Not Much Progress During the Holidays

The pace of this project has been slower than I ever could have imagined. From when this project started in August, I would guess that I've averaged one full workday per week of actual work from my contractors. Every week, I've gotten promises on what is going to be accomplished, and most of the time it doesn't happen anywhere near the timeframe I was given. I don't understand the contractor mentality. I've heard the same story from every single person I've spoken to: contractors NEVER do what they say they're going to do when they say they're going to do it. Period.

Jeffrey made a door jam for my back door, the one I bought last winter at the ReUse Center. I bought the door for $100. I didn't realize what a good deal I had gotten until I priced entry doors. Entry doors with glass windows, especially fancy ones like this one, cost around $2000 new. It's perfect for the back door, as the stair tower is designed to let in a maximum amount of light. Here it is:
I didn't have my camera on site today, but Jeffrey and Devin have been busy putting in windows. The windows arrived on Monday, December 22nd. Jeffrey got them into the house, but the weather turned extremely cold (minus 19 on Tuesday), and it was just too cold to work outside. Then came the Christmas holiday weekend, which I didn't expect anyone to work on. But they got busy yesterday, and got 5 of the 19 windows in. They did a couple more today, and I think they are working tomorrow, also.

Joe Haaf of RockSolid Concrete has the basement floor covered with commercial electric blankets to get the basement floor thawed out. We need that done to get the floor leveled, a bed of sand put on top of the dirt, the pex tubing (for infloor radiant heat) set up, and the plumbing in before we can pour the basement floor.

First, though, the roof has to be finished. The roofers were supposed to put a waterproof covering on it last week, but it was too cold. This week, they gave their workers off. So we have to wait until next week to get the roof closed in. There are very large gaps everywhere due to the design of the roof, and even though we had tarps on it, it was letting in streams of water from the rain and melting snow last Saturday, when it was so warm out.

Everything is dependent on something else. The metal roof can't go on until the skylights go in. The solar panels can't go on until the metal roof is on. The basement floor can't be done until the house is closed up, which means the finished roof has to go on and the windows and doors all have to be in.

Joe is still working on the cement work as best he can in the winter. The three south window wells are done, and he's working on the front ones and the front retaining wall this week. It has to be above 10 degrees above zero to pour concrete, and it's supposed to be pretty cold this week.

More Progress: Some window wells, water/sewer hooked up

This was taken on the morning of December 14th. Plastic has been put in the windows, and the driveway has been cleared for the first time since the groundbreaking.

Joe is operating the backhoe and clearing the dirt from the front. The final result will be the the two windows in the lower level will be exposed. A retaining wall goes between the front door and the bay window. This will allow the grade to go up to the front door, and still leave the two front basement windows mostly exposed.

Above and below: Joe shaping the front.

Below, the official site for the water hookup.

Rudy is in the back backfilling up to the house. We needed to do this so we can easily access the back door.

Below, Joe is taking some of the dirt from the front and backfilling the south side around the window wells.

Below, the window wells after the forms were removed. Instead of putting the top of the windows over a foot below ground, I'll take the grade down a foot or so on the south side yard. The window wells are really good and much better than metal ones which I could have installed. There are drains in each one which go down to the foundation, where a drainage system takes the water away.

Below, Pete's Water and Sewer at work digging out the ground for the installation of water and sewer pipes. The ground was frozen solid and they had a hard time digging the trench from the house to the water and sewer hookups.

It was a deep hole for the sewer hookup.

Below is a smaller hole for the water.

The water and sewer pipes go under the foundation. You can see the plastic grey sewer pipe and the copper water pipe on the right.

Taken about a week ago, the concrete forms for the south window wells. The concrete had been poured. Stuff (chemicals) can be added to concrete to make sure it cures in weather down to 10 degrees above zero.

So things are progressing. The temperature dropped from 37 degrees yesterday morning to minus 7 this morning. It's supposed to get down to -18 degrees tonight and stay cold all week. The windows will be delivered end of this week or early next week. Once we get the windows and doors installed, we can bring in a temporary heater and heat the basement enough to do the floor. Everything is uphill from there.

