Insultation and paint

Today was a day off for most of the crew as it is a national holiday. Hailey came in however. She is down to part time as of last week as she returns to university tomorrow. She continued adding the glazes to the porch trees and made good progress. Only two beams remain to recieve their second to darkest glaze. The trees darken with each glaze and get ever richer in color and detail. Bec masked off the east side of the front of the house and applied the speckles to the rock work. The grout lines is all that remains of the paint work on that half.

The crew from ELEMENT Spray Foam also worked today. They were eager to get started on the spray insulation on this high visibility project. It will take them a couple of weeks to spray all of the ceiling foam in the house. They started at the back of the house in the outside lawn mower room. They sprayed in two inches of foam in with each pass, allowing the layer to offgas before laying in the next thickness. Two inches of foam is enough to act as a vapour barrier by code. Six inches of foam will give us an insulation value of R40 - more than enough to keep us snuck and warm through the coolest winter days. R28 is all that is required by code.

Ryan and Colin got a start on the spray foam in the master bedroom before quitting time. They'll be back tomorrow to continue their work. Tomorrow my help will be limited to Matthew, the only full time help left. We have plenty to keep us busy in spite of having to stay out of the house while the spray foam is being applied. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

Fiddling on the roof.

Today, being Sunday meant that this was mostly a day off but it was sunny, the temperature perfect and there was no one around to bother me while I did a little job that no one else could do. I decided I would spend some time up on the roof painting the facia, soffits and wall panels of the front dormers. It was a tricky job as the roof is a 10/12 pitch and the space is tight as the two roofs meet. The hard part is to cling to the roof as you reach into the tight areas all manner of contorted positions. It was an interesting way to spend an afternoon. I even managed to paint the necessary areas without getting any paint on the shiney new roof.

Next up I'll begin routing the trim which should be ready to install about the same time as the windows are installed. The painted dormers bring the house one step closer to done.

Tomorrow, the Element Spray Foam crew starts in on the ceiling insulation. Pretty soon we'll switch our efforts to the inside of the house. I can hardly wait!

-grampa dan

A summer's work done!

Eighteen weeks ago the first footing forms were nailed together, signalling the beginning of the house project. Since then the house has risen from the excavation and in the last weeks has been transformed into our dream with the addition of the sculpted trees and final finishes on the exterior of the building. Our goal was to finish as much of the exterior of the house as possible before our crew went back to school. We did that and more, thanks in large part to the efforts of our young crew.

Today, the last work day of summer was Peter's the last day to work on the project as he returns to university tomorrow. We sculpted the last few feet of facia board, now all around the house. Phoebe's tree house by the back porch is now sculpted and ready for paint. 

Out front the trees have gotten two of the three glazes. This week promises to stay warm and dry meaning we should be able to finish the painting of the porch area. 

Monday morning the crew from Element Spray Foam start in on the insulation in the ceiling of the house. They will spray the underside of the roof with six inches of two pound foam. The foam also acts as a vapour barrier. The sprayed foam will give us true R40 insulation with no chance of air leakage, unlike conventional batt insulation and plastic vapour barriers. The attic space is unvented and instead treated as interior, conditioned airspace. Heating and cooling air ducts in essence come into the house instead of being outside the insulated space. This means less energy is wasted. The spray foam is one more step in making our house one of the most energy efficient and greenest possible.

-grampa dan