More Priming and 3283 Celebrates Tulip Time

Today was a "contractor free" day at 3283. It gave me time to prepare for the next round of siding installation. After Jeff Sparks and crew installed the wood siding on the west and north walls of the addition, Bobbie and I began to prime the boards in preparation for final painting. We worked to our short-ladder-easy-reach height and left the top portion to be primed with longer ladders.

As I contemplated working off taller ladders I looked at the east wall of the addition: the wall that is above the basement entryway. Even the lowest boards will required more than normal step ladders to reach. I didn't want to have to climb tall ladders to both prime and paint this wall.

The lowest siding board will be at least 8-9 feet above the ground level.
The top of the wall at the high point of the roof will be about 20 feet high.

The solution to the priming problem was suggested by Jeff Sparks who said the boards could be primed before he installed them. He actually said "Your painter may want to prime the siding before we install it." Since I refrain from talking to myself in all but the most critical circumstances, I didn't talk to "the painter." I simply gathered my painting supplies and dug into the pile of siding.

It was a nice, warm day again in Holland. So I spent the day in solitude with 16 foot long pine siding boards, a gallon of primer and my trusty 3 inch paint brush. No one was around to take my picture with brush in hand. So the pictures below show the day's effort. Twenty-two boards. Two coats of bare wood primer. Ready for the carpenters to install later this week.

My "paint shop" with the first few boards drying at the right.

At the end of the day, twenty-two 16 foot long boards were primed.

All the primed wood was moved into the garage
to keep therm clean until they are installed.

As most of you know, the closest city to 3283 is Holland, Michigan. Each May the city hosts a ten day long festival known as Tulip Time. Literally millions of tulips bloom throughout the city as the residents celebrate their Dutch heritage.  Each year organizers commission a poster. A number of these posters are on the walls of 3283. This year's poster has been purchased and waits for construction to move ahead before we hang it. 

Tulip Time 2013 Poster

Tulip Time 2013 began on Saturday. And 3283 managed to keep in step with the festivities. Although most of the yard has been torn up by the construction, a small corner of flower bed remained untouched. And, today tulips began to bloom at 3283. The display is not as dramatic as the poster. But I think it means that Mother Nature has accepted the changes we are making.

The few Tulips beginning to bloom at 3283.
There WILL be many many more next year. Promise!

Tomorrow we expect the plumbers to be at 3283 to connect the well and garage to the water supply system. And, they will be replacing about 200 feet of septic line between the house and the septic tank.

A Prime Sunday...

As I said in closing yesterday, the newly installed siding was begging for paint. And, today the weather cooperated:  high clouds, warm temperatures, gentle breezes. Unfortunately the lady in Lowes paint department sold us the wrong primer yesterday. It's a good thing I read the label before opening it. While there I asked for primer for bare wood. I was sold primer for smooth surfaces [like tile, metal or cabinets]. We made yet another trip to Lowes this morning for the exchange.

And, while in town, with Bobbie's Jeep, we also made it to Menards to pick up doors we had ordered for the addition. They will reside in the garage until time to install therm ... at least a couple weeks down the road. [I promise a blog on the installation.]

I sanded the nail head filler that was applied yesterday, then began priming. It was soon obvious that we have a lot of wall area to cover. Today, that area was covered with the primer coat...then, down the road, it will need at least one final coat.  The bare wood soaked up the primer quickly and we found that it could be brushed over for decent coverage in about 5 or 10 minutes.  Bobbie worked on the lower boards and I worked from short stepladders. We didn't finish the entire west and north walls; but, I'd sat we are close to 75% complete. I'll break out the longer ladders and try to finish over the next few days.

We started on the west wall to keep our work in the morning shade.

I primed some of the lower boards, too

Near the end of the work day I had about three feet left to go.
The upper boards will be my project from longer ladders later this week.

Priming surfaces before final painting is key to assuring the longevity of the paint job. It made me wonder if Michelangelo did all his own priming of the Sistine Chapel ceiling...and if he was sold the right primer the first time.

Michelangelo did work from a scaffold. I hope not to have to. But the east wall of the addition is high above the basement door, and the retaining wall. Even the bottom board is 8 or 9 feet above ground. Since Jeff and crew haven't sided that wall yet, I'm thinking of priming the boards before they are cut to length and nailed in place.  Then, only the final coat of paint will have to be applied from long ladders or a scaffold.

Rather than working high above the basement door,
I may prime the siding for this wall before it is put up. 

With every new step the project seems to be coming together. Just the white paint on the addition seems to tie it into the rest of the place. Once the addition is primed I'll get some paint on the band board around the rest of the cottage....and touch up the pealing paint on the front porch.

Oh, What A Day! A Saturday No Less

8:15 AM. Three pickup trucks. A cargo van. Two trailers. And a crew of four. 3283 was bustling with activity from early morning to right after the noon hour. Mervin came to finish the retaining wall -- today he was a one-man-crew. And Jeff Sparks with John and Bill made up the carpentry crew. They were here to install windows and a door and to start the siding on the addition. Jeff and the guys quickly dove into the supplies that were delivered this week.  Three of the four new windows that were delivered last Monday are no longer in the garage. They are installed in the addition.

