Progress

Sunday, April 18, 2010 by Nancy.

4/15/10Although it has rained all this week, the number of sunny days has increased substantially since the end of February.  Our original May 31 target date to move into the small apartment over the garage may no longer be achievable, but we are making much more progress each week than was possible all winter long. We still are not water tight, but at least the roofer has started work.  The stucco is not complete, but it almost is.  The plumber has started rough-in work in the garage.  The back wall of the pool/retaining wall at the rear of the lot has been poured.  All of the rough concrete work for the pool is complete.  The electrician has completed rough-in work for the garage apartment. The stairs to the garage apartment have been installed.  The damage to the garage apartment floor has been repaired.  There is a lot of very visible progress.  I have been performing many tasks each day to try to push things along, much to the detriment of any entries in “Our Journey.” Our progress:

3/2/10: Relocation of guy wire completed by the city…the path for the future circular driveway is now cleared of obstruction.

3/10/10: Forms are built for the retaining wall toward the rear of the property.  An important element of our “two story back yard” takes shape.

 3/11/10: The first sunshade is installed over the garage doors . All south or west exposure windows are ultimately to be shielded in this way.

 The concrete (gunnite) retaining wall is poured. .

3/13/10:  Installation of all sunshades complete. .

3/14/10:  An aside…our friend, Brent Evans, hard at work on his book chronicling the history of Boerne, found an old photo of the “Bluffs along Frederick Creek.”  Could this be our back yard in times of yore?

3/17/10- 3/18/10:  The metal roofing/siding contractor makes a small beginning.

3/22/10- 3/26/10:  Our best friends from West Hartford, Ct., Webb & Suzanne Carnes come for a visit. I n the “It’s a small world” department, Webb used to visit his grand parents in Boerne as a child.  We even met the current owners of his grandparents house at a gathering for our favorite candidate for City Council.

3/24/10:  Installation of all of the reinforcing steel for the pool is complete.  We are ready to gunnite the pool! 

 

 In the old news department, we are still experiencing water damage to the “stucco” cladding of the house exterior.

4/1/10:  The steel stairs to the second floor garage apartment are installed.

Pool gunnite is completed. One can now pretty much visualize our two story back yard.

4/4/10:  Our tight lot causes another setback….a déjà vu moment, reminiscent of the house concrete form disaster….While “cogitating” the possible layout of all required pool equipment (to be located about the Northeast corner of the retaining wall), I discover that the pool contractor has poured that portion of the wall between us and our neighbor to the northeast…on their side of the property line.

4/8/10:  Demolition of the incorrectly placed portion of the retaining wall begins.

Texas Timber Frames installs the steel brackets destined to one day support two massive mantels above the fireplace in the living room.

4/9/10:  PCCI (the “stucco” contractor) begins applying the final (green in color) “sunshield” coat to the garage.

4/11/10:  Jon’s birthday…Daughter Alice (and friend Lee) come from Philadelphia to help us celebrate.

4/14/10:  The replacement retaining wall is complete…on our side of the property line!

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El Niño

Sunday, February 28, 2010 by Nancy.

Much has changed in the two months since our last entry….but sadly one thing has not.  It was raining on December 11, the day of our “Timber Raising” event…and it has seldom stopped since.  I think the Texas drought is officially over…at least for the Nystroms.  Frederick Creek in our back yard, the same creek that was bone dry for a year and a half prior to our arrival at the end of June, is more like a river at the moment. There is at least 4 feet of water back there…and it is a raging torrent.  Sitting along its bank this past Friday, on a rare sunny afternoon was truly like being out in the wild.  A friend with us at the time suggested he go home and bring back his kayaks so we could ride the river to downtown…a 10 block trip down the rapids (and over a bridge…not difficult as it was under water) …. It never happened… This very bridge… which crosses Cibolo Creek after our creek has merged with it, is the most convenient path for us to walk the two blocks to town from our (current) rented abode.  It reopened yesterday after having been barricaded/impassable for about 4 days.  At that, cars still proceed with caution across it, as 6” of water is still gushing over the road’s surface.  I have become obsessed with watching The Weather Channel….praying for sunshine.

We are at an impasse on several areas of the construction process until we get the building(s) water tight. Despite the facts that all windows and exterior doors have been installed and the roof panels are all on, the house has no waterproofing…just bare sheathing (SIPS panels).  Conventional house framing/elements would be much easier to go forward with in this weather….a couple of nice days and the roof is on…a few more and the siding is on.  Our energy efficient panels must contain only 12% relative humidity before they can be waterproofed with the intended sprayed on material (from PCCI, Protective Coatings…see Links).  Plus it must be 50⁰ or warmer for 3-4 days after the panels have dried out in order to coat them with the waterproofing.  We almost made it recently. We had a 5-day dry spell from January 25-29.  PCCI measured the humidity of the panels at an acceptable level on January 28^th…  but alas PCCI had not ordered the material during all the previous rainy days and it was not delivered to them until after it started raining again on the 30^th.

