Tuesday, November 25, 2008
PHASE FOUR Weeks 25 & 26 - Color Our House Honey
Weeks of November 19th & 24th - The weather is turning colder and rainy, which has delayed the exterior rail staining and landscaping, but the interior logs have been sanded and cleaned. Since the days seem to be growing shorter and colder rapidly, we are now using a powerful diesel heater supplied by our crew, and lights we purchased. Our crew wanted us to see if we could get more power into the house and we could for $500-$600 more, so we had to decline. The main issue is that everyone has to stop working a bit early and that power tools don't work as well. *****Norman and I spent the last two weekends cleaning the guest bedroom side of the house and caulking the entire house. For those of you who don't know, cracks in logs are normal, but I'm not too crazy about them and we filled in most of them, especially the bigger cracks. ***Our crew is staining the interior of the house this week and it looks great. We are applying one coat of stain and two coats of acrylic topcoat, so it should have a beautiful satin finish.. The ceilings and trim will be a natural pine color, a nice contrast, and will also have two coats.***Our landscaping rocks for under the prow deck have been delivered and should be laid out today. I was a bit disappointed in the color (a bit too reddish for my taste), but they will blend in alright.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
PHASE FOUR: Weeks 22, 23 & 24 - Interior Work
Weeks of October 27th, Nov 3rd & Nov 10th - Wow, hard to believe that three weeks have gone by. Norman has been ill for most of that time, probably with the flu, missing two weeks of work. He did rev up enough to play a gig for the TPAC (Tennessee Psychological Association) annual convention in Nashville on November 7th. Our friend Eva, who has a beautiful voice, played with him and they sounded great despite the fact that he was a bit flaky what with the heavy cough & decongestant meds! We had hopes of doing all of our interior staining, but have ditched that idea along with our goal of moving in by Christmas. Here's why: Although we are not "old," we have both past age 50 a good while back and don't bounce back the way we once did! We have put so much pressure on ourselves to do much of the work ourselves and to get it done quickly that it is probably a factor in Norman's getting sick, and neither of us had been sleeping well. We have done very well so far in staying on budget, but we have decided that spending a bit extra for labor and finishing is well worth it. Both of us feel good about this decision, are sleeping better, and are now back to being excited rather than stressed about our home. It may be January or February before we move in, but that's OK. I read somewhere that it takes the average log home "owner-builder" 11 months to complete a log home, and it will take us 6-8 months, so we are still ahead of the game!
Here are highlights for the past three weeks:
****All of our fixed windows are now installed.
****While I was finishing up our tongue and groove sealing on our prow deck, I got attacked by hordes of ladybugs! No kidding, there were thousands of them flocking around and on me and in the stain, to the point where I had to move everything inside. I'm told this is an annual event around here!
****The exterior staining is done except for the deck railings and spindles and looks great! We had a moment of panic this weekend when it snowed and we saw white streaks and spots all over our stain! A call to our stain company put our minds at ease, though, after they explained it is something called the "blushing effect" that will go away as the weather warms up. It appeared because it actually takes up to three weeks for the stain to "cure" and very cold weather can cause temporary spots.
****We have decided to stain the interior logs a light honey, leaving the ceiling and trim work natural pine. After seeing the ceilings up and the vast expanses of light pine everywhere, it began to bother us that our floors and cabinets are also very light (natural hickory) in color and we decided we needed a contrast. The light honey color complements the exterior dark honey and is really just a shade or two darker than the natural pine color. (If anyone is interested, go to the Permachink website and look up the color.) .
****Gutters are installed - a brown color that looks good with the colors of the roof and stonework.
****Front and mudroom doors (mahogany) are trimmed out and delivered. They will be stained a "chestnut brown" shade which goes with the gutters, roof and stonework (and the knots in the logs!) Norman and I will be staining them this weekend (Nov 22nd).
