12 - Bathroom, Windows, Doors, Eaves, Landscaping

Cool fall weather was already upon us as we arrived in October to work on a few projects.  The first project we decided to do was soffit work.  Installing the soffits in the eaves would keep birds and other unwanted flying nuisances out of the rafters.  We bought some vinyl soffits, the vents, and a lot of f-channel.  We started off by tacking the f-channel inew, then sledding the soffits into place. This was not a difficult task, but was a lot of cutting and ladder work.

Since our contractor had done such a poor job, we had piles of rocks to move and some earthwork to do.  My wife is skilled on the tractor, her dad taught her to drive it when she was a kid, so she got to work on trying to finish what the contractor failed to do.  He left large rock piles in what we hope one day will be the front yead.  We moved several of the larger rocks to the driveway area to create a retaining wall and graded the area we filled that was the old driveway turnaround.  This task took hours and hours to complete, and since it was unplanned, it meant we couldn't work on other projects we had planned on focusing on.

Our custom window order came in, and we were disappointed.  When we placed the order, we discussed having internal grilles with the salesman, my wife was very specific as to the look she wanted.  However, when we were e-mailed the order to sign and pay for, it just had an order code, and we didn't think to ask about the grilles and we obviously didn't know those manufacturer codes.  We depended on the salesman to get it right since we had a 20 minute in-person conversation with him and we already took delivery of the exterior doors that matched. This was the last time we would make this mistake.  Imagine our disappointment when the windows showed up without any grilles, but the company told us it'd double the cost to get it fixed.  That company will forever lose our business and we spread the word on their service.  Oh well, lesson learned.  We would verify every detail before signing, ordering, or paying for anything again.  My brother-in-law helped me install the windows, and while not exactly the look we want, they do look okay.

Lastly, we roughed in a bathroom on the first level.  While we don't plan on having plumbing or running water, we knew we'd be installing a composting toilet.

11 - Weather Tight, Garage Door, and Earthwork Finally Done

With the roof completed, we felt like a big weight had been lifted.  We had been on site building this project for 12 days, and we thought we got a lot done with assistance from family and a couple of professionals.  We knew there was more to do, but our goal was to get the structure built and weather tight in one trip.

We finished the wall sheathing on the second floor, which involved a lot of cutting for the angles under the eaves, windows, and the back door.  After finishing up the wall sheathing, we did a little clean up to remove obstacles and make the site easier to get around.  We got a few ladders out so we could reach the higher wall sections.  Since we didn't install any windows, or any other doors except the side door on this trip, we sheathed right over some of the openings.  We will have to cut those out later--in the Fall.

We started applying the house wrap from the bottom up, stapling the housewrap to the sheathing and making sure each upper layer overlapped the one below.  We taped up all of the seams and did a little more cleanup work when we finished that task.  At this point, we were finished with everything we could do on this trip.  The structure was built and it would survive the weather and elements until we got back again to do more work on it.

Oddly, we hadn't seen our earthwork contractor in 10 days and he still had work to finish.  The remaining earthwork could have been completed over a week earlier, but the contractor was missing in action.  He still needed to finish up the driveway, complete the backfill around the foundation using the large piles of dirt he left close by--which actually created obstacles for the rest of us to work around while we completed other tasks.  We can't even count the number of times the dirt piles he left caused someone to trip.  Also, working around the piles resulted in more effort to maneuver materials or equipment around, and the lack of backfill around the foundation walls caused ladders to lean, sink, or fall--unacceptable.  Our entire experience with this contractor was not only inconveniencing, it was a nightmare.

We ordered a garage door and scheduled the installation.  Unfortunately, the door would not arrive until two days after we finished our work and left Maine.  When the garage door arrived, one of the panels had a blemish that the installer found unacceptable--we never got to see it, but he was looking out for us, so he used a blank panel he had on hand and went ahead and installed the door so the building was secured until the new panel arrived.  

The replacement panel with the windows arrived about two weeks later and they installed everything as soon as it arrived.  Once the garage door was installed the entire structure was sealed up, secure, and weather tight.  Then along came the earthwork contractor, finishing the job over a month after he started....sort of. 

Throughout this entire phase of the project, this contractor put us and everyone else behind schedule. He left a mess of the site, neglected to perform a couple of minor tasks, argued over what was and wasn't in the contract, and even tried to squeeze us for more money at the end, which he didn't get.  His justification?  He said he felt he should get more money because he thought he did a good job despite the list of shortcoming we cited.  Even worse, he also said that we had good jobs, so he believed we could afford to pay more! No, that's not how it works.  We paid him what we contractually agreed to--not a penny more or less despite his shoddy work.

10 - Roofing

After we received a point of contact from one of the concrete guys for a roofing team, we had a plan to get the roof completed.  We had all the roof sheathing and felt rolls on hand.  The 4x8 foot, 5/8 inch thick, 70-pound Advantech sounded less than exciting for just my wife an I to try and hoist up onto the roof with a 12/12 pitch (a 45 degree slope).  I think the roof needed about 30 sheets of Advantech to cover it, give or take one or two.  We were really relieved that we were able to get a roofing team lined up--this project seemed a bit more than my wife and I could handle by ourselves.

