Siding FINISHED after 30 workdays since July.

It was 22 degrees F when I arrived in the Yodelin parking lot this morning. No snow since last week, so it was an easy walk in. (Warmed up to 32 degrees by the time I returned to the car.)

What's wrong with the picture? (Zoom in.)This was just up the hill from our driveway.

(They got it uprighted with help a few hours later.)

The day's before/after picture.  

Installed 15 pieces to finish off installing the Ipe on the cantilever today. Feels good to know that project has a check mark next to it.

According to my travel expense ledge, we started installing the siding on July 30th by flashing the flying beams.  It took 30 work days over 132 elapsed calendar days (or 19 elapsed calendar weeks) to complete all the siding. 

The total cost including the metal siding and trim, the Ipe wood, thousands of screws, a bunch of drill bits, and some tool rental (including the crane) came to about $11,000. (I need to sell my pumpjacks now that the project is finished.) And I have no idea how many hours of my time and many others, since we've had a multitude of helpers up to the Haus on various days. Lots.

Now, let's take just a moment to enjoy the fruits of our labor...

 Let it snow. Let is snow. Let is snow.

Next up: Deck railing.

Olaf's first appearance for the 2018-19 snow season

I figured it was about time for Olaf to make his appearance for the new snow year. He had to change the formatting and style of his chart to track multiple snow years. The chart below shows the snow accumulation for the same calendar time of multiple years. Orange is last year. Blue is this year.

You can see that we've started this year a little behind where we were last year. Dry, cold and sunny this week, but snow's in the forecast for this weekend.

Siding completion so close we can taste it

Didn't get up to the site until noon today. Katie needed to take pictures for Eliza's basketball team this morning.  The last two pieces of metal corner trim arrived this week. I strapped them to the top of my SUV, and we carried them in to the Haus. (Snowmobile still won't start.)

We had a drop-by visitor shortly after arriving. He was brave enough to drive in, but he also has a load of tires in back and he has 4-wheel-drive LOW.

I didn't take pictures of our progress until we were ready to leave at about 5:30. Dark pictures, even with lighting correction.

Corner trim installed left of the front door.

Corner trim installed right of the front door.

After completing the corner trim, the remainder of the day and evening were devoted to putting the Ipe' on the ceiling of the overhang. We developed a pretty good system that allowed us to measure once, then cut, drill and mount three pieces before measuring again. My shoulders and the ladder's reach gave out simultaneously at about 5:30 pm.

You can see there are about 10 more pieces to install at the very end. It was a shame to quit before finishing, but the last bit is going to take some creativity to wrestle with ladders resting on stairs leaning against the Haus.

We can definitely finish the wood on the overhang next weekend, at which point we'll officially be DONE WITH SIDING.  To put the siding project in perspective: With the exception of only one weekend, I've been coming up every weekend, with a smattering of additional days added in for good measure, since August.

Looking forward to moving on to the exterior deck posts and rails. 

Post-turkey Snow Workday

After two days and two feet of snow, we returned to work on the Haus the day after Thanksgiving.

I was able to drive all the way up to the Haus, but got stuck when turning around in some loose snow. A little digging and a few shovels of sand under each wheel, and I got back out to the parking lot. Katie started up the snowmobile and met me out at the parking lot. But then the snowmobile decided to not start when we went to head back up to Haus. So we left it parked along the side of the road and walked back in.

Almost 2 feet on the ground when we arrived. The snow started up again about 3pm.

Katie kept the fire stoked most of the day to take the edge off the cold.

I had at least 9 failed (stripped) screws during the day, each of which has to be twisted out using a vice grips. 

You can see up on the ceiling a custom wedge I made to straighten out the Ipe. I mounted a temporary wood stop with a couple screws, used paint sticks as spacers, and pounded in a couple wood wedges to make sure the board was tight up against its neighbor before drilling.

I managed to mount the 5 remaining pieces, each of which required multiple custom cuts.

The underside of this second to last piece had to be cut out in multiple places so that it lays flat to cover screws and metal brackets that are part of the framing.

The finished product with pieces cut to fit around the flying beam and against the outside edge.

Upside-down Deck

Let's be clear: It was Katie's idea to put Ipe' on the ceiling, not mine. I was planning on using Hardie Panel.

Installing Ipe' on the ceiling is pretty much *EXACTLY* the same as building a deck out of Ipe', except I'm on a ladder and the boards are above my head. Kinda sucks.

The wiring and installation of the R-13 rigid foam were completed
a couple weeks ago by Bryan & Jaxon.

I stuffed in some additional R-30 fiberglass insulation,
so now we're at R-43 in the cantilevered floor.

Selfie with my upside-down deck at the end of the day.

