August 26, 2015 Trim around the sheetrock walls

I started installing the lodgepole pine trim around the sheetrock, and where the ceiling and wall boards meet. Above is the north bedroom.

This is the north bedroom dormer area. Below is the north bedroom closet. I reached a point where I had to open another bundle of trim and I decided it was time to head home to Missouri. It was a good summer. I feel I accomplished a lot. My goal was to have to loft completed, but I did not quite make it. 

Until 2016!

August 25, 2015 Loft doors

All the doors in the loft have been installed. I did not plan out the trim for both sides of the doors, so I will have to complete that next year. Below is one of the closet doors. This one is in the south bedroom.

August 19, 2015 Hardwood floors in the loft bedrooms

I laid down a foam type sheeting called "Floor Muffler", then nailed down the Hand Scraped Maple flooring. The above is the south loft bedroom.

Here is the semi-completed north loft bedroom floor above, and the completed floor below. The next step is installing the trim. The bedroom, closet and bathroom doors will all be Knotty Alder. I ordered Knotty Alder trim for the baseboards, but they gave me pine instead. I returned the pine and I will get the Knotty Alder next summer.

August 14, 2015 Exterior doors

Above are the exterior doors installed. I insulated around the with a foam insulation/sealer. The doors are hard core made of Knotty Alder. The hardware is oil rubbed brass. Below I have trimmed them out on the outside using 1" by 6" rough cut cedar stained with True Cedar oil. I had to trim back some of the logs and put an angle cut on the ones that extended beyond the 1" trim, then I stained all the raw wood. On three of the four doors, the top of the door was just about perfect to trim out. The south door I had to cut a groove in the log at the top to fit the trim board.

August 11, 2015 Light fixtures, book case, stairway finishing

   I made a built-in bookcase to go under the dormer window in the north loft bedroom. There is R19 insulation behind it and the top is the window sill. I ran out of the 1-1/4" blue pine so I will have to build and install the other two in 2016. I have also been installing all light fixtures and outlet covers in the loft. Note the lights in the closet and in the ceiling of the dormer.

It's not easy to see in the picture below, but I sanded the log stairway on the main floor and in the basement and applied two coats of floor quality polyurethane. I also sanded and applied polyurethane to the garage stairway.

July 31, 2015 Painting the sheet rocked walls

                 This shows the north loft bedroom painted. Below is the north loft end gable.

Here is the basement framed wall. It has been insulated, sheet rocked and painted. I also painted the doors to better match the rest of the doors in the house.

July 1, 2015 Sheetrock completed

This is the sheet rocked both end gable in the loft.

Above is one of the dormer walls with sheetrock completed. Below is one loft end gable in the garage with the sheetrock completed. I will not tape the garage, or paint it until the house is completed. At this point, all sheetrock has been installed and taped, ready to paint. Now I am flying back to Missouri to spend the 4th of July with my family.

June 30, 2015 Garage loft ceiling

This is the garage loft ceiling insulated with the R38 batting. Below, I installed the rest of the 1" by 8" ceiling boards I had left over from the house. I will finish the ceiling when the house is completed.

June 29, 2015 Ceiling in house finished

This is the finished product. The ceilings are completely finished. Now I just have to trim them out once I finish the sheetrock installation. 

une 23, 2015 Ceiling boards

I installed the highest, most difficult to reach ceiling boards first. It was quite a stretch to reach to the very top to do the installation over the loft family room area. The ceiling over the main floor family room was easier because of the scaffolding.

   The lower ceiling area was much easier. I had to cut a round hole at each can light. The first one was a little awkward, then it got a lot easier as I became more experienced.

June 19, 2015

Here is the loft ceiling being insulated with the R38 batting. It's all overhead and it's all nasty! I installed 4 can lights over the family room in the loft, and 4 can lights over the family room on the main floor. I have a ceiling fan box installed in the center of each room.

   Today I had Nick Anderson come over and help me cut in the last three doors in the log walls on the main floor. they were very close as to the width, but we had to cut about a log and a half out of the top of each doorway. We cut a 2" deep groove down the middle of each side of the doorways with a chainsaw, and installed a 6" piece of 1/4" by 2" steel bar into the groove to keep the logs aligned.

June 17, 2015 Ceiling boards and sheetrock

Here is the first light fixture installed in the loft. The corners will all be trimmed out with pine .

We are starting to sheetrock the loft bedrooms, closets, and some of the bathroom walls, as well as the end gables and the framed basement wall. the bathroom walls will be completed next summer after the plumbing has been installed.

June 12, 2015 Wall boards and Ceiling insulation and boards

Here you can see the wall boards are all completed, and we are installing the R38 batting in the ceiling. All the tongue and groove ceiling boards will be 1" by 8" lodgepole pine.

   Here is the north loft bedroom with the ceiling boards installed on the angled ceilings and on the ceiling of the dormer. All three dormers, one in each bedroom, and one in the bathroom, will be finished the same way. The dormer ceilings all have R38 batting installed in them.

June 8, 2015 Insulation and wall boards

I started installing the 1" by 6" tongue and groove lodgepole pine boards on the walls in the loft. I am installing the boards on the two major walls at a 45 degree angle, and on the rest of the walls they will be installed parallel with the floor. I thought this would have a more interesting look.

   We have been installing batting insulation in the walls and ceiling of the two loft bedrooms and the bathroom. I have them insulated as if they were a house with R19 in the walls and R38 in the ceilings. If I don't want to heat the rooms, I can close the doors and very little heat will get through the walls. There will be a baseboard heater controlled by a thermostat in each room so these rooms will never be dependent on any other source of heat to be comfortable.

June 2, 2015 Installed foam insulation in the house and garage

   Today we started blowing the insulation into the ceiling and end gables of the house and garage. We also blew foam into the south facing framed wall in the basement. I contracted for 2 inches in all areas, which is equal to R14 insulating value. I was helping the contractor put plastic on all exposed surfaces that we did not want to get foam overspray. He sprayed 4 to 5 inches of foam into all end gables and walls as payment for my help, which brought the R value to 28 - 35. This has made a huge difference in the insulation effectiveness. After I installed the batting in the ceilings, which added another R factor of 38, I could open the windows and shades in the house at night, close them in the morning, and work in the loft all day and the temperature stayed comfortable.

May 28, 2015 Finished stairway supports in basement

   Today I finished the support structure for the main floor stairs. Last year I had two supports in the middle of the basement landing. The four uprights allowed me to properly install the two steps on each side of the landing.

May 27, 2015 Wired all loft circuits into panel

   Today I finished wiring all the loft circuits into the 100 Amp panel in the loft bedroom closet. This included running one 2 - 2 - 2 - 4 cable from this panel to the main panel in the basement. I no longer have to run extension cords all over the loft while I am working.