There will be no activities at the build site, tomorrow, December 3, because of inclement weather. The forecast of freezing rain and snow makes working on scaffolds too dangerous. Hope to see you all on Saturday, December 6.

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, we can get back to our normal schedule - building on Wednesday and Saturday. The outlook for this coming Wednesday is not good (rain and snow forecast) and since most of the activities are outside, we may not be working. If there are any questions, call the hotline number (847-326-7563) for the latest updates.

If we do work. painting and installing siding will be the main tasks. Parallel with these activities are the plumbing and electrical work, by others.

We had a nice day, today, and made good progress with a medium-sized, but experienced, group of volunteers.

Our normal work days at 959 Lavoie Ave., Elgin, are Wednesdays and Saturdays. Occasionally there will be activities on other week days. Lunch is provided on Saturday.

With Thanksgiving day on Thursday, there will be no change in the days available to help. Both Wednesday and Saturday, on either side of turkey day will see activities at the site. Also, both these days in the preceeding week (19th and 22nd), are available for fun and games.

Some scheduled activities on the 19th include painting of siding (in heated garage), installation of trim on outside of garage and house, complete partitions and miscellaneous framing in house, complete flashing of installed windows and work in basement. Saturday, the 22nd, will have many of the same activities as Wednesday.

Both of these Saturdays (and all Wednesdays) are “open” days. meaning volunteers from any church, affiliation or walk of life are welcome. We look forward to working with you.

In spite of a forecast for nasty weather, twenty one volunteers came to the site and accomplished all the items on the Task List. Well done, lasses and lads.

Soffits were completed, including necessary trim pieces, fascias on both  garage and house were finished, all the windows were installed and a good start was made on getting the electrical boxes installed in the house.

The windows are fiberglass clad wood. The fiberglass dictates special flashing, thus the colorful look. Since there will be bedroom in the basement, an egress window is required.

We are very fortunate to have a large and varied group of volunteers dedicating themselves to building the home. Here are two of the more dedicated: Dick Kingdon with wife Lee.

Some additional photos are here.

The next post will contain a schedule of work days for the holiday part of this month.

The weather forecast is terrible, for both Friday and Saturday. But, since we are under roof and with heat in the garage, we are going to give it a go on both those days.. If nothing else, we will do painting in the garage.

On Wednesday last, several of the volunteers (Tommy here) worked into the evening using (Dom here) lights to cut and install soffit panels (Si Cartland) on the garage. With this part done, we can run a propane heater and keep it nice ans cozy. At least cozy enough to paint siding and trim pieces. These are fiber cement siding and panel pieces.

While the lighted install went on outside, Dick Kingdon and Don put up  lights and nailed hurricane clips in the garage.

A more complete set of photos can be found on Picasa. A complete set of larger photos are here.

Volunteers    —–   Because of the weather forecast for tomorrow (rain and snow) and the fact that most of the work is on scaffolding, the work day scheduled for Saturday November 8, 2008 has been canceled. Another reason is that it is too cold to paint.

The next work day will be Wednesday, November 12, when we will be installing windows, soffits, trim and painting (if warm enough). Hope to see many of you then.

Roger

The forecast says sunny, the track is fast and there is much to be accomplished; thus, any and all of you are invited to come to the site this Wednesday and help with the items given in the previous post.

The first snow flakes fell today and we need to get the house covered and closed to the weather. This means finishing the sheathing of the roof (mainly the roof over the side bump-outs), installing the ice and water shield membrane over six feet of roof up from the eves and 30# roofing felt over the remainder of the roof.

Then when the windows and doors arrive we can close up the walls. The windows were ordered today, with a delivery schedule of about ten working days, maybe sooner. The doors will be purchased locally.

Once the windows and doors are installed we can get serious about the siding.

Hope to see many of you Wednesday.

——————————————————-

Selected Photos  —   http://picasaweb.google.com/mattson.roger/

Large Size Photos  —    http://www.mickalson.com/Build%20Photos%202008%2010%2025/index.php

——————————————————–

Play: Work that you enjoy doing for nothing.
- Evan Esar

1.    Complete framing roof over south bumpout
1.    Install ice and water shield and felt - house (roofing nails)
2.    Sheath south bumpout (hand nail)
2.    Install soffits and trim on house (brad nailer)
3.    Install fascia boards on house (siding nailer)
4.    Install drip edge on house (roofing nails)
5.    Install trim build-up on house (brad/siding nailer)
6.    Move scaffolding to back and north side of house
7.    Install soffits on garage (brad nailer)

Install front dormer
Sheath front and rear dormers
Complete roof over south bump-out
Adjust roof over north bump-out
Paint fiber cement fascias
Install buildup on sub-fascia
Do bump-out roof sheathing (N and S)
Install ice and water shield
Complete installing sub-fascia
Clean lot, house and arrange lumber
Install soffits on garage
Paint soffit trim
Arrange garage
Install soffits on house
Install fascia boards
Complete kitchen window bump-out
Begin installing soffit trim
Determine grade level at front stairs
Dig stair holes and pour concrete
Make porch stairs
Plumb interior walls
Add gusset plates - interior walls

With only a small crew of volunteers, we made very good progress last Wednesday (the 22nd).

The scaffolding we erected on the front of the house worked so well, we decided to do the same on the south side.

With the scaffolding in place, we were able to complete the hip rafter (south-west corner of house). Shown above are Si Cartland and Jeff Fredericks cutting the rafter to correct length. Even with trusses, we never realized that a hip roof would be so much work. Especially with bump-outs on two sides. Another shot of the corner work with Dennis in the picture.

With the rafters in place, we were able to complete the sheathing of the main roof, finally!

While some were up on the roof, Tom and Dick were adding a 3/4″ piece to bottom of the sub-fascia.

The family, across the street from the build site, had two pug dogs. This is the family mentioned several months ago. Now they have seven pugs. This is one of them with owner. A couple more.

The last item we accomplished on Wednesday, was the the framing of the dormer on the east side of the roof. There will be a similar one on the west end of the roof.

A task list for Saturday (next work day) will be published after this posting.