S and V

So what have we been doing since, oh, I don't know, since we graduated from college almost 40 years ago? Staining. Staining. And even more staining. Oh, and varnishing. Varnishing. Varnishing. And even more varnishing.

And we're not even done staining or varnishing.



Ann has even varnished after she should have filed a Worker's Comp Claim. Last night after getting home after dark from, you guessed it, varnishing, she parked the Gator in the garage. She collected four eggs on the way back and was gingerly cradling them in her left hand. In her right she closed the garage door.

Since the garage door, like everything else around here, doesn't work as it has no handle, she grabbed the opening between two upper panels and proceeded to pull the door closed.

Unfortunately, she forgot to remove her hand before the opening between the panels became non-existant leaving her fingers squished.

If it hadn't been so painful, it might have been funny.

12 hours in a cold pack helped with the pain. The picture remains.

(Editor's Note: She tells me this evening that she looked at the door and swore she could see where her fingers indented the panels.) Photos tomorrow.

Luci, You Got Some Staining to Do

Yes, we have lollygagged, footdragged and whined enough.

We have some staining to do--a whole lotta staining to do. We were even going to stain on Thanksgiving morning, but our lollygagging overtook us then as well. But yesterday and today we have been machines.

Ann varnishes (two coats with a light sanding in between) upstairs in the bedroom previously stained boards (pictures tomorrow). Pith Boy works on fresh boards downstairs.

The stain, as reported earlier, is sweet citrussy smelling. Well, that's outdoors. Indoors it's like getting squirted in the eye with a combination of lemon juice and battery acid. Plus it makes my nose run. This is in keeping with our organic approach to house building but does not reflect well upon the outcome, at least as far as the boards are concerned.

We will be running at the nose for the forseeable future.

In other news we made a major shift in who's going to do the tile. At this moment we have no one, but hope to have an installer by early next week.

In the meantime we'll be astaining.

Happy Thanksgiving to You, Dear Reader

One of the (many) challenges of building a tight, environmentally conservative house is what to do with air circulation. The solution is Fantech, a heat and energy recovery ventilator. This unit will provide fresh air year 'round without the concommitant loss of heat.

The beige unit is against the wall and the tube above it is connected to the bathroom, I believe, where the stinkiest air resides. Vegetation will be a challenge to grow near the exhaust.


The system is filtered and will require a little maintenance so I will be returning for college credits to be able to live in this house.

Last week I was doing some staining in the basement when a dust pan tipped over on the floor above me. The explosive sound seemed as though a duck hunter shot its prey in the living room.

So we asked Charlie to explore soundproofing the basement. The guys are prepared to do this themselves instead of calling back the insulation team.

Exterior near completion

The exterior of the house is quickly coming to completion. And just in time too. The last three days up here have been dreary and drizzly.

It is November after all, late November at that. And I guess we have to face the music eventually. But it's still depressing to see cars with their headlights on at 1 pm.

Jay and Dennis finished the stone work yesterday.

And today they're working on the front deck . . .
. . . while I sit inside all cozy and warm.

When They Leave the Theater, They Won't Be Humming the Lighting

Meet Brian.

Brian owns Neblock Electric in a town we call (up in these parts at least) Lando, short for Land O' Lakes.

Brian is the unsung hero of this operation as he has received very little (if any) mention on this site. But his contribution is substantial. He's installing the nerve center of the place from electric to audio to cable to satellite to phone. We should be ready for just about anything, including wireless.

We're very glad Brian's contributing to the house project.

Brian's real love is music, well, after his wife of course. He plays lead guitar in the JoJo Marsh
Band. Check out their website by clicking here. And see them in action here.

Cutting and Laying Stone

As with all major projects, there are fits and starts and this one is no exception. The stone for the exterior was ordered correctly, but somewhere along the way the corner pieces got mixed with the straight across pieces. So when it came time to do the corners, not enough corner pieces were available.

So that all got rectified over the weekend and Jay set to work on the two exterior corners on the water side of the house.

With winter predicted to finally arrive on Wednesday, the guys hustled to get the stone up before then.

Jay has had experience in this kind of work, but not this specific product. He says it's easy to work with.

But the work is quite detailed.

Sol is Our New Special Friend

From across the way.


All the solar panels are up!

They're not only looking good, but the guys said that they could feel the panels warm up in the sun. Kindly note that even on a late November day, the shadows from the trees still don't touch the panels.

And what's going to provide the electricity to run the pumps to heat the water which heats the house? If you guessed another solar panel, you guessed correctly. Here, Marc holds a 40w panel that will be installed on the far left of the array to do just that.

No Sun Today; Solar Panels Go Up

What does Emma do while construction goes on (look closely)?

She waits. Oh, she also greets and sleeps, occasionally she digs and sleeps. But mostly she waits. What a sweet dog.

What is she waiting for?

Today she was waiting for me to get done taking pics of the solar panel guys.

Weather wise it was London today. Dreary and cold, not exactly an ideal time for solar panels to go up (one would think). But the key criteria, as Marc pointed out, was that the winds were calm.

Four up today; four tomorrow.

The Heat is On (Sung to the tune of The Heat is On)

As Emma and I were rounding out of the final turn this morning, we noticed a light colored smoke coming from the back of the house. At first I thought Jay was cutting stone, but as we drew closer it was clear that something else was afoot.

Could it be? Exhaust heat? Yup the boiler is boiling and radiant floors are radiatin'. And even better the boiler is virtually noiseless.

I decided to stay all day and stain. (Is this what they mean by suSTAINability?)

And not only the floors proved wonderful, but Bob is busy installing the kitchen cabs, so that the cabinets are . . . uhhh cabbing?

