15 November 2018
Just before noon, Chree and I returned from six
days at Alex, Katy, and Devin’s. Shortly
thereafter, I espied Mike Many out by the barn, taking down and taking away his
staging and other assorted weapons of mass destruction. Mike finally saw, and approved, the cap I had
built for the top of the cupola. After
discussion, he agreed that, if he finished the cupola metal roof down at his
shop this winter, come spring, it could be hoisted onto the top of the barn without
damage. So I fired up the Kubota and
forked the cupola down the road a half mile.
Then I spent the rest of the afternoon converting the tractor into a
snow-blowing machine, as the forecast is for 6″ – 9″ of snow tonight. Wait, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet!
8 November 2018
Finished putting the extension jambs on the barn
people door hinge side, then, with help from Chree, put on the ⁵/₄ x 4 Koma®
door trim and top drip edge. In English:
the people door is pretty much done and, after a coat of paint on the trim and
jambs, will be ready to have shingles installed on the surrounding walls (a
project for next spring).
5 November 2018
Installed the screen rack in the barn loft this
morning. Not too shabby! After lunch, finally stopped procrastinating
and started building the extension jambs for the barn people door. You’ll recall that I mistakenly ordered that
door with jambs for a 4 inch thick wall, forgetting that the concrete curbs
were going to be 6 inches thick. So I
have to fabricate extensions for the jambs, made significantly more challenging
by the fact that the door is plumb (uh, huh) and the wall is plumb (uh, huh)
but somehow there is a 3/₁₆″ difference in the jamb width between
the top and the bottom of the 80″ tall door.
There also is a ¼″ difference between the door jamb and the wall
framing, top to bottom, on the latch side of the door. So the latch-side jamb extension has to be a
trapezoid in two directions.
Fortunately, some adroit use of my thickness planer allowed me to
achieve close enough to the two desired tapers for government work. By whiskey drinking time, the top and latch
side extension jambs were screwed into place.
4 November 2018
The last bit of tomfoolery in the barn loft is
to fabricate a rack to hold all the Anderson window screens for the six months each
year they are not needed as insect protection devices. Again using nothing but scrap material left
over from earlier barn construction, cut out all the pieces needed for that
rack.
3 November 2018
Finished sorting the 24 boxes of cedar shingles
and then moved them to the barn loft (neatly organized, OF COURSE). Also removed to the loft various items
heretofore residing in the house storage room but not needing a
climate-controlled venue in which to live out the rest of their lives. When the kids inherit the property, they are
going to have so much fun trying to figure out why the _____ we kept
that stuff all these years.
2 November 2018
Finished the barn loft shelves. Even if I do say so myself, they came out
really well… some of the best rough carpentry I’ve done. Chree made sure they were plenty strong… After lunch, transitioned to sorting cedar
shingles by size. Got half (12) of the
boxes done by quitting time. Now, you’re
probably saying to yourself, “Sorting shingles!
There goes Doug being a Type A AGAIN!!!!”. Maybe so, but past experience (woodshed and
sauna buildings) has taught me that the shingles go on a LOT faster if they are
presorted so that you can just grab the one you next need instead of having to
paw through a pile / box looking for one the right size.
1 November 2018
With much help from Chree, started building the
barn loft shelves… which are being made entirely from “scrap” material left
over from earlier barn construction activities.
Only whacked my head on low-lying roof joists countless times while
putting up the shelving framework. You’d
think the first blow would have knocked some smarts into my poor excuse for a
brain…
30 October 2018
Used seven leftover pieces of odd-shaped Zip
System® roof sheathing to cobble together two jigsaw puzzle 4′ x 10′
9″ storage platforms up in the barn loft.
Calculated that those two areas can withstand a minimum 60 pounds per
square foot live load… more than sufficient for our bulk storage needs.
29 October 2018
Built another, higher, shelf in the southeast
corner to hold various “stuff” associated with the Kubota and trailer. Also took down the 2x4 strong backs that
supported the wall jacks on the inside of the barn. That “used but good” lumber is destined to
become shelving supports in the barn loft.
27 October 2018
Built a shelf in the southeast corner of the
barn to hold the Kubota’s diesel fuel cans.
