Day 195: Roofing

Saturday

We've been excited to get the roof going for some time. Now that we've got the underlayment on and have a spell of good weather, we're moving forward with the roof. We decided to go with a metal roof. We like the look of standing seam, but not the price, especially the installed price, which can be five to ten times the cost of the price of a regular shingle roof. To keep costs down, I decided to do the installation myself. I also looked at manufacturers who are based in Kansas City to cut down shipping costs. We located a supplier and found a roof profile that combined the standing seam look with an easy-to-install process. It's called a SnapLock profile.

First, we installed the drip edge around the roof. Then, each piece of roof is notched and bent to create a notch to slide over the drip edge. Clips are then screwed in place to hold the edge down. The next piece snaps over the top of the clip, concealing the fasteners. I only had about 3 hours between football and a church meeting to roof, so we didn't get to far, completing most of the east end of the 4/12 pitch. Big thanks to Reed, Mandy, Steve, Matt and Max for helping.

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	195	4	7	9
All Time	195	222	254	1327.5	$13,496.75
Summary of 10/18/2014		Work Done Today
		Caulking siding, roof panels over garage
		Materials Used Today
		Roof
		Who Helped Today
		Matt, Mandy, Reed, Steve
		Contractors On Site
		Max Bingham

Day 191: Exterior Siding

We studied out a lot of different siding options. We really liked the hand-hewn chinked log look from one of our inspiration houses, but the faux log siding was both expensive and impractical. We also liked the natural look from another of our inspiration houses.

We had a few criteria. First, the exterior needed to fit the rural, country setting. Second, it had to fit our budget. Third, it had to be something that I could put on myself. And fourth, we wanted it to be as maintenance free as possible.

Unfortunately, those criteria are not always found in the same product. We looked at faux log siding, cedar siding, LP SmartSide, vinyl, fiber cement board, and others. We liked the look of the faux log siding and considered making it ourselves, but the cost, longevity, and amount of labor required talked us out if it. We ruled out vinyl as it's not really the look and feel we wanted. Fiber cement was supposedly too difficult to install. That left LP SmartSide and cedar siding. We we decided to go with both.

The cedar siding fits the natural, rural feel we're after, but it also doesn't weather well. So we decided to put it on the areas of our house that are covered by porch overhangs: the two front porches and the back porch/deck wall. We also will put it on the east garage wall to give the house a consistent feel. the kitchen area, gable ends, and dormer will have LP SmartSide in a board and batten look. The west wall and south garage wall, both of which will take a sun beating, will also be in the board and batten look. We're achieving the board and batten look by using 4x8 sheets of soffit sheeting and 1x3 LP SmartTrim boards.

Reed helped get the drip edge lined up along the bottom of the siding area before we put the first run up.

I used a self-leveling laser level to line up the trim boards that we were using to create the board and batten look. It helped that we were working after dark, as the laser lines are much more visible than they are during the day.

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	191	4	2	0
All Time	191	222	254	1327.5	$13,496.75
Summary of 10/14/2014		Work Done Today
		Board and batten siding
		Materials Used Today
		siding
		Who Helped Today
		Mandy
		Contractors On Site

Day 185: Weathered In

The first couple of weeks of October brought a lot of rain. In fact, half-way through October and it had already been the second rainiest October on record. Not a good thing when you're trying to build a house and it's not quite weathered in. I spent a lot of time with a shop vac repeatedly sucking up water to keep things dry in between rain storms.

When weather finally let up a bit, and the back porch roof was put on, we were able to get the roof underlayment on to more-or-less weather the house in. We're doing a metal roof, so we used a special synthetic underlayment. We also used a sticky-back (self-adhesive) underlayment around the eaves, over the hips and ridges, in the valleys, and where to roof meets the walls.

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	185	4	4	16
All Time	185	222	254	1327.5	$13,496.75
Summary of 10/8/2014		Work Done Today
		Roof underlayment, ductwork
		Materials Used Today
		Who Helped Today
		Steve
		Contractors On Site
		ECS

Day 177: Siding Staining

Tuesday

Tuesday was a predetermined all-out, go crazy work day. I took the day off from work and recruited some help. Steve, Kim, Mandy, Tom, Jennifer, Krista, Matt and Amber were all crazy enough to sign up (or be tricked into) helping. We had about 4,100 linear feet of cedar bevel siding that needed stained. I opted to use Sikkens CRD stain, Cedar color.

With cedar bevel siding, it's important to stain all 6 sides of the siding. Rather than brush or roll it on, we set up a manufacturing operation to dip the boards. I built a trough out of 2x12 boards and lined it with plastic sheeting. We then poured about 40 gallons of stain into the trough. With all the help that showed up, we set up a process. We had sanders, dippers, and squeegee-ers.

