We Have Windows!

The addition is finally starting to look like part of the house and not just some plywood-covered box with openings!  Scott and his son Scotty put the windows in today and I'm so pleased with how they look.  I painted the 6-light single sash, all five of them, for the upper 1/2 story.  They're the same barn red (Benjamin Moore--Cottage Red) that we used on the main block.  The first story has 4 windows of double-hung sash and I could only paint one in its entirety before it was hung; the other 3 are about 75% painted (you'll see in the photograph).  We have a box bay window that still needs to be installed (and painted) but that has to wait for a few weeks until Scott moves a porch roof sheltering a back door on the main block that is blocking its location.

The windows are all wood, double hung sash with thermopane glass (separate panes) for energy conservation.  We may also put storm/screen windows up, too.  We're still trying to decide.



The entry hall is narrow, so Scott decided to have the door and window share the same stud.  This is also typical of early heavy timber frame houses in southeastern England, a location from where many of Cape May County's settlers came!

 I've also started finishing some of the cabinets that Scott has made for the kitchen and full bath.  I'll post photos of them in a week or two.

Hurricane and Earthquake

I haven't written since the earthquake and hurricane arrived the same week in August.  That week I was in Atlanta, helping my daughter move into her first apartment as she prepared to start her first job after college graduation in May.  Scott called me the day we arrived in Atlanta to say there'd been an earthquake.  No damage to the addition or the house, thankfully, and we didn't feel it in Atlanta.

Then, when we were shopping in IKEA for furniture (that's another story in itself) Thursday afternoon, he called to tell me they were ordering a mandatory evacuation of Cape May County by 9 a.m. Friday morning.  My heart sank.  I was 14 hours away (by car) and could do absolutely nothing from Atlanta.  We have 2 cats and a dog; our dog was at the kennel while I was away, but the kennel was just 1/2 hour north of us.  I thought of all the things I would take if I'd been home, like my computer (I work at home and my work life is on that darn thing), my family photos that date back to the late 1800s, etc.  I felt better once my daughter and I got back to the hotel and I could watch the Weather channel--they predicted that the hurricane would be a category 2 heading into a category 1 by the time it reached us.  This house, which is more than 200 years old, has seen lots of hurricanes of that category and has (obviously) survived them all.  Its heavy timber frame made of oak is so much more strong than construction today, and the addition is timber framed as well.

Scott, and many of our friends, decided to ride out the storm.  I'm sure if it was predicted to be category 4 or 5 he would have left.  He covered the addition window and door openings with plywood, also the windows on the northeast side of the main house.  He took the screens out and put the storm windows in.  It took him two full days to get everything just so, and whatever he did worked because the worst we had were some downed branches to clean up.

Framing and Reclaimed Flooring

While Scotty and Jamie finish the roof, Scott (with some help from our friend, Al) has been framing the addition.  We're talking a lot of 2x4 studs and plywood sheathing here.  Incredibly, the addition--with door and window openings now--is really starting to look like something and we've only had the timber frame up for 3 weeks now.  Until we have the windows in place, we're keeping the side walls covered with tarps.  The windows (double-hung wood sash with true divided lights and thermo-pane glass) are here and I started the prep work on them today, filling screw holes with PC Woody. 

We are HUGE fans of PC Woody, a 2-part epoxy that is phenomenal when it comes to filling holes in wood.  It sands easily and now comes with colorants if you want to match a particular wood.  The windows are made of Spanish cedar and I'll be priming them with an oil-based primer.  A painter friend of ours swears by a latex primer, but I'm wary.  I'd rather use an oil-based primer (under a latex paint) that I know from personal experience works, than try something new and be unhappy with it a few years from now.

Scott scored a great find this week with just enough reclaimed, antique hard pine flooring to do our kitchen.  These boards are beautiful...up to 14" wide, unpainted on one side, but very very dirty.  I know all about scrubbing boards, so I'm not intimidated.  I'm anxious to see if the boards are pumpkin pine like we have in the main house.  There are some flaws, damaged areas, dings, etc., but we'll use PC Woody where needed.  Below is the pile that Scott has "stickered" to air out.

The reclaimed wood floor boards.  The opening in the stud wall to the left is for a bay window.

The Wonders of White Nail Polish

This post doesn't really relate to building our addition, but it is germane to any old house owner whose white bath tub isn't quite up to snuff.  Ours is about 35 years old and wasn't used much until we moved in two years ago.  But somewhere along the way it got a 3/8" chip right by the drain.  A 3/8" chip doesn't warrant an entire bathtub resurfacing in my opinion when the rest of the tub looks good.

