East Wall

Yesterday our siding crew finished up the front of the master bathroom then setup for the big wall on the East side. They told me this side would go quickly because of our decision to have no trim around the windows on that side. They did the entire wall in the afternoon.

Lynna & I went downtown & met with the City's Director of Planning to get more info on a proposed LID for street, sidewalk & water/sewer improvements on Tenth Ave. We had received a letter that said the proposed assessment was going to be $750-$850 per foot of frontage. We have a 200' frontage and were concerned. Don Adams, the Interim Director, was very helpful. He is just finishing up unresolved issues from the previous planner & the best way to deal with this was to let all the property owners know the cost info & see if the city would then move on to other business. Our sense is that all homeowners are against proceeding with the project.

Before they went home, the siders setup to do the North side of the house on Friday. This was the architectural "front" but we placed it to the side to get better solar orientation & to make optimal use of our site.

My arm still gives me a lot of pain & I have a Dr appointment on Wednesday for an assessment.

Siding North

Today the siders worked on the back wall of the garage and the Master Bath. They also hung the fir garage door. Ron & John finished up the back deck. I type slow one handed so my blog entries may decrease for a while.

A Memorable Weekend

Over the weekend we did some more clean up and I used the tractor to backfill along the South side. Later, John & Ron built the framework for our deck. Monday I was to install the last vacuum outlet in the bonus room above the garage, then add the bathroom blocking and we would be ready to start the sheetrock.

Instead, early Monday morning, I fell in our backyard and broke my left arm. We then discovered the weak spot in our Kaiser insurance. Kaiser was closed for the holiday & although we live only 1 block from Santiam Valley Hospital, we were denied permission to get my treatment down the street. We were instructed to go to Salem Hospital to some clinic Kaiser has a holiday contract with. There was a 5 hour wait and the receptionist volunteered that they only had two Med Techs who weren't allowed to do X-Rays. We could have gone to the hospital ER for fast treatment but would have had to pay out of pocket. We chose to come back Tuesday morning & found there is no Urgent care available in Salem! Nurse Cratchet told us we should have driven the 45 minutes to Portland Urgent Care.(Translation: Just go away!).

The X-ray girl was going to shoot my wrist until I objected. She went to check with her boss and somehow we managed to shame them into X-rays of my shoulder & a quickie Dr. consult. He showed me a nice picture of my fractured Humerus ball joint, part of which had broken off. Bad news is they can't put a cast on up that high which means pain & immobilization while it heals plus some PT exercises(More Pain!) to keep the joint from stiffening up from immobilization.

Good news is it should heal without needing surgery & I "probably" won't lose to much from my range of motion. Also they gave me some killer pain pills to get through the next 10 days or so.

Today the Siders finished the West Porch and the North end of the garage. We both like the look of the shingled gable end.

West Siding

Friday Mike, Dennis & Phillip began their day by hanging the South bathroom door and the West entry door. Unfortuantely I wasn't up at the site yet and they installed the wrong door in the West entry. It is hinged for the garage. It looks great though & will only take a few minutes to switch it. The had to work in rain most of the day but managed to finish the West side with only the soffit & under roof area remaining.

Thursday, the inspector passed my framing corrections and the insulation shields I installed around the heater vent pipes so Friday I installed the main floor built in vacuum outlets while Lynna did some clean up outside. She was disappointed when the siders failed to clean up before they went home for the weekend, as she wants me to do some back fill with the tractor and the trim piles might be in my way. We are almost ready for sheetrock so I will call Jose on Monday.

The roofer needs to come back & put on one more vent pipe flashing, fix the flashing in the valley between the garage & North roof, then carry down the left over shingle bundles and a set of safety stops he left on the East garage roof. He was a no show for the last appointment so I called him again but had to just leave a message.

South Siding

Yesterday Mike & Dennis finsihed the South side. Our 3 remaining exterior doors were delivered along with the material to frame our South deck. Today they will be working on the West side.

More Siding and We find a Buy on some Cedar.

Mike & Dennis had worked Monday in the heat (89F) then Tuesday morning it was about 50F and raining. I told Mike to go ahead & setup for cutting inside (in the Family Room). They worked on hanging the ceiling of the covered porch and wrapping the back of the house.

Wednesday was a Russian religious holiday so the fellows took the day off and I cleaned up the mess, fixed some sound insulation that the wind had blown loose, then put in the insulation shielding around the heater "B" vents. I moved all the siding supplies from the open garage into the house. Our 3 remaining exterior doors are ready & Lynna asked to have them dropped off Thursday.

Tuesday afternoon, John took me out to his hometown of Scott Mills, north of Silverton. His brother & a neighbor have a small sawmill operation and we wanted to see some Cedar decking they had. They had a piece that was planed & it looked good. They had 12 footers, 8/4 X 6. There was enough to do our back porch and they wanted $1.50 a foot for planed stock or $1.00 a foot rough sawn. We brought a piece of the planed wood home to show Lynna and she liked it.

Today John & Ron put the deck ledger board on so the siders could start the back of the house on Thursday. They were ready to start framing the deck but Lynna wants me to do the rain drains & backfill first.

Insulation & Siding

Last week we got our insulation in. We took several bids to find a price we could live with. Francisco estimated it would take 3 or 4 days to do our home but the two workers did everything in only 1 1/2 days! they did all the walls plus foamed the cracks & crevises on Thursday then came back Friday & did the floors from the crawl space. I had planned on doing my Hydronic heat system after the sheetrock but realized that I had to do the Bonus room over our garage before we did sheetrock or it would be very difficult. This meant some hard work for me as I had to get done before the insulation started.

We also took many bids for siding and concluded our original plan to use stucco was just too expensive. In this area, stucco is about twice the cost of cement lap siding or more. One sider told me they consider stucco to be "Gold Plating" your home. I was tempted to get cedar shingles & install them myself as I had done in Olympia, but I've grown old & Lynna won't allow me to be working up high on a ladder anymore, so we opted for Hardie Plank lap siding with some Hardie shingles on the gable ends.

The siding material was delivered Saturday and Monday I found out I neededed to install the vent hoses from the bathroom and laundry room fans. We are venting them out through the covered soffits.

Saturday John & Ron finished up the North side exterior. I like how the recessed windows look and the false columns will be easy for the siders to finish.

We had record hot weather (96F-99F) Thursday through Sunday and we spent Saturday watching the grade school All City Relays. Our grand daughter, Madeline, ran on a 4th grade co-ed team. She was among the smallest kids out there but fast & her team managed a photo-finish where they came in 2nd.

I worked hard Monday & got all six vent hoses installed while the boys from Ziril & Sons got set up then started wrapping the house, flashing the windows & installing window trim. The two brothers, Mihail (Mike) & Dennis, were recommended by my Electrician and their bid was very reasonable. They are skilled & do nice work.

West Porch Completed

The Cement truck came early today. Bud & Pedro made a great porch with steps in the dimensions Lynna requested. It took a long time for the cement to cure enough to do the spray work and reveal the aggregate but it turned out nice.

West Porch

Today Bud & Pedro built the forms for a porch & steps on the West Entry. The City of Stayton requires the entrance of a house to face the street, so in order to orient our home the way we wish on our property, we added a covered entrance and dormers to the side facing Tenth Street. The bottom picture shows the progress on our North entry. John & Ron are coming back Saturday to do the arch over the other window and the arch over the entryway.