At this stage bad things are beginning to happen. The sheetrock which Texas Timber Frames so kindly installed over their timbers prior to installing the enveloping SIPS, has now been through multiple cycles of being soaked and drying out.  Last Thursday evening (it was still raining at that point) I discovered that the Long Leaf Pine (finish) floor of the garage apartment had some serious buckles in it…some of the boards just swelled too much, broke free of their nails, creating a rolling plain from what was once a perfectly flat surface.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. This is “The glass is half empty” voice speaking.  The “the glass is half full” voice has much to tell about the progress we have made since December 11.

A brief, semi-chronological list of highlights would include:

12/14:  All remaining SIPS wall panels delivered. Delivery of roof panels follows soon thereafter.

12/21:  In the recent past, in the process of digging a trench to extend natural gas service to 518 Irons, the Boerne Utilities Department had uprooted the street sign marking the intersection of Irons & Schryver Street(s). On December 21^st they replaced the sign with a new one.  Just before they finished and drove off, I happened to notice that they were about to throw the old one in the garbage.  I ran over and asked them if I could have it…..One day I hope to incorporate it into a floor lamp (already designed) for the lofty timber frame living room.

12/25:  Our first Christmas in Boerne. We decorated our condo to the nines…with much help from our co-renter (and Nancy’s longtime friend) Molly. Our daughter Alice came from Philadelphia for a long visit, as did Molly’s two girls, Leah and Virginia….each from a different and distant city. We had a full house, and a wonderful holiday.

 

12/31: Our first New Year’s Eve in Boerne. We rented a condo in Gruene, Tx, overlooking the Guadalupe River, for two nights, celebrating New Years at the Gruene Dance Hall (a tin shed with a creaky wooden floor), purportedly the oldest dance hall in the country, especially if you ask anybody from these parts.

 

1/11/10: The (prefinished) whitewashed pine 1 x 6 is installed throughout the flat ceiling areas of the house.

 

 

1/12: Our next door neighbor loads his trailer with materials saved from the house we demolished for another trip to Piedras Negras, Mexico.[Photo]

1/18: The Green Home Journeys job site sign built for us by Texas Timber Frames is proudly installed in our front yard.[Photo]

 

1/20: All exterior doors and windows are delivered.

 

 

1/22: Another round of clean-up for Frederick Creek behind our house begins. This time we concentrate mainly on the creek banks, removing many downed trees and snags of branches which collect debris, both on and adjacent to our property.

1/23-24: I spend much of the weekend constructing the forms for a concrete hearth for the Living Room fireplace. We hope to fill the forms up when the concrete contractor comes back to finish his footings for the site perimeter privacy wall….of course this could be in the distant future if it keeps raining.

 Monday,1/25:  IT FINALLY STOPS RAINING!  Several days of sunshine in a row are forecast. PCCI (Protective Coatings Construction- See “Links of Interest”) measures the relative humidity of SIPS panels at 28%. This reading must decline to 12% before they can start. They order their materials….hoping for delivery by Wednesday, 1/27…..The sun keeps shining, the panels reach 12% by Wednesday……but the product never arrives…..by Saturday, 1/30 it is raining again.

1/26: The carpentry crew requests permission to install the finish (long leaf pine) floor in the garage apartment prior to framing the interior walls. The sun is shining and at the time it seems like a good idea, as this way they will be laying down a perfect rectangle, whereas if they do it later they will have to notch around all of the walls.  I agree. Immediately afterward, the floor is protected by corrugated cardboard.  I live to regret this later.

1/27:  The entire structure is treated for termites…..hopefully a permanent deterrent to the thousands of homeless creatures still angry with us for tearing our (their) house down in September.

1/28:  The aluminum window wall which encloses the rear of the house for the entire extent of the back porch facing Frederick Creek is ordered.  Rather than tell curious folks the actual cost of such items, I have taken to quantifying things in terms of automobiles…..as in, “I could have bought a real good used car today instead.”

1/29:  On their last day until we get the house water tight, the carpentry crew frames Nancy’s “tub niche” in the master bath, a joint design effort with Nancy.

2/1: The electrician begins rough-in work in the garage apartment, locating his outlet boxes etc., and running wires through the walls.