****We went ahead and finished our attic after all (except for heat and air) and love it! We had some leftover log siding, so put that in the gable sides and put tongue and groove in the ceiling. The attic floor and ceiling are both insulated with R-30 so we can bring a small heater or AC unit upstairs if we need to, but it should stay fairly cool in the summer and warm in the winter. We then had 4' knee walls built with very cute doors (sort of cross-buck style) made for the openings which will give us storage space on two sides 6' deep and about 18' long. We will probably floor it with carpet (later). Norman is going to use this as his music room, so he is thrilled about that! It will be about 13' x 18' or about 250 square feet!
****We got a great bid/offer by our "mountain man," Ronnie, to do a lot of clearing and landscaping in the woods around our home, so took him up on it and it looks great! It is now much more open and improves our view of rock outcroppings to the East and Jump Off Ridge to the South. As far as the landscaping around our house to the tree line, Charles Thomas' crew began "dressing up" the land (final backfilling and leveling) and seed sowing this week (November 17th). A couple of weeks ago he and our electrician set up our permanent electric meter on a post about 60' from the house, as Norman didn't want it stuck on the front of the house. We are going to paint it and landscape around it (disguise it as a bird feeder or something - ha!)
****All of our tongue & groove ceilings are done and look amazing. Our insulation is done. We really went all out with the insulation, putting R-30 in all ceilings, R-19 in almost all of our walls and closets, and R13 in the gabled areas with siding (because R-19 wouldn't fit). We have noticed, as has our crew, how much warmer it is in the house, even in cold weather, because of this, and how very quiet! I was startled to hear that very few people in this are use R-30, using R-19 instead. We would have actually preferred R-38, but our cathedral ceilings are not built to accommodate that (a design change we would probably have made if we had known better!).
Projections/Next Projects: The guys (Sam Thornley and his crew of two, brother Joe and friend Skip) are currently preparing the great room and master bedroom/bathroom side of the house for staining and sealing, sanding and cleaning the logs. We are doing the other side of the house ourselves to save money (and because we don't have to climb scaffolds to do it!). They are also doing a bit of trim work. Following that, they will be doing more trim work, laying tile, hanging drywall, hanging and trimming out our doors (after Norman and I stain and seal them), then laying our wood floors. After the floors go down our cabinets and granite will be installed, then our electrican/plumber/HVAC guys will connect everything for the final inspection. We think we will be done with all before the end of the year (S).
Here are highlights for the past three weeks:
****All of our fixed windows are now installed.
****While I was finishing up our tongue and groove sealing on our prow deck, I got attacked by hordes of ladybugs! No kidding, there were thousands of them flocking around and on me and in the stain, to the point where I had to move everything inside. I'm told this is an annual event around here!
****The exterior staining is done except for the deck railings and spindles and looks great! We had a moment of panic this weekend when it snowed and we saw white streaks and spots all over our stain! A call to our stain company put our minds at ease, though, after they explained it is something called the "blushing effect" that will go away as the weather warms up. It appeared because it actually takes up to three weeks for the stain to "cure" and very cold weather can cause temporary spots.
****We have decided to stain the interior logs a light honey, leaving the ceiling and trim work natural pine. After seeing the ceilings up and the vast expanses of light pine everywhere, it began to bother us that our floors and cabinets are also very light (natural hickory) in color and we decided we needed a contrast. The light honey color complements the exterior dark honey and is really just a shade or two darker than the natural pine color. (If anyone is interested, go to the Permachink website and look up the color.) .
****Gutters are installed - a brown color that looks good with the colors of the roof and stonework.
****Front and mudroom doors (mahogany) are trimmed out and delivered. They will be stained a "chestnut brown" shade which goes with the gutters, roof and stonework (and the knots in the logs!) Norman and I will be staining them this weekend (Nov 22nd).
****We went ahead and finished our attic after all (except for heat and air) and love it! We had some leftover log siding, so put that in the gable sides and put tongue and groove in the ceiling. The attic floor and ceiling are both insulated with R-30 so we can bring a small heater or AC unit upstairs if we need to, but it should stay fairly cool in the summer and warm in the winter. We then had 4' knee walls built with very cute doors (sort of cross-buck style) made for the openings which will give us storage space on two sides 6' deep and about 18' long. We will probably floor it with carpet (later). Norman is going to use this as his music room, so he is thrilled about that! It will be about 13' x 18' or about 250 square feet!
