Started on Tyvek and Foam Insulation - Going to be a LONG weekend!!

We have had a fun week! Not as hectic because we have been waiting till the weekend to rent the lift (doing that today) so we can finish the sheeting on the sides of the house, on the roof, and also adding all the insulation on the sides and roof too.

 

A few nights ago, we were woken up at 2am by Tuffy growling.  We looked outside and shown a flashlight around, thinking it was probably a snake, but we couldn't find anything.  When we got up the next morning, we saw deer or antelope tracks on the ground along with large paw prints too - either a dog or more likely a coyote.  Our little watch dog... I mean watch cat scared them away!!

 



It has been very warm here - upwards of 95-100* in the trailer.  We currently have 2 layers of foam insulation on the roof of the trailer (4 total pieces) along with 2 more pieces on the southern facing side.  Scott also hung up a tarp at the top of the back of the trailer to get more shade.  This has been helping to keep the cats cooler.  But one day, it was pretty hot and Buddy wasn't too happy with it, so we sat in the air conditioning in the car with him for about 2 hours.  He was one happy and one cool cat!

 

At our build site, under our pallets of materials, we now have some pack rats!!  I know you will think I'm weird for saying this, but I think they are cute!  They are HUGE - larger than a can of pop and longer than a bottle of water.  And here's something funny about them.  Pack rats are rather smart - to keep other critters out of their nesting area they take pieces of cacti and put them all around their 'home'.  I'll try to get some pictures of it, but our pack rats have put pieces of cacti on the building materials, under the wood pallet and all around.  They don't seem to be too afraid of us right now.

 

Below are some pictures of our pack rat! 

 

Building wise - this week we added what we could of the sheeting (9' 1" on the sides), we finished the window for the kitchen, we cut out all the sheeting where the windows will go, we added the rubber stuff that partly went over the bottom of the sheeting and partly over the foam insulation on the outside of the foundation, and just this morning, we added the first bit of Tyvek plus the first layer of insulating foam along the bottom of both long sides of the house.  Yesterday, in the heat of the afternoon, we made a trip up to Billings to the Bridger Steel showroom.  We thought we were going to get a solid medium brown color of metal roofing, but I wasn't sold on the solid color.  I like unique, fun elements, and our roof is no different! I think we've picked out our roof.  It isn't a solid color and the best way to describe it is that from a distance it kinda looks like a rusty metal roof (that was an option! but we opted against it because we didn't want our siding or our deck to be stained with the rust) - this is a medium brown with a burgundy/rust splatter look to it.  We are 99% sure that's what we are going with, but next week we are going to order our board and batten siding and I'm going to see if I can get a sample of it to compare with the roofing color that I like, just to be sure!

 

Today, this afternoon, we are getting the lift, so this weekend will be a long one!  We need to get the top layer of sheeting up on the sides of the house, then completely sheet the roof, we need to add the remaining Tyvek, plus add the Ice Shield stuff to the sheeting on the roof.  Then we add the foam - 4" (2 sheets) of foam all along the walls and 8" (4 sheets thick) on the entire roof.  Then, after all the foam is added, we will be putting up, 12" on center, 1x4's (horizontally) on the outside of all the foam on both the sides of the house and on the roof.  The board and batten will attach to that on the sides, but we aren't sure, we may need to add one additional layer of solid sheeting on top of the 1x4's on the roof..... the roofing company said the metal roof panels need to be on a solid surface, not the 1x4's and although our lumber company guy, who we fully trust, says that it shouldn't matter, we may void our warranty on the roofing if we don't.  So we are taking every step we need to, even if it is over kill!

 

Funny thing! We asked Darren, our lumber guy, if anyone else has purchased more foam at one time and he said no!! He said the most anyone has ordered is about 50 sheets - we ordered close to 250!  That was the biggest chunk of our building cost (~$8,000) - we got 9 total pallets of foam.  But Scott said that even if we were building our house brand new in OH, he would still do the same insulation there too.

 

I should have lots more pictures to show next week (probably Monday or Tuesday is my guess).

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Picking out windows, doors, siding, roofing and our wood burning stove!!

Last week we ordered our windows! They are going to be pretty big.  The kitchen window is 4'x3', the mudroom and the two front windows will be 3'x4' (3 wide and 4 tall), and the bathroom will have two windows that are 3'x1', and they will be side by side at the very top of the shower stall.

Today I'm at the library for a few hours in search of pictures of board and batten siding with different colors of metal roofing.  I am 99% sure of what I want - it's a gray/brown color (I think - I left the paper with the colors on it at the trailer, oops!).  Both our neighbors have a green roof so we want something just a little different. 

And both our neighbors have wood or log siding so ours is going to be wood as well, but different.  One neighbor has a log cabin and the other has horizontal wood siding.  We are doing the vertical board and batten for something just a little different. 

