Thank you for your site, it is invaluable to us. Keep up the good work. Marc Wren

Ceiling is complete

Posted to Eschete-Dome by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 5/16/2012 10:27:23 PM

  The ceiling boards are finished!!!! Yeah!!  We are making plans as to how we could move and complete the rest of the work when we are moved.  We really want to get our current home on the market and get out from under 2 mortgages!!! Not to mention 2 electric bills, water bills, etc.  We have everything we need at the Dome to livve comfortably.  Why not move!!!  I am so ready and I know Whitey is too.   Then we have the cat issues.  You see I have 2 sibling cats that have never been outside. I really want to try to expose them to the wonderful outdoors, at least during the day and restrict them to the Utility during the night.  I am not sure how this will work, I am just tired of cat scratching on my furniture.  I love my kitty cats but I don't love the destruction of my furniture or the litter box issues we have had ( Another Story)  Pictures to follow.

Oh yea, we went to Austin TX for several days.  Went to see Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, it was so wonderful, they are the best. 

Photos

White-washed board ceiling

Second Floor Kids' Rooms Installed

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 5/16/2012 1:31:58 PM

Roof truss installation begins today.

Main level = 9-foot ceilings - 1,900 square feet

Second floor kids' rooms = 8-foot ceilings - 600 square feet

Photos

Kids' rooms installed - second floor.

Past few weeks progress

Posted to NorthPoleHome by Tim in North Pole, AK on 5/13/2012

I haven't updated in a while, since I've been steadily working on the house in the evenings and on weekends. Progress has been slowed by small details along the way. The drywall is installed on the ceilings of bedrooms 2, 3, 4, the bonus room, and the long hallway upstairs between beds 2-3. The bath above the garage is rough plumbed-in and bathtub set in place. I have the ceiling sheetrocked in there as well and most of the walls covered too. I subbed out the DWV rough-in, and the drain for this tub when set in place, was directly above a joist, complicating matters. The joists above the garage are 12" O.C., so the simplest way to correct the problem was to build a platform for the tub to sit on, then turn the drainpipe over and down to the stub-out. The distance between the tub and the toilet would be too close if I moved the tub over any further to use the adjacent joist bay.

All the power, lights, and smoke detector rough-in wiring is complete on the second floor. A couple of the power circuits are fully hooked up so I don't have to have so many extension cords laying around. My inspector came out and did an inspection on the upper level and part of the lower level so I can close those areas up, and said it all looked fine. I also pre-wired in the ceiling boxes for an overhead projector with HDMI, Cat5, RCA video and RG-6 coax cables. I ordered two of the big windows, one for the bonus room and one for bedroom #4. I don't have a picture available, but I also cut in an opening on the back gable wall for attic access. I framed up a 2x5 platform just inside the opening so there is a place to sit down and stage tools/materials when there's work to do up there. It sets about 2' above the bottom chord of the truss, so there's plenty of space for insulation underneath.

The spring weight restrictions on the roads were lifted the other day, so I had 10 yards of fill dirt brought in to finish leveling out some bumpy spots in the yard so we can finally plant some grass. I have 20 yards of gravel coming tomorrow, so I can finish grading the woodcutting and storage area too. This week I'll be ordering shingles and finishing up details so a couple friends and I can hang the drywall on the great room and stairwell ceiling next Saturday. Nobody in town has a drywall lift that goes 19' so I'll have to bolt my drywall lift to the scaffold I'm using and take it easy.

Deal of the month: I walked into Home Depot to buy some 4'x12' sheets of 5/8 drywall and they had 28 sheets of damaged drywall (almost all 5/8) stacked on a cart. I asked about it and they said they were $5 each. They're normally $22 each and the damage to most of them would be cut off anyways so I snatched them all up. I was able to use all of them without too much waste and only made one extra butt joint. Talk about perfect timing.

Photos

Bonus room ceiling sheetrocked.	One of three bedrooms sheetrocked.	Bath#3 roughed in and mostly covered.
What can you do with PEX scraps? Take a 96-cent coupler and make hula hoops for the kids!!

Posted by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 5/14/2012 Brian's Forum Posts: 86 Journal Entries: 115 Interview Answers: 248 Average Forum Rating: 3.87 Image from Brian's blog 5/14/2012

GREAT find on the 5/8" drywall. Don't you love it when the Lord provides? Looks like you are going to finish soon!

MORE drywall... almost done.