Heaven forbid that they should have to sit on the concrete floor! With the air temperature back up into the
mid-40’s, the silane lake is almost gone…
26 October 2018
Took Delores down to the RV Medic “clinic” in
Florence (Vermont) to have her hydraulic system repaired. You don’t want to know what a new pump motor
and oil reservoir cost. Let’s just say that
the check from Buffalo Mountain for the saw logs Chree and I harvested earlier
this month just barely covered that little unexpected expense. Gaaaak!
Even though landmasses are only just emerging from the depths of the
silane lake, put everything back into the barn ahead of approaching rainy
weather. The barn certainly is not too
large… And, no, that doesn’t mean I need
fewer man-toys. Don’t be silly! Since the trailer jack stand doesn't have a wheel, fabricated a little wheeled platform for it to ride on while residing in the barn. With the jack stand sitting on the platform, I can move the trailer around easily by hand. He's just so clever, that boy!
25 October 2018
Looked all over the 5 gallon can of Master
Protect® H 440HZ breathable, solvent based, silane penetrating
water-repellent sealer (formerly Hydrozo® Silane 40 VOC) for some
indication of what environmental conditions are required when that product is
applied. Nada… except for paragraph
after paragraph, in English, Spanish, and French, warning that this stuff will
kill you if you even look at it sidewise. Oh, yeah, and it’s also highly
flammable. Judging by the fact that the
inside of the barn is still pretty much a lake hours later, perhaps the barn
floor should have been just a wee bit warmer than 39° when I coated it
this afternoon. If the silane
ever is absorbed, it will keep salty snowmelt water from penetrating and damaging
the barn floor. At least, that’s the
theory… Also built five supports 36″
above the floor along the south wall, which will be used to store the many 20
foot long pieces of Koma® trim that need an out-of-the-way place to
overwinter.
23 October 2018
Spent some quality time in the shop fabricating
a very cute 9½″ square wood cap for the peak of the barn cupola roof. Made the cap from a scrap (used but still
good?!?!) piece of 2x6 pressure treated lumber that has been lying around ever
since it was used to form the sauna concrete footers in May 2014… But wait, if you call right now
originally that 2x6 was part of the staircase (built in the late 1980’s) that
led from the Glasner’s (now Kate’s) house down to our waterfront. So it’s practically an antique! Hope the tax assessor doesn’t find out I used
such a valuable piece of wood for the tip top of the barn. If you’re wondering why I built the wood cap,
that’s because Mike will be putting a metal cap on the cupola peak, which must
be solid on the inside so that we can attach securely the flying pig
weather vane that every Vermont barn must have.
21 October 2018
Mike and Pikey showed up mid-morning and quickly
rigged a 2x4 ramp from the roof edge up which the cupola can slide to its
foundation at the roof peak. The plan
was to hoist the cupola as high as the Kubota’s folks will go, lift the cupola
onto the staging, pick the cupola up over the roof edge, then slide the beast
up the ramp to the roof peak. Great
plan! Only problem is that it started
snowing (yes, s∙n∙o∙w∙i∙n∙g) in the midst of getting ready, making the roof
much too hazardous to be working on.
20 October 2018
Mike and Pikey came over late morning and spent
a few hours putting the metal flashing around the cupola base on the barn
roof’s peak. When that was complete,
they measured the cupola base and the inside of the cupola’s bottom trim. Miracle of miracles, the cupola will, indeed,
fit easily over the cupola base. It’s a
good thing there are a plethora of acorns this year…
12 October 2018
Goodro’s delivered 24 boxes of Maibec Nantucket®
eastern white cedar shingles prefinished with H2BO bleaching stain,
plus 600 ft2 of Home Slicker® cedar breather mesh. The mesh will provide an air channel between
the barn’s Zip System® sheathing and the shingles, helping to keep
the shingles from cupping... or rotting! Only
$4,500 worth of materials! Not on
the truck were two pieces of ⁵/₄ x 6 Koma® trim for around the
overhead door opening…
6 October 2018
Mike and Pikey arrived just before 11 and spent a
half day putting the hip caps on the east end of the barn roof. They brought along a buck of their own
staging to work from, so I removed the Goose Creek wall jacks and then sent an
email to Sean asking him where he wants them delivered. Pikey also brought along 72″ lengths of
threaded rod in both ¼″ and ⁵/₁₆″ diameters… he thinking that the strength of
the larger diameter would be needed to hold the cupola down. Did the calculations and eight pieces of ¼″
rod will withstand over 8,800 pounds in tension and 5,300 pounds in shear. Sounds like enough to me! So cut the ¼″ rod into 9″ pieces and then
used Mr. Angle Grinder to remove the eight ¼″ x 7″ too-short hold-down bolts
from the cupola.
