We have "VOG" day

Well it finally happened we had "VOG" day on Aug 12 2015 2 days before my one year anniversary for buying my building lot. And you ask but what is "VOG" day well it is Victory over Garage. On Aug 12 I finished the work on building the garage. Now it is just the house and the landscaping. So this is how we got there.

On Sunday morning I finished the stonework on the front of the garage. Once that was done we went over and finished the east wall board and batten in the Gable end. Once that was done we installed the siding in the false garage door area. That is where I've made one of my first esthetic mistakes. I was trying to get siding that closely matched the colour of the garage door. Unfortunately once the siding was being installed I realized that it was not that close. For now I'll live with it but I do foresee a day down the road when I might pull this siding off and replace it with something a lot closer in colour to the garage door. So here are a few shots of the finished gable end and the stone work, as well as the false garage door area.

I ended up working on Monday and Tuesday so all I did on Monday was a little sanding and priming in the second bathroom in preparation for tiling. On Tuesday I got off at 2pm so spent the afternoon working on the front wall of the garage installing the siding. I managed to get almost all of it done before I called it quits for the day. 

On Wednesday we finished the little bit of siding left on the garage and then proceeded to finish of the siding that went above all the windows in the house. The I guess lucky thing was that once all the siding was installed all I had left was 1/2 of a piece of siding.  I really got lucky on guessing how much I needed. I was not as lucky on guessing how much "J" channel I needed for trimming the siding, I ended up with at least 8 pcs of this left over. However in my defence I did change how I installed some of the siding which thus meant that I saved 6pcs of "J" channel from being used so therefore I really only was out by 2 pcs. The last thing I did today was disassemble my jig for cutting the Soffit and Siding. This material was then used to make the form for the front porch steps concrete pad. This now means that the only work left on the house exterior is the frieze boards around the entire house and the two decks. As well about 400 sqft of wall still needs the wood board and batten, this is in the back deck area and the side porch area. Then we need to build the front porch steps and railings and then the rear porch steps and railings. So we are definitely getting there on finishing the exterior of the property. Of course then comes all the landscaping that will need to be done along with moving many, I say many wheel barrow loads of topsoil. So here is the front of the finished garage and a sample of the siding work above the windows, as well as a look at the form for the front porch steps pad.

Again I then worked on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I did manage however to prep some of the Fir boards that I will use for the frieze trim. As well since we close the store at 5pm on Saturdays I did manage to come home from work on Saturday and pour some concrete for my front porch steps.  Lets see 23 bags of concrete at 2 bags per mix in a wheel barrow by hand is a lot of work. But the results are worth it. Here is a picture of the poured concrete.

Well that's where we sit now. Next on the list is "VOHE", "VOL" and then "VOHI". I'll let you think about those and let you know next week what they stand for. Well until next time don't let the sun burn you to much. 

Harold

Just a little more to do on the Garage

Well we are getting there slowly but surely. I have maybe one more days work on the garage itself excluding landscaping. Then we'll move over to the exterior of the house. Looking at that I really only have maybe 4-5 days work on the outside before that is finished as well. The only issue will be choosing the last material to be used on two walls and when to finish the railings. Of course there will still be that pesky landscaping. Well onto what was done on the two days I had this week.

On Monday our Provincially mandated holiday we continued work on the south wall of the garage and finished all the siding there. We also started some of the east wall but ran out of roofing nails so had to move onto other work. So we went to the north wall and finished the stone work on two of the columns flanking the garage door. This went really well and I am pleased with the result. A mason may disagree but I think I did a pretty good job. Here are some photos showing the finished south wall as well as the two columns flanking the garage door.

My next day of work was Wednesday however we started the day by having an eye test. I eventually got home around one pm and started work on the East wall. This was interesting as my pupils were still dilated from the eye drops they used. This meant wearing sunglasses as much as possible however I had to take them off whenever I was doing something close in as my prescription is for distance and the interfere with my close in viewing. However by the end of the day I did manage to get at least 3/4 of the wall covered and even started some prep work on the north wall. This also included laying out some of the stone work for the last pillar beside the man door. Here are some pictures showing the work completed on the east wall and the layout of the stone work.

After coming home from work on Thursday I even managed to mortar in the stone work. As well I laid in more stone so that only a little bit is left to complete on this pillar. Today after work I laid out the rest of the stone work and either tomorrow or Tuesday afternoon will finally complete this stone work. As well on Tuesday I should have the east wall completed. This means that if all goes well by Wednesday evening the exterior of the garage should be done. This will be a great accomplishment as on Thursday the 14th it will be one year since I took possession of the property.

