A Kitchen in a Van

We borrowed our friend Jerry's Honda minivan and headed to IKEA for our kitchen cabinets. Its an amazing store and they are highly organized at turning your rough sketches into a long list of items and then many, many boxes. We loaded the van at about 5:30pm on a day that was about 15 degrees and very windy. Somehow it all managed to fit, including a kitchen sink and a bathroom sink. Then only a 4 hour drive home on I95.

Now all we have to do is assemble it.

Here's what it looked like.

Christmas card staging

We decided to show off our new living room even though at the moment its a workspace -- tool/material storage, cutting and sanding, and other stuff-space. Here's some shots we took of my Mom's famous ceramic Christmas tree in the room.

Yes, we took pictures of ourselves in the room but nixed them all! We're much more attractive in the summer.

Happy Holidays to one and all!

Interior Walls

Tuck along with neighbor Mike completed the last bits of interior framing. Take a look before it all disappears behind drywall/sheetrock. Also the plumbers started roughing-in -- here's the washer/dryer hookup.

Early December

The first drywall went up -- the wall that will be behind the kitchen cabinets, and a couple of bathroom walls behind a shower stall.

More Framing

Construction of the interior walls has gone on throughout November and early December. Here is a shot of the top/ceiling over the bathrooms and hallway. This will give us some storage space above, and also make it easier to install bathroom fans and other stuff. In the rest of the house, the rooms will go up all the way to the slanted roof. That's right, no attic.

IKEA thanksgiving

During Thanskgiving week we headed off to the closest IKEA store -- 4 hours away near Washington DC -- to look at kitchen cabinets and other stuff. Lunch and 4 hours later we left with lots of great ideas and plans, and a shopping bag full of new dishes and flatware! We are now set to return to IKEA during the Christmas break and purchase said kitchen cabinets.

The best news of the week was learning that the Charlotte, NC IKEA store is opening Feb. 18 so hopefully this trip will be the last one to Washington. The Charlotte store is only 2 hours away! We are not alone - IKEA reports that they have over 100,000 customers in NC and SC.

A Real House

One of our neighbors, Marjorie, commented that with leaves on the roof it looked like a real house at last.

Fall at Willow Rock Road

Here a couple of shots of the turning leaves at Willow Rock. Its a beautiful time of year in North Carolina.

Caulking

I have been working on caulking the outside -- seams and edges. This job has been greatly improved by the purchase of a battery powered caulk gun -- see photo. Now at least while my caulking seams will never look like the pros did it, at least they should protect the house from water! I've been assured that none of it will show once the house is painted -- and anyway, no one but me will ever look at it!

Framing

Tuck started constructing interior walls in October. Because of the open nature of the design there aren't too many walls, but here's some idea of what's going on. The first shot is the first wall he did--its between the office and the guest room. The next shot is looking into the master bath, and the third shot is the hallway. All of this is in the east wing of the house.

Siding Siding

Today we finished the fiber cementboard siding! Tuck, with the generous assistance of Michael, Frances, Jerry and sometimes Cece, worked on it on and off from sometime in July. The only outside area now to finish is the south alcove, which is getting tongue-and-groove cedar siding. Here's a shot of the last wall of siding almost done, then a shot of Tuck placing the last piece. Then here's the south alcove w/furring (or firring?) strips almost ready for the cedar. The final shot is of what is about to become the wood shop, and will eventually become the living room. With the outside done we turn our attention to the interior - framing, trade rough-ins, and the dreaded drywall!

Tropical Storm Hanna

Friday brought TS Hanna our way. After spending the earlier part of the week working to get soffitt and flashing on parts of the house most vulnerable to wind and water, we sat down Friday afternoon and watching the rain begin with the first band of the storm. Knowing that we couldn't work the rest of that day or the next, we decided to treat ourselves to a little break. Jumped in the car and headed for Yorktown and Williamsburg! The hotel we like to stay in is in Yorktown on the York River just before it enters the Chesapeake Bay. Its a beautiful view and perfect for watching a tropical system. Note: we would not have done this had Hanna been any larger. Several years ago a hurricane visited Yorktown that brought the water level up several feet on the first floor of the hotel. The first 2 shots are from the balcony of our third floor room.