Jeff and Bill are lifting the largest window into place in the addition's west wall.

Meanwhile, on the east end of the addition Mervin is working to put the last few timbers in place on the top two rows of the retaining wall. He did a great job shaping the ends of the end timbers to give the wall a finished look.

Mervin is shaping the end of a timber that will be used at the end of a top row.

It looks different from above the wall and below.

Back on the west side of 3283 Jeff, John and Bill dug into the pile of siding. And they quickly had row upon row of siding nailed in place up the wall.  It was very satisfying watching a crew who work very well together proceed through a task. Each had a role, knew it well and complimented each other perfectly. At times it seemed that they were reading each other's minds.

Near the bottom. Jeff is manning the nail gun,
Bill is fitting the siding tongue and grove together.
John is out of the picture operating the saw.

On this wall it worked out that an even number of siding rows fit under the window.

Before long they had the siding up both sides of the window and over its top.
Here's how the addition looks from the front porch.

The west wall was done before about 9:30 or 10:00 AM. And the crew simply turned the corner and began working on the north wall. In this wall there were two small windows to be installed. The siding needed to be cut around them as well as the electric service entrance and meter box. This slowed the progress somewhat, but the crew again proved they are true professionals and expertly fit the siding around the interferences.

After the first few rows of siding on the north wall the first of the small
windows  is being  nailed into the roughed in opening

Jeff and Bill are preparing the opening for the second window.
Notice how well the siding has been fit around the meter box and the conduit  to the house.

Almost done with the north wall.
Details under the eves will be dealt with another day.

As the carpenters were working on the north wall, Mervin was completing the work on the retaining wall. It was good that both contractors could work at 3283 today without stepping on each others toes. It was especially important since both groups were trying to get their work done in a half day.

Mervin worked on the east side of the addition.
Most of the carpenters, work was on the north and west walls.

Only the west and north walls were sided today. But that sure made the place look like part of the home. Jeff and Bill did do some work on the east wall. The small window in the bathroom was installed making the upper wall ready for siding. And, after a couple week delay, Jeff and Bill filled that big opening in the concrete block wall with a real door.

The basement door is being set into the rough opening.

Jeff is checking the door frame, shimming it to the studs, and screwing it in place.

Here's Mervin checking out the completed retaining wall.
The complete door (less hardware) is at the bottom of the steps.

As I mentioned, both contractors gave 120% by coming to 3283 on a Saturday and made great progress on the project. They committed a morning to the effort and almost were able to pull out by Noon. Almost. We guess it was about 1:00 when Jeff and Mervin pulled their trailers down the driveway. I said "we" because about 10:30 Bobbie joined me in my supervisor/observer role. It was great having her here. And especially good that she saw "action" not just the results of past work as she had in the past.

Bobbie is sitting on part of the regaining wall near the bottom.
The terrace behind her will eventually be planted.

One of the nice things about having Bobbie here is letting me get in the pictures.

So, it's a nice spring Saturday. The contractors have left the site. Bobbie is here with me. What to do? Lunch first. Ottawa Beach Inn for OBI Burgers and beers. Then a trip to Lowes. There is a lot of bare wood now covering much of the addition and parts of the cottage. It is calling out to be painted. The weather forecast is good for the next few days. We picked up two gallons of exterior bare wood primer, a couple new brushes, and some nail hole filler. And we headed back to the lake shore. And I began to prepare the siding to be primed. This afternoon I filled most of the nail head holes so tomorrow they can be sanded and the primer applied.

Lowes had a great product. It was a tube of nail hole filler with a foam applicator tip
that  made filling  each nail head dimple easy.

There are a lot of nails. I filled all but about the top 2 or 3 rows....for which I'll need  taller ladder.

It was a great day at 3283. I'm hoping that this is harbinger of a good week ahead. It definitely means that tomorrow, Sunday, won't be a day of rest. It will be a day of paint. Or, more correctly a day of white primer. Below are a couple pictures of the cottage/ addition with the siding in place. Try to picture it painted white. We'll start making it that way in the morning.

Real wood siding is part of the tradition of 3283.
I could never never put vinyl  on the addition.

The west wall late in the day.
Late enough that tree shadows are crawling up the wall.

One more front side picture. This one with Bobbie.

Little Things...

At the beginning of this project a lot was happening. It was happening fast. And the progress was being measured in large steps -- big changes. As the work progressed the changes have become more subtle. Some days there seems to be no visible change. I have had days when progress consisted of making arrangements for utility service. [By the way....neither gas or electric are yet hooked up.] And, there were the days when the "progress" was the clean-up after the flooded basement.

Today I went to 3283 and watched a couple little steps in the progress. Before Consumers Energy can trench the underground electric service the dumpster that is on site needed to be moved out of the path of the proposed service line. Since we'll still need the dumpster for a while I couldn't call to have it removed. So, again, Dan Deitz provided help. Dan sent John with the little Cat. John used the fork lift attachment to slide the dumpster south about 10-15 feet. [Sorry no action pictures.]