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 5/10/2012

I believe I am down to the last five or six sheets of drywall. Next trip I will put those up and clean up. There are about a hundred small randomly-shaped pieces of drywall sitting everywhere in the house, and a fine coating of drywall dust covers everything. A thick coating covers the floor. After drywall, the cement board for the bathtub surround is next.

Photos

Balcony doorway, second floor	Balcony wall	First floor bedroom closet and Leia
The lake is very low this year, probably five feet lower than last year. I hope we get a BUNCH of rain, or we may not have lakefront property anymore.

First Floor Framing

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 5/10/2012

First floor framing is complete.

Photos

First Floor Framing

First Floor Cap Installed

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 5/3/2012

The first floor cap was completed today.

Photos

Working on the kitchen countertop

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 5/2/2012

Got our countertops cut for our kitchen sink. The countertops and sink were donated by a friend who had them replaced. Since they were old, I couldn't find the laminate style to put laminate on the cut ends. Soooooo, I took the cutout I made for the sink and threw it in the pool. A few days later, the pressboard has swelled up to the point where I could get the laminate off, then used that to cut into strips and put those on the ends to cover the raw countertop edges.

Photos

Videos

First Floor Being Installed

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 5/2/2012

The first floor cap is being installed this week. Our framers have been working hard despite having to deal with a wet job site after nightly rains this week.

Photos

First floor joists installed.

Two more windows

Posted to Seven-Peaks-Faswall-ICF by Craig in Graeagle, CA on 4/30/2012

I must admit that sometimes my wife does come up with some good ideas. She suggested adding a single small window in each of the guest bedrooms. The south BR would have a NW view and the north BR would have a SW view. It worked. And since we hiked through two feet of snow to get there, enjoy the pic of Frazer Falls when it is roaring.

Photos

Two new windows above the LR	South BR window - thin one on the right	View from the new window

Videos

Backfilling has begun

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/26/2012

Our excavator began backfilling around the foundation walls after we received the go-ahead from the inspector. We hope to finish backfilling tomorrow in preparation for the framers to be on site on Monday morning.

Photos

Exposed side backfilled.

Exposed side backfilled - looking toward the road.

Accident in the Canyon!

Posted to Tanglewood by Steven in Colorado Springs, CO on 4/26/2012

It's sometimes hard to recall while building/stacking/digging up here at Tanglewood that there are other people in the canyon "doing stuff" from time to time. Being back here at the end of the road (best parcel in the canyon, by the way) one must remember from time to time that there's a good five miles between us and the nearest road.

Over the last couple of weeks some folks have (under contract) been harvesting a bunch of the granite boulders and moss-rock from an area about a mile in from the front gate. Back around the turn of the last century there used to be a dam down there plugging up the creek into a large pond (or small lake if you prefer) and there were thousands of roughly head-sized granite boulders filling and covering the dam structure. Then a huge flood in the summer of '63 burst the dam and was the impetus for the then-owner to parcel off a bunch of the back end of the property and sell them off--one of those is Tanglewood.

So these fine folks have been harvesting and bundling up several tons of these rocks and hauling them out for landscaping and whatnot. Things were going pretty smoothly--until today that is.

As I was coming home from work, I found a large tow truck blocking the road just outside the first gate. Getting out to see what was going on, I walk up to the gate to see that one of the large flatbed trucks had flipped over on the canyon road!

The driver wasn't hurt, fortunately, and in retrospect how and where the truck flipped was probably the best possible spot (the alternative would have been to fall off the road and down into a pasture 30-odd feet below). I helped the tow truck driver and the flatbed driver work out where to run their chain, then the truck hauled in the tow line while the truck driver lifted the back end of the truck from behind with a backhoe they'd been using to lift pallets. It took a couple of tries, but they got it! 

The truck in retrospect didn't even appear to be too badly damaged.  Of course the passenger window was shattered and there were a couple of  new dents and scratches, but since it is a work truck, that's to be expected.

Glad nobody was hurt!


Steven in Colorado

Photos

The truck, on its side and neatly blocking the road.	Another shot without the tow truck driver. Nothing seemed to be leaking or broken underneath, which was good.	Shot from above on the hill overlooking the accident.
The backhoe gets into position to lift while the tow line is winched in.	Ready to go!	It's working!
Success!	A bunch of us examine the damage to the other side.

Submitted to the city... and rejected.

Posted to Family-Affair by Justin on 4/25/2012 6:29:43 PM

WOW! 

