Lowering three inches

The area under the shower mostly reframed, replumbed and ready for plywood

In this photo you can see the 3" drop into the shower as well as the drain flange.

Jake mortaring the cement board joints

I spent the best part of the last 3 days or so lowering the the floor of the shower stall by three inches. In one respect this might have been a pretty straightforward process, but in the course of thing required some re-plumbing and some tight-quarters support framing while maintaining the well being of the radiant tubing winding through the works.

Why am I lowering the shower floor, you might ask? Well, way back I investigated whether or not I'd need to lower the floor in order to have a pitched grade to the drain. To the extent that I looked into it I felt comfortable not doing so. Now, as I write about it it seems obvious: you can't have a pitched surface without going down (unless you build up to a threshold, which maybe I was thinking at some point.)

Once I had the structure rebuilt and the plywood base installed, then I had to install the cement board, which is the underlayment material for the tile. This stuff was comparatively easy and presented no problems.

This morning Jake, who is doing the tile work in the bathroom, arrived and I was able to keep just ahead of him. He laid the underlayment on the floor of the bathroom and then mortared the joints of the cement board that I'd installed. I also installed the drain base and mortared that as well. His next move is to apply a waterproofing membrane to the whole lower area of the shower pan area.

Work ongoing

I was dead tired yesterday afternoon so I laid down on the front step for a minute or two. This was the view and the color of the sky blew me away

Joe, working on the half wall separating the master bedroom from the guest room

Mac rolling the driveway as his final act

The view from up the driveway with grading complete

Today Mac finished up his work grading and resurfacing the driveway. We've enjoyed having him here but are glad to have the machine out of the way.

Joe completed priming throughout the whole house and moved on to a little left over framing/sheetrocking project that I had been indecisive about, namely the half-wall that defines the master bedroom, such as it is. There was a simple framed wall in place and today I made a couple of decisions that allowed us to finish it off. It will serve as a headboard for our bed eventually, so there are electrical outlets, a phone jack, and a light switch mounted to turn on and off the over-bed light.

Nancy and I have been working on making some rudimentary decisions about the kitchen and what we should have where in the cabinetry. My job is to start working this into a build-able plan, which I will start soon.

Goodbye framing

Before starting the fabric installation

The Insulweb fabric stapled in place

Applying the glue

Ready for insulation

We are beginning the insulating process.

On Friday I put up the first large areas of Insulweb, which is a retaining fabric that will be attached everywhere that we'll be insulating--along the exterior walls and second floor ceilings.

The key is to get the fabric quite taught, so I stapled it up neatly at each corner and then carefully worked it along the whole perimeter. Once the fabric is hung, I come back with a roller and an adhesive glue that I then roll along all the framing members under the fabric. This fixes the fabric wherever it comes in contact with the wood. As soon as we've got the fabric up throughout the whole house, we'll start blowing the cellulose insulation into all the wall and roof areas through small slits in the fabric.

Its such a relief to finally be moving onto this work after a long haul leading up to this point. I expect this work to go relatively quickly and then we'll be on to sheetrocking.

Switched out windows

Joe looking out the original window opening

The new window in place

A sense of the view

The stair window being re-framed to lower it

The stair window in its new home, about a foot lower

Today Joe and I switched out the small triple-set second floor window for the larger pair. It went smoothly and we are quite happy with the result. Joe commented that if ever we want to sell the house, bring the potential buyer up to look out the window at the view and it'll seal the deal. I think he's right.

The new window not only opens up the upstairs room to the light and the view, it also helps to balance the exterior shapes a little. The window feels in proportion to the first floor windows.

We also pulled out, reframed and lowered the window you look out at the landing on the stairs. Now its about right for gazing out of as you pass by. It was about a foot too high.

Meanwhile, work on the garage is keeping us very busy. We continue to line up the pieces in order to bring the building down next week. This includes relocation of the power supply to the buildings, moving all our stuff out of the garage, moving the firewood stack next to the building, etc... there's a lot too it.

Before:


After:


Made the changes to the mudroom/kitchen entry today and it feels really good. We loose a little closet space, but I think its well worth the improvement in flow and transition.

Pocket Door Wall

Today involved building the wall between the living room area and the office space. This is a wall with double pocket doors. The doors will roll into the wall to create a wide pass-through opening between the rooms. Our goal here is to have the option of privacy while also being able to keep the office space open and accessible to the larger living space.

The wall took a little planning and then some careful work to build. It is essentially two parallel walls that are joined at the top and then fixed to the floor but have no connection inbetween, where the door passes through.

With the warm temperatures outside I barely needed the woodstove today and by the afternoon it was pretty warm.

I left the space over the pocket door wall open in case we decide we want to install some sort of transom lights overhead, as we are planning to do over the bathroom doorway. The office and bathroom wall frame the stairway on either side and are in the same plain, so there is a logic to creating a similar look across the whole wall surface.