From the Farmlet

Summer in a box

2011-01-28T16:57:00.005-05:00

This is my car thermometer one morning this week:

The nights have been even colder!

So it was a pleasant and beautiful surprise to find this under our snow-covered cold frame:

Almost summer!

Warm house

2011-01-25T18:39:00.004-05:00

Finally, we have a warm house! The insulation is completely done and it is comfortably warm with nothing more than the heat of the fire.

The insulation crews worked amazingly hard... we'll miss having them around the house, it's been great company while we work. Thanks guys!

Insulation

2011-01-21T14:27:00.010-05:00

The Itchy & Scratchy crew made it to our house again today, despite the blizzard which by 1 pm seems to have already left 6" of fresh snow.
The upstairs is done! With over 11" of cellulose in the ceilings and over 7" in the walls, the boys room is oddly quiet. The combination of densely packed cellulose and staggered studs creates a super sound barrier... at least until the band moves in.

They are now working their way around the downstairs. It looks like it's snowing inside too but that is loose cellulose in the air... thankfully they are wearing masks but it seems like a potentially hazardous job.

Cellulose insulation is made from recycled newspaper. When the studio was done, we pulled out a few of the tiny pieces of the paper and found it was all in french! We haven't checked out the writing in the new house yet.

Blizzard

2011-01-14T06:55:00.004-05:00

Our tiny house in the snow

That is Sam under the giant snowball

End of 2010

2011-01-07T13:00:00.003-05:00

Finally, except for a few finishing touches, we are done with the outside of the farmlet! On the inside, we are nearing completion of all rough plumbing and wiring, getting ready for insulation to be installed in mid-January.

Fireplace

2010-10-12T20:13:00.003-04:00

Our big goal this weekend was to finish the fireplace and chimney... which we did, and had our small first fire on Columbus Day night... very exciting, we now have a heat source!

Peaceful day at work

2010-09-22T06:50:00.003-04:00

What its like working outside on our house while Stuck in Neutral is having a band practice inside the house:

Working on living

2010-09-08T17:56:00.014-04:00

We had a great summer, though admittedly doing more gardening, biking, sailing and painting than working on the house. Here's a few updates, more work to happen soon!

Our anniversary dinner on the porch:

A tiny bit more siding and a new metal roof:

Sailing:

Beach days at OOB:

Did you know artichoke flowers are so beautiful? (the cheap camera just doesn't do it justice):

Siding

2010-06-27T18:44:00.004-04:00

Cedar shakes, red board and batten...

Brise Soleil

2010-05-19T07:37:00.004-04:00

We just finished building the "brise soleil" over the kitchen window and back door. This short roof is intended to block high angle summer sun from overheating the house, while allowing in low angle winter sun to passive heat the concrete floor.

Windows & trim

2010-05-06T07:16:00.007-04:00

The windows and doors are almost all in - starting on the trimwork! Note the "insta-buffer" in the background. We took a weekend off to install a bunch of balsam firs and rhododendrons with pachysandra as groundcover... it'll be beautiful someday!

Does it seem like only one person is working here?
Thanks Erik for all your help!
Sam taped the roof (I think mostly to get long strips of paper for his "May pole"). He also spread new soil, planted grass seeds in our worn lawn, and then protected it with very colorful fencing!

Sculpture in the Garden

2010-04-03T10:06:00.007-04:00

Metal and rock... a natural balance.

Imagine a tall metal sunflower blowing in the wind, set in a granite rock grounded in a garden of flowers.

I wish I knew a geologist and metal works artist who could craft such a thing.

Galvalume

2010-03-30T07:00:00.010-04:00

Galvalume is an Energy Star rated roofing material, with significant recycled content, durable for a very long service life, and recyclable at end of life. Many thanks to Holgerson Roofing for working on our dangerously high roof... super nice guys to spend a couple of days with. They even picked up all the metal scraps and tiny shavings from our yard to be recycled again for use on a future roof!

We really like the roof because it changes daily, taking on the colors of the sky.

Thank you too Erik, for helping us install the windows!

Deep laceration, lower left extremity

2010-03-26T19:17:00.004-04:00

First jobsite injury that involved a trip to the emergency room... the family voted against posting a photo of the wound as it is a tiny bit gruesome. But now, after a few deep stiches and about 8 or so external stitches, Brad is all better!

Spring days

2010-03-22T07:46:00.016-04:00

We welcomed the warm and sunny first days of spring playing music...

installing the first two windows...

building a flared sitting wall...

adding old trailer stairs...(why???)

...and relaxing on the beach.

Covered porch

2010-03-12T14:44:00.007-05:00

After a few weeks of skiing, skating, swimming and just generally relaxing in the oddly warm winter weather, we finally have kicked back into gear on the house. We now have both covered porches built. The front porch, an extension of the one-story roof:

The sunset porch will be partially screened and partially open to the south deck once finished.

Green Box

2010-01-17T16:04:00.006-05:00

The last pieces of wall sheathing went on this weekend... the house is now 99% closed in! The windows have been ordered and should arrive in about two weeks. In the meantime, we will start building the front and side porches.