****We got a great bid/offer by our "mountain man," Ronnie, to do a lot of clearing and landscaping in the woods around our home, so took him up on it and it looks great! It is now much more open and improves our view of rock outcroppings to the East and Jump Off Ridge to the South. As far as the landscaping around our house to the tree line, Charles Thomas' crew began "dressing up" the land (final backfilling and leveling) and seed sowing this week (November 17th). A couple of weeks ago he and our electrician set up our permanent electric meter on a post about 60' from the house, as Norman didn't want it stuck on the front of the house. We are going to paint it and landscape around it (disguise it as a bird feeder or something - ha!)
****All of our tongue & groove ceilings are done and look amazing. Our insulation is done. We really went all out with the insulation, putting R-30 in all ceilings, R-19 in almost all of our walls and closets, and R13 in the gabled areas with siding (because R-19 wouldn't fit). We have noticed, as has our crew, how much warmer it is in the house, even in cold weather, because of this, and how very quiet! I was startled to hear that very few people in this are use R-30, using R-19 instead. We would have actually preferred R-38, but our cathedral ceilings are not built to accommodate that (a design change we would probably have made if we had known better!).
Projections/Next Projects: The guys (Sam Thornley and his crew of two, brother Joe and friend Skip) are currently preparing the great room and master bedroom/bathroom side of the house for staining and sealing, sanding and cleaning the logs. We are doing the other side of the house ourselves to save money (and because we don't have to climb scaffolds to do it!). They are also doing a bit of trim work. Following that, they will be doing more trim work, laying tile, hanging drywall, hanging and trimming out our doors (after Norman and I stain and seal them), then laying our wood floors. After the floors go down our cabinets and granite will be installed, then our electrican/plumber/HVAC guys will connect everything for the final inspection. We think we will be done with all before the end of the year (S).
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
PHASE FOUR Weeks 20 & 21 - Interior Work
Weeks of October 13th & 20th -
***Last week & weekend Norman and I FINALLY finished applying our log preservative and pesticide treatment and our subs finished the interior log siding in the great room. ***This week our subs are working on insulation, trim for the windows, and caulking of the exterior logs so that staining can begin next week. We are also putting some good flooring in our attic (not OSB board) and insulating the attic rafters as well as the floor as we will probably want to finish it at off at some point. We have 570 s/f of attic space, so there is room for plenty of storage plus a small room (maybe an exercise room).
***We met with our landscaping consultant who has taken soil samples and come up with a beginning plan for us. This guy is pretty cool, by the way, with "decades" of experience in plant biology. He is a naturalist who also into wholistic healing and big on organic farming. Want to bet that he also subscribes to Mother Earth Magazine (as do we)? He has tested our soil, which is about as hard as concrete right now and contains various toxins, and will grown almost nothing until we rework it. We are to have it turned 4-6 inches, mixing it with granulated gypsum. Gypsum, we have learned, will encapsulate all of our toxins and provide several needed nutrients for our soil such as calcium and carbon. Next we are to plan oat seeds and Austrian winter peas over the whole site and to cover all with straw. Once the oats and peas are about 1" tall, we spread a fertilizer called Greensand over it with one of those handheld spreaders.
*****Charles Thomas, who did all of our excavation, is going to give us a price to do all of this, along with completing the ditch for our underground electric , closing it up, and setting up our electric meter about 60 feet from the house. (If we put the meter on the house it will be an eyesore we can't disguise, so a friend suggested we move it a few feet away from the house. This will also be much nicer for the meter reader, as he won't have to get as close to our barking doggies.) In addition to owning and using heavy machinery, Charles owns a local nursery and was filled with good ideas on inexpensive landscaping. He also helped us decide where to locate our final parking area/driveway, suggesting that we add another turnaround. It will be on the left side of the house as you drive up then a walkway (probably of flagstone) will lead from the driveway to the house. Since we will end up with two attached turnarounds on our driveway, I guess we should rename our home CRAZY EIGHT BLUFF DRIVE!?