Walls insulated, drain tile covered

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/25/2012

The foundation walls have been insulated on the exterior with R-5, 1.0" Styrofoam insulation. The 4x8 sheets are all around the foundation walls. Our poured wall company also placed 14" of stone all around the house on top of the exterior drain tile. (Form-a-Drain).

Photos

R-5 installed and drain tile covered with stone.

Stymied, But Making (Slow) Progress

Posted to Tanglewood by Steven in Colorado Springs, CO on 4/24/2012

Wow... been an interesting couple of weeks since I outlined my summertime project list.

Essentially the day after I made that post a couple of things happened in that pesky Real World ^(tm) that slowed progress down considerably:

• My mother had to go in for brain surgery, of all things. She's fine and recovering nicely now, but that in itself took a big couple of weeks out of the schedule with visiting her during recovery, running around to various doctor's appointments, and what all else.
  
  
• We had a final (I hope!) blast of winter weather, dumping a good 4" of snow all over everything and which basically made work outside nigh-impossible. It was good because we needed the water, but there went close to a week right there!
  
  
• My new solar panels arrived arrived (yay!), but as we were hauling them down to stash in the shed to await deployment, Solar LeRoy took some measurements of the piers I'd augered and noted that he thought the four piers wouldn't be sufficient. Turned out that he was absolutely right--when we laid out the additional supporting struts the ones on the far end stuck out a good 10 feet without support, which would probably work, but which is really just too much panel without solid support under them. So I ended up having to auger in two more holes, which meant borrowing the auger again and finding an afternoon to spend some quality time making more holes. I got them done (Colleen and I had already cut sufficient pipe) but that was another delay. It needed doing, mind you, and at least the panels will have solid support all the way across now.

So here we are with today. The supports are in the newly augered holes and will be cut down to their proper height this coming weekend. I've been slowly collecting concrete (three bags at a time is about all I can haul in my Fit due to the rough road) and when I have a critical mass, I'll mix and pour to set the piers into place. THEN I can finally bolt on the strut extensions and Solar LeRoy can come up to work his wiring magic.

I'm really looking forward to fleshing out my panels and the Outback controller they're on. The new PV will up my solar capacity to around ~45 kWh/day assuming things are bright and sunny, which is of course a fantastic resource to have.

Come to think of it I did get one other thing done, that being to finalize the design of the new solar shed. The dimensions changed slightly to accommodate the area I've got to work with, and I've staked out the rough outline to make sure all is going to work as I think it will. So far it looks good... but I'm not really going to count that as progress per se on Summer Project 2... that just doesn't seem right.

Remember: Always allow for "slop" in your plans due to Real World Events!

Steven in Colorado

Foundation Walls Poured

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/19/2012

The foundation walls were poured today!

Backfilling and additional grading to be done in one week.

Framing to begin shortly after.

Photos

Pouring walls.

View from partially exposed side.

Posted by Frank in Elkridge, MD on 4/21/2012 Frank's Forum Posts: 11 Journal Entries: 5 Interview Answers: 59 Average Forum Rating: 4.00 Frank's Selected Image 4/21/2012	Did you use Form-A-Drain for you footers? From one of your pictures it looks like you did. We are almost ready to break ground and we spec'ed the Form-A-Drain for our footers.
Posted by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/21/2012 Shawn's Forum Posts: 3 Journal Entries: 13 Interview Answers: 64 Average Forum Rating: 4.00 Shawn's Selected Image 4/21/2012	Hi Frank, Yes, we used Form-A-Drain. PM me and I'll send you some better pics showing the Form-A-Drain. Shawn

Poured Wall Setup

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/15/2012

Footings have been finalized and poured wall forms are being set up. The foundation walls should be poured this week.

Photos

Foundation wall forms

More drywall up, about 75% done and a Special visitor...

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 4/14/2012

Got a few more drywall pieces done today. Finished the "big wall", the one that goes from first floor foundation to dome top, along the stairway. Only have a couple other walls to drywall. Also put out some grass seed to try and cover the sandy area I just put a bunch of horse manure on, and I took a picture of my "redneck sprinkler system".

Also, I had a visit from a LARGE red-headed woodpecker. He was perched on the 2x8 I have stuck in the ground to hang the camp shower on outside the bath window, and he was staring intently at his reflection in the bath window. I got a few pictures...

Photos

The BIG WALL.	Redneck sprinkler system	"Knock knock" "Who's there?" KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK.........