Very pleased with the progress for the day.

Maybe Katie was right. Maybe... 

Cold Day of Ipe (Reprise)

View of the finished Ipe siding around the front door.

Today I had Katie in tow, so the siding installation went much faster. On the road by 8 am. At the Haus working by 9:30 am. Temperature was 32 F degrees upon arrival. And again, the sun ducked behind the hill right on queue at 11:30 am.  

We were able to cookie-cutter the process, finishing up the siding on each side of the door. And then all of the siding on the wall to the left of the door.

Our process was:

• Cut wood pieces to length. -John
• Paint ends with a waxy treatment that prevents them from drying out too quickly. -Katie
• Mark each piece 1" in from the top and bottom at the designated positions -Katie
• Drill each piece where the markings are -Katie & John
• Mount wood siding to the wall (and grumble occassionally as a screw head strips).  

Over 30 pieces of wood are required to cover a wall from top to bottom, including one piece at the top that has to be ripped down to 2 inches. In all, we mounted about 50 pieces of wood.

It was nearly 4 pm when we finsished the walls and started on the ceiling. Because the ceiling is at an angle, each piece requires a custome measurement: it's no friend to someone with mild dyslexia (like me). After miscutting the first piece at the wrong angle, and then wrestling setting screws above my head on the correctly-cut piece, I decided to punch out and call it a day.

I use paint sticks (package 8 for $0.99) as 1/8" spacers between the wood. 

The Ipe continues to be arduous to work with. We broke 3 drill bits -- 2 when drilling wood, and one when I accidentally dropped the drill. And we went through 4 tip-bits on the impact drill and probably 15 or 20 stripped screw heads. When the head of a screw strips, I use a vice grips to grab the head and back it out by hand. Then drive a new screw in.

But no major hitches or faux pas during the day.

Katie built a fire in the fireplace, and we burned scrap wood all day. The heat from the fireplace reaches about 8 feet back in to the room. A nice place to sit when eating lunch. But the entire shell of KnArrow Haus is still uninsulated, so literally all the heat goes up and out -- even the room where the fireplace is does not get warmer except directly in front of the fireplace.

View of Lichtenberg from the back deck right before leaving. 

Moon on the rise as we left. 

I estimate it will take at least two more days to finish installing the Ipe on the ceiling cantilever, sue to all each piece needing to be custom measured and cut -- and working overhead. At that point, the outside of KnArrow Haus will be "done" -- well almost. 

My punch list for the outside of KnArrow Haus still includes:

• Porch lights in the cantilever ceiling.
• Railing and cabling around the front porch and back deck. 
• Trim around the outside of the back door, back window, and garage door.
• Wire for lights above garage door under porch.
• Finish underside of porch above garage door and trim lights.
• Step for back door.

First snow = a cold day of Ipe'

Flying solo today in my quest to move Ipe' installation ahead.

Pulling out at 5pm, I shines the lights on the Haus.

(Picture courtesy of my new Pixel 3)

Beautiful drive up in the morning with traction tires advised on Highway2. 

Snow on the ground entering Yodelin.

Bluebird day, 

It was cold today -- mid-30's. Sunny when I arrived, but the sun sets on our Haus at 11:45 am 

this time of year -- actually it goes behind the mountain to the South. I wored a 1/4-zip long-sleeve shirt, a fleece coat, a cotton hoodie, a hat, and working gloves.

This is where I got the Ipe' to today.

The activity agenda for the day:

1. Install the staples in the impact nailer and staple the felt to the walls. 
2. Caulk the firing strips I added to the door frame a couple weeks ago. The caulk is supposed to be ready to paint in 30 minutes....Wait a little longer to paint with the temperature just above freezing.
3. Mask off the door frame while I'm waiting to paint.
4. Paint the door trim with paint. I chose "Boudoir Black" from Home Depot. (Should have had the guy put the primer additive in to the mix. The paint did not cover very well, and it took *forever* to dry at the cold temperature. It's going to need another coat, but probably not until Spring.)
5. Reposition the upper pieces that I mounted last week so that a whole piece goes across the top of the door. Then remount the rest of the pices above it. 
6. Rip down a piece to 2" for the top, next to the ceiling. 
7. Realize that I not only bought the wrong sandpaper for the orbital sander, but I forgot the orbital sander itself. Make due with a sanding pad and elbow grease.
8. Measure and cut pieces on each side of the door to length.
9. Paint ends with a waxy mixture that prevents them from drying out too fast. 
10. Mark pieces for predrilling.
11. Predill holes.
12. Place wood piece on the wall, using a paint stick as a spacer. (Check level every couple of pieces.)
13. Break a handful of screws mounting the first few pieces, forcing me to back them out with a vice grips. 
14. Increase my bit size, and re-predrill my holes. (Screws stop breaking.)
15. While I'm predrilling, I accidentally spilled the waxy mixture all over the floor > Salvage some of it using the plastic cover from a notepad > Mix what's left on the floor with sawdust to get the floor clean.
16. Realize at 4:30 that I'm about out of screws.
17. Start packing up. 
18. Find a few more screws in my pocket, enough to mount three more pieces. 
19. Finish packing up. Lock-up the cabin. 
20. Take parting photo. 
21. Drive home. 