***We have also hired back our "mountain man," Ronnie, to haul off our most recent huge pile of construction debris, to chop up and haul off various and assorted branches and wood debris, to help us with the staining next week, and to put plastic (moisture vapor) under the house. Ronnie don't read or write and I had to pay him soon as he filled his truck with the first load so he would have enough gas to haul our stuff off. We hear his wife takes his pay as soon as he gets home every day and they go out to eat with it.
***We are putting up temporary doors this week so we can get the house secured. One of our subs has some old ones he is letting us use. The front and mud room doors we will have are being framed and won't be ready for at least three more weeks.*** We have contracted with an alarm company that will do the preliminary wiring in the next few days before the interior is completely finished. ***DECISION ABOUT DOOR KNOBS HAVE FINALLY BEEN MADE (That was agonizing, thanks Mother, Dad & Marti, for your advice - we have gone with oil rubbed bronze exterior knobs & handsets, and antique nickel interior knobs, which should complement our brushed nicked bathroom & kitchen fixtures.
****As I write it is a rainy Friday. We have to get our T & G cathedral ceiling sealed so that's our weekend project. We WILL, however, be taking at least a few hours off for the UT game, watching it at the home of our friends Bethany & Tim. Go VOLS!
***Last week & weekend Norman and I FINALLY finished applying our log preservative and pesticide treatment and our subs finished the interior log siding in the great room. ***This week our subs are working on insulation, trim for the windows, and caulking of the exterior logs so that staining can begin next week. We are also putting some good flooring in our attic (not OSB board) and insulating the attic rafters as well as the floor as we will probably want to finish it at off at some point. We have 570 s/f of attic space, so there is room for plenty of storage plus a small room (maybe an exercise room).
***We met with our landscaping consultant who has taken soil samples and come up with a beginning plan for us. This guy is pretty cool, by the way, with "decades" of experience in plant biology. He is a naturalist who also into wholistic healing and big on organic farming. Want to bet that he also subscribes to Mother Earth Magazine (as do we)? He has tested our soil, which is about as hard as concrete right now and contains various toxins, and will grown almost nothing until we rework it. We are to have it turned 4-6 inches, mixing it with granulated gypsum. Gypsum, we have learned, will encapsulate all of our toxins and provide several needed nutrients for our soil such as calcium and carbon. Next we are to plan oat seeds and Austrian winter peas over the whole site and to cover all with straw. Once the oats and peas are about 1" tall, we spread a fertilizer called Greensand over it with one of those handheld spreaders.
*****Charles Thomas, who did all of our excavation, is going to give us a price to do all of this, along with completing the ditch for our underground electric , closing it up, and setting up our electric meter about 60 feet from the house. (If we put the meter on the house it will be an eyesore we can't disguise, so a friend suggested we move it a few feet away from the house. This will also be much nicer for the meter reader, as he won't have to get as close to our barking doggies.) In addition to owning and using heavy machinery, Charles owns a local nursery and was filled with good ideas on inexpensive landscaping. He also helped us decide where to locate our final parking area/driveway, suggesting that we add another turnaround. It will be on the left side of the house as you drive up then a walkway (probably of flagstone) will lead from the driveway to the house. Since we will end up with two attached turnarounds on our driveway, I guess we should rename our home CRAZY EIGHT BLUFF DRIVE!?
***We have also hired back our "mountain man," Ronnie, to haul off our most recent huge pile of construction debris, to chop up and haul off various and assorted branches and wood debris, to help us with the staining next week, and to put plastic (moisture vapor) under the house. Ronnie don't read or write and I had to pay him soon as he filled his truck with the first load so he would have enough gas to haul our stuff off. We hear his wife takes his pay as soon as he gets home every day and they go out to eat with it.