Well until next week have a great time.

Harold

The garage is looking a little red faced.

Well the temps have really been up this week. It was definitely warm working in the sunshine. Therefore I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible.
So on Tuesday this past week I had a Dr's appt in the morning so was unable to work on the garage till after lunch. After lunch I decided to start on the east side of the shed as this would be in the shade as much as possible. Once the east side was done I moved over and did the south side. This was a little warmer than I really wanted so once this was done instead of moving to the west side I went to the north side and started work on installing some stone work. Since I had laid out some stone earlier I did not have to choose stone I just mortared it up. I managed to get the area to the right of the man door done. I also did about 50% of the two sides of the garage door area. Later once it has set I will lay out more stone in preparation for the next stone laying day. So at the end of the day this is what I had a shed partially sided and some stone work done.

Well on Wednesday I started work on the west side of the shed early in the morning. Once this was done I progressed onto the  west side of the garage. However the sun managed to catch up to me and I was working on the west wall in the afternoon sun. Luckily there is a large tree on the neighbours property and this did help shade me a little. By 5pm I had managed to finish the entire wall. I had started the lower portion from the north side of the west wall. At the ten foot level I installed a vinyl "j" flange to accept the top portion of the siding and above that I installed a metal flashing for water drainage. The upper gable end siding would end up 1/4" above this metal flashing. Once I started on this upper gable I was careful to ensure that the siding would stay in line with the lower pieces. I was successful in that this did work out. I don't think anyone batten is out by more than an 1/8 of an inch. Later that evening I started work on the front porch stairs by boring one of the holes required for the two railing posts at the bottom of the stairs. So here is a picture of the completed west wall of shed and garage.

For the remainder of the week I had to work so very little work was done. On Thursday night I installed one of the posts and started to bore the next hole. On Friday night I installed the second post as well as laid out some more stone work for the next time I mix mortar. Tonight on Saturday I spent some time digging out the dirt where the concrete pad will sit for the front steps. Here is a picture of the front step area after I soaked the back half of the excavation with water to help settle it. The reason for this is the front half is undisturbed soil but the back portion lies on top of the area where they dug a trench for the hydro and other utilities. 

Tomorrow will spend some time at Mom's place and Monday is a holiday here so we should be able to keep working on installing more siding along the rear of the garage. I might also get a chance to lay some more stone. Unfortunately I will have to work the remainder of the week so very little work will get done in the later half of the week. 

Until next week keep cool and enjoy the weather.

Harold

Three more steps on the garage and then it is done

As the title says three more steps to go on the garage. 1) install 3ft of stone on the front wall. 2) install he sandstone vinyl in the fake garage door area 3) install all the red board and batten siding.
This will then complete the garage. This past week we worked on the garage finishing off the attached shed which allowed us to get to this milestone. So here is what happened.

On Tuesday we started by framing the rear walls and installing the rafters. The walls are 2by4's on 16in centres and the roof is 2by6's on 16in centres. Everything was sheathed in 1/2in OSB sheathing. The construction is relatively basic construction techniques. I did use joist hangers on the rafters to help support them off of the garage wall. So after one days work this is what we had.

On Wednesday we started by working on the roof. First we installed a drip edge and then we installed some of our left over blueskin to use as an Ice and water shield. When we ran out of this we used the regular ice and water shield that was left over from the roof. When we ran out of this we used the left over deck armour material we used on the garage roof. Over this we installed our starter strips and then installed our GAF Woodland Castlewood Grey roofing. I carefully looked over the bundles I had left over from last year when we repaired the roof. All of these shingles looked good and flat. Since I was one bundle short I went to Hermans Roofing to pick up two more bundles. One bundle was kept as spare bundle the other was used to finish the shed roof and the small roof over the garage door entrance, This bundle had the same issues I had last year in that the tabs had a bend to them such that some of the tabs sat proud from the roof. Since the shed roof faces due south I expect these shingles should settle down shortly but I will keep and eye on them. While on the roof of the shed I looked over the garage roof shingles and as of now every shingle I looked at had sealed down nice and tight so hopefully no issues when the winter storms come around. Once the roof was done we spent some time building a door for the shed. The door is 4ft wide so a standard door would not work. I built this one up using a sheet of waterproofed plywood and then some treated 2by4's. In the last picture you can see the door almost complete. Here are some pictures showing the work on the roof. 