5 October 2018
Safely returned (i.e., still possessing all twenty fingers and toes) from our annual logging “vacation” in Calais, found that Mike
Many and his crew had finished putting all the metal panels on the barn roof
while we were gone. They also had installed the hip caps on the west end of the
building.
22 September 2018
Mike, Pikey, and Zach here most of the day
roofing away. They finished putting panels on the east side and half of the
north side. Chree and I continued
stuffing Delores with all of our worldly goods plus a few tons of food.
20 September 2018
Visited with Mike Many while walking Shlomo this
morning. Mike recommended raising the
cupola base a few inches in order to accommodate the metal roof ribs and hip
caps. Back at the barn, careful
measurements showed that the cupola, as built, wouldn’t have fit right even
without the ribs and hip caps interfering.
Who designed that thing? So added
2″ to the cupola’s foundation on the top of the barn roof, which should (note I
said “should”) solve the problem. Will
have to cut off and remove the eight ¼″ x 7″ tie-down bolts and replace them
with ¼″ x 9½″ threaded rods. Loaded a
bunch more “stuff” into Delores, including $107 worth of petrol.
17 September 2018
Charles Goodrich came by mid-morning and took
away all of the Goose Creek tools and staging.
Very sad! I really had grown fond
of the chop saw… and the 20 foot aluminum plank, though heavy, was very popular
with the roofers. Only things left are
the wall jacks. Jeff Many (Mike Many’s
cousin) and Ryan Tarbell (Jeff’s son) from Green Mountain Door arrived late
morning and spent many hours installing the barn’s 16 foot wide by 8 foot high
overhead door, operated by a Liftmaster® ½ horsepower door opener. Jeff
even programmed one of the Tacoma’s HomeLink® transmitter buttons to
operate the new door… and gave me a key fob for the Kabota that does the same
thing. So high tech! Gave the Kubota a bath, amongst other
preparatory tasks for our upcoming annual logging trip to Calais, as Chree only
likes to operate a clean log skidder.
16 September 2018
Mike Many and crew here in the morning and
finished putting the metal roof pans on the south-facing roof, then got a
little more than half of the east-facing roof done before being diverted to
other pursuits. Alex, Katy, and Devin
headed back south at 11 after another most enjoyable visit.
15 September 2018
Katy, Alex, & Devin arrived in time for
breakfast to commence a short fun-filled weekend visit: swimming, canoeing,
kayaking, Frisbee golf, croquet, shooting, barbequing, the obligatory heart’s
game, and a very interesting tour of the Omya marble quarry in Middlebury. Mike
Many, Mike Many, Jr (Pikey), and Zach Saxe (who lives at the north end of Fern
Lake) got here about 9 with the first pieces of metal roof edge trim. Unfortunately, things went a bit downhill
from there, as Mike and crew struggled until nearly 1 o’clock to get Mike’s
forklift started, said forklift needed to hoist the coils of metal roofing
material onto the de-coiler stand so that they could fabricate the roof pans. The guys returned about 2 and started putting
roof pans into place, getting the east half of the south-facing roof done by Labatt
Blue time.
14 September 2018
Finished putting in the overhead door facing
trim and applied a coat of paint, mostly to the Koma®. Built a small workbench at the back of the
barn. Lake temperature still a
refreshing 76°.
13 September 2018
Ripped the 1x8 Koma® that was
delivered last week to a 6¼″ width, that being the theoretical width of the
overhead door facing. Why “theoretical”
you ask? ‘Cause the actual facing width measurements
varied between 6⅛″ and 6⁹/₁₆″. Using
many quick clamps, was able to install the horizontal, very floppy, 16′ top
trim piece by myself. Also put in the
right-hand vertical trim piece.