We had actually called Hammond Lumber, before we even started on the wall framing, to pre-order a roof kit--but we didn't set a firm delivery date.  Once we got the roofer lined up, we called Hammond Lumber and set the deliver for the day before roofing started.  The roof kit came bundled with all the trimmings: 26 panels of 29-gauge Master Rib at 18-1/2 feet long by 3 feet wide, screws, edge trim, rake trim, roof cap, and closure vents.

The roofing crew showed up around 8am and immediately began working.  Tim (the roofer) had a six-man crew: four on the roof, a man on the saw, and a ground guy to move material up to the crew;  that last guy was the one with the concrete crew who put us into contact with the roofer.  Keep in mind, this crew showed up on a Saturday!  They started cutting and installing sheathing.  First one side, and then the other was done, then they rolled out and installed the felt.  The roofing crew was efficient, motivated, and professional--we were extremely impressed with their work and it was obvious they were very experienced at their jobs.

By 6pm, the entire roof was covered by Advantech and one side was coated in felt.  It's usually not that hot in Maine, but the day the roofing crew came, it was clear, blue, and a very warm day...it was in the high 80s.  I bet that up on that roof, it probably felt hotter. They worked from 8am until 6pm Saturday without even really breaking for lunch.  The crew slammed sports drinks and water all day.  We cooked brisket and sausage, brought up from Texas by my dad, and a few of them ate it up between tasks, but they didn't stop for more than 5-10 minutes.  

After 10 hours, the crew called it quits and promised to return in the morning on Sunday to finish up. They were back on site at 9am Sunday, and rolled out the felt on the second half of the roof while the guy on the saw started pre-drilling metal roof panels--this is key because every line of screws runs straight across the roof.

After the first side, they knocked out the next one and installed the vents, ridge cap, and the trim.  They finished up around 1pm and loaded up all the ladders and gear they brought and left the site.  The roof looks great!

All we needed to do at this point, was to finish the wall sheathing on the upstairs and install the house wrap to get the structure ready to face its first Maine winter.  We were pretty plaesed withn how it was starting to turn out.

9 - Second Floor, Window Framing, Finish the Concrete Floor

On July 5th, we still had the crane and wanted to take full advantage of using it to do some heavy lifting before we had to return it on Monday.  We used the crane to lift sheets of Advantech up to create the base flooring for the second story.  My wife operated the crane, and I started nailing the sheets down.

One sheet at a time, the flooring started to fall into place.

Done!  Now onto the next phase of construction, framing the upstairs walls. 

Since we are deviating from the original construction plans to make our project look more "barndominium" and less "garage with upstairs apartment," I asked my wife to sketch out how she wanted the windows to be placed.  She drew this on some scrap wood, including the dimentions for customs windows we would order later:

I sent that sketch to my brother-in-law, who designed the exact schematics for how to construct the wall, and then he sent the design back to my phone.  I started to build it.

And that, my friends, is how it's done. 

On July 6th, we woke up early to drive back to Waterville to return the crane.  Then we headed back to watch the concrete pad for the garage floor get poured.   The crew was efficient, professional, and did an outstanding job.

After screeding it, they let us put our handprints in it and then power trowelled the rest of the surface until it was smooth and then sat back for lunch to let the concrete harden a little more.

Finally, they cut expansion joints by cutting one down the middle and two from side to side dividing it lengthwise in thirds.

They were even nice enough to help us put up the remaining large pieces of wall sheathing while we waited for the concrete to dry.  Really nice group of men. 

While we were chatting with the crew, one of the men asked what we were doing for the roof.  We answered that we were planning to install a metal roof.  He asked if we were planning to do the work ourselves, or hire it out.  We said we hadn't hired anyone one to do it, and it was looking like we'd have to do the job ourselves, a notion we weren't looking forward to.  He said he knew a guy who did roofs who had a crew.  We jumped on that!  We asked him to call his buddy.  Within minutes, we described the work we wanted done, the materials we would be using and had on hand, gave him the roof and pitch dimenssions, and he gave us a price estimate that we were comfortable with. We hired him on the spot and he was going to fit into our schedule!

8 - Finishing the Truss Install

4th of July!  We woke up really early so we could get over to install a few more trusses before the town's annual 4th of July parade.  We started installing more trusses before 6am, and really started cranking them out.  Again, it was all hands on deck with my folks and brother-in-law helping out while my wife operated the crane.  We had two hours to get as much done as possible before a mandatory break.  We probably got another five trusses installed before taking a break to celebrate our great Country's birthday.

Our family really loves the 4th of July, what red-blooded American doesn't?  So my wife dressed up to ride in the neighbors float in the town's parade to throw candy out to the children in the audience.  Their float won first place, and my wife wore her tutu to finish up the truss work.  She and my step-mother joked about starting a new truss installation company call "Tutu Trusses."

Almost done!

With the final truss installed, it was time for some good ol' fashioned steak fajitas that my dad made on the smoker, cold beer, country music, fireworks, and some quality time with the family.