Enter Ipe' stage right

8 pieces of siding with a side-order of insulation and caulk doesn't feel like very much to show for 6-1/2 hours on Nov 3rd. Almost indiscernable on my departing picture:

Departing from KnArrow Haus at 4pm on 03 Nov 2018. (That's rain, not snow.)

Here are the DIY details:

• Caulked around the garage door to keep critters out
• Wired for the back entry light
• Insulated and caulked above the back entry door
• Cut and mounted 3 pieces of Hardie panel between the uppper windows (finally finishing ALL the Hardie panel!)
• Cut and mounted 5 pieces of Ipe' above the entry door

We were able to use our 22' ladder to reach all but the top screw hole on each panel. 

5 pieces of Ipe' mounted in the front door alcove.

Lessons and Hiccups:

• Universal Fit staples apparently don't fit in our not-exotic Bostich impact stapler. (Sigh.) We resorted to using black duct tap to hold the paper in place until we added the wood.
• When people describe Ipe' as "ironwood", they're not exagerating. The wood smokes just predrilling screw holes with a brand new bit. And it's heavy. Really heavy. (Note to self: Order more drill bits and screw bits.)
• Cheap saw blades are cheap for a reason -- and they won't last very long. Luckily, I bought 2 cheap saw blades...

See this classic 30 second scene from the Holy Grail for validation of my saw blade strategy: 

Hardie Panel Time Travel: 3 days in 9 minutes

For all of those who wished they'd been there for the victorious conclusion of our sumptuous summer of siding, now you can relive the culminating 3 weekends in less than 2 handful's of minutes, all set to scintilating slide-guitar songs.

Epic power tool to the rescue

As we pick-up this week's episode, you'll recall that last week the 4'x10' Hardie panel ate our lunch with impunity. So this week, I did what any self respecting do-it-yourself-er would do: Rent an epic power tool, in this case a 35' trailerable boom lift (from Home Depot).

Home Depot doesn't allow rental equipment reservations and when we showed up a the Bothel location early Saturday morning, theirs was already rented out. A quick call to the Snohomish store saved our bacon. (BTW - I like the people at the Snohomish Home Depot -- personable, friendly, kind and helpful.)

We attached the lift to the Sequoia and had a beautiful Saturday morning drive up Highway 2. And enjoyed a dry but cool day working at the cabin...until the rain hit at about 6 pm as we were packing up. We got drenched packing up and had some fits and starts getting the trailer lift reattached to the Sequoia.

The pictures not shown (and not taken) are of us wrestling with this trailerable behmoth to get it positioned close enough to the Haus. Had to take a mulligan on the first false start because the lift only swivels fully in one direction. Our driveway has an area where a car can pull through and loop around, across our drainfield and on to the neighbors driveway, but it's TIGHT. We didn't have a lot of room to maneuver, so we got the lift generally close to where we wanted it, then had to lift and push it in to position -- less than easy on dirt and gravel. I'm sore today from doing deadlifts with the tongue of the trailer.

I positioned the basket just above the front porch to make entry/egress easier and save time.

Cutting the final trim pieces for the corners.

We placed some 2x4's on the railing of the basket to serve as a sort of forklift for carrying the heavy panels until we could get them in to position. In the end, the 4'x10' piece of Hardie panel still proved too heavy and unwieldy for us to put successfully put in place, even though we tried. We finally elected to cut the panel in half. The smaller pieces went up easily -- only a slight compromise on the overall aesthetic. And I have to say, that not having to carry those pieces up and down a ladder was a blessing.

No mishaps navigating the bucket.

Fastening the cut-in-half top panel.

The obligatory shot looking down.

Is that a worried look?

Mounting the final top pieces to cover sofits -- a one-man job.

Notice that Katie donned the down jacket after the clouds came in.

Mounting corner trim.

Ugh. As I look at the picture above,

I see that we forgot mount the Hardie panel
pieces between the windows....  Aarg!

 I'll try to pull all the video off that timelapse camera soon.

We arrived back at the Snohomish Home Depot at about 8:15, grabbed a mediocre sandwich from the Arby's drive through on our way out, and arrived home just before 9:00 pm tired and wet -- probably our longest work day this year.