Well the spring has been warm and friendly which has given me plenty of opportunities to travel up to Vermont and get some projects done. The lakeside gable end above the porch finally has its sunburst. I'm so pleased with it. A local Tinmouth carpenter, Ken Krantz and his brother installed it. I think people will smile when they pass by in their boats. Oh-to Judah and Ray-31 pieces each side(that's 63 slats) plus the keystone at the top-the shortest piece was 44 inches, the longest, 73 inches. This was a fun math problem!

Last weekend I was able to leave work on Friday a little early due to some owed flex time, so I zipped up to Vermont and made it to the lake before sunset. It was a lovely evening, a bit on the cool side, but lovely. 

Apri1 15-18

Marathon Day in Boston today and my marathon has been to get the flooring installed during this long weekend. As you will recall, back during the Labor Day weekend last fall, I removed oak, fir, and southern yellow pine flooring from a house in Somerville, MA that was slated to be demolished. (Link to Sept post.) Well, the oak is now installed in the kitchen, living room, and entry hallway of the new house.  It feels good to recycle wood that would have otherwise gone to the dump.  It has not been free though! There has been the expense of hiring my nephew and Thomas to help remove it and de-nail it; the expense of renting a truck to get it up here; the expense of hiring a few Tinmouth kids to clean it with paint scrapers and grill brushes. It is finished-as in it has a polyurethane top coat- and since it was fairly new, it was not difficult to install. There are some areas where I will need to sand and spot finish, but on the whole, I'm pretty happy. Josh Burlingame, a carpenter in Poultney, Vt., helped me install on Friday and Saturday and taught me some tricks of the trade around starting the first rows, installing around walls and doors, and how to install a bowed piece of wood. I bought two new tools for this project-my new Porter Cable air compressor (which came with 3 nailers) and a new Ryobi skill saw. I rented my flooring nailer from La Valley's, the local lumber yard where most of my building materials for this project were bought.

In the kitchen, I wanted to save oak flooring, so anywhere where there will be base cabinets or the fridge or stove , I am installing 3/4" plywood underneath. At the kitchen sink, I will have a tile "rug." At the front door entry, I will install slate tiles. I'm glad I decided to put down plywood because if I had not done that, I would not have had enough wood to finish the entry how I wanted to finish it. I can't believe how close I was in terms of the amount of wood I removed from 308 Beacon, and how much oak I needed for the main living areas. We wasted very little, and every time we needed a specific length, we went through the pile of wood and found a piece that nearly matched. My goal was not to cut off any piece over 6 inches. It was like finding the right puzzle piece.

(Remember-click on the slide show and it will open to the Picase Photo Album where you can see the pictures in a larger format.)

Today I am waiting for the Pella window technician to come replace a bad window. Actually, I'm not just waiting, sitting on my bum-I'll be cleaning the pine flooring and installing that in the bedroom.

It has been ages since I posted but that is only because I come up to Vermont nearly every weekend and physically work all weekend, return to my desk job Monday mornings, and am too vegetable-like & exhausted during the week to post updates. The most difficult and time consuming task has been to tile the bathroom. Once Kevin (the tile guy) prepared the shower floor for me, I have been tiling the walls and the rest of the bathroom floor. It has been difficult since the Terra Green tiles are not square or even all of the same dimension-they are like hand-made tiles. Every tile placed on the wall has needed to be fidgeted with and spaced. It's impossible to be perfect with these tiles. Working with Laticrete thin-set is a task but Kevin was a good teacher and I have figured out how to mix batch after batch that are of a consistent texture. The key is measuring the water.

My goal is to get all the flooring done so I can go out and buy the appliances I need for the Vermont Efficiency Rebate. I am under the gun of a time deadline-May 9th is the scheduled final Vermont Efficiency inspection. Vermont Efficiency will do a blower door test to test for how tight my house is and will look at my installed light fixtures and appliances.  I need certain things done by that time-my refridgerator and stove need to be installed, as well as my washing machine. The refridgerator and washing machine (and my high-efficiency water heater) are the appliances for which I will receive a rebate.

Starting about 3 weeks ago, we've had a series of break-ins and robberies on the lake. Tonight I received the second call from my neighbor in that many weeks-She and her husband were up at their place today and they realized that their folk's place across the lake has been broken into. The last time they were up a few weeks ago, they discovered their house had been broken into along with 5 other properties all around me. The thieves ransack the places looking for easily-fenced items such as silver, gold, handguns & electronics. They make a mess doing it and break windows and doors to get in. All apparently for drugs. The word from law enforcement is that this is related to the heroin trade and use in Rutland, Vermont. Heroin! In Rutland, Vermont. I think it's meth too, which is also a problem up there. Either way, a drag. 