***We are putting up temporary doors this week so we can get the house secured. One of our subs has some old ones he is letting us use. The front and mud room doors we will have are being framed and won't be ready for at least three more weeks.*** We have contracted with an alarm company that will do the preliminary wiring in the next few days before the interior is completely finished. ***DECISION ABOUT DOOR KNOBS HAVE FINALLY BEEN MADE (That was agonizing, thanks Mother, Dad & Marti, for your advice - we have gone with oil rubbed bronze exterior knobs & handsets, and antique nickel interior knobs, which should complement our brushed nicked bathroom & kitchen fixtures.
****As I write it is a rainy Friday. We have to get our T & G cathedral ceiling sealed so that's our weekend project. We WILL, however, be taking at least a few hours off for the UT game, watching it at the home of our friends Bethany & Tim. Go VOLS!
Monday, October 13, 2008
PHASE THREE: Weeks 17, 18, & 19 - Rough In
Weeks of Sept. 22, 29 & October 6 - (Click on the photos and you can see more detail. We are very happy with the way our roof, siding, and fireplace have turned out.) I can't believe I have let three weeks go by without updating this blog! Things have been very intense, with lots of final decisions agonized over and made (such as electrical fixtures, lighting and appliances). Would you believe I spent two days and went to 3-4 places looking for bathroom fans, then ended up back at the first place to buy them? We THOUGHT we were prepared, but the pace has become so fast that our heads are spinning (call me Linda Blair!). OK, here are the highlights:****Our electrical, plumbing, and HVAC has been "roughed in," our shingles & final roofing is done, our fireplace has been completed, and some of the interior log siding has been put up. Our fixed windows are also in (except for one apparently measured wrong), but I don't have a picture showing them yet). At times we had as many as 10 subs, including their employees, on the site! Luckily they all know each other and are on good terms, so they didn't seem too perturbed when they had to step over and around each other**** Our fireplace guys are a change, as our original subs were several weeks behind. The good news is that they completed the fireplace and stone veneer in less than three weeks and saved us well over $4,000 in the process! We did have some communication problems as none of them speak English (all hispanics), but we were able to communicate through their boss (the owner of A1 Building Supply, Carl Mount, a great guy!)****We passed our county framing and rough-in inspection, albeit with a few comments about some of the plumbing (nothing that didn't meet code, but our inspector wants above and beyond code at times).***After getting one estimate for over $700 to haul away our four piles of construction debris, we hooked up with a local mountain guy who did it for about $300. Poor Ronnie can't read or write, but he worked hard for us and did a good job. He also does lots of miscellaneous chores others don't seem interested in at the rate of (get this) $12 (cash) an hour! We are going to use him to help us stain our home, a chore we have decided to do ourselves to save money and because we are convinced we will do a better job than anyone else (OK, except for that bid of well over $9,000 that we couldn't afford!). ****We still spend every weekend policing the joint (cleaning up, for those of you younger than mud). Last weekend we began to prepare to apply our Shell Guard (combo pest and wood rot treatment containing borax). Norman took off work today and will take off tomorrow because it is taking us longer than expected. Hopefully, by this weekend we will be ready to begin staining our logs.
