Trying to finish sheet rocking kitchen & utility room

I had hoped Aaron could come again today and help finish stapling the ceiling but he was under the weather so Alexis and I spent the afternoon finishing sheet rock by ourselves... she sanded while I did a number of corners and worked on the wider joints. Hopefully Aaron will be feeling better tomorrow and we can get the stapling finished up and some more sheet rock hung. We're completely finishing the sheet rock here and there to facilitate our moving in (some hanging, some partial finishing, some complete finishing). We want to get the kitchen and utility room finished so we can move in the cabinets for those rooms (and the kitchen appliances). The storage building is so full that until we get the aforementioned stuff into the house moving will be very difficult (things like our new bed are not accessible because they're behind the cabinets and appliances). Here is a picture of the south & east kitchen wall (the soon-to-be home of the propane cooking stove - see the propane pipe sticking out near the floor - and the refrigerator - see the wall outlet and water hookup for the ice dispenser). As you can see the ceiling is sagging a little bit because we haven't finished the stapling.This is the east and north wall in the kitchen (directly opposite the picture, above)... the sink will go under the window with the dishwasher to the right of it... the opening in the wall is for the plumbing for the sink/dishwasher.
This is the east and north wall in the utility room. The dryer will be in the corner with counter space and lower cabinets to the right and a floor to ceiling cabinet next to that. Wall cabinets will be on the wall above the dryer and lower cabinets. These are very substantial cabinets albeit very plain (perfect for the utility room) that came out of a remodel at Vanderbilt medical center in Nashville.

Sheet rocking and rolling...

Alexis and I worked for several hours this afternoon hanging sheet rock. Initially when Aaron and I were hanging "rock," we left the approx 6" space at the bottom of the 8' 6" wall to be filled in later. Subsequently, I realized that leaving the 6" space between the two sheets would make the finishing much easier although I'll have to do a much better job because it will be more visible at the 4' height. Here is some of the sheet rock Alexis and I hung in the utility room (we will finish hanging the 6" strip tomorrow). Our plan is to get this room finished and then to begin moving in the cabinets. We bought a bunch of very nice (but plain) cabinets from Vanderbilt University's medical school for next to nothing. Setting them in place will significantly free up room in the storage building so we can get to other stuff we'll need soon (like the kitchen cabinets and the appliances). I gave our landlady our 30 day notice so we'll have to move in by December 15th and begin camping out. I'm hoping Howell King can get our water hooked up this week now that the house has heat.Here's a nearly 12' piece we hung in the office... it's yet to be completely screwed to the stud walls. Man, when my Senco screw gun is working, it's a dream (50 sheet rock screws per plastic belt). Pretty much as fast as you can pull the trigger and "hop" to another spot to be screwed this gun screws and countersinks an 1 1/4" sheet rock screw. It does sometimes jam, however, which is a hassle.
And down the hall (these two sheets will need more screws tomorrow too):

The wood stove is in

Well one of the things that I accomplished since my last posting on Tuesday is the (temporary) installation of our Tempwood wood stove. When I got the fire roaring, Mosby thought he had died and gone to doggie heaven. When we lived at Wonder Cave, during the winter he was a permanent fixture in front of the stove doing his impersonation of the RCA dog inches from the fire box. Here is the stove (sans cast iron lid... we couldn't find it although Alexis is sure it's in the storage building) with a stainless steel pan doing duty as the lid. The house heated up very quickly in spite of the fact that the doggie door (picture, below) and the still-to-be-closed 1' X 1' opening for the water pipes to the tankless water heater were letting in tons of cold air (it was in the 30s outside). The concrete floor hasn't heated up yet from the stove's heat so I put down some scrap OSB for the boys to lie on. That's my buddy Baxter next to me:
This is the make shift doggie door I nailed over the back door to prevent some of Franklin County's cold air from from pouring into the house. I've "invented" a semi-keep-the-cold-air-out flap which I will install tomorrow (Mosby is in the foreground). Obviously when we move in the OSB over the door opening will come down and we'll use the door again. This set up lets the boys go outside at will.
Here's another shot of the lid-less wood stove with yours truly watching Boone groom his little brother Mosby.
And here's Mosby in his basket ready for bed:

