July 7, 2019 – We reached the end of the holiday weekend. Everybody gathered up their stuff, packed up and headed home. I continued with a little work on the next section of porch decking. I could only go so far because I need to install the drain line for the new kitchen sink. The drain runs under the porch framing and ties into the existing drain line underneath the bathroom. This will be next weekends project. Stay tuned, I’m sure it will present some challenges.
Also due in are the first three new windows. I am supposed to pick them up at Home Depot on Friday, July 12th. Woot….!
Second section of porch decking. Snake screen in place.Porch deck installation.
July 6, 2019 – Today, I didn’t get much work done at all. I only worked until about about noon. The heat and humidity were too much and I needed time with the family. It can’t be all work. In the short time that I did work, I finished the first deck section, completed the support framing for the next picture frame and started the snake screen.
Decking complete in the first section. Snake screen for the next section.Support framing for the next section of picture frame.
July 5, 2019 – This morning when I awoke, the significance of the comment Troy made yesterday evening came bursting through. I needed to restart the porch decking installation from the outside edge otherwise, the mitered corner of the picture frame would not work. It was all clear, finally! This is what I did.
Restart of the porch decking from the outside edge.Porch deck ans snake screen installation.
Restarting the deck installation allowed the picture frame pieces to meet at a 45° miter.
45° miter on the outside corner at the “picture frame” pieces.
While I worked on the porch addition the rest of the family was busy filling the dumpster. Over the years we have accumulated literally tons of junk.
Filling the dumpster with all the junk.
The Old Shed is filled with a bunch of nonsense and has needed a good cleaning for quite some time. (For those following along, at the Cot-Taj-Mahal we have a New Shed and an Old Shed.) Welp now it’s all cleaned out!
The Old Shed at the Cot-Taj-Mahal in the Land Before Time.Ha look Ma! It’s all cleaned out!
At some point in the day the fire ring was rebuilt. It’s now a two story fire ring… cee.
Narley supervising the fire ring construction.
It was a very hot and humid day at the Cot-Taj-Mahal. Two very rare “McVeytown Viper’s” somehow made it thru and onto the snake screening to sun themselves. After shoeing them back under the cottage I knocked off for the day. I managed to get the restarted deck section mostly complete. Tomorrow I will move the first four deck pieces that I started yesterday forward to finish the section.
Ssssnnnakes on the deck!End of the day, first section almost complete.
July 4, 2019 – As promised, we got our Trex composite decking delivery this morning. Lowe’s called around 6:30 AM and the delivery guy showed up at 7:05 AM. Let the porch decking installation commence!
Trex composite porch decking on the delivery truck.Lowe’s delivery guy dropping the decking in front of the porch.
Today was one of those days that you just wish you could start over. I didn’t sleep well last night and I was grouchy when I got up. I started the porch decking installation but it went very sloooowwly and I made a beginners mistake.
We decided to “picture frame” the porch into four sections. This will make it easier to get to the underground plumbing in the future. I am using Trex Hideaway hidden fasteners to attach the decking. They are removable so having a separate section over the plumbing makes sense. No need to remove all the decking if we have a plumbing problem.
“Picture Frame” Support
To install a picture framed deck you have to add additional support framing. This is necessary to accommodate the change in direction of the “frame” piece. The additional support framing is installed at each side of the picture frame. For reasons previously mentioned, I had some sort of brain fart and couldn’t quite grasp the solution. It took me like forever to figure it out.
Additional support framing for “Picture Framed” deck.Installing the “picture frame” support.
With the picture frame support completed in the first section I could start installing the porch decking. The gapping requirements of Trex decking are ¼” between the sides and ⅛” between the ends of the deck pieces. To keep the snakes from coming up from under the deck I placed a layer of fine mesh screen before install any decking.
Fine mesh screen to keep snakes off the deck.
Beginners Mistake!
A picture framed deck has 45° miter cuts in the frame pieces at each corner. I our case we will only have 45° miters at the outside corners. To make each miter work you need two full width planks to meet at each corner. The logical place for me to start was on the outside and work in towards the cottage. This way I would have full width pieces at the outside corners. If I had to rip the last deck piece to fit it would be along the cottage and mostly hidden.
Well, where do I start…? At the cottage side, of course! Thank goodness I only got 4 pieces in place before I quit for the day.
Porch decking installed starting from the wrong side!
Around 6:00 PM I had enough of the sun, heat and humidity so I packed it in for the day. Robrandi and I went out to Wingman’s to grab a bite to eat. As usual, it was great.
When we got back later in the evening the rest of the family and the wolf pack started to arrive. Beam Master Troy made a comment. He said, “I would have just started the decking on the outside and worked back to the cottage. That way the rip will be along the house.” Okay, I heard what he said but didn’t digest the information until much later.
June 30, 2019 – Woke up to a beautiful morning. Perfect time to continue the plywood roof sheathing and felt paper installation. I will need to hustle to get this all done in one day. If I make it, the blue tarps will be moved to the next roof section.
Blue traps covering the kitchen addition.
For the roof sheathing in this section I estimated and purchased twelve (12) sheets of plywood. I already had several rolls of felt paper from a previous project and a big box of 1″ plastic cap nails. I had everything I needed so I didn’t loose any time running out.
Roof rafters and ceiling joists over the new porch.
Roof Sheathing
The plywood installation went very smoothly. I hoisted the sheets up one at a time. Using my Rigid framing nailer I fastened them down with 8d ring shank nails.
One sheet ready to be hoisted up to the roof.Starting the second row of sheathing.
Between the roof rafters I installed plywood H-clips. H-clips provide additional stiffness between the edges of the roof sheathing and make for a stronger roof.
Plywood H-Clips for additional edge support.One sheet of plywood to install.