12 September 2018
Finished running 14-2 wire for all the lights
this morning. Wired up the 3-way switches correctly first try! All lights
shining brightly except for one interior light (for which I need a junction box
part from Lowes) and the two exterior lights (to be installed in conjunction with
shingling the barn). Took all afternoon to install the eight wood “wedges” that
will help anchor the cupola. Reason it
took so long to do that relatively simple task: having cut the 45° angles for each
wedge correctly some time ago, decided today that they were wrong, so cut them
the other way, only to discover that (1) they now were wrong (spatial
orientation is so not my strong suit!) and, (2) cut again the
original way, they now would be too short.
Grrrr! So had to fabricate all
new pieces. The original pieces were
created using the Goose Creek table saw… which I no longer have. Doing the same work on my radial arm saw: not
nearly so easy or safe… but I got ‘er done without losing any fingers. Chree made my pre-prandial whiskey and ginger
extra strong tonight. I didn’t complain…
11 September 2018
Two major problems solved today!!!! Ray from R.V. Medic in West Rutland came up
this afternoon and quickly diagnosed, then repaired, Delores’ ailing main cabin
air conditioner. Well worth the $200
service call / repair cost. (Divorce is so
much more expensive!) Of course, this
means that the weather in Calais in a couple of weeks will be well below
freezing… Surprisingly, taking out the barn’s southeast window without damaging
the flange was not at all difficult; hardest part was removing the Vycor®
from the window sill… that stuff sticks like there’s no tomorrow! Pulled out the faulty 12-2 wire and found…
nothing obviously wrong! Ran a new wire
to the outlet and no more ground fault, so we be smilin’! Chree helped me take out and put back in the
window, which now looks and operates just as perfectly as when originally
installed.
10 September 2018
Took Delores down to Green Mountain Garage in
Brandon for her annual inspection, which she passed handily. Ran (until I ran out) 14-2 lighting circuit
wire in the barn, getting the two lights in the loft area glowing brightly.
9 September 2018
Attacked Delores with our carpet cleaner. Rediscovered that the settee actually has
some vibrant colors in the fabric. After
removing many tanks of really, really black water, Delores looked and smelled
habitable again. Fitted Delores with an
electronic pest deterrent device “guaranteed” (in very broken English) to keep
mice, other rodents, and even mosquitoes away.
We’ll see… Also finished painting
the barn soffits and fascias. Sunday
sauna at six five.
8 September 2018
Spent the day cleaning inside Delores. Trust me, you don’t want to know the gory
details. On a positive note, some of the
mice did use the toilet… they just forgot to raise the lid first. They also chewed a hole in the fiberglass
shower enclosure. I mean, really!!!!
7 September 2018
Today was plank moving day… and by the end of
the day the Goose Creek 20 foot aluminum plank sure did get heavy. Says on the label plate that the plank is
rated for 500 pounds. Obviously what
they meant is that the plank weighs 500 pounds after being lifted and carried a
dozen times. Started off moving the
plank around to each side of the barn so that all the seams between the soffit
boards and between the soffit and the fascia could be sealed with Phenoseal®. Also used Red Devil Onetime® lightweight
spackling, aka “fluff”, to fill in the pin holes created when Steve and I
nailed up the soffits. Then around I
went again with the plank, sanding the soffits, fascias, and feature
strips. Then around I went putting the
final coat of paint on the whole works… until I ran out of paint with just the
east side left to do. Chree liked the
“frosted” look that resulted when I brushed the paint onto the north-side soffit
with my hair. Took the tarp off Delores
and discovered that it has been mouse and chipmunk party time inside the RV for
the last 11 months. Unfortunately, the
rodents, after totally trashing the place, forgot to clean up after
themselves. Also, when they needed comfy
bedding, the critters chewed chunks out of the mattress. Recommendation: buy stock in Procter & Gamble,
the company that makes both Mr. Clean® and Febreze®.