After spending New Years eve with my wife, Gill, and cooking an amazing meal for her visiting brother, Byron, I drove up to Vermont New Years day. The roads were clear and it was an easy trip.

Daniel was already working when I arrived and Adam arrived shortly after to finish the corner bead on the rest of the windows. Because my walls are a foot thick, my window sills are especially deep. They reminded me of the thick adobe walls in the southwest which are near and dear to my heart. I decided that I would finish the windows with the curved bullnose, drywall and mud rather than wood trim. This way I bring inside, my love of the southwest style. I maintain the cottage look on the outside but now can play with style on the inside.

Danny is an old friend and was a friend of my neighbor PD, who passed away in October of 2008. I'm so glad Danny was able to work on my house. He and I worked together most of last weekend-he taught me how to sand the dry mud which is way harder work than I imagined. To sand the ceiling and high walls, there is a pole with 2 sanding pads. Let me tell you! Moving that sanding pole around on the ceiling is a pain in the shoulders! But my shoulders are strong from all the working out I have been doing this past year and the dragonboating so I am NOT complaining! I'm just sayin! I have great respect for the work Danny does. It is completely physical. And let's not even get started about the dust that is generated. And yes, I wore a mask, glasses and a hat.


I finally unveiled the re-glazed sink that I saved from my old cottage. I had the re-glazing done in Watertown, Mass-not too far from us. 375 bucks. I really love this sink.
Before and After photos of the kitchen sink

On Thursday December 23rd, Gill and I rented a Penske truck to take the wood floor (that I got out of the Somerville demolition house-see earlier post: https://sites.google.com/site/tpondcottagebuildingjourney/journal-blog/removingwoodfloorfrom308beaconsomerville)and the kitchen cabinets (that I scored a few weeks ago on Craigslist) up to Vermont. I hired 2 guys from Responsible, Safe Movers (a YELP recommendation) to load the truck since the wood floor was done in the basement which is 2 floors below us and difficult to carry things up from since we don't really have stairs outside. The guys got the truck loaded in 2 hours. We then went to bed early and woke up at 5 am to get a start on our day. We got on the road about 7 a.m. (Gill is slow to wake up.) We got to the cottage later than we had planned since we had several pit stops to make in Rutland. One of my helper kids-Cameron-came and helped us unload the truck which took us another 2 hours. You can see it was a bit slippery walking down the slope to the lower French doors so we could store the wood on the lake-level floor since they are not finished taping the top floor ( or really the bottom floor but there was enough done for us to store the wood down there). 

Last Friday the 2nd phase of the cellulose installation took place. You'll remember that several weeks ago we had the attic blown with 20 inches of Cel-Pak cellulose

Today was my lucky day with Craigslist. You know, sometimes you answer several ads and you may never hear back from the owner of the ad or you might hear back that the item is sold. This morning I got the news that I could come look at the cabinets. I stopped at the bank just in case. The cabinets were clean and nearly new and in stored in the finished basement of a house in Milton-a suburb of Boston, about 5 miles south of JP.
Kim was there to meet me. She is a professional "de-clutterer, organizer" for people. She helps people sell stuff-like a real estate agent for stuff rather than property or houses. She was very nice. The owner was asking 800. I asked if she would take less. She made a phone call to the owner, and the owner said I could have them for 700 dollars. Great news! I just had to ask. So I gave her 350 cash and brought the 3 top cabinets home in my Prius and tonight Gill and I each took our cars and brought home the rest of the cabinets. I'm really thrilled. These cabinets will work with the space I have, are simple, and will fit in fine with the cottage life. My favorite kitchen that I aspire to have, actually has black cabinets. I'll post those photos below. This is from a house that was remodeled in New hampshire by and architect/designer husband and wife team. I've been reading that india ink is the best thing to use to make cabinets and furniture black if you still want to see the grain of the wood. I may test a little area to see how these new cabinets would look if they were black!


My dream kitchen:

After spending Thanksgiving with Gill at Sharyn's and Jack's house, I left for Vermont at 5 a.m Saturday morning(I thought it was 6:00!). I love getting up early and making my trip. 1.5 hours to the intersection of 93 and 89, then 1 hour up 89 to the Woodstock exit, then about 45 minutes through windy, 2 lane roads, through Quechee then Woodstick then Bridgewater where cops love to set up speed traps and then through Killington, where the weather is always different than what I just drove throuh. This time I stopped and had breakfast at a great little place in Ottauquechee. All the food the owner buys is local. They make their own bread and it was great. All the meat and cheese and of course, the milk, is Vermont grown. My kind of place. I will stop there more often now.

