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.
16 August 2018
Ty and Doug here before 7 and started right in
putting ⅝″ Zip System® tongue and groove (T&G) sheathing on the
barn roof. I put up a few electrical boxes
for the barn interior lights, then started installing the soffit outlooks. Right after lunch it was obvious that, if we
wanted to finish the roof today, we would need the four sheets of T&G sheathing
that Goodro’s didn’t deliver yesterday.
So Shlomo and I schlepped into r.k. Miles, the other lumber yard
in Middlebury, where they were only too happy to sell me those four sheets...
for $170!!!! Right after I returned to
Fern Lake, Goodro’s called to tell me… (wait for it!)… that they were still out
of T&G sheathing. (Bet you didn’t
see that one coming.) By quitting time
the barn roof was sheathed, the cupola also had a roof, and the foundation for
the cupola was screwed onto the barn roof peak.
15 August 2018
Tom and Doug Devoid here a bit before 7. The two geese got right to work trimming the
rafter tails on the west side of the barn, then putting up the sub-fascia on
that side. Once that was done, Doug
continued with putting up the ledger 2x4’s that will anchor the building end of
the outlooks, to which the soffits will be attached. Tom, with some modest help from me, crafted
the rafters for the cupola. Then we
sawed and installed blocking that will keep critters from getting into the
cupola via the cupola soffit. I also put
hurricane ties on the four common rafters, attaching them securely to the two
top plates. That roof ain’t never going
to blow off!!!! Mid-afternoon, the guys started cutting Zip System sheathing
for the cupola roof. The Goodro’s daily
deliver brought us only half of the additional sheathing I had ordered this
morning because space aliens absconded with the rest they are o-u-t, out
until they get a truckload in on Friday.
14 August 2018
Shlomo and I went to Goodro’s to get fender
washers for the bolts that will hold the cupola onto the barn roof. Being old, when I got there I knew there was
something I needed but couldn’t remember what.
So bought some other stuff instead.
Sean was there and I had the checkbook, so settled accounts with Goose
Creek. Sean also reminded me that I
needed drip edge for over the barn windows and doors, so bought some of that,
too. Went into Middlebury from Goodro’s
to buy mower gas, and finally remembered that I needed fender washers. Duh!
So back to Goodro’s I went, where, obviously taking pity on my impaired
mental faculties, they seemed happy to sell me some washers. Finished the lower half of the cupola. Remembered to put the ¼″ x 7″ galvanized
bolts through the bottom plate before I put the top plates on. Since the distance between the top and bottom
plates is only 4½″, would have been kinda hard to put those eight bolts in
after the top plate was on. Used 8¾″
steel straps to tie the top plates to the bottom plate. Even if a small nuclear device somehow blows the
roof off the barn, the cupola will still be attached and intact. What, me over-engineer a structure?
13 August 2018
No geese today or tomorrow due to the press of
other commitments. Started work down in
my shop on the barn cupola. Must admit
that I did cheat. Much as I love my
radial arm saw, I set up the Goose Creek chop saw and table saw (the latter
already set for a 26½° bevel, the angle of
a 6:12 pitch roof) and used them for cutting the 4x4’s for the cupola
foundation.
12 August 2018
All the steel is hung, which used just about 15
pounds of 1½″ x 9d galvanized joist hanger nails, which equates to somewhat
over 2,000 nails. There were 8 nails
left when the last LS90 framing angle was attached. Now that’s what I call good planning!
11 August 2018
Shlomo and I headed for Goodro’s first thing
this Saturday morning to pick up a special order of Simpson Strongtie®
twist straps (for holding the hip beams down onto the walls if high winds try
to lift the roof off the barn) and 135° framing angles (an anti-squishing device, i.e.,
they strengthen the joint where each rafter attaches to the hip). Already had five USP® twist straps
left over from the house construction, so ordered three more. The USP® straps are all the same
but the Simpson straps come in a left and a right twist. Of course, it turned out that I needed 2
rights and a left and didn’t know to specify so got the opposite. Took some creative bending and cutting down
in the shop, but eventually got that last strap to switch hit. Cut the 4x4 “flagpole” off so that it won’t
interfere with the barn cupola. Now that
all the lumber at the barn roof peak is in place, carefully measured how much
net free area would be available in the cupola.