Tuesday, 2/2: Gary Pools begins excavation for the pool…estimating 10 working days before the steel reinforcing is in place and they are ready to gunnite (essentially spraying concrete over the steel).  They can only work Tuesday & Wednesday before it starts raining again.

2/4: RAIN DAMAGE.  We discover that the cardboard installed over the garage apartment finish floor to protect it has quite the opposite effect…..retaining water from the leaking roof to such an extent that the wood expands so much that it virtually explodes from the nails holding it down. We now have a rolling plain as opposed to a flat floor. 

 

2/6:  Victor from VMS Iron Works measures the Garage Apartment Entry Tower in preparation for manufacture of the stairs and railing necessary to get up to the second floor. He also brings along a sample bracket for the sun shades.

 

In the afternoon we take a pleasure trip to Medina, TX to look at native plants, ultimately (and in hind sight, prematurely) purchasing close to (30)…a mix of mountain laurel, evergreen sumac and ceniza + one beauty, an Arizona cypress.

2/7:  Who dat? The Saints just won the Super Bowl… Nancy and I met & married in New Orleans. The Saints were terrible in our day…but today, hours after the game, I still proudly have my Saints hat on. Hurricane Katrina is now officially behind the entire Who Dat Nation!  

Monday, 2/8:  We hire our friend and neighbor Sergio Fernandez to cut down and remove the dead or dying hackberry trees along the center of the city-owned easement/right-of-way adjacent to our lot.

2/9- 2/10:  We are informed of the need for a permit to plant anything on city property, which we do immediately. Boerne refuses to allow any such thing on Tuesday….so we move them into a clump and water them to protect them against any future freezes (there have been an unusual number of them this winter) and start the rethinking process.

Friday, 2/12:   In view of the weather forecast, we apply tar paper to all of the roofs. This is really out of order, as PCCI is supposed to lay down their roof coating first, but they agree it is long past time to try to stop the leaks….and they can apply on top of the tar paper instead.  Friends and contractors are full of hindsight, asking us why we didn’t do this a long time ago…very “helpful.”

Monday, 2/15- Thursday, 2/18: SUNSHINE.  PCCI parks its trailer in our yard…and begins application of “the float”….the initial wall treatment which not only smoothes out all the imperfections in the outer surface of the SIPS, but also WATERPROOFS THEM.  If only they could do the roofs first…but for whatever reason this is out of order.

 

2/18: We order the rainwater storage tank. It is to be installed on the (previously-) poured 9-foot diameter foundation next to the garage in the front yard…beginning on 2/24.

Monday 2/22: SUNSHINE.  Gary Pools returns to work after over a month’s hiatus…..they get (1) day in before it starts raining again on Tuesday. The final form is beginning to reveal itself.

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Friday, December 11: Frame-Raising Event

Monday, December 14, 2009 by Nancy.

A “Frame-Raising Event” is scheduled from 3-6 in the afternoon.  It is a lousy day—cold and drizzly. 

Texas Timber Frames arrives with a trailer carrying the shop-assembled garage apartment entry tower.   The smell of wet cedar fills the air.

The main entertainment for the Frame Raising Event (standing the tower up on its steel post bases) is to be accomplished by “the office crew,” the seasoned installers already gone to Dallas for another job.  They do impressive work…up until discovering that one of the four legs of the tower is an  inch too short…they’ll have to come back on Monday to cut off the other 3 legs.

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Thursday, December 10: Porch Day

Monday, December 14, 2009 by Nancy.

The timbers for the back and front porch framing arrive…aromatic cedar from East Texas. 

The highlight for me is an “Amish scarf joint” in the beam connecting all of the columns of the back porch. 

A beautiful piece of work I will be able to look at, hopefully, for a long, long time.  The timbers supporting the flat roof of the front (main entry) porch are also erected.

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Wednesday, December 9: A Day of Amazing Speed

Monday, December 14, 2009 by Nancy.

A sunny day, about 60⁰ by mid-day.  Work begins at 7:30 AM…Preparing the SIPS panels for the southwest side:  24’ high at the gable-end wall peak and 24’ wide covered in 3 panels. 

All of the ceiling and roof panels are up by the end of the work day.

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Thurs., Dec. 3: SIPS Delivered

Sunday, December 6, 2009 by Nancy.

 

 

Completion of assembly of the timber frame is interrupted by a delivery of the SIPS (structural insulated panels) from EH Systems. 

 

All the pieces are numbered to key them to the CADD drawings used in the manufacturing process (see Design Elements).  A great deal of time is spent sorting them out into piles.  After the timber frame is completed the crew begins to clad the frame with the panels.  The majority of the panels are covered in plastic as the day ends (one inch of snow predicted for Friday…never happens.)