In and Out; Up and Down

As you may be able to tell from the following images, we are in the midst of yet another stretch of spectacular weather. The thermometer dives into the 20's overnight, but comes back to 50 plus during the day.

Pictured below, Marc from SDK Solar readies the roof for the panels.

In the front of the house the deck railings are being prepared. Jay looks askance at the photographer to ensure that he follows his 'no butt crack' policy--that is, when it comes to photos. When it comes to evenings around the house, all bets are off.

The dappled sunlight plays upon the building's exterior.


And inside the cabinets are being installed. Here is the guest kitchen. To the right will go a small refrigerator for guests. When my brothers visit they may need something with a little more substance.

Comin' Together

The inclusion of the stone on the bumpout not only completes its exterior look, it seems to pull all the colors together.

And the porch corner column gives it some height.

Inside the kitchen cabinets have been delivered and the walls have received their initial covering.

The Beauty Part

The long awaited treatment for the walls begins this week. Here's Tim from T2Technologies applying something to kill bugs I think. Or maybe trying to grow plants. I interrupted his assault with about 26 questions about those stilts.

For those of similar spirit, . . .

. . .Yes, they're easy to learn.

. . .Walking on stilts is like riding a bike.

. . .No, he hasn't fallen to the ground, but has knocked up against a wall. (NOTE: Two seconds after answering that question, he stumbled but didn't fall.)

. . .No, he doesn't moonlight in parades.


And the early glimpses of his work whet our appetites for more.


Outside the weather has been nothing short of spectacular as you can see by the sky in this shot. Jay and Dennis finish up the stucco outside and soon will begin the last external siding application, stone.

Stain Alive

Over the weekend the Tom Sawyeresque staining crew was hard at work diligently applying the stain everywhere they could (and some places they weren't supposed to!).

Oh Pith has mentioned the name of this stain before, but feels as though it is worth another mention because it is so easy to work with and oh, by the way, sweet smelling.

It's Timber Ox Green and here's their website. For you Illinoisans, they have a store in Libertyville.

Below one of their proponents applies stain on the ground floor windows.

Even More Improvements

The latest (and final?) change to the windows facing the marsh has been installed and I must say, it looks stunning, both from inside and out.

Jay (l) and Dennis (r) continue their assault on the cedar siding, which if I may be allowed also looks grand. We are very fortunate to have such great builders working on our house.

I tiptoed out on the former catwalk to take a shot down its length. We have been assigned to stain the decking this weekend so it should be traversable Monday.

Yes, Tom Sawyer and his staining gang will be hard at work this weekend putting the finishing touches on the windows and putting the beginning touches on the decking and the jamb extensions. (I don't know what those last things are but it sounds like a great name for a rock band.

Out and In

I have finally had it with my camera, a Canon, after they refused to honor the warranty because it was purchased on eBay (through an eBay store I might add). I'll save that discussion with them for another day, but in the meantime Ann purchased a new one for my birthday.

Here it is. In addition to the 8x optical zoom, image stabilization and Leica lens, I picked this because it was shockproof when dropped from 5 feet (Linda please note) and can take pics underwater (up to 10 feet.) St. Croix here we come!

But it also allowed me to catch up on the house progress. The interior ceiling is now painted and the Erthclay walls will be going up next week.

You may be sick, by now, of hearing about this from thith writer, but he doesn't care. You'll hear some more and like it.

The living room wall that meets the eye at the entrance will be an attempt to duplicate the color and shape (although impressionistically) of wild rice in August. The other walls including the kitchen will be acacia, the color of rice about now. The bedroom will feature an adobe/sierra/siena look and the bath will be some other color that has a funny name.

Tim from T2Techniques will be spending the week applying these ideas.

But much has also been accomplished outside.

Here's a snap of the 'back side' of the house (facing north). It shows the screen porch on the left and the deck for the hot tub in the center of the frame. To the right the remnants of Scott's futile efforts to thwarts squirrels remain.

By the way, when Dennis was excavating for the deck posts he uncovered a drainage tile that was packed solid with sunflower seeds.

Ann holds up a stone sample that will be installed some time next week (weather permitting.)

A little closer look at the deck and exterior wall.

Staging

All of the time spent planning, predicting, ordering and delivering pays off handsomely when building a house.

Stuff that arrives late or incomplete or misordered means doing the two steps forward, one step back shuffle. Because of a number of things, that has not occurred here. Or if it has it's impossible to notice. And that's because things continue to plug along swimmingly.

Here's a case on this point. Ann wanted a special paint for the ceiling on the main floor and the walls on the ground floor. The drywall guy was going to just do the standard apartment manager's off white color. The new color was going to take a couple extra days to get ready from a store in Antigo--The Green Design Center (click here for their web site).

The store and the painter worked together to get all the products together and at the house as soon as the painter was ready to roll.

So the interior is being primed today, painted tomorrow. And the Erthclay will be delivered tomorrow as well as a visit from the installer to receive the product. And the progress is not limited to the interior.

Jay is busy doing prep for the stone work which should begin on Thursday. And below Dennis and Bob have built the deck for the hot tub and are now installing the vertical cedar that was so expertly stained.

You might also note the supports on the roof which will receive the solar panels sometime in the next week or two.

Our (Current) Digs

You, faithful reader, have been subject to many things in this space. And if you have had the misfortune of hearing directly from the Pith, you have no doubt been regaled with all the deficiencies, quirks, and inconveniences from living in our temporary quarters.

There is one member of our little family who is thrilled to be here.

In the past Luna could only look longingly through the screen door to the bird room. Sometimes she longed for hours.

In our temporary digs here, the bird cage is readily available and accessible. The birds, much to her chagrin, are not.

That does not prevent her from looking longingly at them or even finding a new perch to get a 'bird's eye' view.

She will no doubt be the only one disappointed when we move back (sometime this winter).