Not the Best Week at Eagle View

This week at Eagle View has been somewhat disappointing.  Although, we will say that the air has cleared up quite a bit from all the hazy forest fire smoke we have been experiencing here for the last three weeks or more.  The rain this past weekend and the cooler temperatures we think are what cleared much of the smoke and fire.  The ground is very dry here, so the rain is welcomed, but it does no favors for the unprotected OSB sheathing on the Shop.

Below is a shot standing at the Shop and looking towards the Palisades Dam.  It hasn't been this clear for weeks.

Monday was a good start, but ended on a down note.  The excellent foreman Craig let us know he would be on a different job on Tuesday.... which we thought was for that day, but we didn't see him again this week, and we had an issue with the attic venting construction to discuss with him.  After Monday, the crew was also down from three workers and a foreman to two people which included the substitute foreman Derrick.  The progress was definitely impacted by half a working crew.  And to top it off one day no one showed up due to vehicle problems, and one day we got to the site at 1 PM and everyone was gone.  Not a lot of time is left in a four day work week with a full day and a half of  not working.  To round out the bad week one of the two workers that worked Thursday (last work day for the week) had just broken two ribs.  He shouldn't have been there at all, and was productive as a half man or less.  We were a bit disappointed with the lesser progress this week, as we prepare to depart the area for Arizona at the end of the month.  We were hoping to have the doors installed and lockable so we could store some personal items in the building that we won't need in Arizona.  The extra week we made up earlier in this build, we just lost this week.  The crew did complete the gable end sheathing, that's Derrick up on the lift Monday finishing off that task.

The windows went in on Tuesday morning, the morning we were grocery shopping.  We aren't sure why they put them in before completing the house wrap... but here we are.  The short crew also installed the roof underlayment.  We were expecting 30# roofing felt per contract, but ended up with a woven polypropylene product.  We called the manufacturer to learn more about the poly product and we were satisfied that it was equal to or better than the old style paper felt product.  It certainly is stronger and degrades more slowly and may be the new industry standard.  Surprise.  The crew also cut out the two personnel doors and started with a scrap of house wrap, which we thought was odd and patchy.  The shot below is looking at the rear of the Shop, looking north.

On Thursday morning (Wednesday was a vehicle problem no show day) a little more house wrap was installed.

Rear of Shop below.

Cutting out the full height of the 12'W x 10'H rear overhead door.

A shot of our temporary bridge from the lot onto the hard surface road to the east.  Mt. Badly is seen in the distance.  The bridge was built up with excess material from the drain field site excavation.  The round river rocks certainly don't lock up very well and the bridge remains a little marbley when we drive across it.  More work required there.  We will also increase the width and feather the edges to accommodate bringing our hooked up coach in this way.

Below is a shot looking back at the Shop from the hard surface road looking to the west.

Derrick up on the lift, builds up the "Bird Boxes" along the eaves.

A simple design.

The 2x2 along the wall and the fascia board are the structure to which the perforated soffit material will attach.

The view below is addressing our vent issue which we worked with Derrick in Craig's absence.  Derrick is on the roof with his circular saw opening up a vent area along the ridge of the roof.  When framing, the crew was uniformed that a ridge vent was to be installed.  When pointing this apparent error out to the contractor, the manager Josh proposed installing gable end vents.  We said that we would consider that, and after researching a bit, we decided it was best to stick with the ridge vent.  What we learned was that a rule of thumb for exhaust vent area is 1 sq-ft of vent (minimum) per 300 sq-ft of attic area.  Our ceiling area is 1800 sq-ft, so 6 sq-ft of exhaust vent is needed.  OK we thought.  We started looking at gable vents and found that they are specified as having a certain sq-inch area of venting.  Since we need two each 3 sq-ft vents, that equals 430 sq-in for each vent.  The largest vents we found were only 135 sq-in of vent area.  That was going to be significantly inadequate, so back to the ridge vent we went.  Derrick's plan was to cut about 1 inch on each side of the ridge board.  That would give about 1200 sq-in of open area and should be adequate.  Derrick got it done, but it wasn't pretty or easy.  Gari searches for discarded nails below.

Finishing the vent cuts.

A view of the vent area at the roof peak from inside.

Gari is ready to move in below as she pitches in on the clean up detail.

We have a door!  Derrick hangs the first personnel door at the end of the day.  Will he get the second door hung today?  Nope.  After installing the last screw, we noticed that the door threshold plate was about 1 inch above the garage slab.  The protection blocks stapled to the bottom of the door jambs were not removed prior to installation.  So Derrick had to completely remove the installed door, remove the blocks and reinstall the door.  That fix ran out the clock on the last work day of the week, so we wait until next week for the second personnel door.  Boo.

There it is.  The lever handles and deadbolts are being re-keyed and should go in soon we are told.

A view of the finished progress for this week.  Gable end sheathing completed, some house wrap installed,  attic vent issue resolved, windows installed, and one personnel door hung.  This week's progress didn't match previous progress.

View from inside looking out the front of the Shop.

Looking out the back door.

A nice clear view of Mt. Baldy, no smoke haze.  We are told that steel siding and roofing should begin by Wednesday next week.  Until then we expect nothing to happen on the job... after this week, we are not holding our breath for metal Wednesday either!  We remain hopeful as our departure date rapidly approaches.  Either way we are feeling quite fortunate to have gotten as far as we have this season after just finding the lot in May.  We have a well drilled, a septic system in, electric service in to transformer, driveway access established and most of a shop built!  When we return in the spring we will finish installation of the electric service and wiring of the Shop, install the pump in the well, run the water and sewer lines to the Shop, and finish off the driveways with gravel.  That should allow us to move onto and live at Eagle View... hopefully before next summer is over!