SUB OBSERVATIONS: Overall, we have been pleased with our subcontractors. However, we have unfortunately learned to believe the home building books when they say you really can't completely trust anyone and must be there to closely supervise. Here's today's example: We have a crew who is doing most of post-rough-in work such as insulation, drywall, ceiling and floor installation, etc. We really like these guys, but have been disappointed in the quality of some of their work. Today, for example, they began to install some batts installation. I noticed that while about 70% of it was done correctly, some of it was cut wrong and literally crammed-in, made-to-fit. I knew how it was supposed to be installed because I had read about it over and over again. I had to confront them and it upset me (a lot more than it did them, I think). I simply told them that I needed for them to redo it, that insulation really can't be compressed and needs to be cut to fit. The just looked at me and nodded. (Later when I checked, they had redone it, but some of it was still a bit tight. It wasn't something I couldn't live with,. so I let it go.) ON THE UPSIDE OF THIS, later that day we received a pleasant surprise from these same guys. We had had some concrete delivered for a small concrete pad for our prow steps. There was some concrete left over, so our subs and the concrete delivery guy decided to pour concrete into the holes we had dug over the weekend for our new gate. (We had posts sitting in the holes). They not only poured the cornet, they leveled the posts, saving us some time and effort. I don't know if our guys felt guilty and/or embarrassed over the insulation criticism or were just being nice (and they ARE NICE GUYS), but this just goes to show that to err is human and ... to then throw in a nice surprise for the boss makes it a whole lot better! (S)
P.P.S. We have fleas! Our neighbor's dog, a daily visitor actually named Peehead, has left his mark!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Week 16 - 0 to 100MPH again
Week of 9/15/08 Things are finally beginning to flow once again! The past week we have gone from having one to three crews (10 guys) working on the site.
*Our pictures depict the start of our fireplace and our house with stone veneer and completed decks and porches.
* Our new bid for the fireplace came in at well over $4,000 less than our old bid and they are doing a beautiful job. We have made friends with the owner of A-1 Building, Carl, who is personally supervising the fireplace construction and was even at the site all day last Saturday! Norman discovered his place accidentally as no one had told us about him and he doesn't advertise. He sells mainly to contractors, but is giving us the same prices! Carl is fascinated by our fireplace as it is new to him (you can't buy Acucraft fireplaces in TN). He also loves coming to the bluff and seeing how the house is going - says there are no comparable views except in Gatlinburg. Carl also gave us a great deal on the manufactured stone siding, which we decided to extend all the way around the house (forget that latticework on the prow side - stone will be zero maintenance!) Thanks to Carl, we are now back in great shape budget-wise.
*Other accomplishments: Our decks & porches, including handrails and spindles, are all done, our tubs and showers are framed in, and our interior log siding has begun. The plumbing is almost complete and the HVAC guy has done a walk-through with us and the plumber to decide on where our vents & returns will go. Our window trim has been redone and looks good. We have made arrangements to have all of our site trash hauled off next weekend.
*Norman and I once again spend much of the weekend doing clean-up. Actually, I picked up and raked up debris, and he sanded all of our interior log walls. We had made a decision to extend the interior walls from the great room area into the kitchen/dining area and are very happy with this.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Weeks 14 & 15 GLITCHES
Weeks of 9/1/08 & 9/8/08 - Highlights:
****Almost nothing was done the week of Labor Day weekend as our subs weren't ready. We did meet with Steve Feeley, a landscaping consultant, who is going to give us some good, basic start-up ideas. We also put in about 15 hours picking up trash and wood scraps. The weekend after Labor Day weekend we spent most of the weekend sanding our interior logs in preparation for cleaning and sealing them ourselves. We decided not to stain them because they are just too gorgeous the way they are!
****This past week (9/8/08) our main interior and finishing sub, Sam Thornley and his crew (buddy Skip & brother Joe), did get our stairs and spindles installed as well as a small 5x4 deck for our mud room. They also put up most of our interior log siding in the great room. It all looks good. I never thought I would get excited about round wooden spindles, but they are so much prettier than the "ripped" ones simply nailed to the railing (and, of course, about 3X more expensive!).
****We purchased all of our staining supplies and finally decided on a beautiful dark honey color.
****We are going to be cleaning and applying Shell-Guard RTU (insecticide guaranteed for life)to our logs inside and out and staining the interior of our home with a clear coat adding UV protection to it - because finances are getting tighter and the bids for those jobs are higher than we think they should be.
****The posts holding up our porches and decks are not set and bolted in concrete per code, and have to be fixed before we can pass the rough-in inspection (J.R. Neal dry-in crew).
