Rick and Ellen's Homestead

[rick91351]

I have never seen anyone put spray foam on the interior studs where the electrical went through.  Is that a regional thing? 

From my experience, normally you leave the wire slack in the wall, you do tack it close to the receptacle but loose enough to be pulled if needed from the box.  The spray foam is usually used for exterior walls, to prevent air movement from outside to in, not between stud cavities.

The foam is to act as a seal and stop air flow that will find its way to outlets and switches.  Per Idaho code do not know which verity of the electrical code they are currently working.  Your Romex has to be stapled secure within six inches of the box if I remember correctly.  My electrician I used on this job I had never used before.  The state inspector sure likes him.  I do know that and likes his work.  My go to guy let his licence laps and now owns a coffee shop.  I still call him if I have a question.... I even offered to pay to reinstate his license.       

By the way the insulation company I used is known for going way above and beyond the requirements.  The building inspectors in the counties he works in all they say he always treats everyone the same and goes extra mile in everything he does.  Has all his paper work turned in and filed.  Idaho did accept Obama Bucks for energy conservation so that really stepped up the requirements here especially in new construction.  He stays small so he can keep and eye on everyone and everything so he says.  And he does and is real hands on.   He himself ran an air dam across where porches are on that house.  That is not required but shuts off drafts in the attic yet allows it to breath.  Under the house when they were finished with the floor joists they unfolded the sheeting and laid it down.  They were here Thanksgiving morning right at day light with a huge crew and did the walls.  This is up in the mountains and he has a crew here at day light!!  It is a good hour and half drive and they are here Thanksgiving morning at day light......  He does keep and eye on everyone and makes sure they are doing what he wants.  Then he will be over here or over there.    When my drywall crew I had accepted their bid and they fell through.  He handed me the name of a company.  Then called them to made sure they could come.

Off topic....  But concerning the 'crafts' now that they are all pretty much done.  My concrete guy I have worked with before and just a great guy to be around.  Great story teller when you are all bent over tying rebar.  Sure takes your mind off things...  Wink!!  My framer  / helper / labor /  friend / Pastor - we just think the wold of him.    Insulation company all Mexican 'nough said about them  -  Siding company all Mexican they were here on time and stayed until dark every day.  They did a good job or okay job.  Down side was communication.  When one person on a crew can speak English sort'a and I do not do Spanish any way shape nor form.     Plumbing was a family owned business and third and forth generation plumbers and have owned the company that long.  They as well were great to work with and be around but where not here at the crack of dawn nor did they stay until last light.  Inspector who finaled  it the other day did not like the overflow on the hot water heater pan but passed it.  Said he was going to have a talk with them.   Roofers were hired and glad I did but were sort of hit and miss at showing up.  Flat got lied to by the owner on materials.  He kept telling me they were waiting on the metal.  I guess he did not know -  I know the manager where they had the metal rolled.  It had been sitting waiting for them for a couple weeks.  He even tried to get the owner of the lumber yard I use to haul it up and get it off the rack.  The dry wall guys - did work me in ahead of another pressing job.  In fact the day after they got back from northern Idaho I had a dry wall crew and a dry wall delivery truck here.  The HVAC guys wow they as well were great.  The weather had turned cold and it was a cold wind blowing but they stuck it out way way after dark.....  I set up both my lamp stands and they set up what they had brought It was pretty miserable for a day or two on them.  They all were committed to another job the next day when they finished up here.  The hour and a half drive out and it was past midnight when I helped them load up.  All in all - all my subs I hired were just pretty dog gone good to work with and I sure would not be afraid to do another house with them.  Fact been sort of toying with the idea.....             

[rick91351]

Down by the canyon today we came across an Osprey sitting in a dead fir in the canyon.....  High up - watching down into the water.  It knew I was there, but did not let me bother it.   



Two one year old Orioles were making life rough on it......  both were taking turns diving down on it. 



 

[rick91351]

Because we ran out of edged flooring boards.  And pondering the fact that the out feed table at my tablesaw was covered with sanded barn lumber.   I made a productive executive decision.  We had to loose the barn lumber.  SO!!!.......  The chair rails sit out a little further than I intended and that bothers me.  But once I get the windows trimmed and framed they might look better not as obtrusive.  There is going to be another curio shelf there on the long wall.  I did not make it yet as I did not want to short myself lumber for the infill.       





