The Ramp

Probably the last post before the holidays. Some pictures of the ramp attached along with the handrail brackets. The brackets are aluminum angle made by Ric at Superior Docks. All the brackets for the ramp and deck cost me less that two Maine Deck brackets. The brackets will be sandwiched with 2x4 cambara, which should be cut tonight (hopefully). The electrician is working on a couple of outstanding items as I type: exterior lights and outlets. Hopefully it will be a productive holiday and I'll have more to post after Festivus. Happy holidays.



The guardrail brackets.

Fat Cat Perch

Well the cat step, or "fat cat perch" went in this weekend before the snow flew. Neil did a great job fabricating it out of a bent piece of 3/16" stainless steel plate. Quite rugged because, as he put it, the cat needs to stay off the kitty treats. The plate is routed in to the back of the siding and lagged into the studs from the front. It can nearly support me (but I probably need to stay off the kitty treats as well). A much better solution than the barrel-on-a-cooler step.

The ramp was trimmed but I didn't get any good shots before it snowed. The brackets have gone on for the deck rails and I hope to get those in in the next two weeks. A few electrical items should be cleaned up this week as well.

Anyone still out there?

So we have been slow to update. But stuff has been happening.

Ramp:
The ramp is now complete, sans guardrail. Michael came over one day and helped me erect the structure. It took the two of us to move the heavy beams that support each side of the ramps. These are composed of (3) 2x12's and are 18' long each (27 bolts in each as well). The whole ramp structure was built out of leftover wood from various aspects of the project. I then covered it in cambera, to match the existing deck. It just needs a trim and the aforementioned guardrail to wrap it up. The pool table installers were sure glad to see it. It does not feel too steep walking up and is a nice counterpoint to the slope of the roof monitor above.



Kitchen:
The hood is finally in. All that really remains now are the countertops. We may have blown our window for this year and may need to wait for the spring.


Interiors:
Nearly all the trim is now up. It proved to be more time consuming than originally anticipated, with a great deal of planing to get the wood to site against the doors properly. Two more pieces, and some touch up work and it should be done. Also, the two light slots had to be enlarged and are now complete. I wired the last two fixtures. Closing in...





I plan on wrapping up the interior trim and ramp and deck rails this year. With a little luck we may get the wood stove in this year as well. We'll try and update more often, if anyone out there still reads this.

Oh yes, and the pool table was installed yesterday. I'll post pictures next week.

Internet, finally!

Brief update: we finally have high-speed internet via redZone wireless. To get it, we had to erect a 50' tower near the road, high enough to get over the trees. We have been dealing with dial-up since we moved in and it has been quite frustrating. Cable was going to cost $4,000 and DSL is not available. I was not keen on satellite due to the download limits they enforce (and the high monthly cost). So we went the redZone route. Our neighbors have it and they love it.

The installation was quite a struggle as it was the installers' (Kevin and Mike) first time doing this, and ours as well. The Clarks came over and helped, too. Because the area we chose to erect it in is all ledge, we pinned a concrete pier to the ledge and poured a HDPE tube inside the pier to act as a sleeve. This would help support the base and keep it stable since we had no soil in which to set a stake. The first time we made the mistake of laying the pole out on the ground fully retracted. We then tried to raise it like the flag at Iwo Jima. It took 5 of us to get it in the pier and it was a bear. Fully raised it was flopping around like a reed in the wind. At that point I realized I was going to need more guy wire. Much more.

The installers came back the following week and this time we set the tower in the pier unretracted. We leaned a ladder against a tree and raised it section by section. I set three eye-hooks into trees that were located approximately 120 degrees apart around the pier. we tied the guy wire on to each section raised it and set the next tier of guy wire. When it was fully raised we tensioned off the three tiers and got it pretty straight. Now we have high-speed internet as fast as cable for 1/3 less. Josh configured the router for us and we now have wireless in the house (and out in the woods).

More soon on the ramp.

The tower and base pier.

Marlum enjoying the hole that Anne has dug for the ramp base.

A little more siding

Here we are nearly 50% done. Just keep chugging along. It's all ladder work from here on out.

Anybody still out there?

Well this winter represented mostly a hiatus from the project; life (and other stuff intervened). Anne and I just got back from Italy (her first trip) a few weeks ago and the urge to start back on the project finally emerged. This weekend, with the help of my neighbors (including newly minted Eagle Scout Josh), we poured a concrete pier anchored to ledge. This will hopefully become the base for our wireless internet tower.

On Sunday I got back onto the siding. Only 3 courses around before I ran out of screws. Back to it again this weekend if the weather is good. We will run out of siding soon and will need to get some more.

Paul and Eliza will be coming up in a couple of weeks to help with the siding and maybe the countertops. That's right, we still do not have finished countertops. Our intention is still to pour concrete countertops and we hope to get to that soon.

In other news, we are now working with Paul to see if we can finish up the requirements for LEED for Homes. For those unfamiliar with this, it is a program run by the US Green Building Council that certifies sustainable or "green" homes. We think we may qualify for Silver certification but there are a number of hurdles to get past. I will be posting a bit more regularly on that topic as we make our way through the unwieldy process.

More pictures coming soon. In the meantime, I'll post some photos from our recent trip.