A ROOF!

Today was one of those days where progress seemed huge! The boys were busy nailing plywood to the trusses. They worked hard and got a lot done.

One side of the roof is now largely done. It sure changes the look of things with the roof now looking huge. The good sized overhangs and angled facia board provide a very stylized view... very different from the norm. The eyebrows have yet to be finished and sheeted and that will make them stan out a lot more. The front gable still needs a lot of work but it is coming along nicely!

Inside the roof sheeting changed things in a dramatic fashion as well. It will be fun to finish off this area. We have some pretty cooth things planned. 

Stay tuned for more developments...

-grampa dan

Pulling some wire.

As with every project we have to do more mundane steps to take care of infrastructure before we can get to the more creative stuff that will cover it all up.

It is a little early for wiring through the house but we have to install the plug boxes into the outside walls so we can put on the expanded lath and then begin the sculpted concrete. When we build with LOGIX ICF (insulted concrete forms) we have to use special methods to do things like wiring. Slots are cut into the foam and the wire is pressed into place. Boxes are done in much the same manner. It is actually easier than doing it in a regular stud wall. I bought a used electric chainsaw back when we built our shop (using the same method) nine years ago. I welded a piece of quarter inch pencil rod onto the end so the saw could only go 3 1/4" deep (the foam is 3 1/2" thick.

I could then cut a 1/4" wide slot into the foam insulation with the chainsaw.

Normal LOOMEX type wire is used. We push it into the back of the groove we just cut using a paint stir stick. This makes it well out of the way of damage from any wayeward screws.

Friction holds the wire in place nice and tight. Rectangular holes are cut for the boxes and they too are pressed into place. A little PL300 holds them securely without melting the surrounding foam.

Then it is time to add some insulation back into place. A can pf spray foam does the trick in a hurry.

As the foam expands it bubbles out a bunch but that is no worry for we'll allow it to harden and cure and then tomorrow we'll trim it off flush with the LOGIX ICF blocks. 

In a short while I had installed the plugs on the porch and front of the house, with the wires tucked in to the top of the walls and then stapled neatly into the trusses all the way back to where the electrical panel would eventually be. Now it is time get back to putting up the galvanized mesh on the outside of the house and get on with the theme work.

-grampa dan

Piece by piece

Some days progress on the house appears to be swift. Jobs like nailing on trusses or sheeting in the flatter roofs covers a lot of territory in a hurry and looks impressive. Other tasks like stick framing the eyebrows requires every piece be carefully measured, marked and cut to fit. Curved assemblies are often exponentially trickier and necessarily slower. Each step. cutting, and assembling the framing, sheeting, and eventually roofing of a project like this will take more care, time and effort. But the results are worth the extra work without a doubt. The eyebrow roofs are just such a task.

Out front on the porch the same type of endeavor is taking place. We've now cut and welded well over a mile and a half of steel rods in place (with another mile of steel to go) to form the trees and porch walls. We've cut more than fifty sheets of 3/4 plywood to all kinds of shapes for the understructure of the beams and eyebrows. Another eighty sheets or so of 1/2" and 3/8" plywood were cut and shaped to form the window bucks and backing for the trim. Hundreds of sheets of expanded lath will be painstakingly hand tied in place in preparation for the fiberglass reinforced concrete to follow.While there are certainly faster and easier ways to build a typical house this is what it takes to build a house full of imagination and whimsy.

Tomorrow we are hoping to do our work in the sunshine. That makes any task just a little more fun!

-grampa dan