6 September 2018
Steve came over again this afternoon, soon after
a cold front rolled through, giving us a spot of much needed rain and then
drastically reducing the temperature and humidity. We put up the soffits and soffit vents on the
south and north sides, saving the latter for last as that side is the most
visible. Which side, of the four, came
out the best? Dedicated blog readers
will be right with their first answer: the least visible south side. Oh, well, that’s why they invented Phenoseal®
caulk. In the 20 minutes just before
G&T time we also put up the ⁵/₄ x 2¾″ Koma® trim that butts up
against the soffit on the wall side all the way around the building.
5 September 2018
What was your brain doing at 3:18 this
morning? Mine was having an epiphany, to
wit: perhaps the hot side of the electrical outlet under the southeast barn
window is coming in contact with the still damp and very narrow wooden outlet
box embedded in the concrete wall, causing the outlet to ground-fault. Checked that theory after breakfast only to
find, alas, that my brain needs more sleep.
Steve Ingram came over this afternoon to help put up the soffits and
soffit vents on the west and east sides of the barn. Glad we did the less visible west side first,
as there were a few areas that will need lots of caulk lessons learned
with that initial effort. Heat index hit
100° again this afternoon, which made the 75° lake feel just fine at quitting
time, thank you very much.
4 September 2018
Houston, we have a problem
disaster!!!! Wired in the outlet that is
under the southeast barn window and, as soon as I restored power, the GFI that
protects that circuit popped. Checked
all connections and found nothing wrong, which means my worst nightmare likely has
come true: the wire that runs to that outlet must have been damaged under the
window as we forced it around two sharp 90° bends and through the piece of ½″
EMT that “protects” the wire from stray nails.
Bottom line: that wire run will have to be replaced and, at this point,
the only way to do that is to remove the window… which, you’ll recall, was put
in to stay forever. I need a hug… and to
shoot the barn’s designer! Soon after
discovering the foregoing, carefully measured 27 feet of wire to run to the
last outlet in the barn (under the northeast window), got it hooked up at the
feed end and stapled into place, only to find that the wire was 12″ short at
the load end. Enough to make a grown man
drink heavily weep! Nothing for
it but to rip out the too short wire and try again, achieving success the
second time around. Also ran the last lighting
circuit wire into the electrical subpanel.
Under the cover, where no one will ever see the professional quality
workmanship, the inside of the subpanel does look very nicely done.
3 September 2018
Took four of the MDO soffit boards over to Steve
Ingram’s this morning so that, using his table saw, we could rip them into the
two pieces that will fit either side of the soffit vents. Shlomo, recognizing a golden opportunity when
he saw it, snuck off to the lake three times while Steve and I were doing our
sawyer thing. While Shlomo was drying
off in the sun back at our place, I ripped my stock of ⁵/₄ x 6 Koma®
into two equal sized pieces using ye olde portable circle saw with rip guide,
convinced the whole time that I didn’t have enough linear feet for the trim for
which they will be used. Finished the
sawing the last board and realized that I’d screwed up the math again
ended up with way more linear feet of trim than will be needed, which is
another way of saying I cut two very expensive Koma® boards that, if
whole, could have been returned to Goodro’s for a substantial credit. The bruise on my rear end should fade away
someday… Giving up in disgust on
carpentry for the nonce, turned my hand to electrical work, installing the rest
of the outlets that are imbedded in the concrete walls. Then I fabricated and installed the front,
mid-span vertical support for the southern set of loft shelves, ‘cause that
support will have an outlet flush to its front face. That done, realized that I was way overdue
for some quality cooling-off time in the lake, accompanied, of course, by a
certain black doggie.
2 September 2018
This was RV power day. First step was to very, very
carefully use the backhoe to excavate the 10-2 UF wire (UF = underground feed,
which means the wire can be direct buried vice having to be in a conduit) that brings
power to the RV. Only had to dig up the
section of wire that was between the main power pedestal and the south edge of
the driveway (where the wire enters a conduit that runs underneath the asphalt). That digging went pretty smoothly until I got
to the top of the little hill where the pedestal is located. There the wire plummeted downwards; ditto the
end that once was connected to the electrical subpanel that was on the main
pedestal until last Friday. I dug and I
dug and I doug some more, getting halfway to China before the wire leveled
out. Seems some IDIOT ran the RV wire UNDERNEATH
the 4″ conduit which connects the main pedestal to the house!!!! What was he thinking?!?!? Wire finally freed from the bowels of the
Earth, next step was to feed it through the conduit that was inserted into the
barn’s western concrete wall just for that purpose. Except that some IDIOT was cheap, cheap, cheap and put in a ½″ diameter conduit
(which he had in abundance left over from past projects) instead of buying the
¾″ that would have made pulling that very stiff, solid core wire so much
easier. What was he thinking?!?!? No need, again today, for a workout at the
gym. By sauna time, the RV wires were
connected in the barn’s new subpanel, the main pedestal was cut down to size,
and the trenches were backfilled.
