In order to get an occupancy permit, one of the things we need to do is build guardrails for the balconies. The model shows solid panels, but I can’t figure out how to make those, except in a model.
The drywall is finished. The solar is commissioned. The water storage and propane tanks are in place. The boiler and pump panels will be here this week, as will the balcony rails. The goal is to call for an occupancy permit early next month. The building permit expires the 2nd of February. I don’t want to pay to extend it.
PowerPropane and water tanks.Storage batteries and inverter for off grid power
Went into Tucson today. After some scuffling about, I think I found the material for the baseboards, casing and window sills.
I love analog lists. I am unable to use a “phone” to keep track of critical path activities. I am unable to keep them in my head, either. So I scribble notes on whatever is available. I can check activities off as they are completed, and then send the other activities to a new list.
Franz Liszt, was a Hungarian composer and pianist, He wrote impossibly intricate and technically challenging piano music. His music, to me, is just a head game though. He was a “romantic” in music history- music history being a bunch of non-musical people inventing labels for college courses.
every decision is agonizing. waking up in the middle of the night to mentally review details to be completed in the next days/weeks. then, second guessing every choice. want it to be exceptional and fear that it will be average. nothing fits together perfectly. every new step involves a learning curve. and this old dog… oops, wrong metaphor. much of the work is high off the ground and everything is heavy. the wind, rain and snow aggravate the situation and my attitude. money is as limiting as the wind and rain and snow.
One of our balconies is over the master bedroom. We needed a way to make the floor of the balcony completely waterproof. Talking to local roofers and roofing supply companies was unproductive. It was hard to get advice and the supply companies seemed reluctant to sell to owner/builders. There is a company in ST. Charles, MO. which had the supplies and the guidance we needed. They put together a package, we paid for it and then they shipped it to us.
Installing the sheet in one piece eliminates seams which mitigates, or eliminates, leaks.The sheet waterproofing turns up the wall forming a curb at the door opening.The finish balcony deck will “float” on the waterproofing and will be even with the bottom of the siding.
A local person, who is a former building contractor, agreed to let us rent his scaffolding, which we could use to finish the sheathing on the second floor walls, and to finish the soffit and fascia. This ain’t no bamboo, lashed together, boards for planks-laid loose over sketchy frames-meet your maker type of scaffolding. The frames are 5 feet wide, spaced 10 feet apart by diagonal braces. Planks consist of 2 aluminum beams about 18 inches apart with plywood attached to the top. The plank beams have c-shaped brackets on either end which hang onto the tubes in the frames to create a walking surface.
His place (the local person) is about 15 minutes away. We can either use a trailer he owns, or borrow our neighbor’s trailer to haul the scaffolding back and forth. You’ll have this “in the country”.
We scheduled a crane to lift the trusses. They cancelled the day they were scheduled to be here. You’ll have this “in the country”. A few tense moments, and a few phone calls later, we found a company in Tucson which had a crane between jobs. One of the good things about a big city is that you can get almost whatever you want.
Second floor walls get built on the first floor deck, which, in this case, is about nine feet above the ground. Three of us need to be able to lift the walls after they are framed. Nailing the exterior sheathing to the walls before standing them will make them super heavy. Nailing sheathing after they are standing will require working 12-18 feet off the ground. We need a way to sheath the walls laying flat on the deck and to be able to raise them with that extra weight. Wall jacks solve that problem.
I wish I had a patent on these. We had a bit of difficulty with the wall on the right of the photo. The wall is 18′ tall and very heavy. Called balloon framing, in the parlance. We used tow straps and come-alongs to raise it into place.Framing boards, used as braces, which will be used later, maybe two or three times, hold the walls temporarily.
After a few more gyrations, we will be ready to set trusses, which is a whole other thing.
This beam was heavy. Our neighbor’s Dad had a backhoe and didn’t charge us to raise it.Making sure we are plumb and square.The center bearing wall.All the I-Joists are in place and ready for sheathing.No, this is not a Kansas landscape. It is the floor sheathing completed.
Bryan volunteered to travel from Idaho to help us frame the walls. We started out, randomly, on the north side. For the first wall we cut slots into the pressure treated bottom plate lining up with the anchor bolts in the concrete slab, thinking that this would make it easier to stand the walls. Turns out, it was just as easy to take a couple measurements and drill holes for the anchor bolts.
Bryan nails the first board. We should have been using galvanized nails to nail through the treated sill plate, because the treated wood can corrode nails. I went back after the walls were up and toe-nailed the studs into the plate (code approved) with galvanized nails.This is the easy part. Everything looks simple and clean. The beams to carry the second floor framing can be seen. The OSB sheathing panels on the corners will keep the walls square and plumb.
We worked our way around framing the exterior walls. Then we went back and stapled OSB sheathing on the corners to keep everything square. The next phase is laying out the second floor joists and rolling them into place. Holderness Supply in Tucson designed the I-joist floor system and sent the whole package, including beams, hangers, layout drawings and, the 3/4″ sub-floor.
February 2023. Bryan and I built the form work for the slab and we got all the reinforcing steel for the footings in place.
After some major weather inflicted delays, in early March the plumbers installed the ground work (all of the drain pipes and vent pipes for the eventual plumbing fixtures) which will be buried in the ground under the concrete slab.
What a mess!Shit flows downhill and payday’s Friday.
With that work finished, we were able to backfill the trenches and bring in the ABC material for under the slab. ABC means aggregate base course and it is a mixture of course and fine gravel and dirt. It’s called different things in different parts of the country, but it’s used under slabs because it’s easy to get level and smooth, it compacts nicely and it provides drainage.
The ABC fill almost done
At 5000′ elevation it gets cold here during the winter, even though we are 30 minutes from the Mexican border. A heated slab is the most comfortable and quiet way to heat, at least the lower level. We decided on a hydronic system which uses heated water running through loops of pipe buried in the concrete. A propane boiler will heat the water and pump it through the embedded pipes via a manifold system which feeds five circuits and two separate zones. There will be two thermostats regulating the two zones.
Mock up of the manifoldsHydronic layoutDocumenting the position of pipes Manifolds in place and pressure tested
We were lucky to find a good crew to place and finish the concrete slab. Originally I was going to place a 6 mil poly vapor barrier under the slab, which is standard practice in some parts of the country. Luis convinced me that doing that here would create more problems than it solved. Namely, the top of the slab would cure more quickly than the bottom which would result in cracks. All concrete will crack, but we might as well mitigate it as much as possible. He also helped layout the control joints which are tooled into the wet concrete rather than cut in later. The slab will remain exposed in the finished house, so this was an important design element. ( editor’s note: 10 months later the slab still only has one minor crack outside the control joints)
Shit getting real!Hand made!
Getting the slab poured was our goal for this winter, and we barely made it! Now we get to go back to our summer jobs to make some more money so we can carry on in the fall.
