Power at Last!

This will be a long post.  Sorry.  Yesterday Presque Isle Electric and Gas delivered power to the construction site.  It took long enough: I started the process back in July.  The crew arrived before noon, ready to put up the pole, but found that their auger couldn’t drill through my rocky soil.  They were going to leave and return today with a backhoe, but R.J. volunteered to dig the hole for them.  Warning R.J. and Kyle that PIE would not pay an outside contractor, they readily agreed.  The pole was soon set up, and a couple hours later PIE had us hooked up, metered, and no longer listening to Kyle’s generator.

R.J. uses his backhoe to help place the power pole.

It took awhile, but PIE's crew now has us "on the grid."

With the PIE truck out of the way, R.J. started backfilling the garage.  In yesterday’s post I noted that the garage left me with less storage space than I anticipated.  Kyle measured the length of the structure and discovered why — my 24’x32’ garage is actually 24’x30’!  Jim erred in measuring for the footings.  I could have demanded that the garage be rebuilt to spec.  But that would have meant tearing out the east wall, pouring a new footing, and rebuilding.  After mulling the pros and cons for an hour — especially the work required and delay in pouring the slab — I decided to let it go.  If this is the worst disaster to befall the project, I’ll come out in good shape.  And if I later build a sauna in that corner of the garage, it will just be longer and narrower than anticipated.

R.J. begins backfilling the east wall of the garage...

...then grades the slope behind the garage to handle runoff...

...and distributes sand inside the foundation to
support the concrete slab.

At mid-afternoon Kyle’s framing crew was ready to install the east wall of the stairwell.  Built inside, it was carried out through the bedroom window opening, set up on the sill plate, and nailed into place.  At that point Kyle realized that the window openings, built per plan, do not end up in the right places.  This is a U-shaped stairway with a landing, window seat, and two windows.  Kyle found that when you add up all the inches needed — the first half of the stairway, the landing and window seat, and the second half of the stairs — the upper window opening sits too low and will have to be raised.  This in turn has implications for the support of the roof.  Kyle was going to work with the numbers last night to resolve this mystery.

The crew puts the stairwell wall in place.  Kyle saw
immediately that it wouldn't work. 

One of the masons works on the wall in the living room.

The long side of the wall in the bedroom will have to be
given some attractive finish.  The short foot of the "L"
will be finished in wallboard.

The square on the floor outline the entry vestibule.
Quite small, it is intended to serve as an "airlock" in winter.

Meanwhile, work continues on interior walls.  The masons have laid up and filled about half of the masonry wall.  As noted, the rock-like face is on the living room side.  The short foot of the “L” will be covered with wallboard to make an “art wall” which one will see first when entering through the front door.  As for the “cinder block” side in the bedroom, I’ll have to find a suitable finish — perhaps slate or limestone tile would work.

At the north end of the house Kyle’s crew has framed in the mud room, laundry, and half-bath wing.  The half-bath nook is actually larger than I expected.  Indeed, all the spaces now seem a bit larger than they did at first.  Or perhaps, after several years imagining these dimensions, my brain is adjusting to the framed-in reality. 

Dave cuts boards needed to frame the interior walls.

Kyle studies the blueprints in the dining room window opening.

Dave and Kyle have commented on the visitors who come to inspect progress.  My neighbor Floyd drops by at least once a day to kibitz and take photos.  Mystery Man, an elderly gentleman, appears now and then, silently watches, and for some reason refuses to give his name!  

Tim and Kathleen have been very welcoming to their
new neighbor on Kauffman.

And Tim, who lives at the south end of the lake, also drops by occasionally.  A retired science teacher and basketball coach, Tim built his house a few years ago.  By built, I mean that Tim — with the help 1-2 days a week of his school principal-and-contractor brother from Traverse City — did the rough and finish carpentry himself.  He says he hammered every nail in the house — no nail gun!  That's a lot of work, and hard on the arm.  He did a great job, however.  The house is lovely. •••