Building a Log Home in Maine

It was another dismal day, with mist, fog, and drizzle all day long despite assurances from the weather folks that it was sure to improve during the morning. I didn't do any of the work I had hoped to do on the exterior of the house, concentrating again on working to get my shop back in operation.

Bob was here with a helper, and they set up staging around the south end of the house, all the way to the roof, and enclosed it with tarps and plastic. Now, the setup was truly complete, and he was ready (I think) to get rolling on the construction from the deck up.

Going forward, I may no longer post every day. Postings will depend on progress, but I promise to post regularly, if not as frequently. I will be spending more and more time in the boat shop--at least 4 days a week, 10 hours per day--and will try to get serious house work done on selected days--good weather days for some of the exterior work, and specific projects indoors as needed.

There are several indoor projects that I intend to wrap up during December, including the stair and loft railings and interior door trim. Look also for work to continue on the upstairs bathroom soon. We have the floor tile in stock and will soon be ordering the wall and shower tile; both of us are anxious to have this bathroom up and running.

Obviously, there is still plenty of work ahead, and none of it will go by the wayside. I will finish all the remaining jobs on the punch list in as timely a manner as possible. Still, with the likely-to-deteriorate weather, work commitments, and other distractions, the pace of the work has necessarily slowed.

Stay tuned...but don't be too discouraged if you find no new postings for a day or three at a time. There will be more to come.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2006

Sorry for the lack of logs for the last couple days. I seem to be shirking my duties, and beg your forgiveness at this time.

I had planned for this week to be intensive outdoor finishing work for the house, but the weather today was not conducive--in the high 30s to low 40s with a nasty, persistent drizzle. Yuck.

Instead, I concentrated on cleaning up the shop. Things were still in disarray from moving the house stuff out, moving excess house construction materials and tools in, and the general neglect of the past several months. I spent all day organizing things, cleaning, and moving excess stuff to the attic. None of this is really related to the house, but I wouldn't want you to think I was watching the soaps an eating Bon-Bons.

The forecast for tomorrow isn't looking that great either. We'll have to see. There's so much to do on the house, but it's becoming a part-time pursuit as I have to begin dividing my time between finishing the house, dealing with less than ideal weather, and working on boats again. But I will get all the work done; I just need to adjust my approach and, more importantly, my attitude about it.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2006

I didn't do any work of note on the house on Sunday, though that doesn't mean I wasn't busy with other things. But I only post things that are worthwhile, progress-wise. (Boots notwithstanding, of course.)

With abnormally warm weather (forecast in advance), I worked outside all day. I chose to focus on the window trim on the back of the house, on the three windows set into the log wall. During rainstorms, we had had issues with water leaking through these untrimmed windows, through gaps between the logs and the 2x4 window bucks. It was time for a permanent solution. In addition, there was nice pump jack staging installed on the back of the house, so this was the place to start. The windows on the front can wait till later, as they are covered by the porch roof and out of the weather.

Installing the exterior window trim on the logs is a long process, and one that I debuted back during the summer when I trimmed out the two exterior doors. Using a guide jig and my large router, I routed out the surface of the logs next to the windows to allow the trim to set flat against the wood, and even with the outside surface of the window bucks. This was time consuming at best and difficult at worst. I am afraid that I neglected to take pictures during the process, but if you review the photos of the door trim installation from August 19 you can see the basic procedure.

Once I had the bulk routering done for each window, I finished up the corners with a chisel. Then, I applied a good bead of Sikaflex to the seam between window buck and logs, and covered the surfaces with Pella SmartFlash rubberized flashing tape, which works well at sealing over the windows' installation flanges. I repeated this procedure on all three windows in the back of the house. This took the entire morning and part of the early afternoon to complete.

Using the last of the light of the day, I managed to cut and install the 5/4 x 3-1/2" pine window trim around each window, finishing up just at 4:30 with the last vestiges of natural light. I sealed beneath each piece of trim with more Sikaflex.

I promise to get some pictures of the completed trim soon, and will post them here.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2006

Another entry for my Work Shoe Hall of Fame...

I was walking outside yesterday when I realized one of my feet was getting wet. I had become increasingly concerned about the condition of my work boots for some weeks now, as the summers' construction work had certainly taken its toll.

I bought these boots in late March of this year, and wore them every day through all aspects of the construction. I wore the toes out from too much kneeling, and patched them with fiberglass a few months ago; the fiberglass quickly wore away too.

Now, it seems, the sole has cracked across the width, allowing the ingress of water. Time for a new pair. Wet feet are not acceptable. I hate having to get new ones and let go of these old friends, which are nicely broken in and comfortable, but one can you do. I placed the order for an identical pair, knowing that before long, the new ones would be as well-loved as the old--much as these ones replaced the ones before them, about which I was similarly melancholy.

