Garage Temperature, House still in Drywall mode, Concrete Excitement

I visited the garage Wednesday.  It still needs some work done.  But I was interested in the temperature and whether it had any humidity problems.  We have a Min-Max thermometer there.  The current temperature was 70.3 F  The Max was 71.0 F and the Min was 47.8 F.  I reset it.  I did not see any moisture or feel any.  The earth tubes and umbrella seem to be keeping the garage at a good temperature.  We still need to finish the insulation on the end wall around the garage door, and do drywall and incorporate electric lights.  The garage will have to wait, our main priority is the house at this point.

We continue to continue to mud and sand.  We still have the North wall awaiting the deck installation and the solution to our window leak problems.  We had some signs of humidity in the house and we found that our HVAC contractor cannot install our system until mid August, so we invested in a dehumidifier. For now, any humidity problems are gone.   It is a very pleasant 71 F, and a little hotter upstairs.

On the exciting side, our concrete contractor showed up today.  They started grading for the slab on the North side and setting forms.

Continued Drywall and Paint Progress

The house project is progressing.  Perhaps not at a spectacular pace, but we are happy with the progress. 
We have had a mishap this month.   Damien was up on the scaffold working on the steel arches, scraping them, preparing for paint.  He took a fall, but landed on his feet.  He did not break any bones, hit his head or lose consciousness.  He was very lucky. We look forward to his full recovery.
Bill has been working on the pocket doors and the west arch.  Two of the five pocket doors  are installed (framing and tracks) and drywall applied.  The arch is structurally there with drywall and mesh and is in the mudding process.

Pocked Door Installation #1 -Second Floor Office/Bedroom

Pocked Door Installation #2 - First Floor Bedroom

West Arch looking Southwest

Kim, Damien, and Brian have finished the scraping/paint preparation.  Kim has started painting the steel arches in the barrel vault in the living room.  The concrete part still needs to be done.

Landing Support is Now Suspension From Above

The landing in question is at the top of the stairway.  It is a large landing to accommodate a wheelchair or other large objects in transiting the stairs.  It was being supported temporarily by a post.  We have taken the post away and replaced it with a chain attached to the rebar within the concrete ceiling.

 We continue with our drywall.  It will end someday....soon.

A Major Drywall Milestone

Keith has been driving us lately.  The knowledge that his other job will probably be taking him away from us in March made us realize the valuable asset he is to us.  The past two weeks we primarily had him helping us with the South wall.  It still needs some work, but the major heavy work has been accomplished.  Thanks, Keith!

Bill on the scaffold measuring for the last 3 sheets of drywall

 
 I estimate another 60-some sheets of drywall to be hung before occupancy (some more after that).  It has gotten too cold in the structure, with the low temperatures outside, to do painting.  It is about 44 degrees inside.  

The manufacturer of the windows has agreed to work with us to help solve our leakage problem.  We are looking for better weather for that also.  Snow is in the forecast again this week.

Here is what the painting looks like so far.

The closet where we checked out the color and said 'Yes!'

The reflections on the ceiling are from tools laid out to dry in the living room (first floor) that are in direct sunlight.

Drywall and Painting

We continue to do drywall.  None of the drywall is ready to paint  at this time, but some walls are close to ready. Bill worked on some shelving in the pantry while waiting for a 'subcontractor' to arrive and talk about our next concrete project.
He did call and put us off until today.....

I prepped one of the upstairs walk-in closets, which means I scraped and primed the metal arch.  I painted the barrel vault in that room.  I looked in this morning, in the overcast light, it was a nice pale blue.

 You can see through the doorway above, some of the metal arches still to be done, and the almost finished drywall.  The South wall, with the windows, is mostly insulated and will probably get drywall on it this week.  He did call and put us off until today.....

In my last post, I wrote of a window-leak problem.  The tape did not work.  The window still leaked. We are talking to the manufacturer via the distributor.  Our faith in the 'lifetime warranty' is waning.

Archway, Window Stop-Gap and Drywall Continues....

We have come to realize that we need the deck installed in order to finish the drywall near the North wall.  (The deck attachment bolts will be covered up by drywall.) So we have called upon John from wayback during foundation days of construction, to see if he has the time and inclination to join us again to install the sidewalk/curb under the deck.  He hopes to be out this coming week to take a look at the project.  Needless to say, after the sidewalk, there is the deck construction that we can call on the carpenters to come back and work on. 

We also have a window problem that seeps water into the house on the North wall.  We believe the corner joints in the window frames lack sealant. The window manufacturer has suggested 100% silicone caulk.  We noticed that the caulk needs 65 degrees Fahrenheit to be applied.  So I came up with a stop-gap.  I put three kinds of tape - duct, house-wrap, and masking- on three of the five windows that have problems. Since rain is in the forecast, we are ready to test this stop-gap solution until warmer weather allows the presumed long-term solution of caulk. Our only concern with the stop-gap solution is the possibility of the adhesive not coming off of the window frames.

Bill has been thinking, and started the actually building of one of the arches at the end of the hallway.

Meanwhile, the drywall continues, with mudding and sanding, along with screwing and gluing more drywall, putting off those areas near the North wall until the above issues have been addressed.

That's Keith behind that 'mask'

Bill has also framed out some window areas on bathroom walls to let natural light into those rooms.

We have ordered the doors for the pocket doors, and have the necessary tools and fasteners to attach the hardware to the concrete floors.  They should arrive this coming week along with a tub surround.

The temperature in the house is staying around 48 degrees, just a little on the cold side to do the mudding, for which it should be 50 degrees....and there is still some insulating to do too.

Data Logger Recording Temperatures, Humidities, Dewpoints

We set up data loggers to record temperature, humidity and dewpoint at three locations:  In the West Annex to record stats in an environment influenced by earth tubes, outside in the segmented wall to record outside stats (no direct sun), and in a conduit in the soil on the East side of the house for stats measuring the changes in soil temperature.  At this time, we do not have the insulating umbrella on our structure.  I am recording every hour for 12,000 hours.  So, I can safely retrieve the loggers in early 2016 and have line graphs of each location.
We continue with the drywall and insulation.
We have a window problem which we are addressing through our distributor and manufacturer for a resolution.  Five of the six 8 ft windows on the North side leak when it rains.  More so when there is a Nor'easter (which isn't often).