It was a long day... but I got a lot done

The day started with lots of errands: a trip to rent rolling scaffolding for Tuesday's "truss event"; a quick stop at Home Depot to pick up some pressure treated lumber and blades for my reciprocating saw; then over to David Musser's to borrow his staple nailer gun to further nail down the HardiPlank over the OSB (my Paslode nail gun drove the nails too far into the planks and they weren't holding as well as I wanted). Hundreds and hundreds of staples later the HardiPlank aint't going anywhere (a comical note: everytime I pulled the trigger on the stapler, Mosby barked like a seal and continued barking until I was finished... go figure?... he's a strange little dog). It doesn't look any different but believe me these planks are now affixed for the long haul!
During my discussion with the crane-guy he recommended that I cut and have ready 30-35 pieces of 2" X 4"s cut exactly 25 1/2" long to help us secure and align the trusses on Tuesday. Fortunately I have a power miter saw so I gathered up all my scrap 2X4s and cut these in short order.The south wall needs a little adjustment before Tuesday to make it perfectly plumb so I nailed two very long 2X4s together to act as a gauge and to hold the wall in place and perfectly vertical. It's amazing what a difference that extra 5 1/2" in extra height makes. The living room/dining room/office will feel cavernous with just that little extra height (thanks to Joseph Mansfield for pushing for the added height).Tomorrow afternoon and Monday will be devoted to more preparation for "truss Tuesday".

Tuesday, 7 AM... the trusses go up!

Yesterday I kept running out of gas between getting over my cold and struggling (shuffling around like an old man) with my Plantar fasciitis so I didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped. Here is one of the outside knee wall trusses that I was able to cover with OSB and HardiPlanks. I had to leave the center top uncovered so the crane will have something to hook to. I nailed the underside of the HardiPlank up because it didn't have a finish and would be easier to stucco. I haven't figured out how to adjust my Paslode nail gun so some of the nails were driven too deep. I hope to borrow David Musser's air driven stapler and refasten the HardiPlank tomorrow while covering the other knee wall truss.
It was late in the day so the lighting wasn't very good for this picture but this is a shot of the top plate that I laid out with 2" X 6" blocks next to where each truss will be set (we'll nail through the trusses into these blocks rather than holding them down with just an angled "toe nail" or two):I scheduled the crane for early Tuesday morning so - HOPEFULLY - by noon we'll have the trusses set and ready for the OSB sheeting to be nailed on. Tar paper will cover the OSB and then the "Hawaiian blue" tin will be screwed down on top of that. EXCITING... a major milestone is just around the corner!

Weather.com said sunshine...

Weather.com was saying sunshine but most of the afternoon it drizzled rain. I'll probably have a relapse of my cold but I worked anyway. I waited as long as I could stand for the sun to peak through like the Internet site had promised before I started working in the on/off rain. When I got to the house site, I realized that I needed scaffolding for the south wall... scaffolding today to lay out the top plate and Tuesday when we - FINALLY - set the trusses. So, the first thing I did was to build scaffolding... it's pretty easy with a wood wall, scrap lumber and my Paslode propane nail gun (best investment I've made during the project... speeds things up dramatically!): My stuccoer friend, Sonny - I know you're thinking "Speedy" - Gonzales, came by yesterday for a visit and helped me measure the length of the north and south walls so I'd know if I needed to fudge a little when I laid out the top plate. Happily, my corner to corner measurements were exactly the same so no jury rigging was needed. It is VERY important to have the plate marked correctly north & south so the OSB will go on easily and meet in the middle of each truss rafter for nailing. As you can see I got the brackets attached on 2' centers on the south wall. Tomorrow I'll duplicate my effort on the north wall although I need to make a few changes to what the guys did last week and that may take a while : ( . The trusses will drop into these slots and get screwed as time permits.
Tomorrow - assuming I run into no problems "fixing" and laying out the north wall - I'll nail OSB and HardiPlanks (cement board) to the east & west gable end trusses. It just makes sense to do this work on the ground and let the crane pick it up and set it in place rather than have to do it on a ladder or on scaffolding.I know this truss has a funky look to it but it forms the outside of my knee wall that the "normal" trusses (i.e. the roof) butt into... kinda like this:

Five day set back...