Placement of the traditional Christmas pineapple (a gift from friends).

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Wed., Dec. 2: Frame Raising

Sunday, December 6, 2009 by Nancy.

After a two-day rain delay, assembly of the timber frame continues with the raising of the bents, connecting them together and attaching them to the concrete slab with stainless steel pins.  Some of the rafters are added near the end of the work day. 

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TIMBER ARRIVES

Friday, November 27, 2009 by Nancy.

On Wednesday, 11-25, 10 AM, on a beautiful, sunshine-y Texas fall day, a truck/lift arrived at the site bearing many of the timbers to be assembled into the structural frame of our living/dining room.  Soon the crew began hoisting like members into carefully-placed piles and much to my astonishment, lifting the smaller ones by hand.  Some of these looked pretty heavy to me.

Assembly of the first (Southwest) bent went slowly.  Many phone calls being made to the office, checking measurements.  A few of the mortise and tenons were modified, using very large, very sharp chisels.  They beat on several of the joints with special mallets.  Heavy, orange plastic tools, perhaps filled with shot or ball bearings or something.  The mallets left no marks on the whitewashed timbers.

 

After a few false starts, all of the joints closed up, with the help of several “come-alongs” pulling things together.  The crew began drilling holes through the joints.  Oak pegs (from Walpole, New Hampshire) were driven into the Douglas fir timbers from Oregon, as assembly of the first bent was completed.

The work on the remaining two bents was completed swiftly, all the trial and error with the first bent having been eliminated by the learning curve.

At around 3PM on Wednesday, the three completed bents were carefully covered in plastic, awaiting the raising of the frame next week, after the long Thanksgiving weekend.

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GAS LINE INSTALLED

Friday, November 27, 2009 by Nancy.

Monday,11/23/09 (by Jon)

Under the watchful eye of a curious neighbor, the City of Boerne Water, Gas and Sewer Dept. began work on the extension of natural gas service from Graham St, a block away, to 518 Irons.  Despite a temporary setback  (severing our sewer line where the new gas line ran under it), by the end of the work day on Tuesday, we now have a gas line running to our front yard.

The Public Works Dept. agreed to allow us to locate the (yet to be installed) gas meter behind the (future) rain water storage tank (less obvious from the street) so long as we do not build a wall or a fence between it and the street.

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POURING THE SLAB

Sunday, November 22, 2009 by Nancy.

All November 9^th inspections went well.  In order to procure a City of Boerne variance allowing start of construction prior to 8:00 AM, we circulated a letter around the neighbors, to sign their approval for a 5:00 AM start the next day. We could proceed with pouring the concrete slab.

 

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, started early….walking our dog past 518 Irons at 4:30 AM was like coming upon an oil rig out in the country at night…..or maybe a moon landing site…the black night pierced with  very strong flood lights…..an absolutely huge concrete pumping truck with its long arms telescoped out, pointing the end of its hose at the farthest reaches of the forms…..idling in wait for the trucks.

Right on time, the first concrete truck backs into the waiting pump truck at 5:00 AM.   A parade of trucks follows, 9 in all, and by dawn,7:30 AM, the forms are full….the surface being worked by several men,  scraping long 2 x 4’s across the top to form a flatter surface …. checking elevations with a laser level …. pulling a very wide rake with a twenty foot handle….. edging and troweling….removing “headers” at slab drops.

 

Everything stops at 9:30, it’s breakfast time while the concrete stiffens up enough for the troweling machine and smooth finish work.  Fresh tacos all around, provided by the concrete contractor.  The pump truck washes down and leaves.

….By 11:00 AM the slab is smooth and, much to my astonishment, they begin to take the forms off….by 3:00 PM everyone has washed off, packed up and left.

 

POST SCRIPT  1

By Friday, November 13, the forms for the footing to support a privacy wall along one side property line and the 10 ft diameter slab for the rainwater storage tank have been constructed, inspected and cleared for another concrete pour. Progress, not as exciting as when the slab was poured, but progress none the less.

POST SCRIPT  2

One element of our energy efficient house-to-be, sunshades over all south or west facing windows and doors, required a zoning variance…permitting  sunshades  to project beyond the 2 ft allowable into the required 25 ft front yard and 5 ft (Southwest) side yard setbacks.  The existence of the City owned Right-of-Way along our Southwest property line helped our case considerably. Prior to the hearing we had been informed of unanimous City Staff support for our request. At 5:30 PM on Wednesday, November 15, we successfully presented our case before the Board of (Zoning) Adjustments and Appeals . It was a good day.

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