Felt Paper
After completing the roof sheathing I immediately started the felt paper installation. I had several rolls of felt paper. Some of them were 15 lb and some were 30 lb. I doubled up the 15 lb layers so, for the most part there is 30 lb felt paper over the entire section. One inch plastic cap nails hold the roof felt down.
Roofing felt paper installation.
I am happy to report that this section of the roof was dry by about 4:00 PM. I made it in one day. Hooray!
Roof over the kitchen and porch additions.
Next weekend is the 4th of July. We are expecting to have the Trex decking delivered on the Thursday the 4th. That is the delivery date we got from Lowe’s. We are skeptical but we will see.
June 29, 2019 – Just a short blog today. We had some rain that slowed the construction but I completed two more porch roof rafters. Between the rain drops I also completed some miscellaneous roof framing. We are now ready for roof sheathing and felt paper on the roof over the new kitchen addition and the first section of the porch roof.
Old meets new. Miscellaneous roof framing at living room.Two more porch roof rafter in the foreground.
Tomorrow’s weather is supposed to be beautiful. We will be starting the roof sheathing. If we get the sheathing done we will immediately start the felt paper installation. Looking forward to a dry roof!
June 28, 2019 – Continuing the dry in process I completed the gable end framing and plywood sheathing. This closes in the end wall of the new kitchen space.
Gable end at the new kitchen addition side.Gable end framing in progress on the new kitchen addition side.Installation of plywood sheathing on the gable end of the new kitchen addition.Plywood sheathing completed at the gable end.Completed plywood sheathing under the rake.
With the gable end framing completed, tomorrow I plan on installing two more porch roof rafters on the living room side. This will give me a total run of 16 feet of roof to close in. This makes it a lot easier when estimating and purchasing roof sheathing and felt paper. Once I complete these rafters and a little bit of miscellaneous roof framing we will be ready for roof sheathing.
Once again I got cleaned up and went to Angelo’s Restaurant for dinner. Tonight I had one of their Super Salads with grilled shrimp. The salad was good. They have a awesome house dressing!
June 27, 2019 – When I arrived this morning I was happy to see the dumpster had been emptied and returned. This gave me a place to put the remaining studs and debris from the old living room and kitchen wall demo.
Dumpster emptied and returned for more demolition debris.Demolition of the old exterior kitchen wall.Old exterior kitchen wall completely removed.Demolition of the old exterior living room wall.
Removing the old living room and kitchen walls completely establishes the new kitchen space. It looks awesome! It is big, and it is just what we need.
Old Living Room and Kitchen Wall Demo Complete.
To finish out the day I installed some wood blocking above the new kitchen wall. This closes off the outside and keeps the porch ceiling joists aligned.
After I got cleaned up I went out to Angelo’s Restaurant for dinner. It’s a local favorite located on route 103 in Lewistown. I had a Angelo’s Salad with bread sticks and a warm doughnut with Bud Light and A1 Steak Sauce. Yummy!
June 25, 2019 – Today was a strange day. While cutting lumber for the overhang framing at the new kitchen, a newly hatched baby bird fell from the sky and almost hit me on the head. It was quite disgusting. Apparently a Red Tailed Hawk looking for an easy meal stole it from it’s nest. The mother Robin attacked the hawk and it dropped its lunch right on the board I was cutting. Needless to say I was startled! Sorry for the gross image but I had to share.
Dropped from the sky!
The dumpster was supposed to be emptied and returned. Somehow that never happened. Once it is emptied we can continue the exterior wall demolition. We need someplace to put all the debris.
I needed this dumpster emptied and returned.
Since the roof is open we have birds trying to make new homes inside the cottage. I must have spent the night with several birds because when I woke up they were having breakfast in the new kitchen. They built a half ass nest inside a cardboard box filled with empty water bottles and proceeded to lay an egg. WTF!
Bird nest and egg in box full of empty water bottles.
Anyway the overhang framing went well. The overhang at the old kitchen was complete earlier so now both sides of the gable end overhang are complete. There are still some miscellaneous framing items that must be taken care of but we are getting closer to having a new roof.
Ladder style overhang framing at new kitchen addition.Overhang framing at gable end of the kitchen.
Our goal is to have this first section of the roof framed and covered with roofing paper before the 4th of July weekend. It is going to take some work but i think we can make it happen.
June 23, 2019 – I was up early this morning, with high hopes of getting the roof dry in process started. I had to make a run into Lowe’s to get the plywood roof sheathing and felt paper. As it turns out Lowe’s opens at 8:00AM on Sunday’s so I had about two hours to kill. What better way than to continue demolition on the old kitchen exterior wall. A got a good chunk of it out before I left and I took down the tarps on the living room wall. It’s pretty much wide open now.
Removing the old kitchen exterior wall framing.Tarps removed from the old living room wall and the framing demolition at the old kitchen wall.
Now I’m off to Lowe’s…..
Before we could start putting any roof sheathing in place we needed to demo the last of the old kitchen roof at the gable end. When that was complete I constructed a ladder type overhang and new gable framing.
Ladder style overhang framing on the old kitchen side.Gable end framing in the old kitchen side.
Now we have an overhang supported by the gable framing so the roof dry in begins.
Roof Dry In…
We installed 5 sheets of 5/8″ plywood roof sheathing on the new rafters over the old kitchen. This was followed up with a layer of #30 lb roofing paper held in place with green cap nails.
Plywood roof sheathing installation.3½ Sheets of plywood roof sheathing installed over the old kitchen.
It was to late in the day to start another roof section so we decided to clean up, and tarp the roof back in until next weekend. We didn’t get as far as I had planned but I set the goal pretty high. Next weekend we will continue the roof dry in. The next goal is to totally enclose the new addition to keep the birds and insects out. It’s been kind of buggy inside!
