A couple of weeks ago a picked up our last five windows. These are the high-efficiency triple pane windows made by Serious in Colorado. We installed the final one today!
Single- Hung (the top is fixed) Triple pane Serious window installed -- stair well window
Fixed triple pane Serious window stats - U .18 = R 5.5!
One of the projects that has been ongoing for the last few weeks is the construction of our porch. Progress has been slow for a number of reasons. The porch design was neglected in favor of pushing house construction forward, so we had to do a bunch of design work just to get going on it. Also, we chose materials that are not addressed in the code book and we needed to work with the building inspector to make sure we doing things right. Specifically, we are using 6″ diameter black locust posts and 3×8 hemlock beams for the rafters.
Finding center line on the black locust posts with a laser
Kerfing the post to create the tenon
Kerfs on locust posts complete
Cleaning out the kerfed tenon with a chisel.
One side of the tenon done
Mapping out where each post will fall
Mapping out where the locust posts will fall
The joists for the porch installed
Porch black locust posts installed
Black locust porch posts installed
Many things have been accomplished since the last post. One of the most exciting is that the rough in plumbing is done and approved. It took several days of hard work. Here are some pictures:
Second floor plumbing in first floor ceiling
Second floor bathroom rough in plumbing for sink and toilet. When we tested the drainage vent system by filling it entirely with water the toilet plug leaked water down on to the table saw.
Second floor bathroom rough in plumbing for shower
Main vent stack going into roof. We still need to complete its path penetrating through the roof. The main vent stack ended up in a wall that I hadn't anticipated it in and so I had to pad it out to accommodate the 3" ABS pipe.
Second floor laundry rough in plumbing. We decided to move the laundry into the second floor bathroom. It fits rather nicely under the eave. It was like I had planned it all along.
Water line supplies for kitchen and second floor bathroom drain. The standard is to use plastic pex pipe for all water lines--cheaper to buy and quicker to install. However, in the event that we discover that pex leaches some yet-to-be named toxic acronym into our hot water I thought it best that we have at least one copper line in the house.
Air test setup for water lines. It was a lot of work to setup for a test that lasted 5 minutes. The only leak we found was a compression fitting (Pro-press) that hadn't been pressed.
Yesterday we finished the last of the partition walls! It really feels like a big step forward. Its time to call in our plumber and electrician to do their respective rough-ins. I will be moving on to constructing the three other exterior roofs: porch, above the first floor windows and above the Vernon St. door.
Hannah is on vacation this week and yesterday she spent a large part of the day helping out including disassembling our staging brackets, cutting and installing blocking, and spray-foaming the air barrier between the exterior walls and roof. Go Hannah!
Over time we have found a number of glass bottles in the dirt and excavation. Out latest two bottles came to us because out neighbor Dan needed fill dirt. We spent a few hours loading up the truck with dirt and taking it around the block. I love it when things work out: we don’t have to pay to remove the extra fill, he gets free material to fill in his old foundation hole. We have quite a few more truckloads to go. Perhaps we should get some help with this.
Old glass jars that we found. Including a 1950's Orange Crush Soda Pop, a jar that has an intact metal lid with original? liquid (it says Waterman's on the bottom) and Bromo-seltzer made in Baltimore, MD by the Emerson Drug Co. The neat thing about the Soda bottle is how thick the glass is--I suppose that is why it lasted so long.
Hannah had the day off from work today and decided it was time to start our garden. We began by neatening up the “front” yard which has been taken over by construction materials. I prepped a couple of the concrete forms and Hannah filled them with our stockpile of topsoil. We ended up not planting yet because we realized we need to figure out where we will get water from first. Hannah had a hard time deciding what seeds to get, but tried to stick with veggies that don’t need much attention and provide later in the summer. In the end she got kale, green beans, carrot, and zucchini.
Hannah playing in the dirt
Hannah had the day off from work today and started our garden by putting together a couple of raised beds.
We are closing in on the finishing all of the major framing. All that remains is the kitchen peninsula half wall and the wall that boxes in the shower.
The framing is done for the first floor bathroom, the mechanical room, and underneath the stairwell. On the left wall you can see the rough opening for the stained glass window. It took a while to get around to this because we contemplated changing the layout by pushing the bathroom north into the mechanical room and giving adding space to the living area. This would have meant moving the sink to the laundry drain and the laundry to the bottom of the second floor drain. Although the plumbing connections appeared to allow this we learned we couldnt because the sink is the wet vent for the toilet and as such its elbow that is embedded below the concrete is tilted up a little. The laundry drain is not. In the end we decided to move the laundry machine to the upstairs bathroom, which it actually fits quite nicely in, and keep the hot water tank in the mechanical room (for a time we were considering moving the hot water tank into the root room and doing away with the root room).
When we tested out the kitchen layout we decided to recess part of the north kitchen wall into the root cellar room so that the refrigerator can be flush with the counter tops. This photo shows the section of the wall after I took it out.
Alteration to the kitchen wall to accommodate the refrigerator. It was fun to move a wall like this.
On Tuesday I finished the stairwell to the third floor. Aside from the lack of natural light the third floor room has turned out to be one of the nicest rooms to be in. The fact that you have the stairwell in it along with the sloped ceiling makes it feel quite cozy. A couple of days ago Hannah and I hung out and played a game of cribbage in it.
Looking down at the stairwell to the third floor
Cozy third floor room
Second floor framing and stair well to the third floor
It has been amazing to go up and down stairs between the floors now instead of a ladder. It has been several days now and I still get the giggles. Monday and Tuesday were spent working on the second to third floor stairs, which are about half done.
Hannah and I spent time this past Saturday planning out the kitchen with plywood on saw-horses. Much to my surprise, it seemed to actually work! This was good news was needed because there has been some issues with the mechanical room plan. The hot water tank and laundry machine both don't fit. I thought they would because I based the plan using Archicad's default sizes for these appliance. Luckily there is a fairly easy solution: move the tank into what was going to be the above ground root cellar room. We can always store roots in the garage or a dedicated exterior cellar.
The last week has brought with it a variety of tasks. I have installed some of the first floor partition walls and finished the major partition walls on the second floor.
After having lunch with my adviser from CET with regard to the Energy Star incentive program, I learned that I needed to air seal the tops of my walls where it meets the roof. This was not welcome news as it took two days to do the rather tedious work. I used the scrap Zip sheathing board and cut pieces to fit between the studs, plates, and braces.
Today Adam and I began work on the first floor stairs! Very exciting. We spent the first half of the day “head scratching” as Adam would say.
The partition wall between the kitchen and mudroom ready for assembly
The lower half of the stairs being assembled
Design & Construction of Spartan & Hannah's Home 