Waxing poetic over work boots...sorry for the odd diversion. I'll get back to work soon.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2006

I worked on odds and ends all day today: installing the final window grilles in the French doors, remaining windows, and front door--everything except the trapezoid windows, which I'll do later.

I adjusted the French doors so that they'd close and operate properly, installed some baseboard that I had removed while doing the stairs, and a host of small things in that vein. I also spent some time preparing for Thanksgiving tomorrow, which we were hosting at the house.

Outside, Bob continued work on the chimney, and made slow but steady progress upwards. The bottom section is built of 4" solid concrete block, which will later be faced with brick; the block is to help support the weight of the firebox above, however. We included a thimble and second flue in the chimney to allow for installation of a woodstove in the basement someday, if we so chose.

There probably won't be any updates for a day or two, with Thanksgiving in there--and I don't plan to do much on the house on Friday either, but I'll be back shortly thereafter. See you then, and happy Thanksgiving!

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2006

Today, Bob started the big chimney!

Yesterday, he had prepared for this big event by having some materials (blocks and bricks) delivered, and setting up his equipment and retrieving additional materials needed for the job. This morning, finally, he started laying the block for the base of the chimney. The first days' work--about 3' of block--wasn't too exciting, and I don't have a picture to share at this point. I'll get some later, though.

I had a mixed-bag kind of day. Originally, I had thought I might attack the beginnings of the stair railing, but I just didn't feel like getting into this today. I spent some time in the morning screwing the stair risers to the treads from behind, predrilling each hole and driving in the screws. I also added more screws and shims to support the stairs against the inside wall and stiffen it further.

Then, I headed to the shop and spent an hour or two applying poly to most of the remaining window and door grilles; all that remained was the grilles for the trapezoid windows, which I planned to take care of after Thanksgiving. I left these to dry, and bopped around the house doing this or that for a while afterwards--I'm not even sure what I did, but I wasn't overly productive. Bob was chatty today, and I managed to spend a bit of time talking. I guess I did spend some time doing some boat stuff for an hour or two in the afternoon.

Late in the afternoon, after little of any true progress inside, I brought all the window grilles up to the house for hopeful installation. Instead, I decided to truly finish the pantry: I installed the remaining door pulls on the upper cabinets, turned one door around to change the way it opened, and switched out two mis-matched doors with the proper ones that we had bought later. Then, I installed drawer pulls on the drawer fronts I had trimmed the other day, and installed the drawer fronts. This completed the pantry cabinets.

I unpacked more stuff into the evening, including the liquor cabinet, wine rack, and other things.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2006

Much as I had hoped otherwise, it had by now become terribly clear that the stair building elves were apparently too busy to tackle my job. Therefore, it was with an audible sigh of resignation that I decided that today was the day that I, rather than the elves, had to build the finished interior stairs.

Having never done this before, I was, I think, justifiably apprehensive, and no matter what I knew it would be a long, complicated process that I'd have to complete in a single day--at least once I progressed far enough that I had to remove the temporary stair treads.

I began with the skirtboard on the inside wall of the stairs. Using a framing square and the rise and run dimensions of my stairs, I made a pattern of the top and bottom of this skirtboard, and from there was eventually able to determine an overall length and shape for this piece. I had only two, 1x12-14' boards on hand, so unrecoverable mistakes were not an option.

The piece I ended up with fit fairly well, though I immediately wished I'd allowed it to extend further at the bottom. However, this was not unrecoverable by any means, so I tacked the board to the studs with some finish nails, and then shimmed between the stair stringer and the skirt board to secure it firmly; finally, I drove screws through the stringer, shims, skirtboard, and into the studs to secure the stairs to the wall.

Before I secured the inner skirtboard, however, I determined that it would work as a pattern for the outer board, saving me some work. So I traced the outline on my second board before installing the first one, and then cut out the second one. As it turned out, I probably should have done this differently, though the mistake was a minor one in the overall scheme.

Next, I turned my attention to the riser boards. At this stage, I had to remove the old stair treads, which fortunately wasn't too bad a task with a hammer and flat bar. But there was no going back now: I had to finish the stairs today.

After measuring the risers, I trimmed my riser blanks to the correct width on my table saw. Then, I carefully measured for the length of the risers, including accounting for the miter cut at the outer end, and cut the risers to length at a 45° angle on my miter saw. I nailed the risers in place, standing on the narrow stair stringers to work my way up.

