A Family Cottage
September 3, 2018 – Labor Day and boy did I ever. Today I finished the all of the porch addition floor joists. The floor framing is 90 percent complete. All that remains is two rows of solid bridging. This is next weekends project.
Here is a look back at the start of the floor framing.
September 1, 2018 – Today I completed the ledger board installation along the front of the cottage. This allows the ledger flashing to continue and the porch floor joist framing to resume.
I’m very grateful for all of the help today (sometimes it seems that the more help you get the slower you go). At the end of the day we had 29 floor joist in place. Only 20 more to go! Thankx guys…!
The future leader of Gyeem’s Sled Dog Team was introduced today. Peppero is her name and acting all fuzzy and cute is her game. We hope to make the Iditarod 2025 Race. Stay tuned.
My old friend Katydid showed up this evening. The seasons have been kind to her. She’s still as green as ever.
We are taking the day off tomorrow to kayak. I will finish up the floor joists on Monday before heading home for the week.
August 31, 2018 – Framing of the porch floor joists continued today.
I installed the first section of the Yorkshield 106 PT copper ledger flashing. This flashing keeps water from migrating back into the cottage walls.
At the end of the day approximately 22 porch joists were set. To allow for easier access at the living room door, we screwed down some temporary plywood decking.
In the blurred, whiskey soaked wee hours of the night the first Def Jam poetry reading occurred at the new Fire-Pit Stage. Thankx to special guest star, Hurricane Dan and stage Lighting Technician, Studgie Studger.
The kitchen addition floor framing is complete . Tomorrow we will continue with the porch addition floor framing.
August 30, 2018 – Today Lowe’s delivered the balance of the floor framing lumber. The delivery included the remaining ledger boards, edge beams, rim joists and all the porch addition floor joists.
Even though the delivery was rather late, after the lumber arrived I started installing the first section of the porch floor joists. At the end of the day I had about 8 or 9 joists in place. Tomorrow will be more of the same, porch addition floor joists.
Sadly, I broke the handle of my favorite framing hammer. This is the same hammer I used to build my house.
Hopefully I will find a good replacement.
August 19, 2018 – Today we placed the remaining limestone under the new addition. All of the sub-grade stone is complete and the landscape fabric covered! By volume we have moved almost 9 tons of stone. Not to shabby for a weekend.
Started the porch framing but we quit when it started to rain. Even the toads were seeking cover.
In two weeks I will have the balance of the porch addition framing lumber delivered in one shot. Much easier to have it delivered rather than try and haul it in ourselves.
August 18, 2018 – After a quick trip for lumber, some sawing and hammering, and voila, kitchen floor framing complete! The addition is now starting to take shape.
So far I am am very happy with the concrete work. Although the pictures are deceiving and the framing is not conventional the floor is perfectly level. It should also meet the existing floor elevation once we finish it off.
We also managed to get some more of the limestone spread in the area under the porch addition. 3/4 of the way done! Once we have the sub-grade stone complete I will begin the porch floor framing.
August 17, 2018 – This morning Wolfley Excavating delivered 16.8 tons of 2RC limestone. This is for the final sub-grade preparation under the floor framing.
Last week we leveled out the mud piles and placed the landscape fabric. On top of this we will spread a 2 inch layer of this limestone. This keeps us out of the mud and provides for a more finished look under the porch.
We used some 2 inch screeds cut from old 2 × 4’s to help keep us at a 2 inch stone depth. It worked pretty well. Finally, with the stone in place we lightly compacted it with a hand tamper for a more solid layer.
At the end of the day I had almost reached the halfway point. Final sub-grade preparation will have to finish on another day.
August 12, 2018 – To dress up the area under the kitchen and porch addition we placed landscape fabric. On top of this will go 2″ of limestone. This will serve to keep us out of the mud while framing. It will also keep the weeds from growing under the porch in the future.
With the landscape fabric in placed I continued floor framing with a ledger board under the living room door. The new ledger boards are secured by drilling completely through the existing oak beams. They are bolted from the underside of the cottage with hot dipped galvanized bolts. It’s a little freaky crawling under the cottage. The dreaded Polyphemus moth caterpillar, spiders, hellgrammites, black snakes, copper heads…….I did smell cucumbers!
Late afternoon we got everything all cleaned up and ready for next weekends stone delivery. Plus we did a sneak peek review of the new siding and roof colors. There will be more on that selection later. Stay tuned….
August 11, 2018 – Today we set out to do some frost wall demo. I rented a concrete saw from BestLine Equipment in Mechanicsburg. When we got it to the cottage I realized that it was to big for what we needed to cut. I was not able to get the saw close enough to the top of the wall to make a cut. Because the was too low to the ground I couldn’t cut along the face either.
Plan B was the old 3 lb. hammer and chisel. Fortunately the wall along the front of living room was constructed with large river rocks. Concrete does not stick to river rocks so I was able to easily hammer and chisel 6″ off the top of that section of wall.
I hoped to remove a section of frost wall along the side of the living room for the new kitchen sink drain piping. This wall was all concrete. The saw was to big to cut it and it was to hard to hammer and chisel. Looks like we will re-route the drain line.
After the frost wall demo I continued on the floor framing while Robrandi leveled out and backfilled the low areas. It was still all mud. She used the lawn tractor to smooth it all out. At the end of the day we were ready for landscape fabric and stone.
August 5, 2018 – The kitchen floor framing continued today. The heat index was 102 degrees but it was so humid that the puddles were not even drying up. I was taking it very slowly.
The existing Cot-Taj-Mahal is built on rough cut 2″ × 6″ solid oak beams. I didn’t want to place a lot of additional load on the structure so we poured a line of footers and piers as close to the existing wall as we could. As a result, along the kitchen, I have to transition from a 6″ beam to an 8″ ledger and then to a new 10′” beam. As expected, nothing is square. Gotta love 65 year old structures!
Before I can go any further with the ledger board installation I need to demo part of the frost wall under the living room door. I’m hoping I can cut it with a concrete saw.
