Friday, February 26, 2010
Starting to look like a house
The shutter on my camera didn't open all the way. I'm having some trouble with it since it now has a little stucco on it. It's not made for a construction site.
Now you can start to see what I had in mind all along.
Here's the spare bedroom window above the french doors in the kitchen opening on to what will be the patio. The pins beside the windows are for window box/railing. The pins under the window are for a retractable patio awning. The electrical box on the left is the awning power and the one on the right is one of the patio lights.
Here's a close up of the decorative stone applied to the sills. It then gets several coats of acrylic clear coat for further protection. Below is the patio outlet. Double click for a real close-up. The windows are grouted into place and there's no wood in the wall. Even still, the windows will get a bead of caulking all around. The picture also shows the "skip trowel" finish.
The window sills
The sills are concrete, but they are covered with a decorative stone product. It's basically a medium sand slurry made with a clear acrylic coating. The first coat was trowelled on by the stucco crew. I didn't like it too much because it was rough and there were a few holidays that didn't have sufficient product.The cover comes off.
Here it is. There are still some areas under the soffits and some of the barge boards that need painting. If you double-click the image, you can see that the sills don't have a drip edge. I thought about that when I ordered, but decided to go with this design. It does leave water streaks down the finish, but so far they just dry up and go away. It will probably stain/mold/grunge and some point and have that old-world look. Right now, it's a little too new looking.Rain, of course
And then it really began to rain. Although it was tented well, we had a wind storm in the night and two places got direct rain. One area was okay, the other area slumped a little. Once it had dried and hardened, it was repaired and looks fine.
Stucco progressing
The finish coat is going on, but rain is threatening and the structure gets tented using the scaffolding to hold the sheet out from the building.
Friday, February 05, 2010
Window trim
Each of the windows gets a sill, which will be finished in a different color than the main wall. I didn't go further (with a window surround, keystone, etc.) Should be simple without looking too simple.
The yellow stuff at the bottom of the wall is a water sealer where the ICCF meets the foundation. It is compatible with polystyrene and cementitious stucco. I'll probably put on several layers and maybe even several products before it's backfilled. There's nothing in the walls to rot or get water damages, but still . . . .
Since the sill will be darker, this gives you a black and white idea of how the windows will look.
When it rains, move inside.
When it threatened to rain outside, the crew moved inside and started on the downstairs bath and kitchen. This is the kitchen with "sleepers" tapconned into the walls to hold the upper and lower cabinets. The red pipes are the stub out for the drain and water to the kitchen sink.Here's the first layer on the dining area.
Upstairs soundproofing
The upstairs bedrooms also get sound proofing in the walls adjoining the bath and hall. Some of this drywall will be doubled with Green Glue to further soundproof. Shouldn't be able to hear a radio or other noises from one room to the next. The doors will probablyb be the weak link in the soundproofing. We shall see. 
Inside stuff
This is the steel stud wall behind the kitchen wood stove. It has concrete board on the other side and will have concrete board on most of the bathroom interior. This does two things. First, the wall probably has about a four hour fire rating. Second, rock wool is incredibly sound deadening. With my downstairs bath/laundry right next to the kitchen/dining area, it seemed like quiet might be nice.
The areas above the wall are also stuffed with sound proofing (pink fiberglass) to stop noise from leaking through in those areas.
Pink can be stuffed. Not so easy with rock wool.
Pink can be stuffed. Not so easy with rock wool.
Here's the concrete board in the shower stall. The floor pan is cast into the concrete slab and is hydronically heated.
Starting to mix.
Some of the "uglies" are fixed where the blocks aren't very straight.
Quite a few places where the blocks aren't very straight.
Inside, a wooden sleeper is attached to the wall to use as a screed for the plaster and to attach a mop board. Traditionally, this area behind the mop board was used to run telephone wire (and sometimes power) when houses were electrified.
The scaffolding goes up for the stucco.
Here's one of the upper windows with the arch finished and the brown coat on. The two red dots are tape covering the metal cast into the concrete that will hold the flower boxes.
Here's one of the upper windows with the arch finished and the brown coat on. The two red dots are tape covering the metal cast into the concrete that will hold the flower boxes.
Here's the arch on one of the larger windows.