On Saturday we finished off the shed. I built some shelves inside as well as installed two deck boards to be used a supports for hooks to hold up the garden tools. I also finished off all the soffit and facia using the leftovers from the house and garage. I had just enough with the exception of some J channel so went to the local lumber store and luckily they had a piece of  brown J channel kicking around. I also made up some brackets to hold up the weed eater and some of the tools. Essentially they are pieces of 2by4 with angle cut and then a rounded over edge to take away the sharp edge. They work really well for holding up the weed eater and my pick and pry bar. I also lucked out in that a pair of brackets I had built in Courtney BC to hold up my ladder in my shed there could be repurposed to hold up my ladder here as well. This time instead of being attached to a pair of collar ties they are attached to a pair of rafters instead. I still have almost 6ft8in clearance underneath them. Here are some pictures showing the finished exterior and interior.

I had hoped to be able to install some Masonry today however by the time all the shed work was done it was getting a little late in the day. As well they have been threatening rain showers this afternoon and evening and I don't want to install brick just before a rainstorm. So hopefully this Tuesday or Wednesday will be good days for doing stonework.Then once this is done it is on to the vinyl siding.

Well until the next episode have a great summer and enjoy whatever vacation time you take.

Harold

Now I need some deck chairs or benches

Well it was a hot week thank fully I was working under a roof most of the time. So here's what we did.
On Tuesday I finished framing up the deck joists. For the last 6-8 ft I had to lay down purchased stone as the bricks were all gone. I used 1" Terra Stone which is red in colour. I will use this stone for all the areas that I do not have grass or gardens, after first laying down landscape fabric. Once this was done we started on the decking. Again I used Sienna 5/4 deck boards just like the rear deck. They went down smoothly and by the end of the day I had almost 80% of the deck covered. The reason I did not complete it is that I purposely bought less boards than I needed so that at the end I could easily calculate what I would need to finish it and not have any left over. Having a lumber yard a 1km away makes this an easy affair to go and just pick-up what you need as you need it. So after dinner spent some time installing the two front porch lights. When I bought these lights they also had a larger version I was looking at however, I thought they might be a little too big. In hindsight I maybe should have gone with the larger version but these do look nice as is. Here are a couple of picture showing the work.

On Wednesday we finished the decking and also installed a little bit of vinyl lattice as skirting around the bottom of the deck to prevent animals from entering the area. Once I install my stairs I'll also install lattice at both ends of the deck. Hopefully you can see it but I also built a small platform that sits in front of the door to break up the height differential from deck to house floor. On the whole I am pleased with the deck and look forward to sitting on it as the years go by. Here is a picture of the finished decking and skirting.

On Friday evening I spent a little bit of time taking the leftover pieces of stone from when they put the stone on the house to the road to build a small wall in the ditch around the culvert. Nothing fancy and not mortared together just placed in loosely with some pieces interlocking hopefully with the gravel behind. At least it cleans up the transition a bit from ditch to driveway and from grass to gravel. Unfortunately I forgot to let the camera acclimatize to the humid weather outside after sitting in a cool house so the picture is a little fuzzy.

So on Saturday we installed all the 1by8 tongue and groove on the deck ceiling as soffit material. Once that was complete I installed some of the red vinyl board and batten siding above the two windows and door entrance. After it was all done I swept off the deck savoured my handiwork. I am quite pleased with the finished project. All that is left is to figure out what type of railings I will install and the  install a set of stairs at the drive way end of the deck. Here are some pictures showing the finished deck.

 After all this I did a little bit of work on starting the garden shed behind the garage however the majority of that will be done later this week. As well I look forward to getting the cable company out on Tuesday to hook me up so that I have internet at the house. 

Well until next week stay cool and remember to hydrate if you are working out in all this heat and humidity we've been having lately.

Harold

A little bit of colour arrives

Well this past week saw less work than normal being done as I worked an extra day this week. In the weeks coming up this will happen again as people go on vacation at work and we need to cover for them. Another thing was that on Tuesday my youngest uncle and his wife showed up from Kalamazoo and on Wednesday I was distracted by a fellow who was prepping a 1960 B100 International truck for removal from the neighbours house. It was nice to show off what I had done so far to more family members and it was also nice to be able to meet with uncle Drew and Barb. They kindly dropped off a small house warming present and I now have some flowers hanging on my back porch. Here you can see the hangers they dropped off.

So anyway the work that happened this week was as follows.

On Monday night after work I cut up all the remaining 1by8 pine so that it was ready to be installed as soffiting on the front deck. 