We also visited Colonial Williamsburg which had very few visitors and was delightful, even in the rain.

Soffit Corners

or why some projects just seem to take forever! We love the look of the corrugated galvalume as soffit material but weren't entirely sure how to shape it at the corners. BTW-there are 8 outside corners and 4 inside corners to be dealt with. So here are a couple of ways we tried -- first mitered w/channel spacing, then mitered and overlapped, and finally what we settled on which is no angles but straight cuts. the first two would have required custom cutting and fitting each corner, which are of course each slightly different. And there was no guarantee it was going to work very well on each corner. The straight cuts are quicker to assemble and hide flaws easier.

Soffitts and such

Here are some shots of the east wall w/soffits going in and then the flashing. Note please the siding is complete on this side, and there are some paint patches where we have been testing colors.

Wildlife

We have lots of fascinating insects, bugs, flying things, birds and other wildlife on Willow Rock Road. There are blue-tailed skinks and other lizards, black wasps who are fascinated by the soffit and fascia installation, and others. Pictured are a zipper spider (or so we are told they are commonly called) who has hung around in several spots on the house.

We also have some morning glory vines with small red flowers which are very pretty. It will be great when we can lounge on the deck or in the hammock and just enjoy the scenery!

Tuck's home away from home

Tuck's first-ever purchase on Ebay was a travel trailer that we have parked at Willow Rock. The commute between Mockingbird Lane and WR is about 30 miles one way so spending the night there saves a few pennies on gas and the tedious drive day after day. It also means that Tuck has been able to spend more daylight hours working on the house and out of the car. Its very 70s but snug and comfortable even in thunderstorms!

Roof and Siding

So over the summer we (well mostly Tuck) have been finishing the exterior. All of the windows and doors are in, and the metal galvalume roof and fiber cementboard siding have been our main focus. In addition we got a deck down on the south deck so that it could be a working area and not a hazard. We have learned a lot about the process -- that it is slower when you aren't an experienced crew, that a custom-designed house means that some of the features have to be custom made, and that loyal friends with some free time and great skills make a huge difference! 

For example, here are Tuck and one of those skilled friends, Mike Rolleri, fitting the siding around the round window.

Last week

Most of the windows are in. House is wrapped in Tyvek, reading for siding and roof is ready for steel galvalume roof. Also the frame for the deck on the south side of the house is up now, ready for planking and temporary rail.

This coming week the rest of the windows and exterior doors go in, and perhaps deck floor. Also Tuck is preparing to move a small travel trailer to the site so he doesn't have to drive back and forth so often.  Its an old Layton travel trailer he found on ebay - 70s harvest gold decor but very serviceable. We'll be selling it after the house is done if anyone is interested.

Openings, May 21

Window and Doors openings complete.

Window and Door Openings

As you may have noticed, the SIPS walls go up solid so openings for windows and doors have to be cut. This happened last week, in between some wicked thunderstorms, possibly including hail we hear.  These shots are from the inside -- kitchen and living/dining room.

Well

While the roof was being finished, the well folks showed up. 425 feet later we have water! and grateful it wasn't much deeper. Here's a shot of the drilling operation. 

Roof on

So here it is w/roof panels on, most of the eaves done, and tar paper. Ready for the next step -- cutting the openings for windows and doors, then wrapping the house in tyvek. The image with the wood pile is looking from the southwest, and the other is looking from the north at what will be the front entrance to the breezeway.

Roof panels

Next it was the roof panels which are about 10 inches thick. 

Walls Up

Here's a shot of the wall panels in place before the roof panels. This is the south side of the house where there will be a deck eventually over the basement. You can see the door to the walkout basement/crawl space. The breezeway is in the middle. 

Walls Going Up

On May 3-6 approximately Victor (our contractor for this phase) and his crew put up the SIPS wall panels and roof panels.