On February 25th at Exactly 10:51 A.M..........

We finished putting the last wall SIP into place!!!

Technically, there are the dormer sides and the peak SIP on the great room, but they will not be put into place until stick framing is all but complete on the east wall of the great room. Much of the aspen will need to be in place prior to installing the dormer SIP's.

It took us 11 weeks to get this far, but only about 19 days of actual work went on in those 11 weeks. And a total of 63 panels were put in place.

Also, this weekend, we spent time going over windows for the great room. We are not necessarily ready to order them but we need the rough opening dimensions to start framing the great room wall. My wife has come up with the best combination of windows thus far. In fact, her design is what we will probably end up using.

We even managed to get started on installing plate material for the bump out roof. In addition, we got the roof SIP's for this area hauled up to the house and ready to start prepping them.

We also have found some homes in the area that have siding and metal roofs that we are possibly going to go with.

This siding is ship lap cedar siding and comes pre-stained. We like the weathered look of

this stain, and also the fact that it comes pre-stained which will help save time.

We have been really struggling with roof material. We both very much would like to go with a slate roof but cost is very high as well as installation time would be lengthy. Another house nearby has a metal roof that we may consider. We both really like the color and we would like to go with a standing seam style roof. Also, the added snow fence is a nice added feature for saving the rain gutters in a heavy snow.
We continue sealing the T&G aspen which we will soon be starting to apply. We have about four hundred boards completed thus far, with several hundred left.

So now we start the roof SIP's. That count....71!!

We are Closing In !!

We're on the final wall SIP's!

Another good weekend weather wise, and again a lot was accomplish-ed. This, after a week that brought a six inch snow fall to the area, however not much of that even remains.

We finally got the kitchen corner closed up this weekend. We had to do a little bit of shimming on the SIP's at the corner. This went extremely well but was time consuming; along with the usual lengthy prep on the SIP's (cutting around the floor joist beams and dropping them in from the top.)

Approximately five more wall SIP's remain. As I mentioned earlier, the opening for the front entrance and the upstairs balcony will have some stick framing in conjunction with the SIP's.

Next weekend our hopes are to finish the wall SIP's as well as confirm window sizes for the east side of the great room so that stick framing for this wall can begin.

We also hope to get under way with some of the roofing components. Our current plan is to start installing the roof on the bump out on the west side of the house. This was the area that had the custom cut SIP's.

Here are a few more photos from this past weekend.

We Have Started the Front!

Another productive weekend along with warmer weather made things really go well this weekend.

We finished the last panel on the great room right away Saturday morning and then turned our attention to the front of the house. I have not really been looking forward to this part due to the fact that there are a lot of obstacles to contend with.

First off, my initial concern was that I would not have enough lift with the Skytrak to get the panels raised high enough over the front bent and drop the panels in from the top. Fortunately, I think we will be OK and have the needed height.

Second, there is a fair amount of prep work needed on the SIP's themselves to sit over the oak floor joists that help tie the very front bent to the second bent, as well as the angle cut for the roof. It is nothing complicated, just a lot of time consuming steps for each panel. But I can honestly say we got a very good start, and it seems to be going very smoothly.

On my wife's suggestion, we plan on handling the upper SIP's a little different than we had originally thought. We more than likely will have French doors leading out to the balcony on the front. At this time, we are thinking of eliminating the two vertical SIP's that would basically be wasted to fill this spot, leave enough room to stick frame the rough opening for the doors, and run a couple of SIP's horizontally to fill the remaining area to the peak above the French doors. This will more than likely save us a couple of SIP's that may be used later on for a small pump house for the water pump and pressure tank.

Work also now can begin on stick framing the east face of the great room now that the final SIP on the north wall has been put into place. We still need to get the rough openings for these windows, but I think we have it pretty well nailed down as to the size and location of these windows.

As I had mentioned, the plan here is to also use a couple of SIP's and place them horizontally to fill in the upper portion of the bent. The thought here was with all of the windows, and their large size on this side, SIP material would just go to waste.

After this week with what we have accomplished as well as the minor changes that we made , I think we have fallen below the ten SIP mark!!!

A Productive Weekend

Nice weather and the fact that I think we are finally getting a rhythm down made for what we thought was a very productive weekend.

We worked on the corner SIP's for the great room and dining room right away Saturday morning. This required us first to put down a sill plate for the north wall of the great room. Again, as on all of the inside corners, we needed to back cut a panel forming a pocket so the adjoining SIP could fit into it. I must say, we have been having good luck on our corners coming out nice and tight, with very little if any messing around with fitting the SIP into place.





Our countdown continues with 15 wall SIP's left. We are down to one panel on the north side of the great room wall. The open part of the great room which you can see in the picture will be stick framed due to all of the windows that will be installed on this wall.

I also included some early morning pictures. Although it is getting lighter a little bit earlier we generally are started long before the sun is up on the weekends.

Although our stacks of wall SIP's are dwindling, this photo shows just some of what awaits us as far as roof SIP's.

In my last post I mentioned that I had been training to repel down into the Grand Canyon. I managed to get some of the photos of us training about a week and a half ago. Although it is far from repelling off a canyon wall it gives us a chance to check our rigging, technique, and equipment.

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.

A White Christmas in Williams

Most years I would think that a white Christmas would be kind of a nice touch to get one into the holiday spirit. Not this year.

There was about three inches of snow covering everything when we arrived late Friday afternoon. My son and I got right to work getting the slab shoveled off. We ended up getting the majority of the snow shoveled off by dark.

I was up long before sunrise trying to get the SIPs shoveled off on the second floor. We are using them to stand ladders up on temporarily until we get some sheeting put down. By sunrise I had most of the snow shoveled off of everything up there, as well as the SIPs on the ground.

Our first project was to put back together the platform I had made this past week for hoisting 12 ft. pieces of sheet rock. I made it so it broke down to fit in the truck to transport up to Williams.

The middle has an arm that swings down and then a piece of sheet rock can lay on the platform and then the arm is swung back up into place to hold the piece while it is lifted into position.

I had hoped to have a picture of us setting a piece in place , but it was a little breezy while we were working with the sheet rock so there was not a lot of spare moments to stop and take pictures. Hopefully next week I will get a shot of the platform in action.

I must say it worked great and sure saves a lot of time and aggravation trying to man handle 12 ft pieces of sheet rock and getting them into place on the second floor.

After getting the lifting platform together we got to work moving the scaffolding to the South side of the house and adding two more sections to it. This should save on a lot of time moving ladders into place and make the whole process easier. By the time this was completed the remainder of the snow on the timbers was melting off, and was making things feel more like it was raining out with water dripping on us in spots and the ground starting to get rather muddy. Fortunately it sounds like we are in for above normal temps so the snow will probably be short lived.


I can't say it was an overly productive day but we got a lot of little things done and ready to go for this next week after Christmas when we will be spending the whole week trying to make a dent in getting the SIPs up.

May all of you have A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!