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We opted to put RTA (Ready-to-Assemble) cabinets in the house that we purchased from mycabinetplace.com. As I mentioned in an earlier article, the quality of the RTA cabinets is very good, but with huge savings when you assemble them yourself. I documented receiving the cabinets, but realized this morning I had failed to post about assembling and installing them in the house.
We have learned a few things as we passed this milestone that might be helpful to others:
1. The instructions are only a rough idea of what to do…
The hardware mentioned on the instruction sheet may or […]
Well, since we finished scrubbing all the paint off the floors, we had to wait for delivery of the new products from thestampstore.com. We ordered:
Walnut Acid Stain 2500 Floor Sealer 3000 Floor Sealer Cherry Wax Cherry Wax Applicator – Wooster 12″ Lambswool.
They all finally arrived on Wednesday or so… We were already in the midst of the next project, though, so we continued on with the irrigation system.
Since last May we’ve had a temporary watering system set up for the four pecan, one peach and one nectarine tree that are all planted northeast of the workshop. The […]
Well, after the Christmas break, we got back to it, finishing up the attic insulation.
Initially, we had thought we would subcontract this job, never having attempted it before ourselves. So, we got a quote on the job from a recommended subcontractor. He quoted us a rate of $1.50/sf for R-30 insulation blown in to the attic. For approximately 2600 sf (just the main part of the house — not the WWII museum and research center), this equates to a cost of $3900. We actually wanted more insulation — up to R44, so we decided to see how difficult […]
We have been so very busy on the house that posting has been spotty (we admit it). Here are some photos to give you a view of the work that has happened in the past couple of weeks. It is really starting to look like a home.
Framing complete
First Window installed…
House wrapped… stucco begins.
Stucco in progress…
Window installation…
Stucco on the back begins..
Back porch stucco begins…
Tarpaper going up…
Scaffolding for front gable…
Front door […]
This week our windows arrived…all 23 of them. They ranged in size from 2’x3′ to 3’x6′. The larger sizes were very heavy. Installation was fairly straight forward. We reviewed several videos and how-to sites and reviewed the material from a few books we have.
We prepped the openings by cutting the house wrap. The cut was horizontal at the top of the window, vertical in the middle and ending in an inverted “Y” at the bottom. Each of the flaps were pulled into the window opening and stapled on the inside of the frame. Excess material was cut off.
[…]
I have relearned the military principle of war-Simplicity-many times. I was taught at West point: “Issue clear, concise and simple instructions.” Doing so will minimize the possibility of confusion and enhance effective mission accomplishment. Obviously I failed to observe this principle when directing the Stucco Subcontractor.
What I thought I conveyed(first image): After issuing clear and concise orders my wife and i move to the opposite side of the house to install some more windows……
What the subcontractor heard (second image):
Meanwhile, the sub is busy covering up those expensive cedar beams which have been beveled, stained and neatly installed […]
Today we finished our 3rd full day of framing. Our progress includes 9 completed walls and one completely cut, laid out and ready to frame and erect. With each day we make better progress, capitalizing on lessons learned from previous days. Last night at 2230 hours I realized I needed to frame the garage to house wall at a different height. The garage ceiling is at 8′ and the house at 10’/ There is a 3.5″ step down to the garage, and the garage ceiling joists are trusses at 12″ height. Adding all this together required additional calculations and the […]
First wall almost framed
With quotes as high as $14,500 to frame the house (excluding lumber and material and we already have the roof trusses orderd and paid for) we decided to frame the first floor ourselves. Depending on how it goes we are looking at using a sub-contractor to set the trusses, frame out the room above the garage and add roof sheathing. Rather than using hammer and nails we decided to purchase a framing gun. I purchased a low-end Porter and Cable 30degree framing nail gun. The old compressor I had just was not up to […]
We’ve been in the process of moving our hosting service this past week. As can be expected, there have been a few bumps in the road from one service to another… getting all the data transferred and into the correct format to work with the new system.
We apologize if you have tried to access pages or previous articles on our site and have had difficulty. With any luck, all is complete and everything should be working now.
Thanks for your patience!
Yesterday was a red letter day! We got two of our four pecan trees placed on the Homestead. While the process was going on, I was able to video them. See the progress here:
Preparing the Hole:
Planting the Tree (1st Tree):
Planting the Second Tree:
For more information about transplanting mature pecan trees, check out our previous posts on Mature Pecan Trees and Pecan Trees for the Homestead.
Now that the trees are planted, we know we need to be very diligent about watering them heavily until they are very well established. Initially, we plan to […]
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