On Tuesday we started work on the front deck. As before I installed a 2by6 rim joist on the house securing it to the concrete basement wall with concrete anchors. Above this I sat the 2by8 rim joist for the actual deck joists. This rested on the 2by6 and was secured to the house  by Tapcon screws into the row of concrete blocks I had the Masons install before they laid down the stone work. Then it was back to the brick pile to break up brick to be used on top of the landscape fabric and under the deck joists. One wheelbarrow load of brick took about 45min to break up and covered about 3ft of deck or two joist spaces. Considering that there is about 34ft of deck I had about 10 wheel barrow loads to do. So this work continued into Wednesday as well. By the end of Wednesday we were still not complete however a decent portion has been done. As well I will be about 6-8ft short of having enough broken brick to cover all the dirt. This means that on Tuesday will need to go to work with the trailer and pickup a 1/2 yard of red stone. I will continue to use this stone for all the landscape coverings as I go along. Here is a picture of the front deck as it sits right now.

As well one evening last week I dug a small trench from the ditch at the road up to one of my downspouts. I'll place a piece of Big-O pipe in this and hook it up to the downspout so that the rainwater has a direct path to the ditch instead of onto the future lawn area. Once I move most of the front dirt pile I'll also dig another small trench for the other downspout on the other end of the deck. In the picture above you can just see a part of the pipe I have temporarily laying on the ground to bring the water to the ditch. I've also started to pull out the weeds from the dirt pile you can see in the above picture on the right side. I want to get all the big weeds out before I start spreading this soil around on the front yard in preparation for grass seed this fall.

So for the coming week the plan is to finish the front deck hopefully and time permitting look at working on the stone work on the garage so that I can think about installing the vinyl siding. I also have to think about framing out the small storage shed at the back of the garage. So still plenty of work to do. 

Until next week have a great summer and enjoy your vacations.

Harold

Bring on the dance band

Well the deck is essentially done. I still need to do some trimming and will need to install a set of steps and railings but the basic deck is done.
So this past week went as follows. As stated previously I had to work on Monday and Tuesday however I still managed to dig a trench on Monday night for my cable connection. I have a small piece of conduit that came out of the house about 20ft away from where the cable conduit was brought to the house by the contractors. So I dug a trench and laid in some 1/2" conduit from my pipe to their pipe which comes up by the Hydro meter. Unfortunately I was 4ft short of pipe so could not finish it on Monday and had to wait until I picked up another length of conduit on Tuesday. Here is a picture showing the end of the pipe by the service prior to the last section being installed. All I need now is a small box to mount on the side of the house to house the connection point and fish some cable through the conduit. Once that's done then need to contact the local cable company and get an internet connection back up and running. Here's a picture showing this.

On Wednesday I started working on installing the Soffit material. To refresh your memory this is 1by8 tongue and groove pine that I bought a couple of weeks ago. One little detail that I did was cut a 45degree bevel cut on each end of the board so that they would essentially overlap each other at the joints instead of having butt joints. The first row had two electrical boxes that needed to be cut out and then lowered so that I could reinstall the plates properly. About an 2 hours later I had to cut around 4 of my pot lights. This actually worked out really well, I had cut out a hole in a piece of material and once I proved that it was the right size I used it as a template to draw the other holes and then used a jigsaw to cut out the hole. Now however I need to find some trim kits that don't cost more than the light fixture did  in the first place. Once we got past the lights I needed to remove a bird's nest from the rafters. Unfortunately the birds were not to happy with this and I made sure to get enough soffiting up so that they could not get back up there over night. They actually spent a lot of Thursday flying around trying to get back to where their nest had been. Here are some pictures showing the first few rows and then the condition at end of day. As well you can see where I had my mitre saw cutting the boards although I moved it to the other side of the deck in the afternoon as I needed access to the soffit area where the saw had been standing.

On Thursday after moving all the material off the concrete from my cold storage I could continue on framing out the deck. I did this by laying sleepers on the concrete. I initially moved a mark level with the two end joists onto the house wall. I then secured a 2by4 to the house with the top even with a chalk line between these two points. I then laid out each sleeper separately drew a straight line from the 2by4 to the end of the joists already installed. I then cut down the 2by6 sleepers to the line drawn, then painted the material with special moisture preventative material and installed the sleeper on the concrete. After 15 sleepers were installed we had a picture that looks like this.

I then laid down the decking as I did on the rest of the deck and once this was done used my scaffolding to finish installing the soffit material. By 6pm we had a picture that looked like these with decking and soffiting complete.

I am quite pleased with the look of the soffiting. Since I had to work on Friday and Saturday this is where I sit. Come Tuesday I will most likely start work on the front deck and we'll see how that goes. Thankfully it looks as if I should have enough material to do the entire Soffit in the front with the 1by8 tongue and groove as well. 

Well until next week I hope you all had great days on your respective holidays and look forward to the remainder of the Summer.

Harold