****The building crew headed by J.R. Neal also failed to drill all of the holes needed for electrical wire.
****After some initial resistance, Battle Creek agreed to make good on the above, but we don't know yet when, as the crew works out of KY and will have to come back to TN to fix things. (Will find out on 9/14/08).
****Finishing nails were not used on our trim so we will have to figure out how to cover up large nail heads when we stain.
****The trim for the fixed windows that we thought we got such a good deal on were done backwards, the window sill on the outside. Also, when our window guy came out to measure for our fixed windows, he refused to do so, saying he would guarantee they would leak. One estimate for replacing and correcting the trim is $600 labor, not including materials. We will discuss this with J.R. Neal when he returns to correct the other above errors, but don't have any confidence that he knows how to do the sills correctly (maybe we'll get a refund, at least?!)
****Our fireplace guys, who told us two weeks ago that they were running 2-3 weeks behind, now tell us that it will be about 3 more weeks. We are getting another bid next week from some folks who can start next week if we accept their bid.
****We are installing a gate as people coming down our country road think our driveway is now the main road.
****We are still in fairly good spirits, but are realizing that almost everyone in this business is fallible (except for Freddie, our world-famous log home salesman, who is simply a wonderful guy) and that we really must be more on the ball in terms of inspecting people's work.
****Almost nothing was done the week of Labor Day weekend as our subs weren't ready. We did meet with Steve Feeley, a landscaping consultant, who is going to give us some good, basic start-up ideas. We also put in about 15 hours picking up trash and wood scraps. The weekend after Labor Day weekend we spent most of the weekend sanding our interior logs in preparation for cleaning and sealing them ourselves. We decided not to stain them because they are just too gorgeous the way they are!
****This past week (9/8/08) our main interior and finishing sub, Sam Thornley and his crew (buddy Skip & brother Joe), did get our stairs and spindles installed as well as a small 5x4 deck for our mud room. They also put up most of our interior log siding in the great room. It all looks good. I never thought I would get excited about round wooden spindles, but they are so much prettier than the "ripped" ones simply nailed to the railing (and, of course, about 3X more expensive!).
****We purchased all of our staining supplies and finally decided on a beautiful dark honey color.
****We are going to be cleaning and applying Shell-Guard RTU (insecticide guaranteed for life)to our logs inside and out and staining the interior of our home with a clear coat adding UV protection to it - because finances are getting tighter and the bids for those jobs are higher than we think they should be.
****The posts holding up our porches and decks are not set and bolted in concrete per code, and have to be fixed before we can pass the rough-in inspection (J.R. Neal dry-in crew).
****The building crew headed by J.R. Neal also failed to drill all of the holes needed for electrical wire.
****After some initial resistance, Battle Creek agreed to make good on the above, but we don't know yet when, as the crew works out of KY and will have to come back to TN to fix things. (Will find out on 9/14/08).
****Finishing nails were not used on our trim so we will have to figure out how to cover up large nail heads when we stain.
****The trim for the fixed windows that we thought we got such a good deal on were done backwards, the window sill on the outside. Also, when our window guy came out to measure for our fixed windows, he refused to do so, saying he would guarantee they would leak. One estimate for replacing and correcting the trim is $600 labor, not including materials. We will discuss this with J.R. Neal when he returns to correct the other above errors, but don't have any confidence that he knows how to do the sills correctly (maybe we'll get a refund, at least?!)
****Our fireplace guys, who told us two weeks ago that they were running 2-3 weeks behind, now tell us that it will be about 3 more weeks. We are getting another bid next week from some folks who can start next week if we accept their bid.