In celebration of Ben's upcoming birthday, we took the day off to go tubing at the Camden Snow Bowl... great fun (and only a little terrifying!)

Roofed in

2010-01-10T16:48:00.006-05:00

Finally, the roof sheathing is finished! They said it couldn't be done...

While we worked, the kids had a lacrosse/skating party downstairs.

We went down to the beach to celebrate and sing to the sunset... then closed our eyes and dreamed of warm and sunny shores. It seemed to work with Ben, he shed his hat and sweatshirt despite the 14 degree chill!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-28T16:29:00.010-05:00

The roofing project has been seriously slowed down by Christmas... but we did have a wonderful time!

Today was warm and sunny and we had the chance to get up two cedar brackets, a barge rafter and painted beadboard under the overhang.

Snowstorms and roofing

2009-12-21T06:56:00.006-05:00

Two things that don't go well together... but fortunately the first snow of the year melted quickly. We were able to get 90% of the roof rafters up before the big blizzard hit this weekend.

Thanksgiving weekend

2009-12-02T19:20:00.016-05:00

Despite several days of cool rainy weather, we managed to get two walls up on the second floor over Thanksgiving weekend.

Our first tiny wall section... just before leaving for Thanksgiving dinner at the Beach Rose Cottage:

View of the oak tree framed through the kids' future bathroom window:

Check out those staggered studs... this has worked out to be such a great (and easy!) way to frame a house. Besides providing room for some thickness of dense pack cellulose insulation continuously along the wall length, staggered studs are also apparently used for sound proofing - which will be especially useful since this is the kids bedroom / hangout / music room.

Ben "helping" Papa:

With a whole lot of faith, we relied on the math and just cut the entire gable wall using Mark's method... then did a test layout on the living room floor (minus the headers)... so far so good!

Sam lifted nearly the entire gable wall, piece by piece, up to Brad on the 2nd floor.

Lifting the wall...

Obviously very pleased that the math worked... the wall went together perfectly.

First lunch in the kids room! Amazingly warm for late November... we are dreaming of being completely done next summer and wondering why we didn't plan for a second floor porch.

Kids can only work for a little while before they start going crazy and goofy... yes, that is our lunch all over the ground. Does Ben look guilty? Sam is alive and well, in case you are wondering.

Two peas in a pod...

The boys thought Erik would appreciate our new wrestling ring:

And by Sunday afternoon, one half of the tower is up:

Roofing

2009-11-27T08:09:00.016-05:00

We've spent the last couple of weeks working on the roof to the one-story side of the house. It seems so slow to do detail work when all we want is to be roofed in but... learned the hard way with the studio... some things just have to be done in a certain order or we'll pay later!

So first, we are painting the exposed rafter tails and adding the beadboard to the eave overhangs.

Just the beginning of working with heights, we are finding its a little harder on the east side, where we have the daylight basement. We decided to add some brackets to hold up the outer rafter... intended to be a temporary fix for now but now we like the look and plan on replacing these with some nicer brackets 'in the future'.

We took a break for a walk and a great Fall scene, cottages boarded up for winter except for one hold-out with the wind whipping a lone flag and smoke from the chimney.

We feel lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

And now we've started seeing brackets on cottages all over... I guess we were subconsciously influenced.

We have been fortunate to have Chris and Betsy around to help during the week, handling the measuring, cutting and cleaning on the ground and handing heavy things up to Brad on the ladder (yes, it sounds like they are doing all the hard work). Last weekend, Jim came to help too and they finally placed the last piece of the sheathing on the roof!

A very important milestone... we now have half the house closed in (except for a few holes). And even better, it's like we added an extra room to our tiny house... the kids will have a dry place to run around, play ball and get rid of some extra energy this winter!

Movin' on up!

2009-11-10T16:53:00.003-05:00

Last Friday, we started working on the 2nd floor. The kids were sad to have missed the remote controlled lowering of the beams into position (proof that video game practice can be put to a good use). By the end of this weekend, we had half of our roof rafters in place on the one story side!

Framing - weekend 3

2009-10-25T18:39:00.007-04:00

OK... things have slowed down a LOT since the barn raising. But at least we can say the first floor is framed and we are halfway through sheathing! Also getting much help and support from the boys (and Laney).

Framing - weekend 2

2009-10-18T18:05:00.012-04:00

Only 12' of wall left to do on the 1st floor!

Advanced framing techniques: staggered studs (2x4 on the inside, 2x6 on the outside, on a 2x8 plate) provide a thermal break and act as a noise buffer. Aligning roof rafters with wall studs with floor joists efficiently transmits the loads and requires less structural framing.

Corner window: sneak peak to the maple tree and guests as they arrive in our driveway

The north wall is intentionally short with just a few square barn windows. The entry, pantry, stairs, mudroom/laundry and bath are all located on the north side of the house.

The south side has higher ceilings and giant windows that guide your eyes to the tops of the trees and expose the concrete floors to the light and warmth from the sun.

Too tired to help out:

Concrete Floors

2009-10-14T06:49:00.001-04:00

Columbus Day Framing Party

2009-10-14T06:42:00.002-04:00

First year

2009-10-14T06:24:00.002-04:00

Miscellaneous photos from our first year: