Goodbye, terra firma.

Having done as much as we could do from the ground, it was time to take the project to the next level. My parents came over for the labor day weekend and we spent almost an entire day getting scaffolding set up and braced for the task ahead. The top of the silo wall will be 21 feet off the ground, and once the roof is added it will be even taller than the barn. All of this looked really nice on the drafting table, but now the reality of what's required to build it starts to develop. Working on the scaffolding makes everything more difficult and SLOW. Fortunately we had two sets (thank you, Keith!) and my mom would be here to play 'gopher' and bring up supplies as needed.

The Manion Truss Company crew pulled into the field at the crack of dawn this morning with the replacement set of trusses. They added a temporary 2X4 cross tie at the bottom of each one to hold the width constant. This time they are the correct size, or at least close enough that we can make them fit. Apparently, it was a difficult job- the driver told me it took 3 guys 6 hours to fabricate the set (normally they crank out a job like this in 20-30 minutes)! I didn't ask if they would do it again....

If I knew she could operate a nail gun...

...I would've asked her to marry me a lot sooner! After the brief rain delay, we started sheathing the framed walls while we waited for the next batch of trusses to arrive.

Rain delay.

After weeks(?) of near-ideal rain-free weather, a brief monsoon was in the forecast. My parents were thrilled, since that meant a couple days of much needed and greatly deserved rest. We braced the walls for potentially nasty weather and hermetically sealed the mini-trusses with poly, since they won't be put to use for a couple of decades at best. The folks went home and I put in a couple of hours until the rain became steady. Time to sleep. Eat. Sleep again.

I've got good news, and bad news, and good news.

The good news is that the trusses were delivered today. After working hard to come up with an arched-roof truss design, I was excited to see the truck finally crawling across the field. Thank you, Manion Truss Company, for being willing to do something your competitors said was impossible. The photo below shows the segmented truss, which forms a fairly nice arch as it is. I will touch-up the joint locations with a planer to round the corner smoother and get a nice curved shape before they are put up.

After the whole stack was unloaded, my dad had the brilliant idea of measuring the span with his tape measure. That brought the bad news that they were all too small by an inch or so. If they had been too wide, we might be able to compensate, but since we don't have a barn-shrinking tool, we are stuck! After conversations with the crew and phone calls to the company, they decided to make a new set (at their expense, since it was their mistake). They also decided to leave the originals laying in the field, since it was not worth their time to tear them apart for scrap. So now I have a full set of arched trusses for the next barn project. Good news!

Today, we put in the 2X10 floor joist in the silo, then covered it with a plywood subfloor. Eventually, it will be covered with reclaimed tile, but for now this will do. Next, we screwed another 10-foot 'ring' on top and started framing the 2nd story. We also wrapped the lower portion with 3/8" plywood to stiffen everything up before moving up. The sheathing made the curve with no problem. The project will slow down (more!) from here on, as working on scaffolding always takes at least twice as long.

Big Timber

Just as we started sheathing the silo, Glen came over with his boom and a trailer FULL of beams for the floor joists of the barn. They were freshly milled and very heavy (300 lbs each, until they dry out), so thankfully he stuck around for a few hours to set them in place with the crane. The 4X10 beams look great, and are about as 'sustainable' as you can get- they were all milled from locally-harvested blowdowns. No trees were killed for this project! Glen also left me with a pile of thick slabs that will be used to make tables, benches, countertops, etc. Okay, back to the silo..

My dad came over again and we framed in the first story of the silo. Figuring out the window openings was a bit tricky, but the rest of it was straightforward (no pun intended). So far, so good!

Perfect Circles.

Yesterday was spent fabricating 4 more circles for the silo to be built next. Since this was going to take awhile, I started by making a jig on the ground with some sheets of OSB and scrap blocks of framing lumber. After tracing and cutting the plywood arcs, I just laid the pieces down in the jig then glued and screwed them together. This worked quite well, and the finished discs are all within 1/4 inch in roundness. Tomorrow, we start erecting the silo.

