Fire

We've been effected by the Waldo Canyon Fire that has destroyed over 300 homes in Colorado Springs.  Since yesterday, we have been on standby evacuation, which means we can be evacuated at any time - pack your valuables.  Firefighters have been building fire-lines along the Western flank of the fire, protecting Woodland Park.  However this is subject to the winds.  Embers have traveled over half a mile over Rampart Reservoir to start spot fires to the North, so firelines are only a first line of defence.  Strong winds from the East could spell disaster for Woodland Park.

Progress on the house has slowed.  My helpers Ian and Nick have been evacuated with their families.  Many businesses in Woodland Park are closed, including the company where we have been purchasing our fill dirt, so backfilling is not complete yet.  Route 24, the highway between Woodland Park and Colorado Springs has been closed since Sunday.  I was at Home Depot in CS when they closed the road.  The 25 minute drive home turned into a 3 1/2 hour treck up a narrow dirt road called Phantom Canyon.

Many scenes like this, columns of smoke from several fronts.

A burned-out neighborhood.  We have friends there whose house was saved!

Our daughter Heather was evacuated from her home in Colorado Springs.  She's staying with friends on the East side of the city, so she's safe, but shook-up.

Progress Photos

Back of house, facing the golf course.  Roof is added when on-site.

Log staircase to loft.

More staircase.

Log beams supporting the roof.

More beams.

The house is complete at the log yard in Canada - very exciting!  Soon it will be dismantled and shipped to our site in Colorado.  Assembly is scheduled for July 11-12.

Floor Structure



Adding joist hangers.

Great progress!  Floor decking soon.

The I-Joists form the floor structure.  They are stronger than solid wood, much lighter and are uniformly straight (no warps or twists).  We got nearly all the joists on today, we'll start floor decking Friday.

Main Beams and Columns

12 inch log columns.  I purchased an electric chain saw to carve the beam notches.

1/2 inch bolts join the columns to the beams.  Joist hangers are seen attached to the side of the beam.

Here are the main beams that support the floor system.  The columns are structural log (we changed this from 8 x 8 inch columns because after all, it is a log house) so we carried the look to the basement.

Garage Backfill & Slab

Between the garage and the driveway we brought in about 450 tons of structural fill.  This is roadbase that compacts well for a substantial base that won't settle.

Nick riding the Jumping-Jack compactor.  Both Nick and Ian spent the entire day compacting the garage fill.

The garage slab is poured and one of Tony's gues is floating the surface.  After this it gets trowled for a finished look.

We used a tremendous amount of structural fill for the garage floor, compacting as we went so there'e be no settling.  Then a 4inch slab of reinforced concrete was poured for the finished garage floor.

Trees

Our backyard as seen from the deck of the rental house.  The ttee moving machine is placing a tree.  The building in the backgtround is the golf course clubhouse.



The tree moving machine placing one of our Ponderosa Pines.

Voilla! Instant forest.

Steve at the controls of the Bobcatg front loader.  We rented this for a day to backfill the North side foundations and column bases.  It took all day and required 7 truckloads of fill.

Another homebuilder, a few miles away had some trees that were right where he wanted to build.  He moved some of these trees to better locations and allowed us to take some for our lot (which has no trees).  We hired a tree moving company and they transferred 13 8-14ft Ponderosa Pines to our backyard (between our house and the golf course).

Soon we hope to plant grass in the backyard which will largly complete the landscaping there.  The front yard is another story, much needs to be done there.

Basement Framing

The knee walls have to be framed up to full (8ft) wall height, then 3 interior loadbearing walls had to be framed.  Because of the heavy log construction, all basement framing was made with 2 x 8 lumber.  Pressure treated lumber was used wherever framing was in contact with the concrete.

Ian fits OSB sheathing .

Interior partition wall.

Exterior view.

Exterior view - it's starting to look like a house.

After framing, sheathing was applied to exterior walls and interior partitions (to provide extra shear and tensile strength).

Pouring the Slab

Finally, we're pouring the slab. Starting at 7:00am to ensure that the floor would be cured before any afternoon rainstormes (none came).  With this done we're out of the dirt and we'll have a flat, solid floor to work on.

Screeding the concrete for a level floor.

Placinig concrete (careful of my tubes).

More screeding, this goes pretty fast.

Trowling off a nice smooth finish - the guys did a great job.

Tony and his crew were careful not to damage the in-floor heating tubes as the concrete was placed.

Wood at Last

Pressure treated sill plates sit atop the foundation walls.

The first wood (everything up 'till now has been concrete) is the beginning of the sills that are in contact with the concrete walls.  It was wonderful to cut these 2 x 8 pressure treated boards to fit and drill holes for the anchor bolts.

Column Bases

Ian (Helper 1) builds a column base.

Nick (Helper 2) builds another base.  After grading, the base tops will be just above ground level.  All the ugly block will be buried.

Column bases are built with concrete blocks.  They will support the flared column bases (see the elevations in the "Drawings" post.

In-Floor Heating

PEX tubing attachedd to 6 x 6 wire mesh with cable ties.  Note the manifold in the upper center.  Each of 6 circuits run to the manifold, each circuit should be no more than 300ft long.  The manifold (and all the tubing) will be pressurized for the concrete slab pour.

More tubing.  Concrete blocks hold everytinng down on windy days.

PEX tubing for in-floor heating is installed over the polystyrene.  This will be cast into the conrete slab to provide radient heat for the lower level.