Insulation

Posted to Seven-Peaks-Faswall-ICF by Craig in Graeagle, CA on 4/11/2012

We're finally at the point of the next big-ticket item - insulation. Since we wanted closed soffits due to fire danger in the woods, we need to use spray-on insulation. To keep the cost down we are using a 'flash and batt' hybrid system. We chose closed cell, as it also acts as a vapor barrier and waterproofing system. The ceilings will get three+ inches and the exterior framed walls will get two inches. On top of that, the ceilings will get R-30 unfaced batt, and the walls an R-13. That makes us superinsulated with total R-factors of R-50 and R-25 respectively.

Last summer I was able to find a Craigslist deal on 3/8"x2x4-foot rigid insulation for $.25 each. This will be applied to the entire exterior and a 'rain curtain' style siding solution added on top of that. It does not add a great deal more insulation (R-2 or R-3), but it does ensure there are no air gaps that allow infiltration of cold/hot air and lessens any chance of water intrusion.

A note on the insulation, the closed cell is soy based and the batt is made of sand and recycled glass. Read more on the EcoBatt at ecobatt.us.

Photos

Closed-cell insulation sprayed on exterior wall. The gap in the wall is where a new window will be installed.	Spray-on soy-based insulation on the ceiling.	Foam application
R-30 batt application. Note the ridge plate is also insulated to prevent air infiltration.	EcoBatt	Master BR before insulation.
MBR after insulation

Posted by Joel on 4/18/2012 Joel's Forum Posts: 0 Randomly Selected Image 4/18/2012

Lookin' good... and warm!

The drywalling continues...

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 4/6/2012

Got the three entryway walls done, and the balcony wall (one side), as well as a bunch of little trim pieces. I'm guessing I need about 15 more sheets of drywall to finish up, so that's ALMOST done. I am not looking forward to taping and mudding. Here's a few more pics.

Photos

The lake view entryway	Main entryway	The balcony overlook inside. I used the T-braces from the ceiling work to form a ledge, so I could put this 10 footer up into place.
And the balcony, screwed in place.	Some of the small pieces I needed to fill in around the bottom of the windows.

Posted by Tim in North Pole, AK on 4/8/2012 Tim's Forum Posts: 17 Journal Entries: 27 Interview Answers: 66 Average Forum Rating: 4.20 Tim's Selected Image 4/8/2012	Looks like you're moving right along. I couldn't begin to imagine how many seams are in the dome. Are you planning to mud and tape by hand or buying a mud/tape box?
Posted by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 4/8/2012 Brian's Forum Posts: 86 Journal Entries: 115 Interview Answers: 248 Average Forum Rating: 3.87 Image from Brian's blog 4/8/2012	Except for the flat walls, the whole dome is angled seams, so a box would not work. I will be doing them by hand, unless we contract it out.

Ready to Pour Footings/Walls

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/5/2012

We lowered our house an additional two feet by digging down two additional feet in the basement and cutting down the grade. We did this to cut down on the hill our lot sits on.

Our foundation wall company will be on site tomorrow to begin setting up to pour the footings and then the foundation walls next week.

We hope to be framing within two weeks if the weather continues to cooperate.

Photos

Garage footings to be poured.

Flooring

Posted to 302 by Jeff in Belfair, WA on 4/1/2012

We found a great deal on hickory 5" plank flooring. By combining three grades, some of it very small quantities on sale, we were able to get an overall average cost of $2.30 a square foot.

Photos

It is a labor-intensive process, but laying the floor on a 45 created an interesting effect.	Not even sanded and finished yet - it already looks great!	Still a work in progress...
Will end the 45-degree pattern at the hallway. The bedroom will be 90-degrees to the floor joists.

Interior Doors

Posted to 302 by Jeff in Belfair, WA on 4/1/2012

We had some challenges with our interior doors, ordered from a "big box" store. After the third time the doors were wrong, they eventually made it right by upgrading the doors and giving them to us at about half price. What a deal! The doors are beautiful! 

Photos

Doors installed with no finish.	One coat of finish. We're still working on finishing the interior doors.	This is actually the one wood exterior door we were allowed to have (per code).
This door is our biggest disappointment. Code only allowed one exterior door from the heated living area to be solid wood. We've decided we're going to attempt a faux finish on this door to match the other interior doors.