The main barn structure is all framed, as well as the shed-roofed "milkhouse" off the back. Note the temporary cardboard window that i tacked into place (to be sure I had the correct window height and roof overhang). It's symbolic of all the sleepless nights I now endure as I lay awake obsessing about details, details, and more details. This project has every chance of removing 10 years off my life, and probably 5 lbs off my already too-small frame...but still worth it!

Uh, dad...

...did we nail these rafters up backwards??

Have you noticed almost every construction photo shows clear blue skies? I think it has only rained once in the past month! In our continued drought, we framed the windows along the south-facing wall.

Rebirth of the shoebox

After the concrete cured for a day or two, the parents came over and we started framing the 'new' old barn. If the walls look unusually tall, they are- I am using "balloon-framing" methods to provide a 3 foot kneewall in the hayloft of the barn and support the lateral forces of the roof trusses. Thus, the framing shown is with 12 foot high walls instead of the usual 8 footers....

Ahhh, the smell of concrete at dawn.... It was like the moments leading up to a big race: Stayed up late going over last minute details. Couldn't sleep, as I worried all night about how tomorrow would turn out. Get up at 4:30am with butterflies in my stomach. Head outside at dawn to do a few final prep tasks and clear the area around the slab. Keith and crew showed up around 6:30am and the first of two cement truck pulled in at 7am. The mud starts flowing shortly thereafter. I tried to help out as much as possible, but was mostly just staying out of their way since the guys have this process pretty well choreographed from years of experience. I was praying that the pathway form didn't break and that the hydronic system held pressure during the pour. Everything went well and by 9am we had a foundation. A couple of the guys stayed until lunchtime to trowel the slab smooth while I removed the spreaders from the pathway form so they could get inside and work. Nice job, guys!

Read my mind.

"Stand back ladies, I've got this COMPLETELY under control." or, "Do we really need in-floor heat?" or, "Has anyone seen the other end of this tubing?" or, "This stopped being fun about 4 days ago..." What I was really thinking was, "Good thing I have Lisa and Tammy here to help figure this out!" Thanks to them, we laid down 600 feet of 7/8" PEX tubing throughout the slab in just a few short hours. Sliding it under the pathway form was a little tricky, but it worked out okay. (Photo by Claire Schotzko) I spent the rest of the day zip-tying the PEX to the rebar and making sure everything was kosher since we will be pouring concrete in the morning! I also connected the PEX to the distribution manifold (where all the strands are bunched up in lower right corner) and pressurized the system to 50psi to check for leaks. It held pressure all night, so that was a relief.

Reinforcements.

The pathway form now occupying a large portion of the slab made the remaining tasks difficult- I had to figure out how to provide continuous reinforcement across the building in both directions, and the PEX tubing needed to be put down over and around it. For reinforcement, I used #4 rebar in an 18" grid pattern. Keith borrowed one of his rebar benders so that I could shape the pieces to drop down under the pathway form wherever needed. I could've spanned the whole barn with a single piece of rebar, if I were talented enough to put the required 4 bends in precisely the right spots to curl under and back out of the pathway recess- impossible! So I cut each piece of rebar in half and lapped the joints under the pathway. Working around the pathway form made an otherwise easy task become another dawn-till-dark affair. But eventually my stubborn persistence won out and the grid pattern was done.

Now for the PEX tubing....

Shopping Locally.

Glen, our local sawmill pal stopped over to pick up some red pine logs that I cut down last winter (several large trees were dead or dying around the Homestead, so it was time to harvest them). He will cut them into 4x10 beams to use as floor joists in the barn. I think that finding your building materials in the front yard counts as 'shopping locally' doesn't it?

This may not be the easiest way...

...but it was the only way I could think of to build the form for the brick pathway. First, I used some of the FSC lumber purchased for the wall framing (yes, someday I hope to actually put up walls!) to make 20 ft long temporary 'joists'. These were rested on the perimeter of the foundation form, spaced apart about 18" or so. I then attached strips of scrap plywood vertically down from the joists and resting on the foundation bed, following the desired outline of the pathway. Next I ripped more of that Masonite siding (the same stuff used to build the silo form) into 3" strips and attached them to the verticals to make the rounded edge for the pathway. The Masonite wants to break when bent into a tight radius, so I had to make hundreds of shallow kerf cuts in it wherever a sharp corner was made. This took some experimentation, but it worked out okay. Once it was shaped just right, I installed 'spreaders' across the inside to hold everything together (I was able to use old barn board scraps for this), then removed those joists to reveal the pathway form. Voila- all this took another couple of days to fabricate. The lengths I will go to just to salvage the old barn bricks!