****We are installing a gate as people coming down our country road think our driveway is now the main road.
****We are still in fairly good spirits, but are realizing that almost everyone in this business is fallible (except for Freddie, our world-famous log home salesman, who is simply a wonderful guy) and that we really must be more on the ball in terms of inspecting people's work.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Weeks 12 & 13 - Dry In
Week of 8/18/08 and 8/25/08 - The dry-in went amazing fast and the J.R Neal construction crew and Battle Creek construction manager, Lee Cardin, were very friendly and professional. We treated the crew to brownies, fruit and other goodies each week and they went out of their way to patiently answer our questions. We did experiences some "glitches," however: 1) We learned during the dry-in period that our log home company does not frame out those windows or the doorways for the front and mudroom doors that we are buying ourselves. My husband had to make a trip to the window company to find out the specifics. The dry-in crew graciously agreed to handle this, for a fee of $25 per window which sounded reasonable to us; 2) We realized that our bathroom windows were too high and needed to be cut lower, our error. We had an emergency conference call with Battle Creek on the increased size of the windows. Once again, the dry-in crew & the construction manager came to the rescue. This time we used the barter system: three cases of beer and two chain saw blades! 3) Our fireplace foundation was finally capped off after a consult with our fireplace guys and our fireplace insert was ordered and received. However, we could not, at first, figure out how to easily get a two-pallet fireplace insert weighing a total of 950+250 lbs inside the house. (This was not something our dry-in crew was excited about handling.) My SMART hubby finally came up with a plan: He offered Collins' Building Supply, who is to deliver our wood floors, $100 to stop by our house, pick up the pallets, and use their truck's lift to lift it onto the porch. He will then use a pallet lifter he is borrowing from a local veggie merchant to scoop it up, into the house and (hopefully) onto the fireplace foundation; 4) We have water leaks. It rained ferociously for 2-3 days on the 25th & 26th and water leaked through the valleys where the middle roof and two lower-pitched roofs meat. The log home company said it was normal for that much rain, that the roofing felt couldn't hold it. We consulted with our roofer (who has 40 years' experience, but was in Alabama) & he told us that the felt was probably not laid correctly. He also said it was a bad idea for him to go ahead and lay down flashing and shingles until the fireplace was completed. (Our fireplace roof goes through the middle of the house.) Another friend said the same thing. Norman and I spent hours sucking up water with a wet-dry vac; 5) The fifth glitch is related to the fireplace. When we called our fireplace subs to let them know that we would be ready for them the first week of September (which is what we had been telling them for at least 6 weeks), they told us that they would be tied up on another job for at least 2-3 more weeks. This was rather upsetting, as due to the aforementioned leaks, we can not have any interior work done (such as dry-wall, electric, HVAC or plumbing) until the fireplace is done and the roof is shingled. I was told that they would try to find a mason to get things started for us and that they would call us back soon; 6) Trash: We didn't realize how exhausting picking up trash and stacking waste lumber would be. We have spent the entire last three weekends doing this and have the aches and pains to show for it. We are going to have to spend a few hundred dollars to have it all hauled off, but it will be well worth it. NOW FOR SOME GOOD NEWS: 1) My husband realized that I had allowed nearly $5,000 for flooring the attic with tongue and groove (dummy that I am - who knew that OSB would work fine?), so we will be using OSB and he will be flooring it himself with his handy dandy staple gun; 2)We have so much lumber and OSB board left that we should easily be able to floor our attic with it; 3) We may also be able to "panel" our hallways with extra tongue and groove, which will be very pretty; 4) We negotiated a better deal for stone veneer for our house by using a local building supply company to furnish the materials and labor, saving us several hundred dollars; 5) Despite all of the glitches, we are thrilled with the way our home is evolving, are quite proud of the fact that we designed it ourselves and; 6) We are actually under budget, which means we can include a few nice extras, such as great room ceiling beams. The dry-in crew, who has built over 300 log homes, said it was one of the prettiest homes they had ever built. Our construction manager, Lee Cardin, said he thought it was the pretties home ever built by Battle Creek Log Homes. Maybe they were both just sucking up, but we loved it, oh yes, we did. To celebrate, we chipped in for another two cases of beer and pizza and waxed sentimental about how people's paths cross and they enjoy each other for such brief moments. (That's my husband, the shrink, waxing, in case you wondered. He is really such a sweet, sweet man!) Have a good Labor Day weekend. Go VOLS and OBAMA and enjoy the following pictures of the dry-in!
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