Siding - So Many Sides!

Well, we've had A LOT going on the past few months, and while we sneak in studio building here and there, we've had long stretches of it languishing. Unfortunately. My husband's birth-father in Germany went into the hospital and isn't expected to get better, so my husband went to visit them right after we got home from Sedona earlier this month. He is getting home tomorrow, which I am VERY glad about. Not only because he can get back to work on my studio. : )

Before he left we had gotten pretty far on the siding. We're using hardiplank, which is fiber cement. It lasts much much longer than wood, doesn't need to be painted as often, and is way more fire resistant. The downside, it takes freakin' forever to hang!! We're using it to trim the windows and doors too - see below.

We bought our first load from McCoys then realized we could get it A LOT cheaper at Home Depot (for the exact same thing). Unfortunately the new load was ... yellow. So now we have a multi-color building. But, we always intended to paint it - the panels only have a primer on them anyway.

Here is a bonus photo of my cutie pie husband (I haven't seen him myself in 12 days!), from before he left, in his cold-weather work clothes, contemplating what to do next.

Our new estimate for completion is February. We've still got a lot of work to do on the inside.

We've been doing a bunch of piddly (but necessary) things on the studio the last few weeks - I didn't want to bore you with the details. But, in the last few days we made some big moves, mostly in preparation for leaving town for a few weeks. As you can see below, we wrapped the entire studio/garage with Tyvek. Like a big present!!



Then we installed all the windows and doors. The latter took quite a bit of work because, even though they were pre-hung, our slab edge wasn't exactly level so we had to shim things quite a bit to get the doors to open/close correctly. Below is the door to my studio.



The stuff you see all around the edges of the doors/windows is called ProtectoSeal. It's a REALLY sticky rubbery stuff that will keep any water from getting inside the walls around the openings. The three windows you see below are along the back of the building, my north facing studio wall. I will stand near the nearest two windows to paint, as you'll see in future photos.



We had some roving teenagers recently in the middle of the night caught siphoning gas and stealing tools from neighbors, so we took precautions and ordered a security system for our house and our new building. Better safe than sorry. When we return from Germany we'll get started on the siding, and then the inside!

Galva - what?!

As you can see we've gotten most of the sheathing done (OSB on the outside of the building). We've been cutting and storing stuff inside, out of the rain (our county is in an extreme drought but we finally got a little rain!). With all the holes we've got quite a nice breeze through most days and ... best of all, shade. It's been over 100 degrees a lot lately. My studio will be in the back - where you can see the 3 windows on the back wall. My studio will be 16x18 feet. The rest is a garage/wood shop for my husband.



Here is an overview of our progress. Today we started putting metal on the roof. We are using Galvalume, which is Aluminum-Zinc alloy coated sheet steel. It is a little more expensive than regular aluminum, but lasts a lot longer and doesn't turn as gray as fast.



Here is a stack of the Galvalume. It is difficult to move because it's relatively delicate (can't be bent or dented) so we end up moving one or two at a time. Today we pre-drilled a bunch of holes on each and then put up about 3/4 of one side of the roof.



My husband finally got brave enough to bring the camera up to the top and shoot this picture of all we've done so far. It was hard to get all the sheets perfectly square, and we kept having the adjust them.



The only sad thing is you won't be able to see our beautiful roof from the street, as the gable is pointing the wrong way. But, we are thinking about putting metal on the house as well, to match the garage/studio and for the energy savings.

Back to it

We're finally getting back to the studio after a break for, among other things, putting together 40 frames!! Just in case we're ever exposed to hurricane force winds, here I am putting on hurricane ties with a nifty little pneumatic nailer thingie.



Next we're sheathing all the walls with OSB. Here's my handsome man with the oh so heavy nail gun - so heavy my arm muscles cramp just looking at this picture.



Here's a whole wall done. So far we've just got the long side walls completed - the gable ends will be more complicated, and we're waiting on more wood.



Next we cut out the holes for the windows and doors with a saws-all.



This is the side closest to the house, with the two doors - one for my studio and one for the garage/wood shop.

Here you can see the fancy framing on the front of the building ...

... and my husband is particularly proud of this boxed soffit return. : )

Next we'll get the metal for the roof up, and sheath the rest of the building.

Buff Stuff

Last week my husband got the second half of the roof sheathed. The next step was to cover the entire roof in black, roofing felt. This took two of us, so I helped. It was really scary up there at first, but we got used to it. I like this photo because I look all buff and stuff. : )



It was hard to photograph this part because neither of us felt ok about taking the expensive camera up the ladder. So here's the view from below.

Next we'll cover the roof with metal. Apparently metal is much better for energy savings than shingles, but also more expensive.

