The windows and doors are in (except for one window and one door that were not delivered with the rest), and they are beautiful. We spent a lot of time and had a fair amount of anxiety on the whole window thing and are really glad it all worked out!
Tilt-out casement windows
Little 20×20 windows
Resting after the work is done
But first… an update on Tumbleweed:
The Sharkskin paper is on the roof, and the final metal roof is arriving on Thurs. Because we went with the white roof, there’s a solar tax credit of $700.
The doors and windows are also due to arrive early this week.
—————————————-
Today, we put the final touches on the greenhouse.
The inside has a pathway of railroad ties and raised beds for plants.
The black hose is for the drip irrigation which isn’t quite finished.
A lot of animals this morning. There were cows all over the road this morning. It was a challenge getting past them. About ten minutes after I was on the property, they had a mini-stampede up the road and away. Curious, there were deer standing near the cows, but on our side of the fence. They ran way as soon as they saw me.
The bobcats were all on the property today. When I drove up, one was inside the wire protecting one of our trees. It quickly scampered up a small mesquite tree. The other kitten ran off into the brush looking just like a kid off to fetch mom… sure enough, mom and the kitten wandered back about five minutes later.
I noticed the kitten in the tree had a small animal in its mouth; a bunny I think. It was small enough that I believe it caught it itself. On thing that dawned on me is that the bunny escape holes probably keep mom out, but these not these kittens. -sigh- It’s a hard world.
Building the parapet walls has been fun and not too challenging. The biggest concern was getting them attached in such a way that they won’t blow away later. The winds here can be intense.
Framing
The only issue with the framing was on the slope walls. You need to keep it straight in your mind that the studs run perpendicular to the top, not the bottom; it’s on a slope. On a slope this small, it’s seems unimportant, but when you go to attach the OSB, you won’t end cleanly on a stud if you do it wrong.
Erecting and Attaching
Standing up the walls and positioning them was easy. (2×6 walls are night-and-day easier than 2×4 walls in this regard.) Screwing down the walls was a little harder. We used ten inch long screws that go clear through the SIPS panels and into the 2×6 header on top of the walls. Karen pre-drilled holes for me. We have what I thought was a pretty big drill to do the job and it barely did the job. We had more than enough screws and used them all. I also had a lot of extra eight inch screws that I set into the 2×6’s framed into the sides of the roof SIPs. It’s very sturdy.
Covering
The whole thing was covered in OSB*. This went fast. A large part of the reason it went fast is that we are the proud owners of a used Bostitch stapler. (Putting up our SIPs walls resulted in our having a box of 1/2 inch wide by two inches long staples seven-eights full–ebay to the rescue.) The stapler made short work of attaching the OSB to the walls. (Karen did most of the stapling.) Cutting the OSB to fit was the most work.
One special touch designed to prevent leaking is that we put a one-half inch in six inches slope on top of the parapet walls. Six inches is not a lot of room for standing water, but we’re just making sure.
* Oriented Strand Board: A decking made from wood chips and lamination glues.
We were planning to put the waterproof paper on the roof this morning, but the wind started blowing enough to make it too difficult.
Instead, we worked on the greenhouse (which has been lagging since so much has been going on with the house). We now have three of the four sides screened in and a door frame built. The screen goes down about 8″ into the ground so that animals can’t tunnel in. (Stay tuned to see how that works out.) We also filled the trenches with small rocks.
All we have to do now is finish the last side, put in the door, run drip irrigation (Brad has already brought a water line to the greenhouse), and plant some things!
On a totally unrelated note, I got a giant bag of Anaheim chiles in town on Friday and am going to make a giant batch of chile rellenos tonight.
Building a house is very satisfying.
On a big picture level, it seems very authentic….like growing your own food or fixing your own car (back when that was feasible). It also fosters a sense of independence, especially since we are doing most all of the work ourselves. Being able to get along (and even thrive) by ourselves was a big part of moving here for me. Knowing how a house is built and being familiar with every detail of the construction means that I will also know how to fix things when they break. (And I have learned how to use several tools and do many tasks that will be useful in other contexts.)
The smaller details of building are even more significant. I like the physical work. It is straightforward and honest. Every day, I get sweaty and tired. At the end of the day, the tangible proof of my work is obvious. There is a new wall; a ditch is filled; the floor has a new finish.
It’s also good to be working with my hands and doing real physical work. It’s different somehow than moving bits and bytes around. The evidence of accomplishment is much clearer than with my other work. Many days, I feel more capable in this kind of work than in my “real” job.
When I do something wrong, like hammer my finger or drill something in the wrong place, it is generally something I can fix myself. (There really aren’t a lot options, though I do sometimes ask Brad for help. Most often it is help in how to do it better myself that I am asking for.) And I am learning new things every day. Sometimes, they are things I am not very good at, and it is frustrating. Other days, I pick up new skills quickly and feel as though I have found my niche. Either way, the activity of learning and trying new things is good.
These are items I’ve grown to appreciate over the last six months or so.
It gets hots here. Little things matter more than they have in my past experiences. White shirts help a lot; much more than I expected. Recently I wore a black t-shirt as a test. Arg!
Black gloves… well gloves. It’s just that I bought a pair of black Mechanix’s brand gloves that I love. They are unbelievably ugly with writing all over them. However, they are the kind of gloves I can wear while doing tasks that require a certain sensitivity that gloves normally lack. I can pick between an 16d nail and an 8d nail from my tool belt without looking. Pretty cool. The main thing is that I wear these glove all the time and that’s what I wanted. A lot less splinters and cuts for me since I started wearing these.
I’ve never been one to carry a knife, though I always like the idea. I never needed one enough to go to the bother of locating (I lose stuff all the time) one and putting it in a pocket every morning. I had a feeling I might before we moved here and I bought a couple. One is a simple flip open and lock style. I use this all the time and feel quite lost without it now. The other is one of those multitool ones with pliers, wire cutters, and a pretty nasty locking blade. I use this one much less often, but when I do it always saves me a walk. I wear this one on my belt which is a bit of a bother to put on each morning, but I always regret it when it’s not there. My only unhappiness with the miltitool is that it has a little clip on its side that would only result in its loss if I used it, that causes it to get stuck in the sheath. I’d like to take it off, but I’m pretty sure it would spring into a million pieces if I ever took it apart enough to remove it.
The list is longer of course. Big leather gloves are on the list too. Oh yea, the big Toyota Tundra is probably the top of the list. We’ve hauled some pretty big loads and it gets us through all the nasty roads around here no problems.
Ice water… did I mention ice water? We’ve learned to keep a couple of plastic jugs three-quarters full in the freezer. When we head to the ranch (or even a long drive) we grab a bottle, add some water and go. It’s stays cold for hours.
-brad
The rainbows here are amazing.
We have a big pile of dirt on our property that came from digging up the septic. It’s quite nice dirt and will be great for our greenhouse….except that all the dirt here is filled with rocks. So Brad designed this filter to screen out rocks. And I built it. It was fun and worked quite well.
It was basically made by ripping four pieces of wood and then screwing them back together with a piece of screen between them. The corner supports were glued and screwed in place to provide stability. We’ve been using it by putting it over a wheelbarrow and shoveling dirt on top. Now we also have a nice pile of small rocks. I’m sure we’ll find a way to put those to use as well.
And like all of our tools, it is stenciled.