After developing all the measurements for a 30″ x 30″ cupola last week,
the size actually needed to provide the correct amount of airflow is 40″ x
40″. Oh, well, back to ye olde drawing
board! Perry stopped by late morning to
take measurements for the barn staircase. He also pointed out that the back of the extra deep electrical boxes I have installed are right up against the outside wall sheathing, through which countless long staples will protrude when I put on the cedar shingles. Ooops! By arm cramp quitting time, had installed all of the twist straps and half
of the framing angles.
10 August 2018
For the past couple of days we’ve been smelling
something very dead… or maybe the junior person on the crew forgot to shower or
had something nasty to eat with his beer.
After much sniffing around, we determined the smell was coming from my
extendible aluminum plank, which, when flushed with water, disgorged a
disgusting mess that best guess was a former mouse. Yuck, yuck, and more yuck! And, needless to say, the smell still lingers
though the remains are gone. All three
geese here before 7 this morning and got straight to work cutting and
installing the west-side roof rafters, while I continued hurricane tying. However, the space aliens must have been at
it again last night, ‘cause mid-morning we were AGAIN out of 2x10’s, with one
rafter left to fabricate. While the guys
started cutting rafter tails and getting the sub-fascia 2x6’s ready to go,
Shlomo and I made a speed run to Goodro’s.
By quitting time all the rafters were in, properly in plane (except for
two on the south-side that need their humps removed), and all the sub-fascia
was installed except on the west-side (where the rafter level cuts are yet to
be done). Does Febreze® work
on aluminum?
9 August 2018
Luther and Nick here before 7; Tom at 8. First of our regularly scheduled (sic) $300
Goodro’s deliveries here just after 7, bringing more 2x10’s and the 2x6’s
needed for the sub-fascia. Tom had
figured out what was wrong with the south-side rafters: he’d inched himself on
every seat cut. That meant that all
those rafters had to be taken down, re-cut, and put back up. By the end of the day that had been done,
plus the east and north side rafters were in place… and in plane. My job for the day was to attach hurricane
ties to the hip rafters and any of the common and jack rafters that had been
goose certified as being properly installed.
Ran out of 2x10’s again mid-afternoon.
Swear the space aliens are somehow spiriting that lumber away. But Goodro’s to the rescue, delivering
another supply soon after the guys were gone.
8 August 2018
Luther and Nick got here, as usual, somewhat
before 7. We three got to work putting
three more top plates on the east wall, stringing the very top one so that it
was both perfectly straight and shimming it (finally!) so that it was perfectly
level. When Tom got here at 8:30, he and
Luther began cutting and installing the common and jack 2x10 rafters for the
south-side roof while Nick and I continued the top plate project. Glen Peck came by mid-morning to talk about, and
reach agreement on, how we’re going to get power to the barn. Glen sure is easy to work with… not to
mention a true master electrician.
Mid-afternoon, Nick and I finished the top plate buildup, so he shifted
over to helping Luther and Tom while I transitioned to putting Zip Tape®
on the barn wall seams, ably assisted by Tasi.
At quitting time all of the south-side rafters were in and all wall
seams were Zip taped. Unfortunately, the
tail ends of the south-side rafters wouldn’t plane, reason unknown but
puzzling. Also unfortunate, the lake is
getting so warm that it’s not refreshing.
Such a tough life we have!
7 August 2018
Per usual, Luther and Nick pulled in shortly
before 7. The first Goodro’s truck
followed shortly thereafter, bringing thousands more dollars of building
materials, including the barn’s Thermatru® people door and the
Anderson 400 Series® casement windows. The truck also brought a 6x6 fir post to
which the hip rafter LVL’s were to be attached at their upper ends. Fortunately, also on board was a 4x4 fir post
intended for staircase construction. Sean
arrived soon after the Goodro’s truck departed.
