The Drywall contractor finally arrived today in force. And yes, the name of the company is FAT Boy. As you can see from the photos, installation is progressing rapidly. They will be back tomorrow (saturday) to finish the installation and start the finishing. I will post a video clip later for the grandchildren to see the workers on their stilts hanging the drywall.
All of the outside wood is sprayed and then brushed with Perma Chink Prelude. Prelude is a wood primer and sealer that seals the pores in the wood to achieve a more consistent stain color. Prelude is also enhanced with UV additives to increase the life of the color. After drying overnight, application of the stain will begin.
The last picture is Jeremy’s request for a picture from the back porch.
Sometimes when the choice is not clear, we have the wrong choices. I solved yesterdays problem, not by eliminating the center posts, or putting them there, but by taking the center posts and putting them on the outside columns. This makes those columns more massive, keeps the view open, improves the symmetry on the two outside columns and helps to accentuate the log fan fair. What do you think?
We have been out of Cypress for two weeks. A new shipment arrived today from the mill in Florida allowing us to complete the outside. Rim boards are covered in the first picture and the south wall of the garage is completed in the others. Preparations are completed so that staining of the outside can begin tomorrow. Yeh!
Ideally we should have one square foot of Free Vent Area (FVA) per 150 square feet of attic floor space. Half of this (FVA) should be provided by the ridge vents on the roof and the other half provided by soffit vents. In the first two pictures you can see dark brown strips which are continuous vents. Unfortunately, because of the large gables on this house, there is insufficient linear feet of soffit to get the required number of vents. Making the soffit vents larger could achieve the desired FVA, but we would not have the proper distribution of air flow around the house to properly cool the attic. The third picture shows the solution to the problem. An attic fan installed in the garage ceiling blows air into the attic space, enclosed by the knee walls, to pressurize that area. Gaps in the insulation in the rafters at the soffits creates an air space which allows the air to flow up the rafters between the radiant barrier and the insulation and out the ridge vents. The fan will operate off a thermostat and provides more air than would passively be provided by the correct soffit FVA. Problem solved!
We have been waiting a week for the delivery of the sheet rock. Two hundred sixty eight sheets 12 feet long. Laid end to end they would stretch over 0.6 miles, or nearly 11 football fields. Each sheet is 54 inches by 12 feet long. Installation and finishing of the dry wall has been delaying the schedule. Hopefully the wait is over.
Please observe the four columns on the back of the lodge. Original plans were for four posts, one on each column. Upon reflection, adding the center posts may detract from the log fan fare at the top. I have discussed this with some of you to seek your opinion. What would you do??? Comments are appreciated.
Log siding nears completion. Log washing to remove mill scale and construction dirt brings all of the colors back to original in preparation for the staining of the logs. The natural color of the logs would be great, but without the UV protection of the stain the logs would quickly turn gray.
For those of you who noticed, the lack of symmetry on the outer columns shown in the last picture was due to an inconsistency between the foundation drawings and the framing drawings. This has now been corrected by adding a half column of blocks to the first and fourth columns, as you can see below.
Trimming of the ceiling is finished. In the last photo the clear seal coat is being applied. Multiple coats of PermaChink clear coat are used for the interior log walls, ceiling and trim.
Dickman Legacy Lodge 