We had a big delivery of wood arrive yesterday: 2700 linear feet of 1×8 tongue and groove boards. We got the wood from County line lumber in Athol. They have great deals on all sorts of building materials. The boards will be used for the underside of the soffit and also much of the interior ceilings. With no place to store the wood, it was time the build the garage. Thom and I finished it in a few hours.

OK, I am joking around. Its a temporary structure made from our old concrete forms and whatever other wood we had lying around.

The hardest thing about building this structure was not laughing while doing it. Before we tarped it, it looked like an oversized kids’ fort or perhaps something out of a Robinhood movie set. After being so precise and meticulous about every detail with the house, it was a great respite to build this. Not to mention, Thom helped, and everything is more funny with Thom.

Thom returns! And he thought he saw the last of moving the concrete forms. Thank you Thom!

Load of wood safely stored in our make shift garage. Thank you Adam and Darryl for helping to unload.

One of the latest projects has been the exterior trim. Two weeks ago I purchased 50 or 60 rough sawn cypress boards from Forest Products Associates here in Greenfield. I recently learned that cypress holds up very well to the weather, and takes paint better than western red cedar. I brought the boards to a local mill (Hall Tavern Farm in Charlemont) to be planed. We will be using 1×4 for the windows, 1×6 for the corner and frieze boards (goes under neath the soffit), and 2×10 for the water table (goes around the foundation). We already chose a dark red for our trim, which can be seen on our fascia board (goes at the face of the soffit), but Hannah and I decided to have white window trim. The red will be carried down in the corner, frieze, and water table boards. I also decided to use a solid stain for the window trim–that way we can be a little more lazy about repainting.

We had two good days of weather at the beginning of this past week and we just finished the first coat. Before we could begin we needed to make figure out the work flow, make drying racks, and most importantly re-saw quite a number of boards into the widths we needed.

A big thank you to Dan! We wouldn’t have been able to get this one all done before the weather without you. Thank you to Beth for helping get the paint on.

Here Dan and I are rabbetting a groove on the edge of the corner trim boards. The groove allows the siding to tuck behind the trim. This prevents water from getting behind the siding, and it creates a better looking connection.

Sending 16 foot long boards through a table saw is tricky. One person feeds, another receives. Both people need to stay focused–little movements left, right, up, or down can cause the cut to go in the wrong direction or the have the wrong depth. To help us out we used three feather-boards to push the board up against the fence and down against the table. In retrospect, this setup could have been improved. Here the dado blade is on the opposite side of the board as the fence. If it was on the same side, the feather-board pushing down, could have been pushing the feather-board onto the blade.

Dan helping to paint trim boards

For the 1×4 window trim we had a vertical drying rack on the porch. Having all the boards gave a neat louvered effect to the porch. Dan is in the background painting.

For our larger boards, we had to have a horizontal drying rack. Erik had left us with some 14″ long timberloks which served to keep the wide boards vertical.

Over the past couple of days, Adam assembled the window trim. We also rabbeted a groove around the sides except for the top.

Here is the finished product. As you can see the siding dives behind the trim creating water secure and visually appealing connection.

It was my niece’s first birthday last week and Hannah thought we should make her a toy rather than buy one. I agreed.  When I saw some of our decorative rafter tail cut-offs lying around at the job site I knew the toy was going to be a race-car.

The entire car is made form materials at the jobsite. I used a hole saw to make the wheels. Simpson structural screws serve as the axels.

I have been worrying that we wouldn’t be able to acquire granite counter top scrap for the entire first floor floor, but no more! Taking advantage of the rainy day, I traveled to a local counter top manufacturer, and discovered they had plenty of scrap–and they were happy to help me out. (A big thank you and shout out to them) It took an hour to pick through the piles and load up the truck. For those who know me, I love to go rock hunting and this was a rock hunter’s paradise. There were so many different colors and patterns in the stones–some of which are clearly not granite.

Perhaps I loaded the truck up a bit too much.

My parents happened to be visiting yesterday and helped unload. (photo by Hannah)

Admiring the haul (Photo by Hannah)

Adam and I built the entryway that will protect the Vernon St. door this past week. We just need to put the metal roof on.

The entryway that has no door. The rafters, posts, and curved cross piece are all black locust that we cut down on a friend’s farm in Gill. Hall Tavern Farm milled the logs up for us. (photo by Hannah)

Yesterday I drew up plans for the Vernon St. door, which we will be tackling next. Even though I have been using Archicad for designing the house, I find it easier to be creative working on paper.

We finished the porch roof on the 2nd of July. An unexpected benefit of the white roof: in the late afternoon the porch roof reflects quite a bit of light into the bathroom, as though the ground was covered in fresh snow.

The porch uses black locust posts that we bought from Blue Sky in Colrain MA. The rafters are 3×7 rough sawn hemlock from Hall Tavern Farm. Adam used mortise and tenon joinery for the locust braces.

Another project that has been ongoing is the electrical work. Since this is a side-job for the electrician progress has been slow, but steady. Over the last three weekends we have nearly completed wiring the second floor.

3 gang box in up stairs hall way

Bathroom fan mounted in ceiling (thank you Erica and Mark!)

Last week’s rain forced us to shift gears and work on window extension jambs. Since the walls are so thick we need to extend the jambs of the windows. We found a great deal on 1×12 clear pine: $2/LF. Adam was so impressed with the quality of this wood–he spoke about each piece as though it were a person. He has been doing a fantastic job putting together and installing the extension jambs.

I have been particularly excited by this latest progress. Up until now, the only finished surfaces in the house were the second floor floor and the roof. It is really starting to come together.

1x12 clear pine for extension jambs

Living room extension jamb

Mudroom window extension jamb. This window was added late in the game. It fits right between two studs so we didn't need to alter any framing.

Extension jamb for kitchen window