Just in case you were all wondering what has been going on, we are working our little hearts out to get the house into move-in state. The webcam has moved several times now and the Dead one really is dead, so you only get one view.
The webcam is currently inside the kitchen wing building looking at the loft area. I just finished putting the floor in and recorded the whole thing. I will have the movie posted one of these days. The webcam was also out on a tree looking at the deck and recorded the deck going in, which was another cool movie. After that the webcam was under the garage looking out at the driveway while the excavator cleaned up a bunch of stuff and generally got a lot done in a short time. I have not reviewed this movie but I'm sure it will be a good one.
The next place for the webcam will be in it's final resting spot high under the eave of the house near the weather station and it will be pointed towards the view. Sorry, you will not be able to spy on us when we move it but you will be able to enjoy what we will be looking at every day.
As for the house, most of the plumbing is done and everything goes to the right place (ie the septic tank). We have hot water and hopefully soon warm floors. Most of the safety things are done and we are trying to get a final inspection on Tuesday. There is still a lot of little details to be done but every day we get a little closer.
For the raw look at what is happening you can always check out Flickr
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Stairs
The stairs that go up into the lofts are open stairs. We are using wood that we milled from trees we cut down on the house site. We decided to go for a little bit of a rustic look on the stairs and did not run the raw boards through a planner and sander. Instead we just did a basic sanding job so you would not get any splinters, but this way you can still see the mill's saw marks on the boards.
The treads are 11" wide, and 2" thick. The small black braket is 1 1/2" angle iron which I cut up and Terry painted.
The treads are 11" wide, and 2" thick. The small black braket is 1 1/2" angle iron which I cut up and Terry painted.
Railings
One of my bigger jobs during the first week was getting up the cable railings on the deck and along the entry way bridge.
The posts are 2" angle iron which I cut down, and then drilled 16 holes in them. There is also another 8" angle iron piece for bolting the posts to the face of the deck. These have 4 holes in them. There are 32 posts. So in the course of the past few months, I have been drilling 640 holes before and after work in the iFLOOR warehouse because doing it at the apartment was sort of out of the question.
When I was done drilling everything, I took them down to Sean to powdercoat black. Then I ordered the cable from Sound Construction. There is still a 2x6 cap that will be installed, but the deck is a lot more safe feeling now.
The posts are 2" angle iron which I cut down, and then drilled 16 holes in them. There is also another 8" angle iron piece for bolting the posts to the face of the deck. These have 4 holes in them. There are 32 posts. So in the course of the past few months, I have been drilling 640 holes before and after work in the iFLOOR warehouse because doing it at the apartment was sort of out of the question.
When I was done drilling everything, I took them down to Sean to powdercoat black. Then I ordered the cable from Sound Construction. There is still a 2x6 cap that will be installed, but the deck is a lot more safe feeling now.
Master Bath Tile
The master bathroom tile is turning out amazing. It is slow going because each of the tiles is a little different. The window is trimed in black slate, and the floor is going to be black river rock stones.
Stone Tile
The almost finished product. Grout is not done yet and you can see some of my X and O markings still on the wall where they have not finished yet. X is black and O is the grey. The grey stone is honed (smooth), and the black is natural (a little rough).
Kids bathroom tile
One of the things I did during the first week was to lay out the tile pattern in the kids bathroom. We were originally going to do an Ann Saks tile, but it got very expensive because it needed some special epoxy grout that was going to cost more than the tile!
So we went back to the drawing board and decided to go with 16" stone tiles. I did the layout with blue tape for the tile guys, and then they filled it in.
So we went back to the drawing board and decided to go with 16" stone tiles. I did the layout with blue tape for the tile guys, and then they filled it in.
Bye bye Seattle
On August 5th, the dogs and I (Chris) moved up to the garage. My plan was to start telecommuting with iFLOOR and help out getting the house done. This is a picture of my "office" in the garage loft. Cozy but very functional. My day looked about like this.
Get up around 5:30 or 6. Walk dogs down to the mailbox and back (about 1.6 miles). Eat breakfast and do some iFLOOR work until about 8-8:30. Then work on the house. Stop around 4:30 5ish, have dinner, then do iFLOOR stuff until about 11.
What actually happened was a little of everything all day long, as work would call and I would do deal with a problem, then go back to house stuff.