Visions.

I have a vision. Not some heat-induced hallucination, but rather something that I came up with months ago while sitting in the house watching the snowflakes fall. The vision had to do with a 'circle theme' in the barn. It started with the idea of building an attached silo. Then it seemed like a great idea to install a curving pathway of bricks in the floor that would guide you through the building. Then, I wanted to incorporate curves into other architectural details like an arched roof, curved walls and countertops, etc. Very cool indeed. However, now I actually have to build these things that I've concocted in my head, and each un-straight element is going to present a new challenge. The current (and possibly most difficult) one is the brick pathway. I started by pounding in some reference stakes and tracing out the pathway in the compacted sand layer that I worked so hard to create. After a few changes to the shape, it looked pretty good, so I started digging (again!). After all that time spent putting dirt into the barn, now I'm shoveling it back out. Don't ask. But only a small amount had to be removed to provide a thickened slab under where the brick pathway would follow. After removing about 3" of fill from this area, I compacted everything one more time and it was DONE.

With Lisa's help, a layer of poly was put over the entire area to provide the vapor barrier once the slab is poured. You can vaguely see the outline of the pathway under the plastic, and next I will have to build special forms to contain the pathway while the slab is poured....

Heat acclimatization training.

Its hot. Really hot! But i'm not complaining, because there are no bugs, no rain, and I've got a nice sandy beach to cool off in anytime. However, temps in the 90s do slow progress somewhat, and it doesn't seem like getting up early helps much. As soon as you start shoveling, you also start sweating! With the silo formed up, the next task was to put in the last formboard for the barn wall and install the remaining insulation. Then the extra gravel that Keith piled up in and around the area was shoveled in... ...and then compacted.

Rectangles are for Squares...

Okay, now things started getting a little more tricky. The attached faux silo that I decided to build with the barn requires its own round section of concrete foundation, and it needs to be accurately formed so that the cylindrical silo walls will fit properly when the framing begins. So I started by building a 10 foot diameter disc by cutting, then gluing and screwing together radiused sections of plywood. It only took 2 sheets of plywood (green treated plywood for the bottom surface that would be in contact with the concrete, and standard plywood for the other) to build the whole thing. This will eventually be used as the sillplate for the wall framing, but for now it will act as the jig for getting the concrete forms built to the correct size. Shown below is the sillplate disc placed on the leveled silo site. After checking, double-checking, and then checking all my measurements again (and I'm still hoping I have calculated everything properly!), I pounded in stakes every 16" around the perimeter. After the stakes were trued up and braced, I attached pieces of Masonite siding which bend nicely to form the circle. I also had to form a short 'entryway' section of wall to connect the silo to the main barn.

Finally, I attached 2 layers of 1" thick extruded polystyrene insulation to the inside of the masonite, plus a base of 2" insulation to the floor, and taped all seams with Tyvek tape.

While this all looks pretty straightforward now, it actually took me a day and half just to complete the silo form!

Keith came back out with a couple of guys and we leveled the site, installed foamboard insulation, and started backfilling with more sand/gravel. A rainstorm forced an early quitting time, but Keith piled up enough extra gravel nearby so that I could finish the job the old fashioned way on my own- with a shovel.

After a few days of digging trenches and laying pipe, I finished all the necessary under-slab drain plumbing (the white pipes), as well as the electrical service entrance (the gray pipe) and the water supply (black pipes). The top photo shows the Thermopex (insulated hydronic dual-PEX tubing) that was extended about 30 feet out from the barn, to eventually be connected to a central water storage heating system (this is part of the "master plan" to heat all buildings from one highly-efficient heat source). The bottom left photo is the main floor bathroom and utility room area, and in the bottom right photo you can see the drain line that will come from the master bathroom in the upper floor of the barn's silo. Today I covered all these lines with backfill. Keith is expected to return tomorrow so that we can reset the form boards and level out the site before the insulation is put down. Even though it is 90+ degrees outside, I want to celebrate by going out for a bike ride!