The first time I tried to fix the chip I went to the hardware store and bought the porcelain-repair epoxy stuff.  I mixed it up per directions, put it on in two coats, let it dry thoroughly between coats, and admired my handiwork a few hours later.  The fix only lasted about 2 weeks...I started seeing rust stains under the white coating and then the whole patch fell off.  Well, I thought maybe I hadn't sanded and cleaned the area thoroughly enough, so I went back, spent another $6 and tried it again.  Looked good again.  Two weeks later, same deal.  So, I got to thinking what else could I use?  Then it occurred to me that white nail polish just might be the answer.  And if it didn't work, I could remove it easily with nail polish remover.  I'm a big fan of easily-reversible fixes.

So, I went to CVS, bought one that was about the same slightly-off-white shade as our 35-year old tub and tried two coats.  Four weeks later, it still looks great.  The plastic bumper on my white Prius has a few dings that need some cosmetics, so I'm going use it there next.

The patch is located at about 1 o'clock.

cedar roof and a Rainhandler gutter

8-7-2011:
For the past week and one-half, Scott's son, Scotty, and our friend J.P. (Jamie) Hand have been putting on the new cedar shingle roof over the addition.  The main block has a cedar roof and we felt that the addition should have one, too.  We got our Canadian cedar shingles from a supplier in Lancaster County, PA and also the copper-coated lead for the valley flashing.  The valley flashing is very, very expensive, so we asked around for alteratives; someone mentioned terne-coated steel, while someone else thought they'd heard of a new-to-the-market plastic-based flashing.  In the end, we decided that we didn't want to skimp on the roof since the roof protects everything under it!!  So, we went with the copper-coated lead.  The guys used a wood mallet to bend the edges of the flashing and found that the old-fashioned, hand-held break worked better than the new one!



Scott walks past the addition while J.P. Hand (to the left) and Scotty (on the right) work on the scaffold as they start to lay the cedar shingle roof.



Scotty uses a wooden mallet to flatten the edges of the valley flashing.

Scott Sr. holds the old-fashioned break that he used to turn the edges on the valley flashing.  He also used it to bend the flashing in the middle to sit properly in the valleys.

The guys will be done with the roof in another day or so.  I should mention that Jamie is really good at laying a cedar shake roof; he's very particular about the shingles and will reject those in the bundle that are "boxy" (curled) or are otherwise imperfect.  He also staggers them properly and does the right overhang.

The Rainhandler gutter was something we finally in ordered in June and Scott put it up a few weeks ago on the front elevation of the main block.  In case you're not familiar with it, it's a fairly new gutter system that broadcasts the rain away from the building using a series of staggered, slanted aluminum strips that attach to the fascia board.  They used to advertise in Old House Journal, but I found them doing a google search.   http://www.rainhandler.com/ We ordered the brown color and before ordering consulted their very well-written directions on-line.  We determined we needed to buy spacers as well so the rain would hit the strips just right.  It took Scott a few hours to install them and we couldn't be happier.  They shipped quickly and were packaged safely for the trip.  They look great!  You really have to look closely to see them, and since we're 100' off the road, I'm sure most folks don't even notice them.  I think they're prefect for historic buildings, the facade (front elevation) at least.  We have some drainage issues in the back of the house (thanks to the new septic system), so we're going with traditional gutters back there.




The Rainhandler gutter as installed on the front of the house.


Money tree update:  I'm up to three free donuts at Acme.  At least they're tasty.....

The timber frame addition is up!

On Monday (July 25th), four timber framers from Riehl's Construction in Lancaster County, PA arrived a little after 8 a.m.  They brought two trailers of oak timbers, chain saws, tool belts, a variety of hand tools, and a lot of energy!  We provided a large cooler filled with ice and cold drinks, a box of donuts for the morning snack, and many interested spectators who came and went. 

The framers went right to work, unloading the mostly-precut timbers and preparing them for raising.  After double-checking Scott's layout (they didn't believe him when he said he was within 1/32", but they discovered he was right!) and confirming the ceiling heights, they cut the bottoms of the 7" x 7" square posts to the proper height, mortised them into the girts, and stood the first pair up about 90 minutes later.  It was incredible to watch them using a combination of modern tools (chain saws, saws-alls, drills) with old-fashioned chisels to get the tenons on the posts and girts just the right size and shape.   It took some finesse on the forklift operator's part to stand the first set into place against the original part of the house.   Two hundred years ago, each set would have been raised by many men pushing the beams up with long poles.