Sean used his fancy carpenter’s electronic calculator, and his years of
experience, to compute and lay out the hip rafter cuts. No pressure, but a mistake would cost $175
plus a 2 day delay while another rafter was ordered and delivered. In watching Sean do his voodoo magic, it
dawned on me that using the 6x6 post would cause problems when the common
rafters were attached to the hips. I
drew Sean a quick picture and he concurred that using the 4x4 post would be a
much better option. Sometimes even a
blind squirrel… Tom Hellyer got here at
8:30, being fed to the wolves assigned to the Fern Lake project because
of his expertise with complex roof structures... an example of which is a
hipped roof on a square building, i.e., our beloved barn. After Tom and Sean consulted (and agreed) on
the hip rafter cuts, Sean departed for greener pastures. Meanwhile, Luther and Nick erected, plumbed,
and securely braced the 4x4 post in the dead center of the barn storage loft,
forgetting to attach a flag to the pole before raising it to the sky. Guess you can’t have everything! Then Luther cut, Tom supervised, and Nick,
Tasi (visiting for a few days after his latest months-long sojourn overseas),
and I assisted as needed, creating four mirror image sets of two 14″ x 22′ LVL hip
rafters. Tasi laid out where the TrussLOK®
lag screws would need to be put in (12″ on center in a W pattern) to bind each
pair of LVL’s together. Just before
lunch we hoisted the eight cut LVL’s up to the tops of the barn walls (no gym workout
needed today!!!!) and attached the first four to the 4x4 post. No surprise, they fit perfectly!!!! After lunch we sistered each pair of LVL’s
together using lots of PL Premium® construction adhesive and
20 lag screws (per pair). While that was
going on, two electricians from Peck Electric arrived to (1) fix the house doorbell
that unaccountably gave up the ghost recently and (2) discuss options for
running power from the main electric pedestal over to the barn. Doorbell fixed (bad transformer) and
allowable options TBD after consulting the National Electrical Code. Then the skies got kinda dark with rumbles of
thunder clearly audible even above the racket made by the impact driver chorus. So all tools were returned to safe havens and
the guys were just about to depart when the second Goodro’s truck arrived,
bearing 360 linear feet of 2x4’s that will be used for third, fourth, and fifth
wall top plates between the hip rafters.
“Why so much wood?”, you ask.
Because either the seat cuts in the LVL hip rafters would have to be
unacceptably deep (severely weakening the hips, each one of which needs to
carry up to 7.8 tons of load) or the walls between the hips have to be
built up another 4+″ so that the tops of the 2x10 common and jack rafters are
in plane with the tops of the hips. Easy
choice! The wood unloaded, the geese
flew north at 2 o’clock. At 2:05 the
rains, they a come! Our weather station
recorded a maximum (and record for us) of 9.44 inches per hour at the height of
the deluge. Truly raining cats and dogs!
6 August 2018
Luther returned to the fold a bit before
7, bringing along a new face: Nick Cormier.
We got straight to work hanging ⅝″ Zip System® T&T
(tongue & tongue) wall sheathing on the barn framing. That went very fast; by noon all the
stockings were hung by the chimney with care.
My job (besides staying out of Luther and Nick’s way) was to use a flush
cut saw to remove the sheathing now covering the window and door openings. I also washed the outside of the sheathing
with a hose preparatory to putting on the Zip tape that will seal all the
seams. After lunch, Luther went to steal
obtain additional wall jack brackets from another Goose Creek worksite while
Nick and I put up the three missing ceiling joists (left out originally because
of interfering wall braces that were removed after the sheathing was on) and
finished trimming around the garage door opening. Once all the wall jack brackets were up and
the staging was set up ready for roof work, the guys called it a day… shortly
before 3. Completely covered in sawdust
(and soon to show lung cancer symptoms), had to go in the lake to clean up
before I was allowed in the house to shower.
4 August 2018
The refurbishment of the wood walkway is
complete! Would have jumped into the
lake to celebrate but a thunderstorm rolled in just as the last board was being
screwed into place. Moving the 800+ deck boards to a
3/₁₆″ spacing shortened the walkway by 31 ½ feet. So that’s how many feet of new ⁵/₄ x 6 pressure
treated boards got installed at the very bottom of the walkway.
2 August 2018
Removed and replaced (with proper 3/₁₆″
spacing) 92 feet of the wood walkway boards.
My knees and back may never be the same.
Only 42 more feet to go before that project is finished! Chree and I took “final” measurements of the
barn wall top plates. The walls are
within ¼″ of all being the same length.
Even better, the building at the top plate level is only 1/₁₆″
out of square… not too awful bad!
Retrieved, for a nominal fee, the repaired-good-as-new radial arm saw
power head from Marc Gearwar, machinist extraordinaire.
1 August 2018
Sure enough, the 4x4 post holding up one side of
the main electric pedestal was encased in concrete at its nether end. The Kubota’s backhoe and a few swings with a hefty
sledge hammer soon made that problem go away.
Post reinstalled, with square drive screws set flush with the board
surface, thank you very much, in position so that I can cut the pedestal down
to a much smaller size once the “temporary” (since 2009) electrical subpanel is
removed.
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