Finally, a Roof!

This was on Monday, November24th. The final pour had been done on Friday, and the house is ready for the roof. A better view of the roof trusses below.

The roof is actually going up! This was from Wednesday. The trusses are all in place, and the front and back gables are done.

A view from the south shows the roof line. The thermal solar panels will be at the top of the roof, then there will be a 5 foot wide living roof, and the the PV solar panels will be at the bottom.

Different angles on the roof due to the different solar panels.

The picture above and below show the south roof lines. The solar thermal panels on top will provide the hot water for the radient in-floor heating system (as well as the hot water for the house) and the solar PV panels at the bottom will provide most of the electricity.

Jim Klem and crew are putting on the plywood sheeting.

First Floor Walls Nearly Completed

When I last wrote three weeks ago, I was frustrated with the progress. I still am, but things are starting to take shape. It looks like we'll be putting on the roof next week. Joe is planning on putting in the window wells and backfilling the foundation next week also. The ground is already pretty frozen because of the cold weather we've been having. Any hopes of landscaping I had are long gone for this year.

The waterproofing below ground is complete here, and the first floor walls have started going up.

This is the Platon dimpled membrane which goes on the outside of the house, below grade. The dimples go next to the wall, creating an air pocket which lets the walls breathe.

Another view of the waterproofing.

The dimpled membrane applied, and the backfill started.

It's starting to look like a house.

The basement stairs.

The last pour for the Faswall. Next step is finishing the backfill and getting the roof on.

Waterproofing Below Grade

The waterproofing of the house below grade is in progress. A parge coat of sand and cement was applied to fill in the holes in the Faswall and provide a smooth surface to apply the Thoroseal, the waterproofing coat. Thoroseal is waterproof but vapor permeable, allowing the walls to breathe. A dimpled membrane, with the dimples next to the wall to provide an air pocket, will finish off the waterproofing. Then we can backfill. Joe has gotten a late start on the parging, and the pictures below were taken Sunday, October 26th. It actually snowed in the morning, and was sleeting when I stopped by the site at about noon. There were three guys working on a Sunday. Joe said he was trying to catch up.

Hard to see, but it was actually sleeting when this was taken, that's why the tarps are there.

All in all, though, it’s been a frustrating two weeks on the house. It has been absolutely beautiful weather all week, and very little progress on the house. Combined with last week’s lack of progress, nothing looked that different from my blog two weeks ago. The rest of the first floorboards were put on, and the outside walls had a parge coat of cement applied, which needed to be done before waterproofing. Otherwise, the site looks the same. I stopped over the past two days after work, and Joe Haaf was there, starting to build up the walls himself. He had a day laborer pre-position the blocks on the first floor, so that will make the stacking easier.

My worry is that the waterproofing coat has to be applied twice, and both times the weather must remain above 40 degrees for the next 24 hours. It’s already November!! We’re going to run out of warm nights.

We can’t backfill the dig around the house until the waterproofing and window wells are completed. We can’t do the water/sewer until the backfill is completed. There’s a sequence to everything. First, the water/sewer goes in, then the plumbing rough-in, then the roof has to be up on and the windows and doors installed to completely close in the house. Then we’ll prepare the basement floor for the cement pour, lay down the pex tubing for the radiant in-floor heating, and then pour the basement floor. Once the basement floor is set, we can start working on installing all the items in the mechanical room which will make the solar heat work. Then we can work on laying out the pex tubing on the first floor and pouring the gypcrete over it. Next will be the framing of the walls, the hanging of the magnesiacore (green substitute for sheetrock), and I can start working on the walls and kitchen. Man, there’s a lot of planning that goes into all this. When one phase doesn’t get completed, everything else has to go on hold. Even with the late August start, we had planned to have the house closed up by November 1st, but we’re a month away from that if all goes well from now on. Since nothing has gone according to a schedule thus far, I can’t see that it will in the future, either.