The window frame is four quarter pine - It is there just for fill when I do the window trim. 

This stuff is so fun to work with but stressful.   As I always look at this these boards - 'everyone has a story to tell'.  So you just try your best to bring out its tale.  I had no intent to trim out knot holes if they were interesting.



Nor reject or cut up a board with several woodpecker holes.  These types of holes are often caused by a male drumming or to attract attention  himself.  Hey baby listen to me!!!  They will find a spot where they can make the loudest racket and be plainly seen.  In doing so they also often end up with a nest hole...... No matter their reasoning be it finding burrowing insects or finding a mate -  they are just plan distructived.     



Here is another hole same board - the dimple down by the outlet.   



I trimed out the peninsula front making a panel using my Kreg Pocket Hole Jig and pocket hole screws and Tite-Bond II glue.  It is not set yet as I am undecided how I am going to attach it.   



All in all a couple productive days......   

     

[Windpower]

I really like the way the barn wood looks

I may try the same thing someday when I run out of other project to finish on the house and yard

we have an old tobacco barn that would make great siding for the space above the garage

what kind of sander did you use ?

[Patrick]

I agree,really nice work.Just looks great!

[rick91351]

I really like the way the barn wood looks

I may try the same thing someday when I run out of other project to finish on the house and yard

we have an old tobacco barn that would make great siding for the space above the garage

what kind of sander did you use ?

The sander I used on that is a PORTER-CABLE 362V 4-Inch by 24-Inch Variable Speed Belt Sander.  I have also a slightly smaller one like a Porter Cable 3 X21 it is no where the belt sander of this 4 X 24.  With the 4 X 24 you can just fly through stuff - fact you have to watch it or you will get too aggressive. 

The old tobacco barn sounds interesting!!  Of course in Idaho tobacco is an unknown crop....      I have read about and seen photos of tobacco sheds and the tobacco poles.  What kind of lumber and how wide and thick.  Is the lumber still pretty sound?  If it is I would be making plans if I were you. 

   

[Windpower]

The 'siding' is 1X of variable width from ~ 6" to ~12"

it is very weathered and some pieces are too far gone -- it was put up in a hurry to help finance the replacement of the dairy heard about 60 years ago (they lost their heard to Bangs disease)

There is a fair amount of salvageable wood there though.....

just whar I need another project 

it does really look good 

[rick91351]

The 'siding' is 1X of variable width from ~ 6" to ~12"

it is very weathered and some pieces are too far gone -- it was put up in a hurry to help finance the replacement of the dairy heard about 60 years ago (they lost their heard to Bangs disease)

There is a fair amount of salvageable wood there though.....

just whar I need another project 

it does really look good 

If you like that tobacco barn lumber at all I would carefully remove it and store it.  Ellen and I tore that old barn down in the late seventies - early eighties.  Knowing someday we would be doing something with it.   It sat in a hay mow in another barn for several - several years.  A couple things about that old barn we tore down the lumber most all of it was very very tight when we tore it down making it worth it.  I am finding it still to be very sound. 

The other reason there is lots of sentimental value - dad worked over at the Engleman sawmill during the depression time exchanged time for lumber.    Ellen and I tore it down  knowing someday we were going to build a house or small cabin up here.  We never intended to move up here full time.  As we got older it seemed the thing to to.  So the house morthed a lot larger.           

[OlJarhead]

Love it!

[rick91351]

Last winter I wrote or posted when I was plowing snow with my four wheeler that my logging excavator buddy up here was talking about putting a snow plow on my International  1566.  I usually keep it over there in case he needs another big tractor.  Well it happened - he built it and got it mounted.  I had to bring it over to skid some trees I sneak down and thin.......







He moved the weights from the front end to the rear and mounted them on the three point.  The drive tires have fluid and I also have chains AHHH!! Tire chains not the logging chain hooked and wrapped up there on the three point - But then that is my chain as well      



Thanks Pat.....

[Pine Cone]

Everything is looking great!  The barn wood looks right at home.

I like the snow plow, even if I am more concerned with heat rather than cold this month.  Should come in handy next winter and many more winters to come.  Nice that it is symetric.  Years ago I was using a road grader to plow snow and hit some ice and the single straight angled blade pushed the grader off the road into the ditch.  Had to use a Cat D4 to get it back on the road. 

