Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Exteriors I Like

I've been on Houzz for a long time and have amassed a horde of pictures.  Here's my favorites.

The shakes!  The deck!  The chimney!
Or maybe a dark grey in large planks for a bold statement.
A traditional white cottage?
How about white with a little more flair!
Or a little bit of flair and a little bit of traditional?
This craftsman is divine with marvelous attention to detail.
Or maybe modern with a bright accent!
Nothing says country like the iconic red farmhouse.
We'll be installing cedar for our siding. I've read about too many problems with vinyl and cement fiberboard, and any other material would be beyond our price range. There ARE issues with the new fast growing cedar that are available. I was hoping for a rain screen to mitigate that issue, and here's an article from The Journal of Light Construction from 2006 detailing how to construct a rain screen, but most contractors have never heard of this technique. The siding will just be installed the "normal" way.

I find myself caring less and less about specifics, and more and more about actually moving into the house as time passes!

Monday, April 6, 2015

Waterproof! And Not.

Our basement has been interior french drained!

It really helps to turn the well off before disconnecting it.
More... carefully removing the water tank.
Good thing we're getting a new water heater?
Construction adhesived the command center since we had to chop the base.
It's so gravely!
And shadowy.
Working on the sump pump.
Our foundation has weep holes!  Now it can cry.
Cement poured.
Woot, new pump, with a backup battery pump too, in case.
Looking sharp!
So lovely.  And our furnace will be staying away from the wall for a while.
Unfortunately, other parts of our house are not as waterproofed.

Our fireplace and chimney!
Was leaking, so we had to remove it.
Handy dandy home depot bucket.  Oh how you complete my life.
So wet!
Don't worry guys, we got this.  We're pros.
But we really do need our siding fixed ASAP.
On a brighter note, our house is finally getting slowly jacked up!

Nine home depot buckets!  Be still my heart.
Needed to dig the dirt out and flared to create a deep enough and wide enough footer foundation for the poles!
This is how we keep buildings up in Michigan.
Eventually the beam will be at the line!  Maybe.
Meanwhile, DH and I have been busy too!

We transported pipes to the house in a safe manner.
DH created pipes!  And started hooking them up!
I cleaned the studs of drywall screws and construction adhesive.
We put up blocks to stop air flow!
BONUS PICTURES TIME


Pods!
Red stuff!
DUCKSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!