Windows!

We finished installing all fifteen windows over Christmas break. He and I were able to do 13 of them alone, and we got some help with the other two that were too big for just the two of us. The last door is supposed to be here but I haven't gotten the call yet. Over the weekend we cleaned out the garage so Frugaldad can access the water heater to start the supply side of the plumbing. I think he has acquired all of the supplies now.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but it's hard to get a minute to blog when the kids are around. The three older ones went back to school today so I making time to update!

Applying flashing tape to the window sill.



Rolling out the flashing tape.



Smoothing out the corners.


Almost ready for the window.


I didn't actually take pictures of the window going in since I was assisting in the lifting, but you'll see one eventually.

Family Time

The weather's been iffy and it's the holidays, after all, so we've been spending some family time together and not getting as much done. Slowly but surely, though, it will get done.

Merry Christmas!

Since we didn't really have time to put up many outside decorations, we decided we could have the world's largest luminaria.




I realize there hasn't been much updating lately, but most of the work has been hard to document. Frugaldad has been working on the rough plumbing in the bathroom and our windows were delivered. Yesterday we installed 5. There are 10 more, and the other door is on order but not due to come in for a while. The first door was installed a couple weeks ago.

The French doors


The first window opening


You can see two windows on the edge of this picture, but this was a failed attempt to take the first picture, because I thought the flash was off.

That's a wrap!

edited 12/7
This weekend Frugaldad framed up the walls for the first floor bathroom, and the doorway in the main wall upstairs.



In this picture you can also see that all the doors and windows are blocked by Tyvek, so to get into the addition you have to go down the ladder in the window well, and then go up the stairs.

He also wrapped the addition in Tyvek home wrap.



The next step is doors and windows! They are ordered and will get installed in a couple weeks.

Today's chore is starting the rough plumbing.

Stairs!

We no longer have to use the ladder to get down into the basement! The stairs are finished.

The roof, however, has been rained and snowed on, but it's nearly done.

The jig is up!

(edited to add a couple more pictures of the stair jigs)

This is how we currently "get down in the hole." It's a ladder, if you couldn't
tell. In the window well. Until last Saturday, the stair opening was covered by sheets of plywood so no one would fall down. Frugaldad framed the walls that go on either side of the stairs and took up the plywood. (For all of you worried about safety, there's still a piece of wood blocking the entrance to the stairs, and strips of wood across the stud walls to keep people from slipping between the studs) This week the main project was the stairs.


Frugaldad took a day off work this week to work on the house, and he cut the stair stringers. Here's the first one of three. He built two jigs to help him cut all the stairs the same.

One of the jigs

The jig in place to cut the next step


Saw on the jig

The other jig

Jig in place




Saw on the other jig




Three stair stringers ready to be lowered through the stairwell window.

Then today, he worked on building the landing of the stairs. There will be a long run of stairs, then a square landing, then two more steps. An aerial view of the framed landing.

The landing from downstairs.


We've been lucky to have my friend Jessica's husband Cliff helping with the roof. He has roofing experience and he's pretty fast! Frugaldad is able to do these other things while Cliff works on the roof. Unfortunately with the time change, there isn't much daylight left at the end of a workday, so work can only be done for a little while each weekday, but I'll post pictures when the roof is all done.

Sheathing and tar paper

The day the trusses went up, it rained and rained, and rained some more. Like four-tenths of an inch. Here in the desert. We put some tarps up over the roof decking and the rain stopped. Inside.

The next day was Saturday, and Frugaldad was able to get almost all the sheathing on, except the rim board and headers over the doors and windows. It was supposed to rain again so he didn't want to risk uncovering the roof and not being able to finish the tar paper if the rain started again. Of course, it ended up being clear all day long so he did the tar paper on Monday instead.
Frugalboy loves to climb on the roof, and he loves to help his dad. Probably in that order. And he's pretty good at banging nails.

Here is the sheathing and tar paper.


The progress this week hasn't been really visible. Frugaldad installed hurricane strapping on the trusses to help keep the roof from lifting off in a windstorm. We've done a lot of clean-up. Tonight (Nov. 1) he framed the first interior wall.