build a "green" house

AND we’re off! Tonight we put the first coat of paint on the walls of one of the rooms! The crew painted the ceilings and primed the walls. So D & I took an hour or so and put a coat of “Sous Chef” (yellow!) on the masterbedroom walls! Felt good to get started, but we also realize we have a lot of work ahead of us. Whew.

As usual, I feel the pressure to keep ahead of the next contractor, flooring. We’ve kept the old wood floors downstairs, so the flooring work will be primarily in the addition, plus the downstairs bath and entry. So those are the rooms we’ll aim to finish first, so that hopefully they won’t be waiting on us!

Each new step means more work, but it feels good to see accomplishments. I guess that’s what they call a “work ethic,” right?!

It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted an update on the house project, so here goes. We’ve been REALLY focused on this goal, pretty much to the exclusion of everything else that’s not essential.

One of our main “contributions” to the labor is anything involving a paintbrush. So our work has kicked in, beginning with staining the siding. In my last post, I included a photo of the lap siding we were working on. Since then, we’ve done all the trim and now we’re working on the shakes that will go in the gable ends. It’s not a great shot, but here is an image of them drying in three of the handy-dandy drying racks. We’re about half-way through the first coat on the shakes. Anticipate the crew starting tomorrow with putting siding up.

Last week they did some initial insulating, and today the drywall crew hung the ceilings. Next step is for the insulation to go in the ceilings and walls, and then the drywallers will return (probably next week).

I think we’ll move straight from staining to painting the interior! Yikes!

Today, my daughter and I spent about 5 hours staining our first batch of the cedar siding. We took a lunch break midstream—in part because we were hungry, but it was also especially nice to get some fresh air away from the stain!

Here she is showing off the boards of our labor!

It was a slow week for a couple reasons including weather and availability of contractors and our own personal commitments. However, we did see some progress including installation of most of the electrical and plumbing as well as the woodstove. It feels good!

Progress continues despite the cool rainy weather, since now much of the work is indoors. The electricians and plumbers have started their work, and the drywaller was there yesterday to estimate his supplies.

Also, we’ve begun the work of cutting up the old logs so they can be made into cedar shakes for siding the gables and possibly more. We’ve cut about 6 times what’s shown in the photo, but it give you an idea.

Here’s a photo of “before” ... A very quaint little place, which had a lot to recommend it, but also a few issues. Wet, moldy basement, leaky roof, minimal insulation … and we were willing to deal with that stuff. But it also didn’t have enough bedrooms, so I was renting another house.

since I last posted, and we’ve had lots of progress despite the wet weather. Unfortunately, the most recent photo I have is from Sunday, so it’s not completely up to date, but it gives you some sense for how things have changed on the outside. The inside has come along even more, with all the walls framed in. We’ve found opportunities to re-use some old doors from the old house. And this weekend (again, despite the weather) we hope to get some of the old logs cut up so they can be sawn into shakes and lap siding! I love this stuff!

This afternoon, after a nice solo hike and time to hang out with my kids and friends, I went over to see how things are coming on the house … Wow! Here’s a photo of today’s progress. (I tried to go back to my earlier posts and add photos so you could see the progress, but I guess it won’t let you do that. Oh well, I’ll add some before shots as we go along…)

After work today, I drove over to check the progress on the house. Now the roof is gone entirely, and the ceiling remains in just a couple rooms. There is a large shop vaccuum set up on the ceiling, for sucking up the old insulation, bat poop, and whatever else is up there! The windows have been removed from the log walls, and all the doors except the exterior ones have been removed! WOW. There is no question now that we are making progress!

We are saving as many things as it seems practical to save: windows, some of the big pieces of lumber (to be used to build a garden/potting shed), tin roofing (for shed). Also, we’ve covered the old wood floors to protect them, so they’ll be our flooring on most of the 1st floor except the bathroom, which we’ll tile.

The other great recycling idea we’re looking into came from our builder. He came up with the notion of re-using the exterior vertical logs by having them milled into cedar shingles for use as siding! (Because they are warped and the ends have been ruined by rot and ants, it is impractical to try to save them as walls.)

So, I feel pretty good about the “green-ness” of the project so far, even though we HAVE filled a dumpster with debris. We’ll end up with a small home that’s far more energy efficient than the one we had. Yea!

is partially removed!

Forecast …
is for sun next five days!

Progress …
seems likely!