Moved In and Back At It

Last weekend and this week was spent pretty much clearing snow off the frame once again and getting things together and settled in up here.

Last weekend we missed the better part of a snow storm but managed to pick up a couple of inches of snow. So as what has become the usual weekend ritual we spent a good part of last Saturday morning clearing off the frame. We ended up doing a few small things but not really accomplishing anything too major.

I started work up in Williams on Tuesday of this past week, still with the same company just a different location. From what I can tell I am really going to like it here. We are required to learn how to repel due to the fact that there is work from time to time that needs to be done in the Grand Canyon. So part of this past week was spent getting fitted for repel gear and learning the proper way of doing it.

Our plans are to hopefully spend a day up at the Canyon this spring patrolling the cable that feeds Phantom Ranch at the base of the Canyon. This will require us to repel down the Canyon walls to visually inspect the cable. Then we are helicoptered out once our job is complete.

This weekend my wife came up Friday evening so we got started early Saturday morning. I also managed to arrange hook up of high speed internet via satellite dish.

The tech arrived late Saturday morning to hook it up for us. We mounted the dish on the garage so as to keep it stable and out of site. The whole hook up took about three hours and we were on line. I can't really complain about the speed either. We went with the lowest speed they offered and I would say it is comparable to the high speed internet service in the valley.

This somewhat cut into our work on the house but well worth it. I figured either television or internet connection and internet connection won out. There just isn't much on TV worth watching anymore.

We went to work on the north side dormer that faces east. The reason for this was so that we could work from left to right on the front of the house and leave ourselves easy access into the house on the west side. It was pretty much like the south dormer except that this one will only require 3 panels.

The front should be a real challenge so I am anxious to get started on it, so I wanted to get this face done and be able to finish the corner and work our way across the front. I am thinking that it will move rather slowly due to the fact that there will be a lot of cutting on the panels prior to being installed.

More than likely we will work our way around the corner and finish the north side of the great room first though.

We were fortunate this weekend; we had great weather for working. We have melted a good part of the snow and had highs today approaching 50 degrees. Maybe Spring is just around the corner???

We've Turned Another Corner........

And it was a cold corner at that!!

We managed to dodge the majority of the snow that we were supposed to receive. We ended up with just a dusting of snow but the cold managed to arrive as predicted.

Morning lows were anywhere from +2 to -6 over the 3 day period. Fortunately, except for yesterday the winds were very light, but the days did not warm up much like they usually do during the winter.

Our first task this weekend was to work on placing the first west panel that tied into the west side bump-out which was another inside corner. We had figured this was going to take a while to get it all measured up, cut and the Styrofoam plowed out. As it turned out, it went smoothly and it was up and in place by noon on Saturday. From that point on it was a matter of getting 5 of the taller panels into place to complete the kitchen area on the west side.

We managed to get four of the tall panels in place by Sunday evening and figured that we would leave the last tall panel for next weekend being as it would require a little more time to complete due to a few more cuts to match up with the first north side panel.

Monday morning we started on the shorter 10' panels that would complete the loft area and the #2 bedroom upstairs. What a breeze these proved to be. We had no sill plate to fit over as these panels basically hung on the second floor portion of the frame.

We started by attaching a 2x6 to the outside of the second floor beam to form a shelf to set the sheet rock for the wall on while we screwed it into place, and also to align all of the SIP's while we dropped them into place. By afternoon the wind had picked up a fair amount and although it did not effect the installation of the SIs too much, the sheet rock was a little tricky.

Here again, as with the larger panels on the west side, it was getting late in the day on Monday and we opted to tackle the south end panel this coming weekend as well. After this past weekend we are down to 22 wall panels left to install.

Little Progress

Friday, upon arriving, we were greeted with another 6" of snow. So that pretty much summed up the rest of the evening. We spent about 2 hours getting the light fluffy snow brushed off of the frame and the slab shoveled off.

Saturday morning we got an early start on the 2 remaining panels on the south wall of the great room. We got the sheet rock hung right away and the two panels set in place by early afternoon.

After some clean up we moved all of the tools and the Skytrak over to the west side of the house which is where we will start working our way around to the north side of the great room. Our progress this weekend put us at the half way mark with the wall SIP's.