I’m not happy about the slowness of the progress, but I’m not losing any sleep over it, either. I really try hard not to get worked up over things I can’t control. Overall, I’m pleased with Joe and the quality of his work. I’m just so anxious to get working on the inside! The interior will take me the entire winter to finish, and I want to get going.

My sister Cathy, the landscape architect, will be visiting at Thanksgiving, and I’m anxious for the backfilling to take place so that all the mountains of dirt and clay will disappear and I can get an idea of what the yard will look like. I’ve done a huge amount of researching on gardening and landscaping.

My neighbors, the Quinces, are as green as they come! I am so lucky to have gotten neighbors who care about the world, the environment, their community, their schools, the less fortunate, and limiting their imprint on the earth. Take a look at their website, The Quince Urban Homestead, and see what they have done, mostly in the past year. At this point in time, we’re kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum. We’re both green, but I’m doing a new, invasive, expensive green (building a home where there was none), and Devin and Heidi are into modifying what they have into something much more useful, at minimum cost. At the end, though, we both want a yard and house that are used in a sustainable way. We’re not big on grass, and we’re very big on gardens. I’m really looking forward to gaining knowledge from them in helping me to shape my landscaping.

Because I have the steep little hill in front, I’ll want to terrace it in order to grow things on it. Besides, it’s hell to mow. It’s too steep to stand on unless you’re a kid like Simon and Everett next door. I’m taking out part of the hill to expose the front basement windows. There will be a gradual pitch from the house to the sidewalk on the north half of the front. Then there will be a retaining wall to keep the hill intact under the front door. But I plan on terracing the south half of the front hill, so I can plant indigenous flowers and plants on the hill instead of all that grass. Along the south side and to the rear of the house, I’ll have a number of raised beds. Some will have perennial fruits and vegetables, and the others will rotate the annual crops. I have not had luck with blueberries, but I am determined to grow a small blueberry patch. In fact, I’m storing up oak leaves and pine needs in a separate compost pile just for the blueberries. I’ll also have raspberries and strawberries, which I’ve never had trouble growing, and an asparagus bed. I haven’t grown asparagus, but know a lot of people who have. I’ll get grape vines and other vines to grow up onto the pergola, to shade my bedroom windows in the summer. I’m also planning on planting three dwarf apple trees (Honey Crisp, Haralson, and one other, whatever will help pollinate the other two). All these things take 3-5 years to get going. I was hoping to get some things done this summer and fall, but the house got started months later than planned. I’ve resigned my self to the fact that I’m not going to get everything done in time for spring planting. I’d like to get all the perennial things planted in the spring, as I can only get those kind of plants in early spring (rhubarb, asparagus, blueberry bushes, etc.). So I’m going to have to have a detailed plan to make sure I get the perennials in for the future, but also get a good annual vegetable garden going for the summer. The landscaping and terracing may not take place until later. Lots to do!

Some Days Are Better Than Others

I posted a bunch of photos last time, but didn’t have time to write much to go with it. My trips to the ReUse Center the past week have been…eventful. It started a week or so ago, when I was up at the Maplewood ReUse Center looking at granite. I noticed the pallet of pavers, which I bought for 30 cents a piece. I had driven up there in my Prius, though, so I had to come back with my pickup truck to get the pavers.