[rick91351]

Everything is looking great!  The barn wood looks right at home.

I like the snow plow, even if I am more concerned with heat rather than cold this month.  Should come in handy next winter and many more winters to come.  Nice that it is symetric.  Years ago I was using a road grader to plow snow and hit some ice and the single straight angled blade pushed the grader off the road into the ditch.  Had to use a Cat D4 to get it back on the road. 

Thanks Pine Cone been wondering if you are around.  I have not seen your 'Tag' lately.  The barn lumber was a lot of fun.  Lot of sentimental stuff there.  When I finish the curio shelves and get to move in and I unpack my what - nots and dust collectors it ought to be pretty neat or fun in there.   

The heat and lighting storms and the threat of fire might be the reason I decided to unveil the plow right now......       We sure have our fingers crossed and pray a lot.  This little swath right in here is the only spot left standing after last years inferno Elk and Pony Complexes

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/map/3616/12/

and a scar from the 92 Foothills Fire

https://www.mapwith.us/item/m/V6894/i/A132008

[Redoverfarm]

Rick that looks like it will cut your plowing by at least 2/3 of the time.  Give you more time to work inside.

[rick91351]

Rick that looks like it will cut your plowing by at least 2/3 of the time.  Give you more time to work inside.

Thanks John.  Up here the past couple winters have been pretty laid back and mild.  There is one on the way - You sort of just know it.

The inside is starting to come together.  The bulk of the fir floor is down and we 'started' on the wainscot.  Then I don't know why it should surprise but the wainscot was going to be so easy!!!  Had the panels cut out and routed.  It looked really really so good in my head.  Wont take any time to knock this out.  Built my first mock up.....  One word Yuck........  Build my second mock up......  And it rated a Yuck - Yuck.  SO we are tooling over to go another direction.   A lot more minimal in appearance.  Built it a mock up yesterday with some old subgrade material.  Ellen came walking by and looked at it and wondered what I was going to do with the knots holes.  GRRR!!!  I think I have to work on my replies after all she in the best helper I got and ever had.  She went to the trailer and was unseen for a hour or so.  I came up with a design that works better and is cleaner and easier to keep clean.

Will use my raised panels in blanket chests and cabinet doors for the new church we were ever find time to build that or make a boat load of blanket chests.   

[rick91351]

Been a few weeks since I posted anything on the house I guess. 

We mounted the second curio shelf in the nook.  It took both of us and the cabinet jack to get it level and set.  Those cabinet jacks are fairly inexpensive and if you remember you own one can really help.  One of those tools you think you might use but what do you do with it after the cabinets are hung.  Great tool when you need that second or third body.    Easy to set and remove I would say it was very well worth the money. 



More barn lumber....  Shows how I inset the chair rails and the shelf.



Front room looking in to the nook.



As I have said with this old lumber every board tells a story.  This was a brand of my grandfathers.  I still own that 'iron'. 



Horses or something was 'cribbing' on this board some time in its life.....



This shows the fir floor in the nook and filled ready to sand the other boards are the base to the wainscot



Fir flooring stored in the master bedroom - master bedroom has been filled and ready to sand as well.



Last of the fir flooring that I bought off of my buddy up here.  It is stickered and getting a climatized to the house.  It is already dry.....Needs edged and planed....  We have the hallway and both spare bed rooms and closets left to do.  We have our finger crossed we have enough. 



Looking across there the other day and took this photo and hit me 'Holy cow we have put down a lot of wood.....'



And then this one with all the lumber I have pulled and waiting to be planed.  That is now plained and edged and most cut up for stuff.   

[rick91351]

Electric Ray made an executive decision he wants the electrical covered so he can get his permit finaled.  The wainscot is holding him back.  I am getting tired of flooring so ----- Well I finally got started on the wainscot.  For a couple years was toying with this design in my head using raised panels as I stated that went south.  But may resurrect them in the bedroom as I am understanding this a little to lot better.     . 



As I have said about woodwork.  Every board has a story and it is a woodworkers job to bring that out of the board.  Where this does not occur so much is vertical grain fir and oak.  You see one peice you pretty much seen it all.  Sad .....  One reason I love knotted up - limby - stained pine.

Sid the sloth the guardian of the kitchen



Same board - He has his eye on you from up above.



When I found this guy I called it The Lion of Judah - had to do some filling sort of hurt the appearance.....