Our first SIP on the West side will be a bit of a challenge as if will be a inside corner that will have to be plowed out but only about 4" deep. This will allow the custom SIP's from the bump out in the back to fit into the est wall SIP. The difference with this corner is that it will only have to be back cut and plowed out as high as the adjoining SIP shown with the yellow line.

We managed to get the sill plate for the west wall positioned and installed by the end of the afternoon. Sunday before heading back to Phoenix we went hunting for the #7 SIP's and managed to get them all inside the house on the slab so that we are ready for a long 4 day weekend next week. Our hopes are to make a pretty good dent in the west wall. Also, prior to leaving, we loaded the pickup full of T&G Aspen to bring back down to Phoenix to work on sealing this next week.

Earlier this past week I managed to get some time to get to Phoenix Fireplaces. If we manage to get the house enclosed prior to warm weather returning we would like to get the fireplace in as soon as possible to heat the house while working out there. I was pleased to find that they carry and had in stock BIS fireplaces. We had this brand of fireplace when we lived in Minnesota and could not have been more pleased with its performance.

Also, this past week, I was informed that a position that I had applied for in Williams was awarded to me. So it looks like I will be moving to Williams within about two weeks. My wife and son will continue to live in Phoenix until we are further along on the house. This will definitely help save on time and gas, as well as increase the amount of time I will have to work on the house.

A Snowy Week.......

....but we managed to accomplish pretty much what we had set out to do for the week.

The first three days were pretty much devoted to shoveling and brushing snow off of the pad as well as the frame so as we would not have water dripping all over us once it started to melt.

My wife had gone back to Phoenix to work a couple of days and came back up late Thursday evening. She, herself, barely made it back up due to the inclement weather.

While she was gone, besides watching the snow pile up, I managed to get some of the SIP's prepared for instalation once she came back up and the weather started to cooperate. I also started to apply the Land Ark sealer on the Aspen that will be applied to the ceilings in most of the rooms.

Friday, the weather finally cleared up and we were able to start making some progress. We started installing more of the sheet rock on the south side. In my last post I mentioned that I would try and get a photo of my sheet rock platform in action. We managed to get a picture of it but it may still be a little hard to get the full concept of it. Although it is a pretty simple design, it saved us a huge amount of time and also gave our sore muscles a bit of a rest. Where it really has helped us out the most is hanging sheet rock on the second floor.
















Our next learning experience came on doing SIP corners. The outside corner was not too much of a challenge. In fact, I must say, actually both of the corners outside and inside turned out very well. Here again, there is a bit of a learning curve involved for us, but after talking it over and throwing ideas back and forth, I must say things progressed rather well. Probably the only down side is it eats up time which seems to go fast enough the way it is when we are up there working.

The outside corner will still require some work plowing out of the insulation and installing a 2x6 nailer for siding.

The inside corner was done by ripping the back side of the SIP the width of the adjoining SIP and then plowing out all of the insulation, basically forming a pocket for it to set in. Here again, the adjoining piece was plowed out 1 1/2" deep and a 2x6 was placed in the cavity to work as a nailer for added tightness. Also, prior to fitting the panels in place the mastic sealer was applied to all surfaces. This sealer comes in a caulking gun form. We have found that it is literally impossible to keep from getting this stuff on you, although Goo-Be-Gone seems to really take it off!!!

Another tool that I cannot say enough good about has been the Prazi beam saw. This to has been a real time saver. I have been most impressed with the cleanness of the cut it makes. I had a chance to test it out on a couple of the bevel cuts and it worked flawless. Here the only downside that I am finding is that it makes a mess. One is covered with Styrofoam beads head to toe after making a cut!!

As I mentioned in the beginning we almost made our goal. We fell two SIP,s short of reaching it. That would have put us at about the half way point of getting the wall SIP's in place and would have completed the south side of the Great Room.

I don't mean to sound as though I am trying to rush the whole project and really I am not. In fact I am having the time of my life doing it. Unfortunately, the SkyTrak did not come rent free. That too has been probably the most helpful piece of equipment throughout the project thus far; but as I said, the rental on it makes one not wanting it sitting around idle for very long.


Here is the completed South side of the house.














The East face of the house with the left side dormer SIP's completed.














A few more photos from the past week.