I got to Rutland and made a stop at Home Depot for an electric heater since I was gonna camp in my yet-to-have-heat cottage. I also stopped at a cool lighting store where I was able to find a part for an old lamp I am rebuilding. The owner was very nice. I then stopped at Aubuchon Hardware where i bought my exterior stain and showed Brian-the nice sales guy-my photos so he could see how the colors worked out. He matched the blue roof paint for me as I will use that color in my sunroom gable end in a special design I am doing. More on that later. i stopped at hannifords to get some Red box movies too. I dawdled and didn't get to the cottage until about 11:30 a.m. By then it was snowing.

This weekend my task was to simply set up a hose at the well pressure tank and run the water until it ran clear. Well, the task of actually attaching the hose to the pressure tank was a bit of a challenge. The tank spigot is so close to the ground it was hard to get the hose bent enough. Then the hoses I had were leaking so I had to go back to Wallingford and pick up another hose. Still wouldn't work, so I called my plumber in frustration and he told me the secret magic trick...take a pipe wrench and turn the spigot slightly at an angle so there is room to get the hose on. Voila! 2 trips to Rutland and 25 dollars in hose later...The water ran all weekend and I left will it still running since it was still running orange and had fine clay silt that I trapped in the paint screen I was using to pass the water through. Ray called my on Monday to tell me the water was crystal clear and beautiful by Monday when he arrived. Now I can have heat! My plumber went down today to get the radiant heat fired up. Ray and John Squires have been sheetrocking. I'm gonna stay home this coming weekend (in Boston) and hopefully big changes will have happened by the next time i show up-like it will be all sheetrocked and maybe the cellulose will be blown in! That would be loverly!
You know you can click on the slideshow and it will open to the Picasa photo album...
Thanksgiving at Sharyn and Jack's

I arrived yesterday morning at the cottage to see that most of the siding has been put up. I had been a little worried about my decision to do the first floor siding brown, but once I saw it i was pretty happy. I want the eye to see the cottage as the yellow portion. I want it to fit in and look smaller than it really is. I received the best compliment today when Annie was walking Emily the dog and said to me, "I have to commend you, it really looks like it belongs." I thanked her. That's exactly what I was going for. We have some new places built on the lake that do NOT fit in-they are ugly monstrosities, so i really wanted to maintain the cottage feel.

Some other news is that on Thursday Amerigas came and installed the second tank. One was not going to have enough pressure for my new high efficiency boiler. They hooked it up and pressure tested the system so all is well. Vermont Central Public Electric comes and moves the wire from the temporary service to the house and they put in the meter this week. Then we can turn on the well and see how the water runs. I just may have to be there for that!
Water means radiant heat which is the most important thing to me right now.

Another thing that happened last week is that Ray and Daniel got the ceiling sheetrock hung and air-sealed so the cellulose could be blown. The cellulose guy-Blaine Goad-showed up on Friday and blew the cellulose in the attic so we could start sealing the house up. The guys can run a propane heater now and the heat will stay in the building for awhile.

 I slept overnight last night in the cottage. I chose the most thermally insulted place which is the corner that has 2 Thermomass walls downstairs. I ran the electric cord through the window, then stuffed the window with insulation. I hooked the electric heater to the cord as well as a light and made a little bedroom in what will be my workshop. I worked all night at the famous Tinmouth Game dinner, got into bed around 9:00 p.m. and read for a short bit. I feel asleep and woke up at 6:00 a.m. It was truly the best sleep I've had in months and the room was about 40 degrees! No Monty cat waking me up early in the morning caterwailing about whatever it is he cries about...Just me and the dark and the cold. I loved it! I had my little coffee maker this morning and I brought my microwave from my beehouse place at Uncle Bob's so I could heat my milk. I had 2 cups of latte while sitting in the sunroom with my snow jacket on! Then I took a kayak ride. Vermont in the late fall is so different than Vermont in the summer and spring. I love how it changes. I can't wait to have heat so i can be there on the winteriest of snowiest days!

So if you ask me, "When will it be done?" I will answer, "It will be done when it is done, come snow, or sleet, or sunshine." 

As you will see in the photos, winter is nearly here in Vermont, and still there is no heat. Without drywall hung, we can not blow the cellulose. Without cellulose and at least the ceiling sheetrock, we are exposed to the outside and any heat produced would go right outside. What I want to be priority is to get the ceiling sheet-rocked, then the cellulose guy can come blow cellulose in the attic, then we will be closed in, and even without the walls done, heat will stay in the building. This is what I want and I want it yesterday, last week, last month... We do have a deadline with Energy Star too. I need to have the house done before December 30th so the inspections can take place (blower door test) so I can get the $800.00 rebate. Everything is just taking so long right now. It's painful.

On Friday the Energy Star rep came down from Rutland to do the Thermal Bridge Inspection. We passed with flying colors. We are taking extra steps to ensure that there will be no unintentional air leaks. 