Like a kid again.

Back when I was 4 years old, all I needed was a pile of dirt and my arsenal of Tonka trucks to keep me in a perpetual state of bliss. After several birthday parties, I had acquired a pretty respectable fleet of kid-sized excavating equipment. The bulk of the earthmoving jobs were done with my front end loader, dumptruck, and the bulldozer- my pride-and-joy (I think I slept with it at night!). I must've pushed that dozer a thousand miles, converting seemingly useless piles of dirt into butter-smooth 14" wide super-highways. NOTHING else mattered. Three decades and 8 years of higher education later, here I am back in the sandbox. The work is a little harder. The weather feels alot harsher. And ironically, even though I'm building a house, a dream, and a future, it all seems less significant than it did 30 years ago. Funny.

Here we go...

Keith came over with his skidsteer the day after I got the permit and we removed the concrete footings from the old barn. It only took a couple of hours. The next day, he returned with his crew of 4 guys to level the site and put up the formboards. Now its up to me to install all the under-slab utilities (plumbing, electrical, hydronics) before they can return to finish the forming. Finally some progress! -shawn

Happy Anniversary

I finally got the Golden Ticket- A building permit is now in my custody. But it didn't come as you would have expected. I've had countless conversations with the Building Official and answered dozens of questions about every conceivable detail of the plan. I even learned how to calculate the maximum loads on the foundation and structural members of the framing just to prove my point...you'd think I was building a space shuttle! But still no permit was delivered, despite promises that it was coming. So on the 2 month anniversary of my application, I called on the Biwabik City Administrator and described the situation. The reply was something like, "if the Building Official told you it was okay, then go ahead." With that, he signed a permit and handed it to me! So after 60 days of fighting the good fight, all it apparantly took was a trip to city hall and some second-hand information. I should've thought of this weeks ago. -Shawn

Seems like if it could go wrong, it did this week! First, it was the critter invasion around the Homestead. It all started with our until-now benign pet woodchuck who suddenly decided to make a buffet line out of our gardens one night. We no longer have a pet woodchuck. Lisa replanted the garden. Next was the discovery that a mouse (hopefully just one!) made its home inside the blower housing of my truck. Apparently my turning on the fan killed the mouse (imagine a really high RPM gerbil wheel and you get the picture). A couple days later my truck smelled like some disgusting combination of urine and decaying flesh. I took apart the blower housing and removed the corpse while wearing surgical gloves and a respirator. I think the only thing worse would be having to do this procedure twice, which is exactly what happen next. Seems the little rodents also shacked up in the venting of Lisa's old car, which has been parked in the garage unused for quite awhile. Yeah, that was a good day. I won't even begin about the bats that were sleeping under the soffits or the hornet nest that I found the hard way under one of the Adirondack chairs in the yard...what, are we living in the WILDERNESS or something!? Fortunately, I had a chance to clean up from all this fun before our water system failed. It started with pressure loss when we were taking showers. Then the water slowly turned black and smelled like sulfur. At this point I realized the pump was running continuously and something was very wrong. Anybody heard of dielectric corrosion? Apparently I skipped chemistry class the day it was presented, because neither had I. It is believed that using dissimilar metals in plumbing connections can in certain cases cause an electrochemical reaction in which one of the components corrodes away. I still don't know if I believe it, but something has caused a section of galvanized pipe to corrode completely in half in the 3 years since I installed the well. We pulled up the pump and its 85 feet of pipe on the 4th of July with the help of my parents. Replaced the corroded part with a new coupling on the 5th and lowered everything back into the well with the help of my brother-in-law. For two days, the water looked like black mud from all the disruption, but it is clearing up finally. Today, I had to take apart and clean out the clogged lines in the water softener and the clothes washer, as they were both completely stopped. But at least I could take a nice shower when the work was done. But all this aside, the GOOD NEWS is that the Building Official has granted the verbal "go-ahead" on building the foundation for the barn!!! After considerable deliberation, I guess I finally convinced him that everything was okay. I don't actually have the golden ticket (a.k.a the building permit) in my possession yet, but we will proceed anyway. Hopefully, things will pick up from here on out.