Cottonwood Meadow: Hello 2013

After a little hiatus from the blog while we pushed forward on the house our fan base has been antsy for some updates so we are back in the throws of trying to keep the world up to date on the latest excitement from Shoo Fly Rd......(Marion this is for you;-))

The roof over the ICF portion of the house is pretty much complete. We put a covering over the plywood called snow and ice that is protecting the roof until the final roofing material can go on. Of course there was a delay in getting that on the major part of the house roof which caused it to not adhere in the colder weather and we have had some humdingers of storms lately where the winds caught edges and ripped it all off.

Kyle and I got up on the roof and after re-applying the covering we got it to stick really well and so far it is staying in place nicely. Let's hope it sticks until that final roof goes on.

Kyle has ben working with Dave Duncan from DAD's glass to get all the ICF windows installed.

They are gorgeous and we are so happy with them, let's hope they perform as well as they look.

It is nice to have a windblock in the house and it makes it wamer to work inside.

Of course once the windows and french doors were delivered we found that the rough opening for the two french doors were too big for the rough opening we allowed. Sometimes regardless of how much prep and research you do, including calling the window manufacturer themselves to ensure the rough opening dimensions, there is bound to be one or two that are off.

We haven't cut out the window and door openings in the containers yet so that part will be easy to measure the opening to the windows themselves but with the ICF portion we had to account for the rough openings back when the ICF block was going up and we were putting in the V-Buck.

Obviously when placing rebar and pouring concrete there is little room for error so upon finding out the doors were bigger than we anticipated required some cutting and trimming which was messy and tedious. It took a while but we eeked out those few extra inches we needed so should be good to go.

We also didn't realize how much the door saddles - the bottom frame part of the sliding doors and french doors - would protrude up from the concrete floors so we are cutting out some of the threshold so that the frames sit into the floor and there isn't a trip hazard....that too is messy and isn't a quick project.

The mezzanine is up and we are currently busy sanding away at the beams. We will be placing a temporary plywood floor up there until the majority of the construction is complete. Then we will put up the salvaged planks we pulled out of the hay barn. I am finding it is better to wait before painting, finishing sufaces etc...as things seem to get beat up and damaged which means I have to go back and do it all over again.

We had the welders - RT Mobile come out to weld in the major support post to hold the stairs and they are starting work on making the stairs at their shop.

Tim Crewes from Precision Concrete is also coming back out next week to pour the front porch pad, footing for the porch overhang and the pad for the propane tank and generator. Remember this Google Sketch-Up disaster....