What do you expect in Vermont in October? Last Thursday they got snow for a few fleeting minutes. Five inches came down in Killington which is 26 miles northeast of the cottage. It's getting down to freezing at night. My plumber camps downstairs with a heater, a pad, and his down mummy sleeping bag. I promise I have offered to put him up at a hotel but he likes to camp and it is awfully (in a wonderful way) quiet and dark on the lake.

I wanted to continue to paint siding but was hampered by the "now its raining, now it's sunny" weather. I gave up on Sunday at 2:00.

Check out my high efficiency boiler that will heat the radiant floors and my domestic hot water. All my plumbing supplies came from this store: http://www.houseneeds.com/
My plumber lives in Warren, Vermont. He came highly recommended and I do think he is great. He's a positive guy and very nice about teaching me stuff.He helped me get started on mounting the radiant tubes under the 2nd floor floors.


I'm excited about picking up my sink tomorrow. I saved my farm sink and had it re-glazed at Porcelain Patch in Watertown, MA. Gill was so good in dropping it off and will meet me there to pick it up. Porcelain Patch does not do any heavy lifting. You have to do that on your own.
Here is a PRE picture. I'll post the POST pictures later. I had them re-glaze with the color called "Kohler White."

My neighbor said about the blue roof, "It's a happy blue."
That's just the reaction I was going for. Just wait until the yellow siding is up!


Radiant Tubing and Foil insulation

We are moving along. I met with the plumber and electrician this weekend. I have to start buying sinks and faucets and lighting fixtures and so much to think about!
Cameron, a 15 year old local kid helped me to paint(it is actually stain) siding this weekend. Painting siding on both sides before it is installed helps to preserve the wood from rot. The furring strips help dry behind the siding if it should ever get wet.

Here are the photos:

I answered a Craiglist ad for a Demo sale of a house that is being torn down in Somerville, Ma. I went and took a look at the wood. Half of it was 14 foot planks of old, old growth Doug Fir. The other half was less-than-10-year-old oak. I bid it at $0.40 oer square foot. The owners accepted.
Here is a slide show of us removing the wood, bundling it, and storing it in my basement in Boston. The final step is to transport it to Vermont and of course to lay it in my new place. The idea is to reuse wood that would have otherwise gone to the dump. A bit of work, yes. But I know when I look at it in the new place, there will be a sense of accomplishment.

So I should have made this post probably 2 months ago, but now that I'm on knocked on my ass, with my left leg propped on 4 pillows, I actually have time.

The Picasa slide show below shows the radiant tubes that will be part of the heating system. I will be using a Triangle Tube super energy efficient boiler that will heat the water and pump it through the tubes.
2 layers of 2 inch foam where laid and taped. Then a mesh was laid on top of that so the tubes are lifted at a certain level into the slab. You don't want the heating tubes too far from the surface you walk on or too close from the surface due to the need to nail interior wall plates.
Robert and Ray laid the tubes and pressure-tested the tubes once they were laid in place. The pressure valve stays in place during the pouring of the concrete so we can make sure nothing happens during the pour.

The roof trusses went up this past Thursday. Unfortunately I couldn't be there, but my design/engineer took this photos for me. I can't wait to see it next weekend.

Sorry these posts are a bit out of sequence. That's the way it goes sometimes!

The next slide show shows how the ground floor slab was poured and finished. I had color added to the concrete, it was left to dry a bit, the tile was cut and then sealed. The sealant dried to quickly and formed a white film so it will need to be re-sprayed. My concrete guy, Tony, reassures me that the final product will be perfect. He's waiting until the roof is up so the floor will be protected from the sun the next time he sprays. The new sealant will completely dissolve the white film-Tony and I tested a "tile" and we know it to be true.
It was a pleasure to watch Danny work. He has amazing technique. I was fortunate to be able to be there and to capture the entire process.

So I am able to catch up with the building blog because I am knocked on my butt by a staph infection in my lower shin where I banged it against my deck several weeks ago. I had a nice nodule there-a hematoma-which got irritated this past weekend when I was tearing out wood flooring from an old house in Somerville, MA that will be knocked down. I whacked it a few times while de-nailing the oak planks. Re-injuring it and probably opening a tiny entry way for bacteria. The irritation was the perfect entry for the bacteria. Staph is a normal bacterial on our skin but not good when it gets into our soft tissue under our skin. I'm in the Faulkner Hospital in Boston, being infused by inter-venous Vancomyacin. I've been here since Wednesday. Today is Saturday. And I have at least one more day then a month of oral antibiotics...fun! and my windows get delivered in Tinmouth on Thursday!

So I was able to paint the UGL Drylock on the exterior of the foundation.
It took me 2 full days. I could use a good massage right about now. Good thing I've been working out. It took a lot of upper back strength, which I have now.