Scott protected the plywood- covered first floor with a tarp; pulling it off was the first thing they did.

They're standing the first set of beams against the original house.  It took all four of them.

After the first set was up, the rest were placed like a carefully-choreographed dance.  They only had one page of drawings, but that's all they needed for our smallish (16' x 28') addition.  I know they've done this hundreds, probably thousands of times, but it was awe-inspiring to watch.  And when they hammered the pegs into the holes I almost got goose-bumps (hey, I'm an architectural historian after all).

The joists for the first floor overhead, bundled together, are lowered onto the frame for placement.

Hammering one of the pegs (treenails) into place.

Two hundred years ago, the wives of all the menfolk would've prepared a huge feast of home-cooked food to be eaten during the house raising.  If only I had the time!  Instead, I took their lunch orders and grabbed some sandwiches from the closest WaWa, along with with a box of Entemann chocolate chip cookies.  There are some things I love about life in the 21st century!

Four and one-half hours later (not including a half-hour lunch break) the frame was finished.  Their part, at least.  Scott and his son, Scotty, then put up the rafters after they left and had them finished (except for the valley rafters) just before the first drops of rain started to fall.  Thank goodness our good friend JP Hand loaned us a huge tarp to keep everything dry until the wood shingle roof goes on and the clapboard is in place.

Our friend Al looks up at the beams over the kitchen-to-be.  The opening to the right is the stairwell.



Right after the framers left, Scott and Scotty started putting the rafters up.


My dear husband is working his tail off in the addition as I sit here and write this.  My contribution to the project will begin in another few weeks, once the windows arrive.  I'm the designated painter (I love painting believe it or not) and we want to have the divided-light windows and their frames primed and painted before Scott puts them in place.  I also have to paint the kitchen cabinets and finish the bathroom vanity that Scott made a few months ago.  (Wait till you see them!!) Yes, I will be busy indeed and all of this while still working full time.  Guess it will be lots of nights and weekends, but that's how we managed to restore this house before we moved in two years ago.

In retrospect--going the timber frame route was perfect for us and the ideal solution for an addition to our historic, ca. 1790 timber-framed house.  Exposed joists and corner posts are not for everyone.  It is a fast and less-expensive way to frame a house or an addition, and we couldn't be happier with the result.

We still have a long way to go.  Roof, walls, floors.  Plumbing and electric.  And, we're installing a Unico duct work system with a Unichiller so we can have AC and heat that is way more efficient than the electric baseboard we use now.  There will be plenty more to write about.

Money tree update--nothing yet beyond the free donut from Acme.

Foundation Finished!

I'm still surprised that I'm writing today (Saturday) that the foundation is finished.  Scott poured the concrete on Tuesday, the mason (Les) came Wednesday, and by Friday afternoon, DONE!

Les is a great guy...he's been a mason all his life, but he also carves decoys and has a few acres in asparagus that he sells.  He also collects antique tractors.  He's retired, but said he'd help us when the time came.  Scott had everything laid out for him, so all he had to do was "butter" the blocks and bricks, then set them.  The block work went up easily and so did the antique bricks (which I helped to clean) that were put around the upper row of blocks.  They match perfectly the antique bricks that were used around the foundation of the original house.

Unfortunately, we had 3.5" of rain Thursday night, which washed a lot of dirt into the hole around the outside of the foundation.  Scott spent this morning digging it out so it can dry and he can paint the exterior of the blocks with tar.

Scott's using a steel I-beam down the center of the foundation to help stiffen the joists.  He told me this morning we could hold a dance in there without the floors bouncing!  You can see the foundations for the I-beams in the photo.  You can also see the sewer line for the septic system.  Actually, this is the old septic system that we're still using; we'll connect into the new one when the plumber comes in a month or two.  It was disconnected for 6 hours each day when the mason was here, but with a porta-potty on site the inconvience was minor.

Scott will put the sills and joists in this week.  Either late this coming week or early the following week, the timber framers from Lancaster County, PA (Riehl Construction) will come and raise the oak heavy timber frame.  I'm told it will only take a few hours.  You can believe I'll be photographing the whole event.

How wonderful to write with no major snafus, drama, mistakes, etc. to relate.



framed, rebarred, and ready to pour




complete and ready for tar, sills, joists

 Money tree update:  We're still waiting for a huge cache of money to come our way.  I did, however, win a free donut at Acme.  They're having a big summer sweepstakes where you collect tokens to paste onto various prizes.  The tokens come with store coupons, too, and I won a free donut.  I guess it's a start...