Between having a terrible cold and hurricane Faye causing it to rain cats and dogs, our building progress has been slowed for the last few days. Now it will probably be Tuesday before I'll schedule the crane to come and set the trusses. In the meantime there are several things I can do to prepare. Today I'll mark the top plates 24" on center and screw the metal brackets down to hold the trusses in place. Also I'll nail OSB sheathing and the HardiPlank siding to the gable end trusses to avoid having to put those on while teetering on a ladder or scaffolding (this project assumes I can drag the trusses to a place I can work on them by myself?). Here's hoping today will be a productive day.

The south wall framing is finished...

Today we (Shane, Adam and I) finished framing the south wall. Note the massive 17 1/2" beam that spans the entire length of the wall... this will support the trusses on that side of the house. Additionally, Shane and Adam also got about 1/2 of the top plate bolted to the block walls. Derek, the owner of the company that sold me the AAC block, dropped by today to pick up the "gator" saw but I wasn't there. I was pleased that when we finally caught up with each other and got to talk on the phone, he said that I'd done a pretty good job laying the block... that is from an expert. Here's the beam that the trusses will sit on:Sorry for the blurry picture of Alexis standing in one of the master bedroom windows... I just can't seem to hold the camera steady... ALL the clear shots she has taken.Me sitting in the large living room window after a shower:If it doesn't rain Monday and the crane can come, the hope is that we will start putting up the trusses.

The south wall is almost finished

Today David Musser and his helpers, Shane & Adam, came and helped me erect the south wall (actually they did most of the work). Unfortunately we had to correct for the slab being a little uneven all the way down the wall. That's why some of the spacing above the windows and doors looks uneven. That's so when we get the continuous 2" X 12" beam on top of this wall, the wall will be level east to west and ready to receive the trusses. I had miscalculated the size of all the windows and doors so some modifications had to be made on the fly (one of the advantages to having drawn your house plans on a napkin... you just get a fresh napkin). I had to change the double french door in the master bedroom to having just a normal size door with (hopefully) leaded glass at the top (not enough room for the french doors). In the living room I had planned on using 3 side-by-side windows next to the door going out to the (future) deck but we ran out of space and had to eliminate one of the three windows. The (very) large window in the "office" and in the living room are the same as I had originally planned and there is only one window in the bathroom but it's next the the toilet for contemplation purposes.

Looking east from NW corner (the large window is in our office... the double windows used to be three... no room):Looking west from the NE corner (big office window, double living room window, door to (future) deck & big window in the west end of the living room):From below the house looking NW:

Dave

Alexis here.  Dave really outdid himself today with setting up the frame for the south wall.  Between having to do all of the measuring, lifting and cutting himself,  and with the plantar fasciitis that's been plaguing him for a couple of weeks now, he's also worn out.  I have to brag on him.  This is truly a hand made with love house.  

He's a special guy!

WOOD!

I spent the day cutting the wood for the south wall's window rough openings. Tomorrow David Musser and his worker bee will start helping me nail everything together and stand the wall up. As you can see by the large rectangles (rough window openings) at the far end of the wall (Boone-Dog is lounging in one that will be in the living room) there will be lots of glass in this wall to take advantage of my passive solar design (my extra wide roof overhang will block summer sun and let in winter sun which is lower in the sky). There is still some cutting to be done at the top of the studs to take into account the slab not being perfectly level. Baxter is on quarter deck guard duty having just relieved Mosby (not shown).These are rough openings for windows that will be in the master bathroom and the master bedroom next to the French door (opening not shown). I bought all the windows on Craigslist and didn't realize at the time that all my windows - north wall & south wall - are made to go together (style & height). On the north wall all the windows are vinyl Pella windows and on the south wall all the windows are a quality brand wood window called "MW." I didn't plan it that way... it was just good fortune straight from heaven.

Insulator vs thermal mass?

I wrote a "building green" expert and asked the following question:

I am physically building a passive solar Irish cottage using AAC block. In researching AAC block I discovered conflicting opinions as to whether it was a thermal mass or an insulator. I knew it couldn't be both and I eventually concluded that it was up to me to decide which property to exploit. I decided to proceed as if the AAC block was an insulator. My question is this: "do you see a problem with putting foil/foam/foil between the AAC block and my interior sheet rock to increase the R value of the wall while taking advantage of the reflective properties of the foil?" It's a relatively cheap "add on" and would increase my wall's R value from approx R-16 to R-30. I wasn't sure about moisture problems, etc. Thanks for your answer.

This was his reply:

I think that what you propose is a good idea. I wouldn't worry about the foil inducing moisture problems, since it will be on the inside and should not sweat, and the AAC wall is not a breathable wall either, so it should be fine.
I think that you are right that AAC is primarily an insulator. Your sheetrock interior will provide some thermal mass, but you might think about adding other mass elements into your interior design.All we did today was clean-up/pick-up and begin getting ready to build the south wall... YEAH!

More loose ends...

I got the dining room window frame secured today as well as fixing the 1/4" error I made yesterday with the front door frame. I still need to get some really good anchor bolts to hold the inside 2" X 6" firmly in place. It's going to look good with a roof, huh!?... SOON!

I got this jagged wall sawed off even today. The wooden south wall will be bolted to this short wall and to the one like it at the end of the east wall.
The job site is pretty much a mess... I'm almost embarrassed to include this picture until I get it picked up and cleaned up. Today I also re-positioned & and re-set the scaffolding in preparation for putting the trusses up next week (note how level my wall is... YEAH!).

On a lighter note... I love this Gary Larson cartoon... what goes on in this guy's head!?

Loose ends...

Today I spent tying off loose ends. I haven't been happy with the way I had initially secured the window frames to the block so I am in the process of re-attaching the frames to the block. I have finished all but the window in the dining room (closet window, utility room window & kitchen window). This is a picture of the completed utility room window frame and the view up our drive way to St Mary's Lane.
I sawed the front door opening today and mis-measured by 1/4"... I'll have to take off the right upright 2" X 6" tomorrow and rasp down the block (I might try to saw it?). I should be able to finish this and the dining room window tomorrow. Additionally, I'll saw off the jagged short wall at the end of the west wall and make it vertical and ready to have the south wall bolted to it. Next, it's back on the scaffolding to bolt down the top wooden plate. That's a job for Saturday.
This is a picture of Ethan when he was told his Granddaddy had FINALLY finished laying the block for his house.

A wonderful change of pace...

Yesterday I started making preparations to build the wooden south wall starting Monday. I sawed off the short SE wall and made sure it was plumb (see below). Today I got side tracked buying some material at a salvage yard I discovered on Opossum Paw Road in Beechgrove, Tennessee. It took most of the day to find the owner... he's pretty much a free spirit. The trip was worth it because of today's and future bargains.I wasn't happy with the way the window frames were attached to the AAC block openings so I began redoing them using some stuff called "sill seal." Sill seal is a heavy duty corrugated foam which will seal the space between the pressure treated wood and the concrete block. Then to be doubly sure there is no unwanted air infiltration, I will run a bead of caulk in the the gap between the wood frame and the block. I'll eventually wrap the edge with AAC 2" X 4" trim which will get stuccoed. This is me ratcheting down one of the fasteners that holds the wood frame tight against the block (the sill seal is between the wood and the block). The actual window will be screwed into this opening.Here's my grandson, Ethan looking very disappointed. He was counting on getting to help me lay some AAC blocks the summer between his junior and senior year in high school (based on the speed with which his granddaddy was laying block). He's 8 months old in this picture... don't you agree he's a beautiful boy!?

Quoting my best friend (out of context)...

Jesus said at the end of his ordeal, "It is finished."
And so it is with our AAC block wall... "it is finished!"
Level, level, level, bow (oops), level, turn the corner level...
Level, level, level, level, turn the corner...
Level, level, level, level... THE BLOCK WALL IS FINISHED!... quoting someone else of significantly less stature (Homer Simpson) than my best friend (above), "whoooo... hoooo!"Tomorrow morning the wood framing for the south wall arrives... things should move considerably faster now that I'll be driving nails and will have some help for a time. Here is a picture of me and Baxter... we are very much in love... he woulda helped if he had opposable thumbs.
And another shot of that beautiful boy.

Quoting my outspoken friend, Judy Hensley...

"I'm tired of (hearing about) bond beams and concrete blocks! "
"ME TOO!," replied Dave.
As you can see in this picture we were able to pour about half of the bond beam this afternoon so all the boring reports on such matters will SOON be over and we'll be telling you about more exciting things... LIKE PUTTING ROOFS ON IRISH COTTAGES.
Sorry for the blurred picture but this is a shot of the line level on the string pulled from the SE corner of the east wall to the SW corner of the west wall. I was holding my breath but IT'S LEVEL... or close enough that fixing it will be a simple matter.
As well as being tired of my bond beam diatribes, Judy also mentioned she couldn't find the picture of the Irish cottage on which we based our house design. Our house will be approximately twice as big as the tiny cottage, below (Brigid's Wood: 1456 sq. ft.). Additionally, our cottage will have a blue tin roof that buts on both ends to a 15" knee wall (with no overhang). The cottage look will be the same although ours will have a "mortgage free" red door, climbing roses on the stucco and NO grass to mow..