1 September 2018
During our morning constitutional, had a nice chat
with Mike Many while Shlomo was playing chase with Mike’s dog, Mindy. Mike has ordered the steel for the barn
standing seam roof. Hopefully the metal
will arrive this week… Finished trimming
off the rafters whose level cuts were below the bottom of the outlooks. Then painted flat black the middle 4″ of the outlooks
and rafter level cuts in the middle 12′ on each side of the barn. This is a trick that Perry taught me long
ago: painted black where the soffit vents are installed, the rafters and
outlooks become invisible when you look up through the vents. Then put the final trim pieces on the bottom
of the cupola. Once again the Kubota’s
forks were very handy, raising the cupola high enough for working comfortably
underneath.
31 August 2018
Power to the People, Baby!!! Rob Cormier and Chesley Deering from Peck
Electric got here about 8:30 and proceeded to do their magic, resulting in 242
volts of electrons flowing into the barn two hours later, with the entire
installation in full compliance with the National Electrical Code. Yes, you read that right, 242 volts… apparently
Green Mountain Power was being generous today… and so much for my concerns
about voltage drop using 6 AWG wire for the hot leads. After the guys left, I put the penultimate
coat of white paint on what will be the exposed side of the soffit boards. Then I ran some electrical wire, getting
three outlets and two lights working by whiskey drinking time. Turns out that the wooden outlet boxes I
inserted into the south and west concrete walls are about ⅟₃₂″ too short for
the receptacles I bought. Doesn’t sound
like much, but doesn’t fit means doesn’t fit.
However, a little work with the flush cut saw and a chisel soon
rectified that small problem.
29 August 2018
Heat index this afternoon was 102°. For some reason that directly impacted energy
levels and the strength of the lake’s siren call. Trimmed off two of the too-low rafter level
cuts before the heat got too bad this morning.
Rolled a first coat of paint on what will be the exposed side of the
soffit boards. Zip® and Vycor®
taped the cupola roof seams. Crafted
four Koma® corners for the cupola.
Sweated bullets! Went in the lake
with Shlomo. Called it a day.
28 August 2018
Finished putting in the outlooks, again using
the tractor / forklift, my Little Giant, and Goose Creek’s 20 foot aluminum
plank to create an unsafe at any speed walkway from which to access the
north side soffit region. Noted that
several of the rafter “level” cuts will have to be planed down before the
soffits can be installed, as those rafters protrude below the bottom of the
outlooks. Glen Peck stopped by mid-morning
to get a final list of the electrical materials he will be providing in order
to run power from the main pedestal into the barn. Glen talked me into using two runs of 6 AWG
wire for the power feed, which will provide 240 volt / 60 amp service to the
barn. I thought (based on previous
calculations) that I needed one run of 4 AWG to provide 110 volts / 60 amps and
keep voltage drop below 3%. Obviously
there is a reason Glen is a master electrician, as expected voltage drop with
his configuration is 2.9%... and if some son / grandson ever wants to use the
barn for a shop, 240 volt power will already be available. Heat index most of today was 96°, so obviously
was time to mow the lawn… then jump in the lake!
27 August 2018
It was an outlook kind of day. But before launching back into that project,
figured I’d finish putting the fascia on the cupola. Grabbed a few Cortex® screws from
an open box only to discover (much too late to extract them) that they were 2¾″
vice the 2″ screws that were the length needed.
Mr. Angle Grinder to the rescue once again. Though it was horribly hot and humid, by the
end of the sweat-soaked day all the outlooks were installed on the east, south,
and west sides of the barn. Also done
was the repair to the alienated rafter on the west side that was missing a
significant chunk. Had to get creative
in putting up “staging” to reach the outlooks on the north end of the west
side… but that’s why we have a tractor / forklift.