With that done, I temporarily placed the outer skirt board in place, and tightly against the tips of the miter cuts on the risers. When it was properly aligned, I tacked it in place with a couple nails. Now, it was time for the true trick of this trade: the "Jesus Board". Bob taught me this technique for laying out the skirt board, which he learned many years ago from his mentor, Bunny Brann.

The Jesus Board is a simple device made from a scrap of wood, and shaped vaguely like a tuning fork. Basically, it incorporates a slot the same width as the thickness of the skirt board (3/4"), and allows one to transfer the line for the long point of the riser miter to the outside of the skirt board, where it is needed in order to cut the miters. It is also used to transfer the line for the tread cuts on the skirt as well.

I made one version of the board, and it worked well for the riser mark, but I found that it wasn't wide enough to mark the stair tread cut, since the stringer was set quite far back in thanks to the stud wall on the outside of the stairs. So I made a wider board from another scrap of material, only to break off the outer side on my first mark. The third time's a charm, though, and my third version--larger than the other two--worked well and saw me through the entire process.

At each tread and riser location, I slipped the board--a nice tight fit--over the skirtboard and tightly against the riser. Then, I marked the outside of the skirtboard on the back side of the Jesus Board, which would be the long point for my miter cut on the skirt. Then, I slipped the board over the tread stringer and marked the outside of the skirtboard accordingly. This left me with a series of marks that corresponded with the locations of the cuts required to make the skirtboard fit.

I cut out the skirtboard afterwards, using a circular saw to do first the straight cuts, then the miter cuts. This was tedious and difficult, but eventually it was done, and I was pleased to find that the skirtboard fit quite well; it would have fit perfectly but for the imperfection in my skilsaw cuts.

Why the name, you ask? Well, the story goes that no one really knows, but as Bob says Bunny said, "Jesus, it works good.".

Once I nailed the skirtboard in place, my task was nearing completion--and the worst was over by far. By now, it was late afternoon and turning into evening, but I still had to cut the treads to length, and then round over the outer cut edge where it overhung the skirtboard by 3/4" (to match the overhang above the risers). Finally, I nailed the treads in place, working my way up the stairs. I only tacked the first tread in place, since I'd have to remove it to install newel post later on.

It sure was nice to have this project behind me. Who needs elves?

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2006

I spent some of the morning working on the window grilles. I collected all the grilles that I poly'd the other day, and installed them in the appropriate windows at the house. For each grille, I had to drill out some plastic plugs located in the window sashes to allow the grille pins to fit, and then inserted the grilles. Of course I washed the windows first.

The triangular window in the bedroom presented a more challenging installation thanks to its height and the poor access with the bed in the way. Plus, I had to install what amounted to glazing points in the window to hold the grille in place. This was complicated by the fact that to reach the window, I opened the lower windows and stood on the stool, hanging on with one hand and trying to work with the other. I could have moved all the furniture and dragged a good-sized ladder upstairs instead, but that didn't seem worthwhile.

First, I had to hold the grille in place and mark its intersections with the window jamb. Then, I inserted small metal points between the glass and the jamb, using a plastic tool supplied with the grille. Then, I placed the grille in position and tried to actually get it to fit between the metal points--all one-handed. I was glad to be done with this one.

We were amazed at the difference in appearance caused by the grilles. You wouldn't think that such a simple thing could make so much difference. Nice.

The only other house project I completed today was to install a floor outlet behind the couch, and beneath one of the tables. I had planned for this outlet during the wiring stage, and had left a large coil of spare wire beneath the floor for this future use. Now that we knew where the furniture would be, and where we wanted the outlet, it was time to install it so that we could have some lamps near the couch.

Installation was straightforward. I cut a rectangular hole through the floor in the proper location, after checking to make sure I'd end up between floor joists and that the hole wouldn't interfere with any existing wiring. Then, I inserted an "old work" box and secured it from the top with screws, and wired up the outlet normally, using a brass face plate over the top.

Before I forget, here are some pictures of the back porch, all roofed and complete for now. In the spring, I'll build the screen frames.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2006

It's another boring log with little action and no pictures! Someone fire that writer.

We had errands to run this morning, and didn't get home till after 1. However, our errands were successful, and, among other things, I managed to get the third set of shelves for the pantry, so I wasted little time assembling the new shelf unit and installing it in the pantry. Later in the afternoon, I reorganized some of the supplies to take advantage of the newly-created space.

We spent an hour or so late in the afternoon working outside to clean up a bit. Bob had left piles of scrap and other discarded material around the back of the house where he had been working on the porch, and a lot of shingle bundle wrapping and backing paper from the ice & water shield had managed to blow all around the property, which added a lovely appearance to things.