Ready to pour concrete...

Here's a picture of the west wall level inside & out... ready to receive concrete. The jagged 2' wall at the end will be sawed off even vertically and the wooden south wall will be bolted to it (a job for early next week). If you look closely you can see the "J" bolts sticking up every few feet... holes will be drilled in the 2" X 8" pressure treated top plate and the plate will be bolted to the top of the wall and the end trusses attached to it.
Here's another shot of the trough created by the 2" slices of AAC block in that same wall... the cavity will be filled with concrete and leveled off flush. Ignore the slight bow in the wall towards the end... a jack-leg mason laid the wall.Here I am pooped at the end of the day... note how level the top of the east wall looks.Whenever she's able to be here on the job, Alexis is always a big help.Two of our "boys"... ready to go for a ride in the truck (Mosby, reclining... Boone-dog, smiling... total IQ = a turnip). Baxter (not shown) couldn't be bothered... besides, he's too much of a lug to jump into the back of the truck.

DONE!

Here I am smiling and pointing to the LAST AAC block that has to be laid. Obviously, I still have to saw off this irregular 24" wall and make it uniform and vertical since we'll be bolting the wooden south wall to it but that's a small matter.I'll use tomorrow to level up the three block walls with my gadget from Home Depot. Louis Camerio, my best friend from Junior High and Altanta land developer, made the following smart-ass comment, "The water hose level is how the Egyptians built the pyramids. Glad to hear you caught up with their technology." My three block walls are only about 1/4" out of level here and there but the water level will make the job relatively easy. Since the AAC block I used for the bond beam side walls is relatively soft, rasping won't be too difficult.Hopefully I'll pour the bond beam Saturday.

Bond beam and plantar fascitis

I made good progress today in setting the side walls for the bond beam (I also tied the remaining steel and "J" bolts). Before I physically ran out of gas, I had laid all but 12 of the 2" X 4" X 24" "slices. I should be able to get those laid early tomorrow. Here's all that is left:
Following the laying of the last 12 "slices," I have to rasp down the top of the slices to the same level height on all three walls in preparation to pour the wet concrete in the cavity. I knew I could find level with a string and a line level but I was DREADING the thought of doing it. Happily, I remembered a gadget I saw about a month ago at Home Depot that will make the leveling job dramatically easier... especially since I'm by myself. It was only $25 and is called a "Zircon Electronic Water Level." Imagine a water hose that is bent in the shape of a "U"... if it is filled with water, the water at both ends stays perfectly the same height. Using this principle and some simple electronics that "BEEP" at level, I just hang the gadget on the wall at the desired height and take the end of the clear hose (filled with colored water) and mark level every few feet as I move around the wall (inside & out). I had figured using a line level (by myself) would take me all day... maybe two. With this water level the job should be accomplished in a few hours Here's another view of the 15 or so feet I have left to lay.I am sorry to report that going up and down the ladder to get on & off the scaffolding has given me "plantar fascitis" in my left heel (diagnosed by Dr. Alexis). It is very painful and I end up shuffling around the job site all day because of it. Unfortunately, the healing process can take more than 6 months. In the meantime it hurts... soaking in Epsom salts helps, to wit (note my white, pasty ankles under my Beach Boy-esque tanned right leg):
One of the benefits to working outside while laying this AAC block has been MEGA doses of vitamin D-3 and a BEAUTIFUL tan... BEST tan I've had in 30 years!

Creation of the bond beam is progressing well

Setting the side walls of the bond beam is going well... I have completely laid the east wall side walls and half of the long north wall. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll finish the north wall and the west wall. Then the fun part starts as I have to level both the inside and outside side walls so I have something level to pour the wet concrete mixture to. I am constantly (day & night) trying to come up with the easiest way to accomplish this because being level is SO important to the roof going on properly. This is a picture of what I have laid so far... both pictures clearly show that I still need to do some rasping work to make it level. Happily, the blocks that the side walls were "sliced" from is VERY soft AAC so rasping is relatively easy. My plan is to finish laying tomorrow and spend Thursday and Friday leveling in anticipation of pouring on Saturday (I bought the bags of concrete last week). Then we'll set the top plate and be driving nails.
This second picture shows the unevenness (and bow) of the side walls which I will correct in the leveling/rasping process. The glue you see is excess material that I had to dump or use to begin filling the cavity. The stuff is very strong so I chose to begin filling.