Thanksgiving weekend photos

We drove up with Annie & Grayson the day after Thanksgiving. The last time they visited was when the footings were being formed in August. The weather was unseasonably warm, and there'd been quite a bit of snow melt. I almost tried driving in to the cabin, but visions of digging out a high-centered SUV restrained me from making the attempt. There was about a foot of dense compact snow & slush on the road -- the kind of stuff that's really slippery for cars, but easy to hike in. No need for snowshows (yet). The walk in from the parking area took about 15 minutes.

At the parking area - a veritable river flowing down the side of the road.

Grayson exiting the vehicle parked at the water system.

KnArrow Haus in situ with Lichtenberg Mountain lurking in back.

Annie, Grayson and Katie out front.

Lichtenberg from the family room.

 

Lichtenberg from the back deck.

Checking on the snow accumulation outside the garage. This is with a little over a foot on the ground.

Checking on how the snow is shedding off the low side of the shed roof. Expect this pile to grow much larger the next time we visit.

180 degree panorama standing in front of the garage door.

We carried up several bags of ABS plumbing fittings so that I can begin working on the roughins for all plumbing fixtures -- enough for 5 sinks, 4 toilets, 2 showers, and 1 washing machine. After the drain rough-in is finished, I'll do the PEX tubing for the water supply to each fixture. Then to the electrical wiring throughout and ventillation fans in each bathroom.

Drone Footage - KnArrow Haus and the Neighborhood Vistas

Belated drone footage of a day at KnArrow Haus and the surrounding vistas on October 28, 2017 as we prepared in advance of the heavy snows that now blanket *everything*.

Planning Plumbing in Powerpoint

I looked all over the web and couldn't find a free tool to help me figure out which plumbing pieces I'd need to do the rough-in drain/vent plumbing. So I resorted to the next best thing: PowerPoint.

I went on to the Lowes website, and began looking up their ABS plumbing stock, then I copied and pasted the pictures of the right pieces along with their SKUs in to powerpoint. Rotated and flipped them so that it made some semblence of sense, and was able to construct an online order in about an hour.

These pics make sense to me but probably to no one else. The circles with numbers in them indicate what size of ABS straight pipe I'll need to span between the joints.

I took a bunch of measurements a week ago, and I've got some large joist that I can't reasonably drill through, so this is where I got to so that most of the plumbing can be run between the joists at least until they reach the wall, at which point I'll have to cut holes to run them to the main stack.

I'm hoping I can get away with a few Studor vents instead of having to run vent pipes out the roof where they'll get covered by snow and sheered off when the snow slides off the roof. I'll need to do a sales job on the inspector.

Fall turns to Winter at KnArrow Haus

I drove up this weekend and was still able to pul lup in to the driveway with my AWD. There was a bout 3 inches of compact snow on the road, and about 6 inches uncompacted on the ground. A few folks were out in the neighborhood taking their snowmobiles for some early season warmups up and down Nason Rd.

Here's an edited timelapse video of the last two weeks looking North out the master bedroom window to Lichtenberg Mountain.

And here are a few photos from the day. I got the strike plate mounted on the front deadbolt so it's more secure. And I spent the rest of the time measuring and planning for plumbing. With a few large/thick beams and floors joists 12 inches on center, plumbing is going to require some creativity.

The structure is taking and shedding snow well, as I had hoped.

Snow fall at the front steps.

Snow coverage of our signpost rock and the Homes Northwest builder sign.

Notes to self:

1 - Don't assume all knfe blades lock in place. 

2 - Confirm which blade edge is the sharp one BEFORE using it.

Some creative snowmobile storage by some neighbors down the road, in anticipation of more snow fall.

Google Maps flashback to July

I was foraging around briefly on Google maps this afternoon and notice that the image has been updated for my lot.  Looks to be about mid-July -- the ground is cleared, but footings haven't been dug. That looks like Norm's truck in the neighbor's driveway. And the backhoe is faintly visible in the tips of the shadows.

I'll try to check more often now to see when it updates again.

The final buttoning up as winter sets in

Four to six inches of snow on the ground Saturday, November 4. I arrived 11am, about an hour before Norm.  As I pulled up, the framing crew was there doing their final tasks on their list. The temperature was in the high 20's most of the day, with off-and-on snow, although not much additional accumulation, maybe an inch.

I parked in the driveway!!

Framing crews accomplishments for the day

• Installed our extra window on the West wall, above the 2nd floor staircase. This will add a lot of light during the day time to the main level and the upper level.

The window installed in the West wall.

The window from the main floor.

The window from the top floor.

• They also did the following before leaving around noon.

8ft doors in the entry closet and powder room.

• Reframed the door openings in the entry closet and powder room from 7ft to 8ft. (I feel like a dwarf now in the room, but it really accentuates the 10 foot ceilings.)
• Added strapping required by the inspector to tie some of the floor framing together.
• Moved the plywood between the roof joists down so that it is below the eve vents -- this was due to an orginal mistake on their part on the day the joists were installed.

Norm's objectives for the day were

• Finishing the face flashing around the fireplace doghouse and around the back deck (sorry, forgot to take pictures.)
• Driving bolts into the cement landing to bolt the exterior stairs to the ground. It now has bolts at the top and bottom.
• He also loaded up some scrap roofing panels and most of his tools in his truck.