Get up around 5:30 or 6. Walk dogs down to the mailbox and back (about 1.6 miles). Eat breakfast and do some iFLOOR work until about 8-8:30. Then work on the house. Stop around 4:30 5ish, have dinner, then do iFLOOR stuff until about 11.
What actually happened was a little of everything all day long, as work would call and I would do deal with a problem, then go back to house stuff.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Colors
During our 4th of July visit Terry was able to get some colors up on the wall that Ben helped us pick out. The drywall was done and they just had one more coat of primer to add to the exterior walls, but there was plenty of wall space to put up some colors. We are using Parker paint (Mimi, go get a swatch book). Bedrooms are going to be Winterscape. Our room has an accent wall of Velvet Maroon. Arla has Charming Pink, Sam has Prestige Purple. The rest of the house gets Twi-Night, with one accent wall in each building of Cavilier (which can be seen in this photo). The exterior doors will also be Cavilier as well as the garage doors.
Swing!
We were up on Orcas for the 4th of July weekend, and one of the things I finally got around to doing was putting up a swing. It actually took a little while because I had to "over-engineer it" (says Kate). I found some scrap steel in the garage, welded up a couple of brackets, which I then lag bolted into the two trees. Then I took a left over 6x10 beam from the house and with a little help from Brian (one of the guys working on the house), we lifted it up into place. A little sledge hammer action to get it wedged down between the two trees, and we had a swing. For now it is just the kids bucket swing, but soon it will be an adult swing as well. Eventually I want to put a zip line somewhere as well...
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Fathers Day
Over fathers day weekend, Kate took the kids up to see John and Anita and I went up to Orcas with the dogs. I telecommuted to work on Friday and Monday.
Drywall was well underway. Saturday I cleaned up and organized the garage, so we could fit more stuff in there for the house. Sunday was cleanup around the house site. Dad and I took a couple runs to the dump.
Drywall was well underway. Saturday I cleaned up and organized the garage, so we could fit more stuff in there for the house. Sunday was cleanup around the house site. Dad and I took a couple runs to the dump.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Progress
Things are falling into place well. Pumbing and electrical rough in are done, inspections done. Insulation looks to be almost complete, and the drywallers should be starting next week.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Moon
Webcam2 has been capturing pictures 24 hours a day, and during one of my reviews, I saw that it captured the moon rising just above the two buildings and then back down again on the other side. Pretty cool.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Floor Pour
On Friday, May 25, everything came together. Terry got the plumber to put down the radiant heat tube, got some local "concrete experts" to come help and got the concrete pumper truck scheduled.
I came up for the day to help out, leaving Seattle at 3:30am to catch the 5:30am boat and get up to the property by about 7am.
The pumper truck, and concrete truck arrived, and we were all ready to go. There was a problem with one of the hoses, which put us back about an hour, but once the concrete started flowing, it went fairly well.
It was a challenge to get it all done in the right order so we did not paint ourselves into a corner, but the concrete got all pumped out and leved up in the right place.
Then we took a short break while things set up, and then proceeded to mag trowel things out, and do a first round of power troweling.
Then we did 2 rounds of finish troweling, and power troweling. By about 7pm we were done and it turned out great. I headed back on the 8:30pm boat and was home by about midnight.
The concrete is only 1 1/2" thick, and we will probably have some cracks, but we are OK with that as it gives the floor some character.
We will probably throw down some area rugs in places and if in the future we decide to do something else, we could always put down a floating floor of wood/bamboo or cork over it.
I came up for the day to help out, leaving Seattle at 3:30am to catch the 5:30am boat and get up to the property by about 7am.
The pumper truck, and concrete truck arrived, and we were all ready to go. There was a problem with one of the hoses, which put us back about an hour, but once the concrete started flowing, it went fairly well.
It was a challenge to get it all done in the right order so we did not paint ourselves into a corner, but the concrete got all pumped out and leved up in the right place.
Then we took a short break while things set up, and then proceeded to mag trowel things out, and do a first round of power troweling.
Then we did 2 rounds of finish troweling, and power troweling. By about 7pm we were done and it turned out great. I headed back on the 8:30pm boat and was home by about midnight.
The concrete is only 1 1/2" thick, and we will probably have some cracks, but we are OK with that as it gives the floor some character.
We will probably throw down some area rugs in places and if in the future we decide to do something else, we could always put down a floating floor of wood/bamboo or cork over it.
Concrete Floors
One of the things that I really wanted in our house was stained concrete floors.
In our old house we had carpet, bamboo, and hardwood floors. With dogs and kids, they all get trashed. We looked at the concrete floor that Andrew and Alyson had in their house and really like it. The radiant heat was also a major bonus.
The lofts will have a wood floor though, so I can take advantage of the discount I get for working at iFLOOR.
This was the view of the hallway with the radiant heat tubes in place just before the big concrete pour for the floor.
In our old house we had carpet, bamboo, and hardwood floors. With dogs and kids, they all get trashed. We looked at the concrete floor that Andrew and Alyson had in their house and really like it. The radiant heat was also a major bonus.
The lofts will have a wood floor though, so I can take advantage of the discount I get for working at iFLOOR.
This was the view of the hallway with the radiant heat tubes in place just before the big concrete pour for the floor.
Salt Marsh
No, I didn't do the siding on the garage. Terry's crew was looking for a little more to do while waiting on some subcontractors, so I had them do the siding on the garage.
The color we choose for the house was Salt Marsh. Part of the house (the hardy planks), are a painted solid color, while other parts are a semi-transparent stain. So there is a little bit of difference as can be seen in the garage.
We borrowed the siding scheme for the house to use on the garage. It really turned out nice, and made the garage much less of a big blob of siding.
The color we choose for the house was Salt Marsh. Part of the house (the hardy planks), are a painted solid color, while other parts are a semi-transparent stain. So there is a little bit of difference as can be seen in the garage.
We borrowed the siding scheme for the house to use on the garage. It really turned out nice, and made the garage much less of a big blob of siding.
Milling
We cut down a few large trees to make room for the house and garage. With the help of Andrew and Thurman, we milled up some of these logs which will be used to build the stairs up to the two loft areas.
I am also going to try and build a dinning room table with the lumber we milled from these logs.
There were also a few large trees the blew down in the big wind storms in the winter of 2006, and hopefully we will be able to mill up some more wood to use in other parts of the house or garage.
I am also going to try and build a dinning room table with the lumber we milled from these logs.
There were also a few large trees the blew down in the big wind storms in the winter of 2006, and hopefully we will be able to mill up some more wood to use in other parts of the house or garage.
Chopsticks?
This was a photo I took from the top of the garage in April. Mimi mentioned that it looks like the house is going to fall over because it is up on two small toothpicks.
These toothpicks are actually large steel beams, that are encased in a 3' diameter, 6' deep blob of concrete.
In order to dig the 6' deep holes that all the steel beams go into, Orcas Excavators needed to do a lot of drilling and blasting (with lots of dynamite).
The large beams that tie together these steel beams that the house sits on are very large and weigh about 1,500 lbs each.
So, the house is basically attached directly to "mother Orcas", and hopefully will never fall over.
It does float above the ground though and it really does feel like you are up in the trees.
These toothpicks are actually large steel beams, that are encased in a 3' diameter, 6' deep blob of concrete.
In order to dig the 6' deep holes that all the steel beams go into, Orcas Excavators needed to do a lot of drilling and blasting (with lots of dynamite).
The large beams that tie together these steel beams that the house sits on are very large and weigh about 1,500 lbs each.
So, the house is basically attached directly to "mother Orcas", and hopefully will never fall over.
It does float above the ground though and it really does feel like you are up in the trees.
Model
Yes, I made a model of the house. It is a 1/4" scale version and has helped us may times visualize how things would work.
Prior to this model, there was a 1/16" scale version of the entire property with toothpick trees, which helped us figure out the best place for the garage.
And of course I also have the whole thing in Google Sketchup, which has helped us even more with visualization and small details.
Prior to this model, there was a 1/16" scale version of the entire property with toothpick trees, which helped us figure out the best place for the garage.
And of course I also have the whole thing in Google Sketchup, which has helped us even more with visualization and small details.
Where are the movies?
The webcams have been capturing images every 6 minutes until February, and every 1 minute after that.
Each day I download all the images for that day and make a movie. For a while I was posting these movies to YouTube, but the quality was pretty crappy, and no matter what I did, I could not get the movies to look better.
Once the house is complete, I will make a DVD of the entire thing, and mail them out to everyone interested. The full quailty movie for the entire build will probably be over 2GB, so downloading it would not be very fun.
I may post some of the better clips here, but you will all have to wait until the end to see the entire thing.