Love this as I am a Far Side Freak -  Gary Larson come back!!!  Looks like one of Larson's animals...



My wood's rendering of a giraffe



Mamma Kangaroo and a Joey



If this is a wood's art exhibit..... there has to be a nude right.  So an example of a Picasso - or a unknown French artist of a impressionism era







     

[Redoverfarm]

As they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

Here is a wall at the cabin which I call the 'Bear Wall".  Sort of funny when I realized that it actually resembled a bear head and showed it to my wife.  She said Wow how did you do that.  I told her I spent all day situating the boards to get that picture.  But she knew me better than that and replied.  You just stuck them up there and that is how they turned out.  I guess though I am addicted to working with wood.  So many possibilities. 

[rick91351]

John forgot about the bear wall. 

I do watch for stuff to use all the time.  Mind like a rusty steel trap....  if the jaws don't get ya...the tetanus will.....  Cough - cough -   

[rick91351]

Lately our strategy has changed somewhat.  We have went from pulling a bunch of random boards and planing them.  Stacking them and using out of them.....  Now in the evening some where usually around dark thirty just before we come up from the house.  We get good idea what we will need for the next day and I write a list of what we will need.  Then first thing the following morning I go down and pull rough lumber to be planed.....



The wainscott is finished in the dining area. 



Laying out the wainscot  on the next wall I am undertaking



A two inch cap will cap those short panels beneath the windows and get them locked in to place.  Then I will drop the window apron to the top of the two inch cap.  The apron should stand out almost 3/4 of an inch.  The balance will receive a three inch cap with a rabbet top and bottom to catch and stabilize the stiles and panels.  As I have done on the other wainscott. 

I think I wrote about not using the raised panels I routed out for this project.  Well after a little redesigning and refiguring - and then planing them down to 7/8 of an inch rather than 4/4 or one inch they were.  This allows me to use the same rabbeting we are using on the other wainscot



Taking time now to look back those raised panels - they never would have worked like we wanted them to.  I did not do them very well.  To much verince - you can not do that.  I am finding a sixteenth of an inch can be a mistake noticeable....  But we are getting short on time so what you have to do is avoid those mistakes and make sure they do not happen however when it does happen roll with it.  You can not waste a half day ringing your hands and recutting everything.  You know it is funny looking back at this house.  When you start in it is 100 ft tapes and can of marker paint.  You get it in and squared up and trade that for those flat carpenters pencils sharpened with a knife and a twenty five foot tape.  You measure and mark with broad easy to see pencil marks.   Your calling measurements to who ever is cutting in quarters and eighths mostly.  Now we are down to the inside and small sixteen and fourteen foot tapes, round pencils and sharpened with  a pencil sharpener to a fine point.  You now measure in eighths and sixteenths and thirty seconds of an inch.  You make marks that you can hardly see.  You measure and cut and remeasure and readjust.  DO it now so latter does not occur.

[rick91351]

We got the front room pretty well trimmed out as far as wainscot and windows still need to build the entertainment center.  Got the doors all hung.





We are using two exterior doors that are twins for the mud room.  It is designed and insulated as a area to keep the cold out of the house and warm in.



Moving on to the master bed room we diffidently are using the raised panels with small flat panels above. 



Hopefully we will have this knocked out today 



A side note went on a little fourwheeler ride about dark



Sort of strange got over around the village that late and ran into all kinds of people I know.  Had a good long chat with a few of them.

[OlJarhead]

Looking great!

[rick91351]

Well - we finished the wainscot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Took 60 raised panels and the smaller panels in the master bedroom.  I think I have thee or four raised panels left over.  Good to see them go!!!  Felt so good to get that done! I have not got a count yet on all the flat panels that went in to front room / dining area.      



After that I went back to working in the nook and started sanding barn lumber as I had a spot to cover the electrical  before the electrician can call for an inspection.  One of the reasons we tore down and salvaged the old barn was people were shooting  it. This was like thirty years ago.  Yep we were able to store and hold on to it that long.  I was sanding today and found this.  Proof some one did hit the broad side if a barn......

[UK4X4]

I think I'd leave that and clear resin it in place !  As a feature

[rick91351]

I think I'd leave that and clear resin it in place !  As a feature

I sort of thought of that lest it worry one of the grandkids to remove it 

[Tickhill]

Or add to it! Looking good.