Life on the rock pile

Well, Nigel has been busy and the rocks are slowly disappearing.  He is doing a great job and the final project is going to be super.

More progress

I get to clean up each day

Another view

 Of course I am just continuing on with boring old drywall.  I have finished the bedroom and the closet and the tricky part of the front entrance.

Walk-in closet ready for taping

The bedroom has become a bit of a catch-all

The difficulty is finding a way to slip the drywall behind the posts and beams with as many tapered drywall joints as possible.  I ended up having to cut out a small section over the door so that the left piece would slip in. There are six pieces to this effort.

Tomorrow I will finish the front hall and closet, then it's on to the office. It's starting to feel like a real house now since I can't see into the rooms through the framing.

Len

More exiting than drywall

Finally our masonry heater is getting its overcoat. Nigel was impressed with my prep work for the hearth and he went right to work covering it up.

Here is the first stone in place

 The piece of wood at the front and on all the other sides is placed to allow our flooring to tuck under for a nicer finish.

Choosing the right rock is an art

Thanks to Kyla we have our feature bricks ready to go

I think it's going to look great.  Nigel has scraped the mortar from in between the rocks so it has a nice stacked look.

Can you feel the warmth?

A look at the back and side

Tomorrow should go a bit faster as there is less surface to do.  Notice the cardboard which is placed between the stone and the stove as an expansion space. I suppose that it might burn off when it gets hot enough. That should smell nice.

The drywalling is progressing as well with the master bedroom almost done and then on to the closet. I told the boss that I would have all of the top floor finished before she got back from Africa. We'll see.

Len

Shifting gears

It took two days but I was able to complete the south wall.  Lots of pieces.  I moved the scaffold to the west wall so Nigel could get at all of the rocks tomorrow.

View from the loft

It really does look great with the white wall

These have really been a nuisance, you call them a tripping hazard

 The shift in gears is me prepping for fireplace work on Monday.  I laid these in place for the hearth but have to raise it a bit to come up to the door.  I have decided to place jumbo bricks on edge which will give a great base for slate tiling later.

Mortar in each hole keeps them in place

The jumbo bricks mortared in place with a hole left for the damper control

 I had to leave one brick out as I forgot to lengthen the damper control. I'll run into town tomorrow and get some threaded rod and a connector. Slide a piece of pipe over the shaft and then leave it long till I find something nice to use as a control lever.

The rod is in the upper right hand corner of the space

I suppose I will be helping Nigel tomorrow and drywall will have to wait. I have the bottom half of the bedroom and closet as well as the office and front entrance to finish yet. No rest for the wicked although I must admit that today was bluegrass jam day at Lac La Hache so after a doggy walk I was out the door.  A great time was had by all.  Not as much fun as Africa, where Cathryn is, and a bit cooler as well. Hi Cath and Mom.

Len

I've always liked doing puzzles

The great room end wall is large enough that a number of smaller pieces will have to be cut.  I was able to make the peak out of one piece 6 feet long and pointy at the top. It had to be slipped up from under the big beam.  The others will have to fit in between the posts and the beams.

 The only thing that I have dropped so far is my cordless drill.  The battery came off but it's back together and still working fine.

One of the many pieces on the way up

great progress

Down to two stages of scaffold

All pieces are fully painted before assembly

These last two pieces will have to wait overnight before they go up as I just painted them and it's time for dinner.   Since tomorrow is Saturday I will have to get some mortar for Nigel to use on Monday.  Just want to make sure I'm ready. It will sure be nice to get these rocks out of the way.

Len

Up we go

So today, as I mentioned yesterday, I finished the bathroom and then went into town to pick up all the carpet we bought at the big sale.  Cathryn said to pick out a colour that reflects my feminine side and I found this great pink. I hope she likes it.  All put away in the shop for now.

I like it

Then it was time to get serious so I set up the scaffolding for some highwire drywall work.  I have the safety rail in place which allows me to set up the pulley and basket system on the top rail.  I will be lifting pieces of drywall up to the top as I cut them.

Just three stages for now

All painted and ready to go up. 

I prefer to work in the daytime when I am up at the ceiling so I have left this piece all painted and ready to bring up tomorrow.

Our fireplace mason is back from holidays and the plan is to start on Monday.  I will have to clean the reclaimed red bricks that Kyla brought up from Kelowna so they will be ready to go.

Well tomorrow should be interesting.

Len

Some's easy, some's not

If you haven't heard yet, Banjo and I are batching for 2 weeks while Cathryn is off globetrotting to Southern Africa with her Mom. There going to see how they do drywall in Zambia I think.

The drywall work continues. The laundry room had it's challenges including the washer dryer plumbing and the dryer venting.

Plumbing completed

All plugs found and cut out

 I am building a dryer vent with space for the hose so the wiring for the dryer had to be moved farther to the right. Everything fits now.

This hole will have a back when the other side of the wall is done

Finishing the screws on the kitchen walls

Dining room south wall

Because of all the timbers it is necessary to pre paint the sheet with primer before it goes up.  It would be even better to paint them before you hoist them onto the lifter.

Now the small bathroom by the kitchen does have its challenges.  There are beams and posts all over the place requiring a finished edge to the gyproc.  This means putting a j-mold up before the sheet goes up. Simple enough until you add a few notches and plastic to protect the timbers from mudding later.

Cut and ready to lift

Sliding in under the trim at the top and along the left side

The finished piece with plastic in place

Just close enough to hear what I'm doing

Off for a little walk across the valley and then back to work

Tomorrow should see the finish of the powder room and then it's on to the office.  I'll have to disconnect everything to do this and hook up the new telephone and cable wiring at the same time. That should slow down progress some.

Len

Sharing the Joy

Well I am back home, and said a sad farewell to Kyla, whose shoes I will definitely not be able to fill.  Len is in a funk, having replaced all that strength with me.  We are trying to get as much done as possible before I am away for a couple of weeks.

The sort of things Kyla and Len got up to

So first off we moved the big sheets into the rooms where they will be put up.  Moving them is one thing Len can't do on his own.

Then we put up the last upper sheet upstairs, in our bedroom and started on the lower sheets.  My role is mainly to help carry, hold up, and vacuum.  There will be no measuring and cutting here.  I am not that brave.  So we got the kitchen and dining room pretty much done.

Len finishing off the kitchen wall

A completed great room wall

The front hall

Len will router out the openings for the windows

Tomorrow Len will be working on his own while I do my own work but I am looking forward to a busy evening.

Cath

That's a Great Room

We got a call from the project manager, basking in the luxury of Vancouver Pan Pacific Hotel, and were told to make sure that we primed all the drywall that sits behind the beams.  Of course this led to some discussion but in the end we are just pawns in this project and, as you will see, we did paint as requested. 

So we decided to start the Great Room East wall.  Sounds simple. It took a lot of thinking, of course, always with safety in mind.  We decided to put a shelf on the wall for the drywall to sit on.  We cut the hole for the light and then hoisted the sheet up as high as it would go, slipping it behind the beam at the same time.

Wall supports first

Muscles hoist it into place

Just about to lean it against the wall

Ready for the manual lift onto the lumber

No wait, she said to paint them, oh damn, off to the 108 lumber yard for primer....let's try this again.

Did she do it all by herself?

A few screws across the top and.....

Voila!!!!!

Note all the impediments to our progress

 Now that we have the hang of this we will probably complete the East wall. Tomorrow.

Len and Kyla