Sanders. Each board needed sanded with 80 grit sand paper to prep for staining. Each board had a smooth side and a rough cut side. The smooth side just needed a light sanding, while the rough side needed a bit more sanding to knock off some of the cedar "hairs". After sanding, both sides needed to have the dust removed. We did this by blowing the boards with compressed air.

Dippers. Each board was 16 feet long. We had two individuals, dippers, hold the boards and dip them half-way into the stain. The board was then rotated and dipped to cover the other half. The dippers held the board for the sqeegee-ers (read below), and then carried the boards into the house and placed them on drying racks. Note: We built drying racks by nailing 6" nails into 2x4's every 2-inches.

Squeegee-ers. The other members of the team were sqeegee-ers. After dipping each board, we had two people walk along each side and squeegee off the excess stain. These team members got to walk back and forth each board twice, which comes out to a bit more than 3 miles. We also sqeegee-ed off the bottom of the boards as well.

Overall, it was a good process. Mandy did a good job capturing it on video:


This was a huge effort and I couldn't have done it with out a lot of help. It was hot and sunny, and we certainly wore out our help by the end of the day. They stayed despite the heat and long day, and didn't quit until well after dark. To make matters worse, it was the first year since 1985 that the Royals had made the post-season, and the game was on that evening. Big shout out to those brave, committed souls who helped so much!

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	177	14	54	4
All Time	177	160	195	1194.5	$13,496.75
Summary of 9/30/2014		Work Done Today
		Stained siding, graded driveway
		Materials Used Today
		4100 ft of cedar bevel, 18 gallons Sikkens Cedar CDR
		Who Helped Today
		Steve, Kim, Mandy, Reed, Tom, Krista, Jennifer
		Contractors On Site
		Vanderford Construction

Day 176: Notching Posts

Saturday

Our contractor got the posts installed at back of the house for our back deck and porch. They are 20' cedar posts, 6x6 in width. They're about 7 feed apart. To attach the back deck, we needed to install a 2x10 ledge board against the house and a double 2x10 rim board around the posts. We notched out the posts to accommodate the rim boards.  It was quite a feat to notch the boards while they were standing. We got a large 4x8 pallet with plywood attached to it and put it on the forks of the Bobcat. I stood on the pallet and used the circular saw to cut a bunch of kerfs into the post. I then knocked them out and cleaned out the notches with a

Once the notches were installed, we put the rim board inside the notches.

We weren't able to completely finish on Saturday, so Monday Nate and Steve helped again and we finished putting in the last of the floor joists.

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	176	4	12	4
All Time	176	160	195	1194.5	$13,496.75
Summary of 9/29/2014		Work Done Today
		Put joists on deck
		Materials Used Today
		Treated 2x6's
		Who Helped Today
		Nate, Krista, Steve, Reed, Max
		Contractors On Site
		Vanderford Construction

Day 172: Doors and Posts

Thursday

We have progress in the front and back of the house. We also have doors all around. Two in the front, and four in the back. Its a lot of doors and a lot of future locks. For some reason, I have yet to take a picture of the doors.

A few days ago Reed and Will helped me install some electrical boxes. They had a good time; much more fun than picking up scrap 2x4's, which is what they have been doing when they help.

We also got our back beams installed. We were happy to see them come in, as it was the next step before we can get the back deck on. Once the deck is on, we can put on the back porch and get the roof in. We used eight 20' cedar 6x6 posts. I had the framers install them, so they would get put in nice and straight (not that I doubted myself).

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	172			24
All Time	172	160	195	1194.5	$13,496.75
Summary of 9/25/2014		Work Done Today
		Installed ext doors and posts
		Materials Used Today
		6 exterior doors, 8 20' cedar 6x6 posts
		Who Helped Today
		Contractors On Site
		Square Cuts

Day 166: Back Patio

Friday

Yesterday we got some good weather and some good progress. But first, a quick shot of the front of the house to catch everyone up on where we are:

Now to the back of the house. Our flatwork contractor, Vanderford Construction, was out and put in the back patio. The back patio also has concrete piers underneath it to support the posts that hold up the back deck and the roof overhang. We were looking forward to getting the patio poured so we could finish up the framing.

I opted to bring the concrete around the back of the suspended garage to give myself a concrete pad behind the back double door. It'll be much easier to bring future projects in and out of the back double doors with a mini driveway.

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	166	2	2	0
All Time	166	110	107	1162.5	$13,496.75
Summary of 9/19/2014		Work Done Today
		Cleaned up site
		Materials Used Today
		Who Helped Today
		Reed, Emmy, Abby
		Contractors On Site