And finally, we will NOT have central air or heating.  We will have a wood burning stove. We do know that we want the front to be glass so when we are cozying up in the living room, we can see the flames burning.  Not 100% sure which we are going with, but we did find this stove that I have fallen in love with!!

http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Wood-Stove-and-Accessories/Wood-Stoves-Small-under-1500-sqft/Osburn-900-Wood-Stove

UPDATE
Nothing much new to update - we have 2 full rows of the 4'x8' sheeting on, plus another 13" row.  We still have the top full sheet to put up, but we are both too short to do it safely ourselves, so we are renting a 'lift' this weekend to put that up along with the sheeting on the roof and all the insulation that is on the roof too.  Soon I'll have a visual for you all with the insulation we are doing - 4" of foam insulation on the walls and 8" of foam insulation on the room - then the metal/wood will be attached over it.  Then we will add the typical insulation in the walls of the house too. 

We figured since this will be our forever home we want to do it right!!  TONS of insulation.  Plus we did triple duty on the hurricane ties.  Scott said he thinks you really only need to add them to tie the trusses to the top plate of the walls, but we also added them on EVERY stud and connected to the top plate and also on EVERY stud to connect to the bottom plate too!  Scott also said that the typical contractor only uses 2500 nails to secure the walls and the sheeting - well we have used about 3 times that amount, so far!!

Nothing else new to report on today... should have lots of pictures for you next week once we get the roof sheeted and all the insulation on.

Have a great week/weekend!!

Sheeting the House

July 19, 2014

It is HOT HOT HOT her today!! At 2:30pm this afternoon, it was 95* in the shade in our trailer. So since we still had $30 in our budget for the week, and I've REALLY craving anything that is cold, we headed into Powell. 

I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I was in the mood for Chinese food (sweet and sour chicken) and Scott wanted Taco Johns, and the only Dt. Coke that I seem to want lately is ice cold McD's fountain soda..... so YES! we got out food and brought it all with us inside McDs and now we are soaking up the free AC, free refills, and free wifi!!

So far today we finished the first layer of sheeting around the house, and we put of the second layer of sheeting on the long north side and on the side facing the mountains too.  But we had to take a break because of the heat.  It was 95* in the shade in the trailer. 

I have to say, there is not a lot that I complain about here - I don't mind living in the trailer, I don't mind not having electricity or a real toilet, but what I do really really miss, is ice cubes!!  Warm water is no fun.  So on these high heat days, we may be getting to town more often just to get some cold drinks (and take home cold ice water for the cats too).

Also, through this entire project so far, I've done some of everything - I use all the saws, the drills, the air compressor, the generator, even the nail gun too.  However, the only thing I'm admitting I'm not helping much with is anything that deals with heights.  I am terribly scared of being high (more than 8-10ft up) specifically on a ladder.  Ladders scare me to pieces!!  But I'm so thankful that my monkey, I mean husband, doesn't mind heights at all!!

And I have to share a funny story before I forget:)  A week or so ago we had gone into Red Lodge and we went into a fun store there called the Swanky Fork - it's very small but has fun kitchen stuff.  Anyhow, Scott had to poop! haha and when he went to the bathroom he texted me #1 not to leave without him! and #2 he asked me if I could smell it! HAHA! We have to have fun, that's for sure!

And, I'm not posting the pics/video (I'll spare you all), but we killed snake #3 last night at 8pm.  Our cats saw him coming and alerted us!!  We had just settled into bed, trying to cool down, and I saw him slithering toward our trailer.  We hurried up, grabbed our boots and the gun and went out to get him.  He was out in the open (unlike the other 2 that were either very close or under the trailer).  With only one shot from the 12 gauge shotgun the sucker was finished!  Then I did the honors and chopped off his head and his rattle - next time I'm going to shoot it.  I've never shot a shot gun before, but I need to do it all myself incase I come across one and Scott isn't there with me.  Here is the best part of this story - Scott was wearing ONLY his underwear and boots!!!  All while carrying the shotgun!! haha

ALL TRUSSES ARE UP!!!

WAHOO!!!  We are so excited! It took us about 4 hours or so to put up the first 4 trusses by hand, just Scott and I (with no help from a machine or anything).

But this morning our neighbors Gordy and Jerry came out to help us set all the trusses.  Jerry ran the CAT.  He would swing the arm and with the chain to me by the trusses laying on the ground, I would run the chain around the top peak, then I would attach a series of tie straps at one end of the truss to help guide it.  After he swung the truss around and I would help guide it into place, Scott and Gordy worked very hard to secure them all.  I pre-cut 34 22.5" boards to put in between each truss along the top plate ensuring that each was correctly spaced apart. 

And if you can't tell by the pictures, my husband is a MONKEY!! Better him than me - I am not at all fond of heights and can't be more thankful for the help we had today!

The first grouping of pictures is what I also put on FB (the highlights) - the second are all the in between photos I took too. 

Also, we've been asked why we don't have any overhang with the trusses.  The reason is because we are doing a 'REMOTE' system of insulating our house where there will be 2/3rds the insulation on the outside and only one third on the inside.  This will make the walls R40 and the ceiling R72.  When we start insulating I'll go into more details with the pictures so you all can have a visual to go along with my explanation too.  We are going to add a deck (later in the future) with an overhang for shade, but it will be separate.

REMEMBER - click on the first photo and it will enlarge it, then you can scroll through them from there.  Enjoy!!