26 August 2018
Perry here from 9 to 1. No surprise, after a good night’s sleep, he
figured out the staircase second section cuts with only moderate teeth
gnashing. While Perry was producing
stringers, I assembled a cantilevered landing for the lower end of the section
staircase section. That assemblage has a
nice art deco feel to it, being made from the cut ends (retrieved this morning
from the burn pile) of the 16″ LVLs that were used for the overhead door
header. Mike Many came by to talk about
the Colonial Red standing seam metal roof that he and Pikey (his son and
roofing partner) will be putting on the barn and cupola. After Perry left I finished making and then
installed the treads for the second staircase section. By sauna time, the staircase was complete,
absent a railing that may or may not get installed sometime in the indefinite
future.
25 August 2018
Perry and I worked all the live long day
building the barn staircase. Putting in
the landing… no problem, though the pieces of Advantech® I had been
saving for the landing proved too small for the purpose (though they were big
enough to become stair treads; waste not, want not). But I had ordered “extra” Advantech®
from Goodro’s yesterday, so crafting the right-sized piece was easy… after we
spent some time figuring out that there would be enough left over for all the
stair treads. Laying out and crafting
the stringers for the first section of the staircase (from the concrete floor
up to the landing) equally easy. But
then, while I was busy cutting and installing the 12″ wide stair treads for the
first section, Perry encountered a major conundrum with the stringers for the
second section (from the landing up to the loft). His carpenter’s calculator said the rise for
each step should be 7 ⁹/₁₆″, vice the 7 ⅝″ that we used for the first
section. Note the 1/₁₆″
difference between those two values.
Perry laid out and cut the “test tickle” stringer using a 7 ⅝″ rise. Way too big!
So he laid out the stinger (but didn’t cut it!) using 7 ⁹/₁₆″. Obviously way too small. So we did the math longhand and, lo and
behold, the correct riser height should be 7 19/₃₂″. How the heck are you supposed to achieve that
kind of tolerance with a handheld circular saw?!?! We hope to find out tomorrow…
24 August 2018
While doing layout for the outlooks on the south
side, rediscovered that the barn measures 24 feet 2 inches long. That is a number, you may recall, that is not
evenly divisible by 8 feet (the length of the ½″ MDO soffit boards). Bother!!!!
So, will have to scab in a 2″ piece of MDO and hope that enough caulk
(carpenter in a tube, as Perry is wont to say) and paint will hide the hack
job. Got some more outlooks installed in
the morning, then Steve came back in the afternoon to help finish putting on
the fascia and feature strips. During
that process, discovered that space aliens had taken a bite out of one of the
west side rafters. Sure wish I had
noticed that before the roof sheathing went on… Goodro’s delivered the 2x12’s and ¾″Advantech®
that will become the barn staircase.
23 August 2018
Put up outlooks on the east (overhead door) side
of the barn all morning. Amazing how
little was accomplished in those 3 hours.
To be efficient that job really needs two people: one doing the cutting
and one screwing the outlooks into place.
Steve Ingram came over after lunch to help install Koma® fascia
and feature strip boards. Now, because
what happens in the barn stays in the barn, I won’t tell you how many times we
had to cut a certain feature strip board before we got one to fit properly in
its assigned spot. Suffice it to say
that, by quitting time, the fascia and feature strips were beautifully
installed on the east and north (driveway) sides of the barn… and the roof
edges on those two sides had been nailed down.
22 August 2018
After a fair bit of rain last night, the inside
of the barn was completely dry this morning.
Zippity doo dah, miracles do happen!!!!
Spent the morning removing (with help from the evil Mr. Angle Grinder) the
varmint and flying insect barriers from the inside of the cupola openings,
fabricating new hardware cloth and aluminum screen pieces, then installing
those new pieces on the outside of the cupola openings… where they should have
been placed originally to prevent birds from nesting on the opening
ledges. Two steps back and another step
forward… After lunch, back-primed the ½″
MDO boards that are destined to become the barn soffits. Note: back-priming is a technical term for
color coating my hands, arms, and (don’t ask) hair while, in theory, sealing
the edges and back of the wood against water damage.