Insulation... complete

John Fitzsimmons came back this morning and finished blowing the cellulose insulation... another milestone! Next we'll install the wood stove (the boys will appreciate that with it in the twenties tonight), do some more sheet rocking and if we can figure out how to stain the floors with the dogs living in the house, we'll put down the chicory stain. After John left, Alexis and I cleaned up and went to the dump. Here are some pictures of our clean(er) house:
Looking into the master bath from the master bedroom:
Looking into the kitchen (and down the hall... office to the right) from the dining room:Looking into the office from the dining room (Baxter in the foreground):The master bedroom... CLEAN!:I have been dreading finishing up the stapling of the ceiling because I'll have to be up and down a ladder all day which KILLS my foot... but I think I've come up with a way that won't be as hard... stay tuned.

We started insulating today...

I made a trip to South Pittsburg, Tennessee (about 25 miles down the mountain towards Chattanooga) this morning to check on some wood that I may use in our shower surround (I have a friend that used teak wood in her shower and it is BEAUTIFUL ...and functional with 3 coats of marine grade polyurethane to shed the water). I need something that looks "brown" and "woody" to match the brown garden tub. My goal is to make it look like I chose the brown color of the garden tub instead of just using what I got for FREE on CraigsList (shhhhh, don't tell anybody, okay!).
On the way back I got a call from John Fitsimmons, the cellulose insulating guy. He said he could be at the house in 20 minutes and was ready to insulate. I hurried home and he was unloading his equipment. Within 20 more minutes he was spraying the dampened (sticky) cellulose into the 2" X 6" South stud wall... what a MESS (but he cleaned up as he progressed):His helper kept the machine full of cellulose for the sprayer and then "shaved" off the excess so the insulation was flush with the studs:When John finished the South wall, he went up into the attic and began filling between the ceiling joists with 11" of the dry (VERY fluffy) cellulose:John ran out of cellulose and had a dinner engagement at 7 PM so he has to come back tomorrow morning to finish the job.I continued my research today on cellulose and further confirmed that I made the right decision in choosing cellulose over fiberglass. Cellulose has a higher sustainable R value than fiberglass (fiberglass actually loses R value as it gets colder while cellulose increases in R value) and seals the building significantly better against air infiltration than bats of fiberglass. I read in several places online that my energy (heating/cooling) costs will be approximately 40% less with cellulose. We're gonna be snug as bugs in a rug!

The BIG NEWS today...

... is my FOOT. After my exhausting day Friday, I took Saturday off and vegged... it was glorious. The instructions said, "repeat if necessary" so I did. NO work at the house today either! The result is that my plantar fasciitis is light years better... I can walk without imitating Grandpa McCoy on the "Real McCoys." Actually, it was very encouraging because it appears that once I'm off the ladders my foot will heal relatively quickly! Ooooh rah! Here's the culprit, to wit:

Except for some final stapling...

... the ceiling is done. Aaron was able to work Friday before leaving for Louisiana and we worked nearly 12 straight hours until we got all the tin up... it liked to have killed me... I haven't been that exhausted in I don't know when. I was hoping Alexis would shoot me when I finally got home. There is still some final stapling that I have to do Monday but otherwise the ceiling is up and the insulation guy can fill our attic with 11" (R-50) of cellulose. Following the insulation I can hook up the wood stove and prepare to stain the floor. Next Howell King, our plumber/electrician, will do the final hook-up of the water and we'll be getting close to moving in and camping out while we finish mudding and taping the sheetrock. Here are pictures of the ceiling in the various rooms:
Master bedroom (needs final stapling)... the far south wall will be insulated with cellulose before I hang the sheetrock:
Hall (needs final stapling)... the fat, out-of-shape, old guy at the end of the hall is moi... Baxter is ready for bed with his winter jacket:
Master bath (needs final stapling)... the sheetrock "plugs" will come down when I hang full sheets.
Utility room (needs final stapling):
I rested Saturday and didn't even go over to the house until we had to feed the boys... it was wonderful to veg!