I bought this 1996 Dodge Dakota back in March. I thought we were going to break ground in April, but due to a lot of unexpected problems, we didn’t break ground until the end of August. So the truck has been pretty much just sitting in my driveway. I knew I should have driven it every few weeks, but I didn’t. So the battery was dead as a doornail when I went to start it. I called AAA, since I’ve never used the service in the years I’ve had it, and a guy appeared in less than 5 minutes. It cranked right up, and he told me to make sure I let it run for at least a half an hour. No problem, since I was driving up to Maplewood, about a half hour’s drive. I had a heck of a time getting out of first gear, though, because the gears freeze up when you let it sit for 6 months. But I got them going, and when I went to get on the Crosstown Highway, it was a parking lot due to the construction going on. So I thought I toddle down to 66th Street and get on 35W instead. As I was driving along 66th, I looked at the dash and saw the engine was all the way on HOT. I immediately pulled off on a side street, remembering to not turn off the engine, and looked under the hood and saw the coolant reservoir was empty. Not low, but totally dry. If the freeway had been clear, and I had started driving 55 mph, I would have burned up the engine. I had to drive about six blocks to a gas station, and I pulled in and turned off the engine without thinking. I bought some antifreeze, dumped it into the reservoir, and then had to scrounge in the gutter for a plastic pop bottle to get some water to mix in. Gas stations these days sell food and gas, not service. After numerous trips to the bathroom to fill up a 20 oz pop bottle, I was ready to go. That’s when I noticed my rear tire was flat. And that the car wouldn’t start, of course. So I paid one of the attendants $10 to jump my truck, paid another 75 cents to fill up the tire with air, and I was on my way again. Did I mention that the air machine was on an incline and my parking brake doesn’t work? So the only way to keep the truck from rolling is to keep it in gear, which I can’t do when it’s running? I took my old leather Army gloves, wadded them up into a ball, and shoved them under a wheel. It held up long enough to fill the tire.

The guy at the Maplewood ReUse Center had told me to come back on Sunday, which is what I did. But when I got there, there was only one guy (another guy) working, and he couldn’t help me because he was too busy, being the only worker in the place. Their forklift was broken, so I had to unload the bricks from the pallet to a cart, haul them out to the truck, and load them into the truck myself. I’m old with a bad back, and it wasn’t what I should have been doing. I got about half loaded and realized that was all the weight the truck could take. So I left the other half there for another time. It was late, so I drove home, and left the truck parked in the driveway until the next Saturday. I made sure there were some pallets available at the site, drove over there and unloaded the bricks from the truck to the pallet. My back was killing me. Then I drove up to Maplewood to get the rest. The two guys were both there (at the same time), and they helped me load them onto a cart and then onto the truck. I did about half of them myself.

While I was at the ReUse Center, I saw a brand-new kitchen sink, cast iron with a light green porcelain finish. I bought it for $40. It probably won’t look good with the color scheme in the kitchen, but I can use it downstairs in the kitchenette or in the laundry room. I need a sink in the laundry room, but I don’t want a big tub. This double sink would work just fine. What a deal.

There’s no way I could lift this sink myself, so I had the guy put it in the front seat, since the bed was filled with pavers. I laid the seat back all the way, and if fit pretty nicely, laying there at a slight angle. I went back to the site to unload the rest of the pavers, driving slowly and very gingerly, as the truck was totally maxed out in weight. After unloading the last of the pavers, my back was really killing me. I tightened up a lot as I drove home and could hardly get out of the truck when I got home. Some leftover prescription painkillers and a heating pad helped, but I sure had a hard time getting out of bed the next day.

This past Sunday, I stopped over at the Minneapolis ReUse Center. I’m still looking for porch windows for the porch. There were three good ones there, but when I started hauling them to the front to pay for them, some lady started yelling at me that they were her windows and she was buying them. So I left them and walked out, kind of pissed off, because I didn’t think she was really going to buy them. I had planned a vacation day yesterday anyway, so I went back to see if she had bought them, and she hadn’t, so I bought those three and found two more.

For me, going to the ReUse Center is like sending a kid into a candy store. There’s so much neat, old stuff. A big part of building a green house (for me) is to reuse things that are perfectly good, as well as use excess materials donated by construction companies. So when I was there yesterday, they had just gotten in a load of brand new Schlage locks, and I bought 4 deadbolts and 9 regular doorknobs for hardly anything. Then there was a beautiful unused bathroom sink, with an invoice for $650 on it, that I bought for $100. I need two bathroom sinks, what the heck. I also noticed two pallets full of boxes of wall and floor tile. They were all very dark colors, and I didn’t like them. But I had been meaning to start picking up tile for the bathroom walls and floor, so I scrounged around in another area, and ended up buying 11 boxes of wall tiles for $35 total. They are all similar colors, crème or beige, and I can have fun using them to arrange patterns for the shower stall. Most of them are 4” by 4”, but one box had eight 12” by 12” (or thereabouts, I haven’t measured them). I got that box of 8 for $5. I looked online and the going rate for those is $30 to $40 each. The smaller ones are all more than 28 cents each at Lowe’s and Home Depot, and there are about 40 or 50 tiles in each $3 box that I bought. Quite a deal. This is what I’m going to be spending my winter weekends doing—finishing the interior of the house.

