Today was the first day with some rain, so that made working on the scaffolding not so appealing. So what to do?
Good time to build a stairs from the treated pine left over from the decks. It won’t win any prizes, but it does what it is supposed to do;
OSB is pretty strong, but it isn’t built to withstand the elements. So when the OSB is on, it is covered with a foil,
plastic/tyvek like, which is a water and air barrier. Wrapped up like this, the wall is ready for its final outside layer;
siding.That basically means slapping on horizontal boards of cedar wood with an overlap of about half an inch.
Once that cedar is stained it will match the stained logs. But for now the eastern gable end is water proof.
So tomorrow the scaffolding moves to the western Gable end to do framing and sheathing on that side.
Okay, this post will not look new, it will look much like a previous one, as it is indeed the same thing,
merely on the east side of the house. It’s been framing time again, so another 25 2×4″ ers bite the dust.
What might be nice to mention is the the tree you see behind the ladder, which is half unrooted due to excavations for the foundation,
will be used to support the second floor of the log home.
Now the floor bounces about an inch when you make a jump,
which feels a bit wobbly, so Dave suggested we cut down the tree,
and is dying anyway, and make it the center piece of the great room.
One starts to appreciate the basic things in life like a toilet as my only option now is a shovel.
So I am planning for my first American Standard Toilet to be installed soon;
It may look a bit spooky, but there will be walls covering the back side; this picture was taken after dark,
with a small light bulb and a flashlight to highlight the crapper.
Next visit this toilet will be hooked up to my septic tank and water line.
As I walked out to get water (the tap point is just outside still) this morning I ran into Bambi.
She wasn’t spooked, but by the time I got my camera she made it down my driveway;
Well, frankly, it’s hardly a question when it comes to US homes; most have walls made from OSB (Oriented Strand Board).
My log walls obviously don’t require OSB, but the gable ends and extension does, so work has been done on those today;
As you can see, half of the western extension wall has been done, and almost all of the eastern Gable End.
The windows that were visible when stick framed are covered for now, so it is all protected from the elements.
Once the windows are to be put in, it’s easy to cut out the holes in the OSB.
You can also now see the little diagonal connection I made between the front and side decks.
When all OSB is in place, the only entrance will the the front door, so being able to access the main deck from the side decks became essential.
Sometimes after work it just has to be time for sushi, so what better way to inaugurate the new front deck than with Sushi!
I must be getting slightly better at working on ladders and scaffolding, as today I framed the top triangular opening at the top of the gable end.
The eastern wall is now ready to be closed, using OSB boards, which I got today from Mc Coy’s, which is the local building supply store in San Marcos.
Another truckload of timber; the guy at Mc Coy’s estimated it was about 1500 pounds in total, but this time it was flat and well distributed, so driving it felt fine.
As climbing a ladder with a 12 ft triangle in my hands did not seem a great idea, I hoisted up the triangle using a ring eye screw and a rope.
That way it was safe from falling down whilst I had my hands free to climb the ladder and adjust the frame.
The picture was taken at dusk, so it’s not completely sharp, but you can see the stick frame now covering the entire eastern wall.
Size does matter when it comes to decks, and is this one is in Texas, it has to be bigger. So today the joists on which the floor boards will rest were put into place.
It’s now 24 x 12 feet, or in metric about 8 x 4 meters, almost 4x bigger than my balcony in the Netherlands.
Gable Ends are the triangular open thingies you end up where the 45 degrees angled roofs meet. As it kind of windy when left open, they need to be filled,
or as it is called Framed. Exactly like the back extension I have done earlier, this requires 2×4 inchers to be placed at 16″ intervals, so that later on,
OSB and siding can be put up against it. Below is what it looks like with the lower section framed. It’s a bit of work, as the rafters that hold the roof up,
are actual trees, so not straight and with knots. The framing does have to be fairly close to the edge of the rafters, so that meant shaving (or rather using a chisel and a reciprocal saw) to make the 2×4″ go close to the edges. The second picture shows the view from the outside. I took it easy today, being a Sunday, and also paid a visit to the
real ale brewery, in Blanco, about 30 minutes from my home. They brew a beer named after the area where the log home is built; the devil’s back bone.
Very tasty and fitting to my location so I’m having one after work is done. Too bad I had to drive back; I would have loved to taste all 12 beers they brew.