My objectives for the day were

• Permanently tighten all the bolts on each tread on the stairs - 8 bolts per tread X 10 treads. (A major knucklebuster. My hands looks like they were attacked by an angry tom cat.)
• Assembl and install the outside railing on the stairway. Not planning to put on the inside rail for now. I'll wait until the siding is installed to decide whether or not to put on the inside rail.
  
  The stairway tasks took most of the day, due to difficult directions, lots of different parts, false starts, incorrect pieces, cold, a sore lower back and general exhaustion. (I still plan to mount riser plates to each tread to stiffen the, but that can wait until Spring.)

The completed (for now) exterior staircase.

• Installing deadbolts in all the exterior doors -- downstairs, deck, and entry.

The deadbolt in the back door. The door will be painted in the spring.

The deadbolt installed in the upper deck door.

I forgot to take a picture of the deadbolt installed in the front door.  It's a smartlock so that a key is not needed to enter from the front (if you have the secret code.)  looks like this

Next on my list is starting on plumbing, drain lines first, then supply lines.

The backhoe departs as snow settles in for the season.

With a couple inches of snow on the ground, Norm managed to get his trailer up to the cabin on Thursday to retrieve his backhoe so that it can Winter-over in warmer-and-wetter Snohomish.

He also got the flashing installed on the porch and deck, and permanently bolted the stairs to the porch. (Pics to follow this weekend.)

The (Hurried) Calm Before the Snow

On Monday and Wednesday were up at the site working with Norm to get the house ready for the cold-snap and snow that are heading in to the area as I post this update.

Panorama taken mid-day Wednesday, Nov 1, as Spencer grades the site and Tom warms up at the burn pile.

On Monday, Katie and Abbie went up to continue site clean-up and help out where they could - lots of sweeping and gathering bits and pieces around the lot to put in the burn pile.  Also helping Norm stoke the fire, which Norm lit right up near the side of the house and put plywood around to direct the heat to the upper deck where he had applied the final coat of deck membrane.

Norm rolling out the waterproof membrane coating.

The front portch with the newly rolled-out waterproof membrane. We thought this would be dry by Wednesday, but when I showed up late morning it was still tacky. We're hoping it gets warm enough at some point in the next few weeks to get it fully cured.

The back deck with water proof membrane applied.

Abbie stoking the fire underneath the back deck to help cure the membrane.

Spencer was busy with the backhoe/excavator doing the final grading of the lot. And his work continued on Wednesday.

Grading the slope under the eve and on septic drain field.

The backyard area which will eventually be a firepit with large stones.

Some of the big rocks that will be used for our firepit.

Septic drain field grading. The big green lids are access hatches to the septic tanks.

The big rocks at the left will make their way over to the firepit.

Scooping our white marble gravel up the driveway.

On Wednesday, Spencer and Norm installed the final bracket fastening the flying beam from the roof support to the frame at the front of the house.

Fastening the bracket always takes a bit of coaxing.

Spencer setting the lag screws in the bracket.

The bracket finally in place.

The washers fastening the back side of the beam to the bracket.

I took the day off of work on Wednesday to meet the truck delivering the exterior stair case.

The delivery driver dropped the stair package at the front of the driveway. We had to muscle it off the truck, which thankfully had a lift gate to aid in the process.

All the boxes on the garage floor, the stringers laying on the ground, and the galvanized treads leaning up against the garage. Figuring out how to piece all this together SUCKED. One of the worst "Some Assembly Required" headaches around. Thankfully, whoever wrote the assembly manual did NOT work previously for Ikea...

The stairs are temporarily mounted to the front porch, just with lag screws. Need to come back up with lag bolts that go through the porch joist, and it also needs to be releveled.  It took me three tries to find the correct hole to use for leveling the treads front to back.

All the screws and bolts are only hand tightened right now. After I tighten everything, I need to mount the hand rails on the outside. Then we'll drive bolts into the bottom of the stringers in to the concrete walk way to secure it permanently.

Norm and Tom wrapped Tyvek around the lower portion of the cabin to help protect it should snow get up past the foundation (which it is likely to this winter.)

West side of the cabin wrapped in Tyvek.

East side of the Cabin wrapped in Tyvek.

One of the final activitiees of the day was installing and caulking all of the exterior doors.

The basement door will be painted dark-gray/black in the Spring, to match the others.

The deck door.

Installing the font door.

The front door from the inside. We still need to decide what color to pain the outside. The inside will be painted the same dark gray/black as the deck door.

The front door from the outside. And notice the wonderful light generated by my new 4000 lumen LED worklight!

We finally left the cabin just before 8pm. As we were on our way out to the freeway, Norms trick tailgate popped-open and dumped the ladder out on the road. I told him I probably wouldn't follow him down the pass on the freeway.

As I crested Stevens Pass on the way home, it started to snow and continued for about 1 mile down the West side, but no roadway accumulation. I turned to rain quickly.

We believe cabin is "ready-enough" for winter now that it will still be there in the Spring. I will continue to work on it weekends, but am expecting very shortly that the final mile of my commute to it will be via snowmobile.

Next tasks for this weekend:

• Tighten the stairs, finish assembling the railing, aand mount it all permanently to the top porch and bottom landing.
• Install locks on the exterior doors to prevent unwanted intrusions.

Then comes plumbing drains and PEX, and electrical boxes and wiring.