That is, if the house gets closed in before the snow files. Which, at this point, is a big IF.

Oh, I almost forgot one of the most exciting events with the truck. I was at the ReUse Center in my Prius yesterday, because I hate driving a gas-sucking pickup unless I absolutely have to. Which is why I didn’t drive it for six months. I got everything loaded in the Prius, the sink, the locks, all the cases of tile, and two of the windows. The other three windows were about an inch too long for the back seat. So I had to go home and get the truck to pick up the other windows.

Of course, the cast iron sink was still in the front seat because I can’t move it by myself. Besides, I need to clear a space in my way-too-full-already garage to put it. I loaded up the windows, and it started pouring rain as I was driving home. The “check engine” light came on, and the fan belt started squealing because the weather got cold and the belt must be loose. I’m driving along, and some idiot pulls in front of me and jams on his brakes. I jam on MY brakes, so hard that the law of physics moved that sink from laying down to upright to smashing right into the windshield. I tried to grab it, but all it did was smash my fingers into the dash. Oh well, there’s a really pretty pattern now in the windshield. I actually felt pretty lucky that the safety glass held and the sink didn’t go flying through the windshield down the street.

It smashed my cell phone, too, but it still works.

All in a day’s work.

Good News and Bad News

Above, work is progressing, but it sure looks like a mess!

It’s been a wild week. I stopped over at the site on a Monday morning two weeks ago, and enough progress had been made so that the basement windows had the window bucks in. This gave me a good perspective on exactly where the basement windows were going to be and I was NOT HAPPY. The tops of the basement windows are at least a foot below ground. All the drawings had indicated that the tops of the basement windows were at ground level. Since the windows are two feet high, that puts the window three feet below ground with a window well 3 ½ to 4 feet deep. That’s halfway down to the foundation! Since the ground is pure clay, there’s going to have to be one hell of a drainage system to get rid of water in a heavy downpour, or the window wells will fill up and water will come in through the windows. I put a stop to the work for a day so I could think about what I wanted to do. If I raised up the windows, I had to raise up the entire first floor. It would have been a huge additional expense. The two front windows in the basement will be mostly above ground, and will let in light to the family room and bedroom, so I guess I can live with the side windows being below ground.

Above, you can see that the south basement windows are definitely below ground. Below pictures, the walls are up high enough so that the floor trusses can be put in.

These pictures were taken Saturday morning (October 18th). The floor trusses are in. You can see one of the guys has just laid the first piece of floorboard.
At the end of Saturday, not many floorboards had been laid. The whole floor was supposed to have been finished.
Here are 278 pavers I got at the ReUse Center. Not sure what exactly I'll use them for, but I have a few possibilities. I got a good deal on them. I almost broke my back loading and unloading them, though. First, I had to put them on a cart at the ReUse Center, then unload them from the cart to the truck, and then from the truck to the pallet at the house.

Below, just the finished floor trusses first thing Saturday.

More Progress on the Walls

These first three pictures are from earlier in the week. The walls have gone up considerably since the first pour. You can begin to see the basement windows.


Joe (whom you can't see behind the hose) and Howard are waiting for the cement to come out.

Joe is starting to pour.




Joe and Howard are hard at work. I left early to head over to another job site where Jeffrey Swainhart, my Construction Management Consultant, was helping on another project. He wanted me to see the Inline Windows I'm getting, which were installed on his other project, and the homeowner was putting a living roof on his house as well. I really wanted to see the living roof being installed, as I'm going to be putting one on my house.

Hopefully, we'll be moving along a little more quickly with the pours. I'm anxious to get the walls up, the roof on, the doors and windows in, and the house closed up so the utilities can be installed and I can start working on the inside. We're making progress.