Ready for rain

M was able to get pretty much everything buttoned up today, getting ready for the rain. She's sick again (my fault--I had it last week) but not as bad last month, and she's powering through it.

The front porch is now ready for roofing (timing tbd, but tar paper's down); raw wood has been primed against the predicted week of rain, and the floor is ready for decking.

Don't those corbels look nice?

The top part of the pillars is ready for paint: they'll be plain, but notice the slight "craftsman" flaring? The bottom will be built up (they're missing still--see below) and larger, and straight. They'll be shingled to match the dormer above.

Once again, the color is NOT the final color--the dull yellow-y color is just the color of the siding as it comes. Even the trim around the windows and the door itself will get painted--we're thinking a gray/taupe, but haven't picked the color out yet.

Ok, rain, bring it on. The trees need it, as do the California poppy seeds I sewed last week! We hope we can move inside to electrical while the weather is wet.

Doesn't it look AMAZING?

The Front Porch Continues

The work on the front porch continues. It's nearly ready for decking. We'll likely wait until after this week's predicted rain, since there's other work (the endless siding) that would be good to get farther on before the rain starts.

Here are a few photos. More to follow!

roof mockup in place, 2 of 3 footings poured

 

 

 

Framing out the structure

Roof sheeting on!

Though it's mostly been about the front porch for the last couple weeks, siding has continued, and the front is complete. More updated photos that also show decorative accents on front porch roof to follow!

Front porch

Though I've been an infrequent poster, we have accomplished some work in the past few weeks. We've had really dry weather, which isn't good for the climate but is really good for building.

Over the holidays, our big effort (besides siding, more on that another day, but suffice it to say the work continues) was to get the front porch and cover built.

First we poured the footings (it was pretty fun--I've never mixed concrete before)

There were three in total.

Two footings poured, assessing the third

More photos to come of the cover structure. And a follow up on the neverending siding.

Happy New Year!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (at least at one house)

Well, it's been a month since my last post, and what a month it was. Thanksgiving, work and being sick. That about sums it up.

Finally, everyone's feeling better, if not yet 100%. But our tree's been up (at the old house, not the new one) for a couple weeks or so, most of the cookies are baked, and I'm already sick of sweets. If you know anything about my sweet tooth, you'll know that's a pretty hard level to reach. But there you have it, and 4 days to go until Christmas.

M's been working hard at the siding. It's really a chore. I didn't want the vertical trim at the corners of the house--we both thought it didn't go with the style (too farmhouse-y) and so what that means is that every corner (and yes, there are more than 4) had to be measured twice, cut once and specially fitted. And on a 2 story house, that's a pain. Poor M. But it's looking good, and she's just about at the point where she's reached as high as she can go . . .

Meanwhile, all the doors and windows are in (including the straggling slider and garden window for the laundry room) and so as soon as we can get a propane heater, work can commence indoors. Right now it's colder inside than out. It'll be fun to transition to indoor work and stuff that's easy to reach!

Today we got a new tankless hot water heater for our current house. Our plumber thinks the existing one was about 25 years old, so it was time. Plus the new one is under the house, meaning we just gained precious closet space in this tiny house! We'll have tankless in the new house, too, and didn't HAVE to replace this one, but it's sure nice to know we don't have to worry about the old one rusting out and flooding our (decent) wood floors.

Sick

No, not sick in a good way. Sick as in M's been sounding like Brenda Vacarro, and has been really under the weather. And of course, that mean's I've got some sort of bug, too. So far it's manifesting only in my sinuses (a 1/2 box of kleenex in 3 hours? Really?)

What it all means is that it's been 5 days since I've even been to the house, and M's been there, but not to work at all.

Hopefully next week will be better . . .

My front door

I never thought I'd be so pleased about a front door. Here she is, delivered last week and installed by an injured M* and her mom last week.

Front door, with shingled dormer

NO, these baby-poop-like colors are NOT the final colors. They're just the somewhat coordinated colors the materals come in.

We also got my office door,  and the back laundry room door. We hope the slider and garden window should be delivered this week.

Meanwhile a-somewhat-less-injured M* continues to put up the lower siding. It's slow going when you're a one-person show, and even slower with a hurt thumb.

*a week ago Sunday, there was a mishap on the roof with a large level that slid and collided with M's thumb. Poor thing was not only cut but smashed. She should've had stitches, but didn't. It's healing, but very slowly.

Automatic . . .

It still needs some hardware for dress (kind of like jewelry) but the new garage door is here and installed. And the motor purrs--so quiet. YAY!

Tomorrow's a big day--Door delivery. Well, most of them. I love having stuff delivered!