Back at it again

Posted to NorthPoleHome by Tim in North Pole, AK on 4/1/2012

After a long cold winter to take a break from building and spending money on construction we're back at it again. We learned a hard lesson in the importance of vapor barrier tightness. The warm moist air from our inhabited space leaked past areas we didn't seal good enough or didn't have drywall pushing against it creating a tight seal. So all winter long the moisture condensed above us in the joist bays, forming ice, and melted this spring. We had to remove a bunch of the insulation to dry out the bays before mold takes over. The wife focused on that and installing fiberglass in all the upstairs walls.

I've been in between jobs for past two weeks until this Monday so I've been able to put full days in as well. I installed the vapor barrier, and carefully this time, sealed it up. Once the vapor barrier was up, I put up horizontal furring strips every two feet providing space to run electrical and add another 1 1/2" of foam before drywall. For the furring that goes along the top and bottom plates, I used thinner strips of wood and put 3/4" of foam behind them to provide a thermal break. Then I installed receptacle circuits in the bonus room, bed#4, bath#3, and the master bedroom. I also put  up a temp guardrail on the catwalk, and hung some can lights in the upstairs walkway/hallways. Next up is running PEX for bath#3, sconce light, AV, and network wiring in the bonus room.

Photos

Bed#4 furred out and wired.	Bonus room furred out and wired.	One of the walls the wife insulated.
Closer pic of the furring strips with foam behind them when laid over an area where they had continuous contact with wood (top/bottom plates, window frames).

Posted by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 4/2/2012 Brian's Forum Posts: 86 Journal Entries: 115 Interview Answers: 248 Average Forum Rating: 3.87 Image from Brian's blog 4/2/2012

Oh, craaaaap. That's a surprise you didn't need. Another good reason I live in FL.

Lower Level Digging

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 3/29/2012 2:17:02 PM

Our lower level is being dug today. Our poured wall concrete company will be on site tomorrow.

Photos

Lower level area from partial exposed side.

Excavator

Consultant

Posted to Dionnekay by Dionne in Omaha, NE on 3/29/2012

This week we finalized the house plan and we made a verbal agreement with an ex-builder to be our consultant. I'll be sending over a contract soon, but he will be paid by the hour. We met with him last year to get an idea what he could build the house for, and decided that when the time was right we would approach him about consulting only. To our delight, he'd become head of the home builder's association and told us it would be a conflict of interest if he built for us now, but we asked him to consult and he said that would be great. He's recommending his favorite subs to us so we will include them in our three bids, and he says our county is easy to work with permit-wise. 

Summer Project 1.1-- Solar Piers Augered

Posted to Tanglewood by Steven in Colorado Springs, CO on 3/25/2012

Today I got a start on the first of my list of Tanglewood Summer Projects by augering (drilling) the holes for the new solar panel mounts.

The effort Solar LeRoy and I did way back in late summer 2010 was a lot of work, but fortunately I didn't have to dig quite as many holes as we did those late summer weekends! In order to add the 6 new solar panels I need to add some more ground mounts, and after some discussion Solar LeRoy and I agreed that the best way to do this would be to simply extend the lowest tier a bit. Laying out the spacing of the piers already in place, I measured that I needed to add four more to provide adequate support (each panel is just over 39 inches wide), and so I marked these locations a couple of weeks back.

Today I borrowed a small one-man auger and dug the footings for the piers. I was a bit concerned that this wouldn't have enough horsepower given all the trouble Solar LeRoy and I had originally, but as it turned out I didn't have too much trouble. For the most part it appeared I was beyond the "edge" of the slab of sandstone we encountered while drilling many of the original holes and so didn't have all the hassle of dealing with that. Two of the holes were practically pure sand, gravel, and loam--I sent more time with the shovel cleaning them out than anything else. One hole was filled with roots from a pine tree I'd cut down for the original work, while the other had some slabs of sandstone that fortunately was relatively fragile and which gave way easily to some sledge-and-crowbar action.

There are still some small trees I need to take down to finish clearing the area properly, and one of the trees I cut down is close enough to all of this that I'll probably do some work cutting it up at the same time. Still I made good progress, and after I get some additional PVC (one of the placeholder pieces is too short to work) I'll be ready to mix and pour concrete.

Fun fun fun!


Steven in Colorado

Photos

A poor attempt to show the depth of one of the holes. Each pier is seated down to two feet.	Decent shot of all four piers. That pine tree leaning way over is coming out, of course.	Looking from the end back towards this particular row. We didn't get a couple of those piers very well aligned; that was mostly due to rocks and such digging the holes.
The trees marked with red will all be coming out. They're not really quite as big as they seem, and their removal will open up solar access to the new panels.

