small update

Just a small update this time around. We got four more windows installed and are finishing up the house wrap. We insulated the utility shed, around the windows, added hurricane clips to the rafters, stained more shingles, got our flooring figured out, have our off-grid propane stove set up to install, and many other little things!
We have mostly been preparing some exciting things to film :)

As always more can be done with your help! If you want to come by just to check it out that is fine to.
Here are some pictures from the last few days.

working on hurricane clips

This was the end of what we got done on the 23rd

Insulating the windows

Holes that were cut out of the chill loft

Sealed up the utility closet, this was pretty tricky!

End of the 24th

We have a roof!

Wow it's been a crazy week!
I had surgery, some of my family came out to visit the house, and my mom was here to visit.
Some great progress has also been made on the house. We had Jacob come back for a visit to help us and man the time flew!
He was here on Tuesday and that day we were able to cut all of the rafters, hang them, and install the roof. I unfortunately could not get a very good angle for the time lapse of the roof, but you can see in the angle I did get that he moves fast!
I definitely don't know how to put together a roof and with me two stories up trying to install it would have been tough! You can see in the pictures below that I never actually went up on the roof, I was too nervous! That is why having Jacob here was so important, he has installed many roofs and was able to complete ours really efficiently. Ben has some experience being on top of roofs, but not actually installing them.
So I stayed on the ground and cut rafters, made runs to the hardware store, and made sure everything ran smoothly. I was in the background these last few days because I actually had to get my gall bladder removed.
Even though I was resting, we still got a ton done on the house this week!
Jacob also helped us plan our our electrical wiring. He walked us through each room and asked us what light switches we wanted where, how many lights, how many outlets etc. He actually just drew on the inside of the walls with a sharpie! It was really helpful though and makes it much easier for us to start working on the daunting task of electrical!
While working on our windows we had a pretty big hiccup. Because we price matched our windows from the green store to the orange store, the measurements for the rough opening of the window got lost in translation. The windows that we had were the wrong size for the rough opening we had planned for them to go. So, after I had a heart attack of course, we had to take the 2x4 sills and one of the window cripplers out from each of our windows and replace them with a 1x4 so that our windows would fit. It wasn't a huge deal, but it did waste time definitely.

Other than that hiccup, everything ran very smoothly out at the farm. We had another great time working with Jacob and the house is finally starting to look like a real home.
And as always, thanks to my Mom, Jacob, Dad and Bill for working so hard with me.
Take a look at some of the pictures I took and the time lapse over the big two days of work! :)

 This next one is a picture of our front door opening, loft and roof!

8.7

We had a great day on Sunday!
We were able to get up more sheathing, lift two more loft walls, and paint a bunch of cedar shingles! Thank you so much to Liesel, Chloe, Danny, my dad and Bill for all your help yesterday!
I love having volunteers out to see the project and be a part of it!
Here is the time lapse from yesterday cued in with a clever song :)





Here is Ben's friend Danny working on cutting pieces of sheathing

More signatures! 

Chloe, it means a lot to me that you came by and were able to sign it!! You've been through it all with me girl and I'm glad your well wishes will be with me for whatever you cannot! <3

I'm sure Ben would have the same to say about Danny! You guys have been friends forever and I know he loved seeing you Sunday!! 

Here are just a few more pictures from that day. 

We are receiving our window delivery tomorrow! So exciting!!

Soon we will have the roof on, and have it all sealed up with windows!

Progress

Now that it is back to just Ben and I working on the house, the progress has been moving slower, but we are still getting things done!

Since my last post, we finished attaching the Simpsons strong ties to the trailers threaded rods. 

This task was a HUGE pain... For anyone who is reading that is going to be using the HDU4 and HDU5 ties, here are some tips:

Make sure you leave enough space in the framing in order to fit a screwdriver between the nearest stud and the tie. We didn't have enough space so we had to hand crank some of the screws into place. 

Double check that your nuts have PERFECT threads or else they will not go on the rods correctly, and they will shear the thread on the rod. We learned this the hard way and had to cut the rods down in order to get nuts on them. 

Here is my amateur video that I made in order to give some advice!


We also decided on a name for the house! WOOHOO!
It's name is The Wave Rider :)
This following video is of the progress we made on 7/27. Mostly it was finishing off those pesky tie rods! Both Ben and I are messing with them in this video, they pretty much took up most of our day.
I am messing around with video editing for the first time. Its pretty easy and definitely will make my videos a lot better.




This week we also got our front door deliverd! It is a french door that I am IN LOVE WITH! I am so happy Jacob was able to incorporate french doors into our plans. It is going to be so great to have in the house! Here it is arriving at the buildsite in our truck.

Here is me standing in front of the space the door is to be installed. It will be our front door coming in from the porch! 

This passed week we again had issues with rain. We decided that we are just going to ditch the tarp all together because the last time it rained, the tarp really did not help at all. We also think that leaving the tarp on there traps moisture from being able to evaporate out of the floor so we are leaving it open to the elements. This way though, the sun can dry out the wetness quicker. During our construction on this last Tuesday, 8/2, we had a storm! 

Also on 8/2 we got our first wall of sheathing done! We really wanted to be able to use our nail gun for this because we have to place a nail every 4-8" on every stud.. but our nail gun was too powerful. We turned down the PSI of the nail gun, but then the gun was shooting blanks and ripping holes in our plywood because the PSI was not strong enough to break the nail cartridge and actually shoot the nail out. So we have had to hand hammer allllll of the nails on our sheathing so far. My wrist has been hurting from all this hammering! But it needs to be done. 

After this sheathing was put on this wall, Ben cut out the "Window" with a sawzaw. It isn't actually a window, it's the access opening that we have to our utility shed. 

Here is Ben and his dad working to secure the utility shed. You can see Ben standing in the "window". This goes to our bathroom. 

I like to joke and say that our utility shed is the garage of our house. hahahah I am really happy that we are able to have this shed though because it adds some valuable space for things like tools. When it is finished, it will have a door from the outside and from the inside for full access. It will also be insulated.
This part of the build was the most confusing for me because of the angled cuts we had to make. I ended up messing some of them up because the boards weren't positioned the right way, and so we lost a couple hours of work and had to make another run to the store to pick up more treated lumber. But it is done! The floor assembly for this shed is built, but we haven't mounted it yet. That is up next!

We then continued sheathing yesterday and got four panels of plywood up. Again, we had to hand hammer it all! If anyone who is reading this has a suggestion for using a nail gun for this purpose, please let me know haha my wrist would appreciate any advice!

Two panels on this side, and two on the other. The bathroom is finally starting to feel like an actual room with actual walls!
We could really use some help with this sheathing so if you are interested please let me know! There will beer for whoever can come help hammer!
That is all the updates I have for now, thanks for reading!