Each day I download all the images for that day and make a movie. For a while I was posting these movies to YouTube, but the quality was pretty crappy, and no matter what I did, I could not get the movies to look better.
Once the house is complete, I will make a DVD of the entire thing, and mail them out to everyone interested. The full quailty movie for the entire build will probably be over 2GB, so downloading it would not be very fun.
I may post some of the better clips here, but you will all have to wait until the end to see the entire thing.
Wireless Webcam
The limiting factor of the first webcam was it needed to be close enough to run a network wire out to the camera, which meant that getting a view of what was happening on the north side of the house was out of the question.
In May, I decided to get a small wireless webcam, and stick it on a tree just to the north of the house near the main entry way of the house.
It was a lot closer and captured much of the action during the concrete floor pour. The quality from this camera was also much better.
In May, I decided to get a small wireless webcam, and stick it on a tree just to the north of the house near the main entry way of the house.
It was a lot closer and captured much of the action during the concrete floor pour. The quality from this camera was also much better.
Wide Shot
Near the end of May, the webcam was moved to a tree just to the south of the garage. In the view you can actually see the garage, but more importanly, you could see a much better view of the entire house.
The view was a bit further away, so it was hard to see exactly who was who, but the overall view of progress was much better.
The view was a bit further away, so it was hard to see exactly who was who, but the overall view of progress was much better.
Too close
By May, the webcam was really too close to the house and unless things were going on in the Kitchen wing on the south side, you couldn't see much.
In fact, around this time Terry and his crew was working right under the webcam doing the siding on the garage. Every once in a while they would need to move the webcam to work on siding.
Eventually I moved the webcam into a little perch up above the roof, but this was really a temporary spot.
In fact, around this time Terry and his crew was working right under the webcam doing the siding on the garage. Every once in a while they would need to move the webcam to work on siding.
Eventually I moved the webcam into a little perch up above the roof, but this was really a temporary spot.
Webcam
From the very beginning I wanted to document what we did with our property and the building of our house. We took lots of pictures and video as we cleared the property, and started to build things (ie the garage).
Once the garage was built and we had power and internet to the site, having a webcam do the recording of the progress was the next step.
The first location of the webcam in the window of the garage propped up on a box, balanced on a 4" ledge. Soon after that it was moved outside under the eve of the garage looking out over where the house was going to end up.
This was the main location from October 2006 until May 2007.
Once the garage was built and we had power and internet to the site, having a webcam do the recording of the progress was the next step.
The first location of the webcam in the window of the garage propped up on a box, balanced on a 4" ledge. Soon after that it was moved outside under the eve of the garage looking out over where the house was going to end up.
This was the main location from October 2006 until May 2007.
Friday, March 30, 2007
March 2007
March was framing month. The bedroom wing shell was complete and dry. Windows were ordered, and the building was ready for plumbing. The public wing framing was moving along at a brisk pace by the end of the month. We also sold our house in Seattle this month, and moved into an apartment until the Orcas house is completed.
Friday, March 2, 2007
February 2007
This was an exciting month because walls started going up. Towards the end we were able to do a walk through of the first floor of the bedroom wing. Arla picked out her room (the bigger one). Also on the last day of the month, the final steel was put in place and for the most part the foundation was finally done.
January 2007
Progress was made on the public wing, finishing up excavation, and forming up the bunker that will support the house. Another snow event caused another week delay. Also right after the snow storm, some good strong NE winds blew down several trees, one of which was right in view of the webcam. During the last few days of the month the webcam started capturing images every 1 minute, instead of every 6 minutes.
December 2006
In December we poured the concrete for the bedroom wing, and after the concrete cured, Orcas Ex came back out and backfilled the holes. They then started to excavate the foundation for the 16'x16' bunker for the public wing, and the other 2 holes for the partial post and beam foundation.
November 2006
November was a rough month. In the beginning some good progress was made setting the steel posts and getting the large gluelams in place. But right before we were due to pour concrete to anchor the steel posts, it snowed big time, and we lost about 2 weeks while everyone dug out and recovered.
October 2006
Excavation of the bedroom wing was underway when the webcam started recording progress from the garage. For the first week or so, it was inside behind a window. Towards the end of the month, it was moved outside under the eve of the garage for a better view. Most of October was spent excavating and blasting the 8 holes needed for the post and beam foundation, and for framing up the footings of the posts.
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