Staked House/Garage

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 3/25/2012

Our excavator came out today to complete the leveling off of the area where the house/garage will be placed, and our survey guy arrived shortly after to stake out the floorplan. Both were nice enough to come out and work on a Sunday in order to keep our project moving forward. We hope to begin digging for the basement this week if the weather cooperates. The foundation guy is ready to begin his work as soon as we're done digging the basement and installing the rough driveway.

Need to figure out where to deposit some sizable tree stumps as well.

Attached is a pic of the staked house/garage.

Photos

Staked House and Garage

Floor Plan

Posted to Eschete-Dome by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 3/25/2012

  I realized I never put our basic floor plan on my journal. It was modified slightly (mirror image) but it is basically the same. Let's see if it will load on here!!! Not a lot to report. I worked on Saturday and Whitey went turkey hunting.

Files

• 45DELTA-B-P1.pdf

Posted by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 4/8/2012 Brian's Forum Posts: 86 Journal Entries: 115 Interview Answers: 248 Average Forum Rating: 3.87 Image from Brian's blog 4/8/2012	What issues did you have with the fiberglass drywall on the dome, and how did you fix them? I am closing in on doing my drywall mudding.... need to know all I can.
Posted by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 4/10/2012 Janie's Forum Posts: 0 Journal Entries: 27 Interview Answers: 25 Image from Janie's blog 4/10/2012	When we painted the dome sheetrock, it sucked all the paint in. It was primed first them taped and mudded, then painted with two coats. It totally sucked in all the paint. Then we found out the entire panel needs a coat of mud! We went to Sherwin Williams and told them the problem, and they told us about a product to roll over it. We ended up having to paint again and it did seal it. Ask for a primer for fiberglass sheetrock. I can get you the actual name, I just can't recall it at this moment. I will leave you a message on your journal.
Posted by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 4/27/2012 Brian's Forum Posts: 86 Journal Entries: 115 Interview Answers: 248 Average Forum Rating: 3.87 Image from Brian's blog 4/27/2012	THANK YOU, THANK YOU, thank you! It's always better to avoid a problem and learn from others! We had one sheetrock guy look at the panels and say, "I think you might need to put a thin skim coat on the whole panel". I will ask for a fiberglass sheetrock primer, unless you recall the name.
Posted by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 5/9/2012 Janie's Forum Posts: 0 Journal Entries: 27 Interview Answers: 25 Image from Janie's blog 5/9/2012	Okay Brian, I am so unorganized I can't locate the bucket with the primer. I know we got it at Sherwin Williams. We were told the same thing about skimming a coat of mud over all the panels. What an undertaking!! As if building a dome isn't enough! If I come across it in our cleanup, I will let you know.

Obtained Building Permit

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 3/22/2012

We obtained our building permit today and our excavator was on site a few hours later doing some initial grading where the house will be placed. We had sizable gravel and rock hills in this area that needed to be knocked down.

We'll be installing some silt fence on Saturday. Our excavator will be digging the 6" trench needed to bury the silt fence and we'll be trying our luck and the installation. Sizable money saver if it all works out. We received quotes of 90 cents to $1.25 per foot for silt fence and installation by others. We picked up DOT silt fence from the local home improvement store for $25 per roll.

Survey guy will need to come back out to stake the house prior to digging the hole for the foundation.

Photos

Initial grading

Cleared the remaining trees/brush.

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 3/19/2012

We finally cleared the remaining trees and brush from our lot. We were able to begin clearing the trees on and off throughout the winter due to warmer than normal temps and very little snow. This is enabling us to begin the construction process in late March. Thanks to the help we received from my brother Matthew and family friend Roger. This took us much longer than we thought it would.

Photos

Lot after trees and brush cleared.

A Funky Thing Happened on the Way to Work Today.

Posted to Tanglewood by Steven in Colorado Springs, CO on 3/19/2012

As I headed down the canyon this morning at O-Dark-Thirty, I was pondering the day ahead. What I didn't ponder was the big pine tree that had blown over the road...

We had some pretty hefty winds last night here in the canyon, and apparently they were just too much for one of the pines just below Tanglewood proper. It snapped and fell smack over the road, neatly blocking it completely.

After giving it an experimental shove (just to see if it would move, which of course it didn't), I turned around and headed back home to await the light of sunrise. Then I trundled my trusty Gator down to the tree and spent some quality time with my chainsaw, turning this downed pine into future firewood.

I eventually did get to work, but honestly it was a bit boring at that point...


Steven in Colorado