More Dads than you can shake a stick at

Here is a shot of all the trusses up and the framing for the roof completely finished. Whew!



Next, David's dad came over to help with the sheathing. We are VERY lucky to have such handy, generous parents in our lives - thank you guys!!! The sheathing is basically 4'x8' sheets of OSB, which is like plywood but different (as much as this girl got). Wayne had to heft it up to this little platform, climb up, then lift it up to David, perched on the roof.



Here's a close-up. I didn't want to climb the ladder with the camera, so it's from below.



Here's David up top with the nail gun:

And a final picture with much of one half done.

Trusses shmusses

So, after finishing the framing for the walls, squaring them, and putting the top plates on ... top, we had the trusses delivered (below).



My parents were here for a couple of days this weekend and my dad helped my husband put up ALL the trusses while my mom and I and Jacob hung out and went to thrift stores. : ) They started by putting the first one up on top of the 9ft walls, upside down.



Then they turned it over and fixed it in place. That's my dad (below).




Here's the view from my end of the building.



Here they are putting up the second truss:



They had a whole system going.



Here's my dad securing the third one.




Like I said they got them all up ... I post more pictures later.

New recruits

My parents were kind enough to come down this weekend and help us out with our garage/studio. It mostly consisted of my dad helping to frame and my mom watching Jacob while I slept. : ) Thanks guys!!! This is my dad...



While I've been out of commission these last few days (due to poison oak) David has been putting up more sections of wall every night when he gets home from work (bless him). Today the big task was to construct and raise the heavy section for the garage door (below).



Here we are leveraging the wall over the bolts that are stuck in the cement.



And here my dad is putting in the last few screws that are temporarily, along with braces everywhere, holding it all up and together.



Next we'll be putting the rest of the wall sections up and then (the hard part) getting the trusses up for the roof.

First Wall (section) Up!

Well, this may not look very impressive, but it was HARD! When they poured the slab they put in some bolts along the edges that stick out a couple of inches (you can see a couple in the photo on the front part of the slab, to the right). We had to drill holes for these to fit in, along the bottom of this wall section, in exactly the right spots, and then lift all 16 feet (9 ft high) of it into place so the bolts fit into the holes. It took some manouvering, but David and I did it by ourselves. Only to realize we'd forgotten the plastic stuff that goes underneath. So we had to take it down and do it all over again. But it's up and steady and man are we proud of ourselves! On to the next section ...

Slow going

My husband is a perfectionist, so of course this is going slower than we thought. I don't mind. I've been waiting this long to have my dream studio ... I can wait a little longer. It'll be the straightest, strongest, longest lasting studio on the block, you can bet! Besides, I'm getting used to the half a bedroom I'm in, and did I tell you ... my office is in the bathroom. : ) I'll take a picture of it later and post it here. It's pretty cute - kinda like this guy:

First Load Delivered

Today this big ol' truck drove into our yard and unloaded all the wood we'll need to get started with the wall framing. We are going with McCoy's because of the FABULOUS service!



Because it's been raining a lot the last few days we put most of the wood on the slab so it doesn't get moldy on the ground. We're going to get buff fast from lifting all this wood!



We "stickered" this stack (below), which basically means we spaced it out so it'll get dry faster.



Below is Jacob showing me exactly how to work the measuring tape.



I kept asking if there was anything I could do and David kept saying "umm, not right now," so while I went inside and painted David laid out the first section of wall. We are going to do each 40' side in 3 sections so it's not too heavy to lift.



Here it is with one window framed in.

And here's Jacob again directing the project from his perch on the stickered wood pile.

More tomorrow...

A little slab'l do ya

First this big dog pulled into our driveway:



Jacob loved it! Then they started pouring the concrete, which was much rockier than I thought it would be, and all the guys started shoveling it around and spreading it out.



Then they got a big stick and levelled it out.



Then they got a special kind of stick, called a screed, to smooth it out. This also made the big rocks sink to the bottom and the finer stuff move the top.



Then they threw some brown coloring on (for looks) and smoothed it all out some more. Once fairly dry and hard, they got on hands and knees and created some sweeping texture (for effect). They thought we were awful silly to ask for a perty slab, but there you go. : )



Now we're going to hurry up and wait for our slab to cure. Meanwhile we've got 50 billion other things to do ...

Rebar - what a word

These are our slab guys, Chris and David. They are hard workers - man! This first picture is from yesterday - they worked all day in drizzle, spreading out all the dirt/sand and making it flat. They were very good about humoring Jacob who talked to them constantly from the window.



Today they put a ton of reinforcing rebar on top in preparation for the concrete tomorrow! I will be heading to the airport in the afternoon so my husband will be taking pictures for the blog. After the concrete is poured it'll have to sit for a while to cure.