We're cooking with gas...

Today Kevin, the propane guy, installed the "black iron" propane system for our cooking stove, our tankless hot water heater and our (maybe) propane backup heater. We'll be ready for winter with passive solar, our Tempwood wood stove, our electric space heaters and now propane. Here's the propane regulator for our system mounted below the hot water heater on the back of the house:We continued to work on putting up the tin ceiling... here's the office (lacking one more 10" strip)... that's the pull-down stairway to our guest loft... "so no one will over stay their welcome." We have to put the mattress up through the remaining "un-ceilinged" trusses tomorrow or it won't fit up the stairs... it's like building a house around a mattress:Here's the utility room (also lacking a 10" strip):And... here are our three boys ready for bed:

Boone in his house:Mosby in his beloved basket yawning:...and Baxter checking his eyelids for holes:Hopefully Aaron can give me ONE MORE DAY before he leaves for Louisiana so we can finish the ceiling tomorrow.

More tin is up... Aaron is a sheet metal cutting genius!

Aaron and I continued to put up the tin ceiling today. We almost finished the kitchen, the master bedroom and the office so it was a productive day. Aaron was amazing with his measuring/cutting. He hit two home runs in a row with his cutting two panels that go down the hall and rap around the kitchen and the office. He did a GREAT job... I really appreciate his hard work, his attention to detail and his good old boy common sense... this old fat college boy just follows his lead.
Here's the kitchen with only a small corner to finish (not counting the final stapling which will secure the panels that are hanging down and flatten out the rest of the ceiling):This is a picture of the master bedroom... just one more skinny panel (8") and the final stapling):Here's a shot of the living room from the office which we will finish tomorrow:

More of the tin ceiling UP!

Today Aaron and I continued putting up the tin ceiling... we finished the living room and almost finished the kitchen. We ran into a problem that we needed to think about over night so we moved into the master bedroom and made good headway there. We finally have figured out most of the tricks related to my hair-brained idea of using "upside down metal roofing" as a ceiling. Tomorrow we expect to finish the master bedroom ceiling, the utility room ceiling, the bathroom ceiling and possibly the office. Thankfully, Aaron's trip to Louisana has been put off for several days so he'll be able to help me finish up the ceiling and maybe help me hang some more sheetrock.
Here's Baxter having supper in the living room beneath the new ceiling (we still need to do some more stapling but the hard part is finished):This is the kitchen ceiling (we have one more 10" X 18' panel to install to complete this room plus the extra stapling mentioned above):This is the sheetrock jack in the master bedroom (with two panels hung). Having the sheetrock jack and the staple gun has made the ceiling installation 10X easier:

The tin ceiling

Aaron and I got a late start because we had to rent a sheetrock jack (shown below) and we had to track down his step-father-in-law who was kind enough to lend us a compressor and a staple gun (with staples) to attach the 3' X 18' sheets of tin roofing to the ceiling. We're still struggling with the aftermath of my block mason's bowed west wall (almost every piece of tin had to be trimmed because the wall wasn't straight)... shoulda fired that lazy, good for nothing bum early on... would have saved me lots of grief and maybe I could have avoided contracting plantar fasciitis... oops... I forgot... the block mason was ME.
Nevermind!
Nevertheless we finally got rolling and started learning the tricks to putting it up with the jack. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to "turn and burn" (that's an old Navy saying), however, I don't think we'll finish (in fact, I KNOW we won't finish) and Aaron leaves for Louisiana on Wednesday. I hope I can find someone else as good as Aaron to help me for a few days to get the job done so I can insulate. Here is the ceiling going up (and a picture of the sheetrock jack that lifts the tin panels up to the ceiling joists for stapling):And another view:So far everyone who has seen the tin ceiling up (Aaron and Howell King) has confessed that they were initially apprehensive about the idea but now that they've seen it, they like it... me too!

