A victory and a setback...

Today, we got a few hours in after Margo got off of work.  We had to squeeze in the time because we went to celebrate our friends birthday later this evening.

Anyways, the victory was that we completed installing all of the window and finished the last section of the ridge cap.  We also put some more caulk on the ridge line to ensure that there wont be any leaks in the roof.  The windows turned out great and we are really pleased with the outcome.

Notice that the skylight is not installed yet because of the ridiculous price for quality flashing on a metal roof.  We are continuing with everything else and will come back to the skylight when we save money for the flashing set.

And the setback...  

We were not so excited to see that condensation had taken place in between the panels in one of the large windows on the side of the house.  This means that the seal has a leak somewhere and the "gas" in between the window panes is over saturated with moisture.  Since we got these windows for about 10 dollars it will be more cost effective to take the window out and replace it with another one.  Luckily, we found a nice lady that just did a remodel and is trying to get rid of 3 of the same size window.  The new one will look a little different but we both think it will be kind of neat and typical to the project to have no matching windows when we are finished.  

It was a bittersweet day to say the least but we are excited to get started on the bathroom wall and electrical/plumbing this weekend.  

-Jeff

 

Beautiful siding!

We are SO pleased to have purchased beautiful secondhand western red cedar siding today for about $.30/linear foot! Jeff found the siding on craigslist, and drove less than an hour away to pick it up the same day. It is 6", beveled, clear grade cedar, even better quality than we hoped for, for less than we planned to pay! We are more than pleased! :)

Packed up in the back of Carlos. (Thank you Arrie!!!)

Jeff holding samples up against the side of the house.

A closeup of the wood's grain.

A public budget....

So we've finally pulled out all of our receipts and tallied up how much we have spent on the project so far. (Emphasis being on the phrase, SO FAR) If you're interested, feel free to check out the page link right up at the top near our header, titled "Project Cost Summary."

On a progress note, this week a lot of planning for the electrical, heat source, and plumbing are going on. Behind the scenes work, but very important.

Thanks for reading!

-J & M.

Tenemos unas ventanas!!

So on Sunday our good-luck streak of sunny weather came to a sopping wet end. It was pouring rain all day long, not exactly the best working conditions. After church in the morning and a quick visit from Jeff's brother, we headed out to get a few hours of work done on the house. 

We finished installing 3 more windows and started on 1, for a grand total of 4 finished windows out of the total 6 windows, and an almost finished door. We still need to flash and seal the kitchen window, as well as installing and sealing the loft window and sealing the door. 

Around the outside edges of each window, we used hurricane proof waterproof flashing tape, which is the thick tape stuff you see below. We also sealed around the space between the window edge and window framing with spray foam insulation inside.

The house so far....

We have a real roof!

So we got out to the job site just after 8am today, and we really got some productivity flowing with that early start to the day! Jeff and I started out by sheathing the tiny wedges between the two roof pitches with plywood, in preparation for putting on the flashing and roofing today.

Then, Jef cut the edges of the plywood on top of the roof to line up with the framing that comes to a point at either end of the roof. This was an aesthetic choice, which kind of became a pain by the end of the day once we were making diagonal cuts on the metal, but we'll get to that...

Then our friend Mike showed up and helped us felt paper the roof and wrap the house in house wrap. (Thanks so much Mike!) He was a working machine, he's a fast guy!

My college friend Nicole came and helped us for most of the day...Thank you so much Nicole! She helped me with all the tasks that could be done on the ground level, since I am a bit skittish about standing on roofs....

The house got all wrapped up with the moisture barrier...

Jeff spent a lot of time protecting those wedges of wall from any moisture. First they got the layer of felt paper, then he caulked the area with a sealant, then placed aluminum flashing in the crack and screwed it in, and then over the edges of the flashing he placed waterproof flashing tape. No leaks in this house! 

Here is the first piece of roofing going on the roof, cut by yours truly. Thanks Sandy for all your help today!

Cutting the metal roofing was extremely loud, lots of hot metal flying around. To cut the metal roofing, we used a Skillsaw with a regular framing blade, but turned backwards so that the teeth were spinning towards the metal instead of away from it. This worked really well. (until we wore out our first saw blade that is...)

In the picture below Jeff is nailing the very last piece of roofing material into the sheathing. 

Then Jeff had to cut off the edges of the roofing at the same angle as the roof edge, which was a huge pain in the....well, it wasn't easy.

And last but certainly not least, we put one window and our front door in! We still need to finish plumbing the door and adding shims tomorrow, but it fits just great thanks to Jeff's excellent plans, measurements, and cuts!

Overall we had an extremely productive day, and we're SOOOO thankful to our kind friends for their help! Tomorrow we hope to get some more windows in. 

Mothers Day weekend