July 2016
Finally the right windows have arrived. We’ll get them put in as soon as we can. We have discovered that a small wren has decided that a good place for a nest is inside the house in a small space in the insulation. We discovered a nest with 4 eggs in it.
We are getting electrical work done, putting all the switches, outlets, and wiring in place. Once an area is done, we are putting up the sheetrock. That gets the huge stack out of our way.
June 2016
The fun continues – the second window order has arrived, and they are wrong also. So we still have wide open holes in the south wall of the house. We have put plastic over them, but it doesn’t block it completely.
We have all of the sheetrock now, and it is stacked outside against the south wall, with about 4 layers of plastic and tarp over it to keep the weather out.
We’re starting to put some sheetrock up in the great room, but we need to get all of the sheetrock inside the house before we go too far.
We also have the electrical panel installed and connected to the meter box. We had an electrician come and do that installation, and we are wiring the rest of the house.
We have also set up a system to automatically transfer water from the 4000 gallon collection tanks to the 6000 gallon storage tank. It involves a pump that is switched on and off by two float switches. If the 6000 gallon tank needs water, and there is enough in the 4000 gallon storage, the pump will come on and transfer water until the 6000 is full.
May 2016
We ordered windows and doors the end of April, and should get them by the end of this month.
The order came in, and we discovered that some of the windows were not built correctly, so we reordered the wrong ones. The store will pick them up when the new ones come in.
We are installing the doors, and the windows that are correct.
April 2016
The two of us spent 4 very busy days laying out and gluing all of the roofing membrane down, one section at a time. Trying to do an entire roll at once was an impossible task, so we cut it into sections and laid one at a time.
This seems to have worked very well.
Addendum – April 2017 –After a year, the roof show no signs of any problem with the seams in the sections. The glue is holding it all down very nicely.
We have also started collecting rainwater from the roof of the house. We’ve brought in a 6000 gallon tank and have transferred some water from our 4000 gallon storage to it.
March 2016
We finally have the roof deck in place. We had to put all the rest of the decking up on top, then set the final joists in place. Last step is to install the remainder of the decking.
The last of the month, our son came for a few days, and helped with the final steps of the roofing. We put a layer of rigid foam on top of the deck, then a thin plywood on top of that. We have set the rolls of roofing up on top (with the help of a rented lift), and the six buckets of adhesive.
We have also put the insulation up into the roof area. We are insulating the roof since the attic space (there isn’t very much of that) will be part of the conditioned space of the house, same as the crawl space area under the bedroom and the west half of the house.
February 2016
We’re putting up the rest of the joists and the roof deck. We’re using 5/8 Zip system decking, and taping all the joints thoroughly. Hopefully that will eliminate most of the water on the floor that seeps through underneath.
Putting up joists is an interesting experience. We have two sections of scaffolding on wheels that we can move around where needed. We prepare the joist, and lift it up across the 2 sections, then I get up on one end, and Denise on the other, and we set it in place and screw it to the top of the wall. Then we come down, prepare the next one and do the same thing again.
After we have enough joists in place, we use our panel lift, and put some pieces of the roof decking up on top, move them into place, and fasten them down.
Then back to joists, and more decking.
January 2016
We have the roof materials now, and we will start putting part of the roof up. That will clear space for assembling and raising the rest of the walls. After that, the rest of the roof can go up.
We did notice that Google earth finally (after almost 3 years) did post new images taken the very last of the month, and it shows the house with half the roof in place.
December 2015
We have rented a tractor with a bucket, and are putting the gravel base into the solar mass area. We also have a compactor, and we’re compacting it very hard, since the concrete blocks and the slab will go on top of the gravel.
We have the concrete blocks laid in place, and our contractor is coming to pour the concrete slab over them. Once that is done, we can start with the next steps of the process.
Our daughter is coming for the holidays, and she will be able to help put up some walls with us.
We have the rest of the north wall, the west wall, part of the south wall, part of the east wall, and the central wall put in place at the end of the month. The only wall area still open is the area around the slab. We’ll get the roof joists and decking delivered and have them put it directly onto the slab.
November 2015
The rains have continued, and we are trying to keep the water out of the solar mass area. We’ve put a plastic sheet down in the space, and are collecting most of the water.
We did put up a section of the north wall, having it well braced so that the winds won’t push it over.
More later.
October 2015
Finally finished putting all the floor joists in place, and we have started putting down the subfloor. These 4×8 panels are hard to move into place and to get them to fit together. The tongues don’t want to go into the grooves.
My thumb was the first casualty of the process when I hit it with a 2-1/2 pound hammer. Ouch!!
The rains have started, and naturally the floor is far from water-tight, so we are getting a lot of water on the ground in the crawl space. Since we have already put down insulation and plastic sheeting, there is a lot of water standing in there. The space for the solar mass floor also is a big pool of water.
Oak 'N' Meadow 