in "Guys and Dolls" and "Hair". She is especially excited about "Hair" since it offers new challenges. But she also loves the familiarity of the "Guys and Dolls" environment. We are being treated to "Aquarius" regularly as Jayne does impromptu rehearsals at home.

Because of the new vocal challenges she faces, Jayne is getting expert coaching from an experienced performer. Her new teacher is a New York City performing veteran, including stage time at Carnegie Hall. She moved back to Maine because New York's pollution was impairing her voice. Jayne has really been blossoming under Sara's tutelage. Sara has said Jayne is good enough to get into Julliard! Whether that is the best place for her to go is another question. But Jayne is understandably thrilled as are we!

As if all that weren't enough, Jayne is also studying for the GED. The local adult education department offers an excellent refresher series and pre-testing services. She also is taking an Algebra refresher class because most university programs require Algebra. Although Jayne never had an Algebra class, she is picking it very quickly. In fact she has come to a certain enjoyment of the subject. Not that she will ever actually like math! But she is quickly learning how to deal with it.

Here is our master researcher at work. Cheryl has learned she is what's known as a "scanner". She revels in continually surveying the knowledge landscape, unearthing and examining new things with amazing regularity. I can't tell you how many times she pops up with wildly different topics from the Internet or books. One of her favorites sayings to me is, "you just have to read this book!" Unsurprisingly her desk is continually littered with a wide variety of literature. She always has at least a half dozen web pages open on her browser too. Its a good thing she is a skilled and passionate researcher. There is much to know about in the brave new world we are entering.

We are patiently waiting for spring to come so we can start building again. Our house site has been sleeping since mid-November. We are raring to go when the snow comes off though. Our goal is to be in the house by the end of July. It will be a challenge given my work schedule. Ya gotta have a target or you surely won't hit it though!

2010 . . . or not

Is it "two thousand ten" or "twenty ten"? During the last century, we said "nineteen ten". As a sometimes traditionalist, I vote for "twenty ten". Not a big issue I'll grant but not everything is.

This picture from Christmas morning summarizes how I often feel about the world. We are in turbulent, confusing and yes dark times. While some people insist things are getting better, it is important to ask and keep asking, "cui bono (who benefits)? Fact: the media outlets are owned by less than 10 major corporations. Fact: there are 5 financial lobbyists for every congressional member. What is the likelihood we are hearing the truth about those in power? What is the likelihood our elected representatives have the interests of the middle class taxpayer in mind?

An interesting free e-book I'm reading on these topics is "Survival+" by Charles Hugh Smith. The book can be found at http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html. The title is somewhat misleading since he isn't focusing on survival as it is popularly discussed. This book does a nice job of tracing how we arrived at this point in history. Unlike other books I've read, this one seeks to take a systemic view of the world and our society.

Some of my readers may not want to hear about this. I appreciate and understand. Captain Smith not especially concerned about icebergs in Titanic's path either. But I care about people hearing truth that can help them at least make sense of a world going crazier by the day. Like the Titanic, this country and the planet are not unsinkable.

Jayne went all-out this year to bring Christmas cheer to our modest home. She found a Martha Stewart article on making icicle lights - here's result. She also put up icicle lights on the house eave anda lighted wreath. All of this was accomplished without help from us!








The crowning glory was the Christmas tree. She spent quite a bit of time developing the perfect decorations. She even made gingerbread cookies to enhance the decorations. The dog thought they were good too - he picked off some low hanging cookies before Jayne noticed! Hobbes, our budgerigar also decided to get into the decorating act. He looks very at home.

























Twilight view from our rental place on Tory Hill. Nothing like a crisp, winter sunset in Maine. Even though we've been here almost 1-1/2 years, we still continue enjoying the beauty every day.








Although from a few months ago, here's a pic of Jayne and Leigh backstage during a production of "The Producers". Jayne had a wonderful time as an usherette in this hilarious Mel Brooks production. She will soon be auditioning for a role in "Guys and Dolls". We're really hoping she gets a part in this show.










Our house building project is now sleeping for the winter. But that hasn't stopped us from working on other aspects of our new life. We purchased a nearly new refrigerator on Craig's List from a couple near Boston. The situation was complicated by our van being in the shop when we found the fridge. Since we didn't want to miss out on a good deal, we drove down with the car to check it out and make a down payment. They thought we were a little nuts to make a second trip to pick it up. But when you can save $600 on a nice fridge, it's worth it. We also enjoyed traveling to Massachusetts since we have pretty much stayed around home since moving here.

Speaking of vehicles, we have been struggling lately with many repairs. This isn't surprising since the van has 245,000 miles and the Accord has 220,000 miles. In the last month we put a new gas tank, complete exhaust system and front ball joint on the Accord and water pump & brake pads on the van.

In the case of the Accord gas tank, the original reason for the repair was a bad anti-pollution valve. To get at the valve, the gas tank had to be removed. When the mechanic took it down, a tank seam sprung a leak. Since it was Friday and I was going to Vermont on Monday, I needed it fixed right away. He got it done and I picked it up on Sunday. I got about 2 miles down the road and it started running rough and losing power. I pulled over to the side of the road, got out and looked the car over. I found gas leaking from under the front of the car!

I got back in and turned around for the repair shop. I got about half way back and the car quit for good. I got out again and found gas pouring out. Ahhhh! I called Cheryl who called AAA and the fire department. By the time everybody got there, the gas had nearly quit leaking. With all the people who showed up, you'd think it was a major disaster. Kind of a disappointment for them I guess since things are pretty sleepy in Buxton. The tow truck hauled the car over to repair shop and the fire department soaked up the spilled gas.

I called the mechanic Sunday night and told him what happened. His guess was a couple of hoses got swapped during the tank replacement. Since I was leaving at 7 the next morning, he came into the shop early and had it ready for me at 7. What great service!

Here's hoping everybody is still on track with their 2010 New Year's resolutions:~)