Now, I've been paying Bob on an hourly basis, and have taken care of the cleanup myself throughout the entire build process (why pay him to clean up?), so I wasn't upset at the mess; I just hadn't had a chance to get out and clean it up before now, partly thanks to the lousy weather of the past week. Still, it was nice to pick up a bit. I still have a large pile of mixed scrap to deal with (wood, metal, shingles, etc), as well as several piles of unused or partially used and weathered lumber left over from various parts of the build. At some point, I need to move all of this away from the house, probably down somewhere near the shop. Right now, though, it wasn't quite a priority. At least the scrap piles were generally neat and out of the way.

I spent what remained of the afternoon (since it got dark shortly after finishing up the outdoor cleanup) unpacking some more boxes and working on a variety of small tasks indoors, including setting up a new microwave we bought, rewiring an ancient electric clock for our kitchen, and some other minor things.

Stick with me. There's still a bit more interesting stuff on the way (stairs, another bathroom to tile and complete, and some outdoor trim and finish work), but it's also clear that this project is slowly wrapping up.

I owe you some exterior pictures of the completed back porch roof and structure, don't I. I'll try to remember to take a few soon.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2006

Once again, we experienced howling winds overnight; the wind blew one of the French doors open at 4AM this morning (it was almost time to get up anyway). Later, the rains came once again--just what we needed.

It was not an exciting day of progress. I can't think of any major things accomplished, actually. Still, I was busy all day. I sorted through some of the stuff in the basement, installed a dimmer switch on the dining room light, and looked through the boxes of window grilles in the basement with the thought of preparing them for installation.

Later in the day, when the rain ended, I moved the camper to its winter storage spot on the other side of the shop--a process that takes longer than it might seem, with the need to install the hitch in the truck; hitch up; move; unhitch; remove the hitch from the truck. Moving the RV meant that for the first time since March, I actually had a view up towards the house from my office; the view had been blocked by the camper, which had been parked 10' from the office.

Afterwards, I moved our spare refrigerator up to the basement in the house, and then applied polyurethane to a number of the hardwood window grilles, which I brought down to the shop. This took about 2 hours, but I did most of the grilles needed for the normal windows in the house. Soon, I'll repeat the process with the grilles for the doors, and trap windows.

I know I did more than this today, but I can't remember anything else specific. And so it goes on some days...

Mostly, I guess I'm just procrastinating working on the interior staircase.

Sorry: no pictures of this excitement!

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2006

Today, I installed wire shelving in the large closet in Heidi's office. I used the same materials as those in the upstairs closet--metal shelf brackets and supports, with 12' wire shelving (12" wide). Installation was straightforward, though somehow I ended up two wall brackets short, despite what I had thought was careful counting. Oh well. I'll pick up the additional brackets on my next trip somewhere.

I continued in the office with the bifold closet doors--two sets, with louvered tops and paneled bottoms. These are pretty easy to install. The doors made quite a difference in the appearance of the room.

Late in the morning, I installed one final 4" recessed can on the front porch ceiling--which I hadn't installed sooner because when I first installed the cans, I found that I had purchased a can that was missing important parts (like mounting brackets) by accident. This brought the total to four cans spread evenly across the porch ceiling; these cans not only light the porch softly with their small 40-watt bulbs, but also provide a warm glow to the front of the house at night. As I mentioned earlier, I haven't had luck getting a good night photo of the house.

I also installed an additional spotlight on the front of the house, tucked under the porch overhang. We like the spotlights because it enables us to keep an eye on the dogs when they go out at night; with frequent coyote "hearings", we need to take a little care with our marshmallow dogs.

Installing the spotlight was made more difficult by the fact that I couldn't find screws to attach the fixture strap to the metal wiring box (since someone--I don't know who--stole those screws for another installation earlier in the week). I managed to find some screws in the shop that worked, and successfully installed the spotlight.

Through the remainder of the afternoon, I split my time between some random unpacking and organization, cleaning the camper (steam-clean the carpet), and various other related and unrelated tasks. This finally brought to a close the transition between our camper life and house life, as I wrapped up the winterization and prepared to move the camper to another storage area on site to make room for an additional boat arriving here on Monday from Long Island Sound.

It hasn't been the most productive of weeks, and surely these latest logs lack much in the way of true interest. But it's all part of the process, and work continues--if at a slightly different pace this week thanks to the continuing efforts to get truly settled. It is certainly much more difficult to work in the house now, given that it's a place of habitation with lots of finished surfaces and no longer a construction zone. Even the smallest project requires several trips to the basement to retrieve a tool, or some part, or a screw, or what have you. But that's how it must be, and slowly I am crossing off item after item on my punch list.

Please click here to see the logs from November 1 to November 15.