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).
 

Drywall and Insulation

We are concentrating on drywall (and insulation) as that is the main thing holding up other progress.  And it is cold outside so indoor work is the priority of the winter.

A lot of the interior wall areas have been glued and screwed.  And we are working on the ceiling of the first floor. We need to make progress with pocket doors, which includes getting a hammer drill and tapcon fasteners AND the 36" doors, at least 4 of the 5 doors, and then we can continue the drywall over those areas.  And Sunday, we will be fishing some more wires, and perhaps, if it is warm enough, caulking around windows, doors and electrical boxes/wires in the exterior walls.

It was 55 degrees in the house when I went out there (around 9 am) - 18 degrees was about the low outside this morning.  The exterior walls are not insulated yet.  We are working on the South wall insulation.

We are enjoying the process.  And still married - happily.  At this point, we know Christmas 2014 is no longer realistic as a possibility of moving in. So we are hoping for the spring 2015.

Earth Tubes IN the Culvert Pipes and UNDER the Driveway

The Earth Tubes are now under our driveway.  There are two 'bundles' of air pipes, seven 6 inch PVC Schedule 40 pipes in each bundle.  Each bundle goes thru our 'heat exchanger' culvert pipe which is 40 ft long, to scavenge heat from each other and to be extra-protected from vehicular traffic above. These air pipes include kitchen and bathroom vents and the dryer vent as well as earth tubes.

West 7 pipes w clean out for dryer vent pipe

 Unfortunately, the plumbers covered the pipes as they were working so we don't have a picture of all of the pipes on the West side.  One of those pipes (west-most) was very deep so it was better to fill the ditch before working on the pipe above it. They are the earth tubes from the West Annex.

East 7 pipes

In this picture of the East air pipes, you can easily see all 7 pipes. You can also see four of the five 12 inch 'pillars'  that will support the grade beam that will be under the sidewalk and posts for the balcony/deck. The air pipes were relatively at the same depth under the house slab.  The  East culvert is about 14 feet from the house.  The West culvert is about 18 feet from the house.

Working inside the house while this was going on was detrimental to one's health because of the glue fumes.  We opened the doors to the South and North promoting air flow and helping the air quality without losing too much heat.  Once they finish the pipes, extending them another 30 feet into the woods, we should have good air flow without opening windows or doors. And the air pipes being under the dirt will exchange heat with the soil. We expect this to keep the house temperature relatively constant. 

Looking into the ends of the culvert pipes, they are packed with pipes and insulation.  And there is 2 inch blueboard insulation over the pipes as they go into and come out of the culvert pipes.

East end of culvert pipe close to house

End of West culvert pipe far from house

 At this point, each pipe has a wire in it which will be replace with parachute cord.  This cord will be used to enable cleaning the pipes as needed, if needed.