Like it or not... hanging "rock"

Aaron helped me again today. We had planned to rent a sheetrock jack (it's a gadget that lifts the panel - usually sheetrock but in our case the roof tin - up to the ceiling joists so it can be attached hands free. Unfortunately, both rental places in Winchester were closed and we'll have to wait until Monday to rent the jack. Trying to make lemons into lemonade we hung sheetrock on the walls all day. I needed the sheetrock hung anyway so the roofing tin could be butted to it. I'm hoping that Monday and Tuesday Aaron and I can get the ceiling up using the jack because on Wednesday he leaves for two weeks in Louisiana for a roofing job. Here are me and Baxter at the end of the day standing in the master bathroom door.This is Baxter in the living room heading for his bed (this is the west wall of the living room... all it lacks is a 1' X 4' piece of sheetrock over in the "reflective" left corner):All of the exterior walls in the house are covered in the foil insulation (like around the kitchen window)... AAC blocks at R-16 + foil at about R-15 = approx R-30+. We can't hang the lower sheetrock panel in the kitchen until the water pipes are tested tomorrow in the main plumbing wall:The office... same here... we can't hang the lower panel until the tub is installed as we need access to hook it up and set it:Howell King is coming tomorrow afternoon to hook up my water system inside the house (we've had water to the house for months but I just finished gluing the pipes together last week for the inside house system). This morning Howell was here for a little while and got our electricity hooked up so we can run all of our appliances - including the 220 dryer - before the final electrical inspection.

Getting ready to sheetrock & put up the tin ceiling

Aaron couldn't come today because of a prior commitment so I started making the preparations to put up the ceiling tomorrow (with his help). I bought an attachment for my drill that snips/cuts the metal roofing that I'm using for our ceiling. Hopefully it will work as well as they promised at the metal roofing company. Today since I was alone, I needed to find something that I could easily do by myself so I began "hanging" the foil/foam/foil insulation on the AAC block wall. I finished putting it up in the master bedroom, the master closet and the utility room. The more I thought about it the more it made sense to go ahead and hang the sheetrock as we put up the ceiling. Having the sheetrock up will give us a definite and final edge to butt the metal ceiling to and since the propane guy can't come until next Thursday I can't close up the ceiling until then anyway... so I thought why not?... we'll hang sheet rock as we move from room to room with the ceiling. Here is the east master bedroom wall with the foil/foam/foil hung. The space between each foil panel is for "Liquid Nails"... 3" sheetrock screws and Liquid Nails should cause the sheetrock to be there FOREVER.Yesterday I finished up the rough-in plumbing in preparation for Howell King returning on Saturday to solder the copper incoming water line to my CPVC inhouse system for the pressure test.Living on the far eastern edge of the central time zone causes it to get pretty dark by 5 PM after the "fall back" time change. Nevertheless you can still see how beautiful Tennessee is in the fall even late in the afternoon. This picture was taken from the front of our property looking east down St. Mary's Lane to Sherwood Road (our road is freshly paved and striped).And for your amusement here's a gratituious shot of Mose-Bose (Mosby... "nobody knows where Mose-Bose goes... where do your suppose?")... he's a VERY peculiar little dog but we love him.My dear friend Roger Gertz wrote me today and told me I'd be SHOCKED at the #2 listing if I googled "sir john templeton library." I did and I was.

We passed the electrical rough-in inspection!

As the blue sticker attests... we passed our rough-in electrical inspection this afternoon. I do have to run one more circuit for the ignition on the tankless hot water heater but that will only take about 10 minutes. The good part is that we can start putting up the tin ceiling tomorrow. In the meantime I've got to run some "black iron" (pipe) for the propane cook stove in the kitchen. I have to do it myself because the propane guy can't get here until November 13th and that will delay the ceiling installation unless I do it myself. Here is a picture of the sticker that says we passed.
While I was waiting on the inspector to arrive, I decided to suck it up and glue the CPVC pipes together... it had to be done and I have been putting it off for no good reason. Nevertheless I got about 85% of the pipes glued when I ran out of several fittings (I'll pick them up tomorrow when I buy the black iron).
Finally GLUED:
I also finished gluing on the styrofoam trim around the windows getting them ready for the stucco (I will remove the 2' X 4' under the window soon). I still have to trim out the the front door and add styrofoam trim for the stucco but I'll do that in a day or two.