21 August 2018
Took roller in hand and applied Behr Premium
Plus® exterior satin enamel ultra pure white paint to what will be
the exposed faces of the Koma® fascia and feature strip boards. While hard to prove, am pretty sure I got
more paint on the boards than on me.
Started out using the east side staging as an impromptu drying rack, but
quickly discovered (and not in a good way) that there was a lot of detritus
cascading from surrounding trees even with the light winds we were
experiencing. So made a drying rack inside
the barn out of my Little Giant and 6 foot step ladders. Any port in a storm…
20 August 2018
Figured it would be quick work to remove the panic
boards (2x4’s nailed horizontally close to the roof edge to keep sliding bodies
from going on a long plummet back to mother earth) and finish the last bit of
Zip System® taping.
Wrong! First step was to reattach
the wall jacks (with Chree’s help) so that I could safely access the roof
edge. Then Steve Ingram stopped by to
check on progress and schedule time to help with putting up the fascia, feature
strip, and soffit boards. By early
afternoon had the panic boards down and all the taping done, so moved on to
drilling holes in the roof for the cupola securing bolts and attaching a lamp
holder to the top of the hip post, which should give us a neat lighting effect
through the cupola’s openings. While
doing those tasks, noticed a couple of sheathing nails that had missed their
intended roof rafters. Then I spotted a
few more… And then I found that the
inside of the southwest corner looked like a pin cushion from the inside of the
barn. Fortunately, most (but not
all) of the errantly shot nails were clear of places covered by tape or Vycor®. By the time all of those bad nails had been
driven back out, moved over, driven back in, and the resulting sheathing damage
covered with more Zip® tape, ye olde legs again were having some
kind of out of body experience.
19 August 2018
Spent the day applying Zip System®
flashing tape to the barn roof seams. Also
ran 12″ wide Vycor® waterproofing membrane the entire length of each
hip seam. By quitting time ye olde legs
were pretty much dead from walking around on the 6:12 pitch roof all day, maybe
aggravated just a bit by much wild dancing at the Burlington High School Class
of 1968 50th reunion last night.
17 August 2018
Ty and Doug here before 7, per usual. They soon had the people door (as opposed to
the overhead door) installed. I dug out
the Kwikset® door handles and double dead-bolt lockset bought ages
ago for that door only to discover (after I had destroyed the blister pack
packaging in which they were housed) that the dead bolts were not the Smart Key®
variety that allows yours truly to re-key the tumblers instead of having to
call a locksmith to have that done.
Grumble, bitch, moan!!!!
Meanwhile, the two geese moved on to putting in the five Anderson 400-series
C14 windows. They had the first one 75%
installed when I noticed it was opening in the wrong direction. Seems some homeowner had forgotten to tell Ty
and Doug that there were three left-hand opening and two right-hand opening
windows, so Murphy’s Law in action, they had just grabbed the top box (by
happenstance a right-hand window) and put it in where a left-hand window was
intended. Double grumble, bitch,
moan!!!! And, of course, when those
windows get nailed in Anderson intends for them to be there for eternity, i.e.,
getting them back out again without destroying the flange is a major
challenge. Luckily this weren’t the
first rodeo for the two geese! Late
morning the Goodro’s truck arrived with $2,200 worth of Koma® PVC
trim and ½″ MDO (medium density oriented strand board) for the barn. Expensive, yes, but well worth the cost
because that trim will never rot and the Koma and MDO hold onto paint
like forever. Just before lunch, as it
was starting to rain, Doug gave the cupola roof a shave around the edges. The guys also ripped the MDO into 22¼″ x 96″
strips that will become the barn soffits.
After lunch, we ripped a bevel the length of a bunch of the Koma®,
thus creating the fascia and feature strip boards. By 1:30 we had sorted out tools, loaded much
of the Goose Creek variety into Ty’s and Doug’s trucks, and the two geese flew
off into the sunset… just as Perry arrived to check on progress and schedule a
time for us to build the staircase up to the barn loft area. He also made an excellent suggestion about
how to harmoniously transition the cedar shingles on the west wall to meet
those on the north wall.
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