The dumpster was moved just to the south [left].
Consumers Energy will run the underground electric from the pole at the
right then through the open area north of the dumpster and to the right side of the addition.

We also received delivery of the siding and basement door for the addition. I hadn't expected to see the delivery today...though I did know that the carpenter was planning on working here tomorrow.

Keen Lumber delivered the siding and door for the addition.
I'm looking forward to seeing the door and windows installed.
And, siding going up will really make the place look close to finished.

Since Dan had John drive down from Muskegon he added one more "chore" for him to do while at 3283. The asphalt driveway we share with our neighbor had become quite "caked" with a layer of sand/mud.  John used the bucket of the Cat to scrape the majority of the gunk off the pavement. Then he took out his broom and manually worked his way down much of the 600 foot long driveway sweeping away the sand.

It was amazing to see how much of the sand/dirt John
was able to scrape off using the Cat's bucket.

The Cat provided motive-power for the first part of the cleaning
but the final cleaning was done by man-power.
Here, John is about 1/3 of the way down the drive

I needed to drive to Grand Rapids to pick up some window parts, so I left him about 1/3 of the way down the drive. But when I returned later in the day the work he did [plus a little rainfall] made the driveway look pristine. Thanx for the good work, John.

The pictures above may be nearly as boring as last week's scraping and caulk, but they are what I have for today.  I expect more action shots tomorrow.

Retaining Wall -- 98%

I was anticipating that the retaining wall would be completed today. It wasn't. They came close...very close. Even staying until about 6:30 Mervin and Dan didn't quite finish the retaining walls and steps today. But they did come close. The effort, like yesterday, included laying out the timbers. backfilling and compacting the sand, cutting and placing the timbers, and spiking the timbers together.

Mervin used the vibratory compactor between the timbers and the block wall.

Dan muscles a full 8 foot long 6x6 timber into place.

Ten inch spikes were driven through each timber.
Each timber was fastened by either two or three depending on its length.

Toward the end of the day Mervin began to move much of the excavated material around to use as backfill and to shape the grade of the yard adjacent to the wall.  This allowed us to assess the planned height of the top timbers with where the yard will eventually be shaped.  Remember, the primary purpose of the structure is to keep rainwater from washing sand/soil into the slope to the basement door. Thus, the "top" step had to be far enough east of the cottage to allow all water to flow away...not toward...the building.

At the end of the long day the wall was at final level or within 1 or 2 boards of the top along it's entire length.

Looking toward the northwest from one of the lowest steps.
The short timber on top is to show the final height of the wall.
The terraces where plantings will be put can be seen.

This picture is looking down onto the area from the northwest corner.
The area between the timbers on the steps will eventually be filled with gravel.
The terraces will be planted with vegetation.
Anyone have ideas for shade loving ground cover (besides Pachysandra)?

This picture is from the basement door looking up the steps.

This picture is looking straight down the stairs.

This photo lets you see the slopes  away from the house.

I think I like the way the entrance worked out. It will protect the door. It can be landscaped to tie it in to the rest of the area. The terraces allow the inside of it to be green. And, somehow I can picture my three grandsons playing on the steps and even climbing the walls.

The crew has another commitment for tomorrow, so they won't be back to finish up until Saturday.  Though I just heard tomorrow may be rainy anyway. But, rumor has it that there may be other work done over the weekend, too. So, I may be posting tomorrow and/or Saturday.

Retaining Wall Grows -- Plumbing Proceeds

Work continued on the retaining wall today...I had illusions that it might be done by the end of the day. But there were a couple glitches -- including a first temperamental, then dead chainsaw -- that slowed progress. Here's hoping that the great wall is done at the end of day tomorrow.

Mervin made sure the fill was well compacted before installing the
dead-man timber and the start of the wall forming the second terrace.

The wall forming the second terrace between the stairway and the house is taking shape.

You can see the first terrace and the steps, This will be the north wall.

This picture shows the first levels of the south side.
You can see where the wall forming second terrace wall will be built.

Unexpectedly, Ben from Bob Tolsma Plumbing showed up at 3283. He had been scheduled at another job nearby...but they weren't ready for him. So he spent a few hours here. He completed a lot of the interior water piping, getting us closer to being ready to move in.

Ben prepared the shower valve assembly for the new bathroom.

While the majority of the supply piping is being installed using PEX plastic,
Ben stubs up to fixtures using copper. These are for the toilet and sink in the new bathroom.

Here, Ben is using a special tool to expand the PEX piping to attach a fitting.
The PEX is color coded red for hot and blue for cold.

Ben also installed the two exterior sillcocks on the south-east and north-west corners of the house.
We will need places to attach hoses until we get a underground sprinkler system.

Tomorrow the work on the retaining wall continues. When it's done the site will be ready for Jeff to install the basement door and for the plumbers to dig the trench between the house and garage. The electric line to the garage will be laid in the same excavation. Then, when Consumers Power provides service 3283 will be close to habitable.