Dinner guests

The long grass on the banks of our driveway have been getting some attention:

Back to our regularly scheduled programming

Enough about Marxism. More pics. Lots of rain the last few evenings, and I even took a shower under the (cold!) runoff from the roof. This is what the valley looked like on my way back home last night:

An online note-to-Eric

I share with DoResearch an affinity for a different generation of prefabs. I really love the Charles Goodman houses (that's one of his pictured above), many of which were built in and around DC from the late 40s to the early 70s (Hollin Hills is an entire subdivision (!) of his houses in Alexandria, VA, and there are a couple of smaller subdivisions just outside of DC in Montgomery County, MD). His homes were panelized, and buyers could choose one of a small number of configurations. Hollin Hills got a little blurb in Dwell a couple of years ago, and a terrific cover story in the Washington City Paper. (Some more coverage here, and a blog with lots of Flickr photos here, and also apparently the subject of a documentary film-in-progress. And a recap of its designation as historic.)

I say all this by way of wondering whether Eric has seen this during his time away? It's a collection of photos detailing post-war prefab homes in the UK and the people who live in them:




Now I don't know as much as I should about the particular ideologies of early modernist architectural theory. I understand that Bauhaus' early mission emphasized mass production, utilitarianism, and exploding the artist/craftsman binary - the architectural version of the then-burgeoning cultural Marxism. And that the particular brand of modernism it eventually championed by the '30s was largely the product of Mies' own aesthetic, rather than a natural consequence of class ideology. What vestiges of the early relationship b/w class and modern design remain now? Was that relationship just an historical accident that has been largely left behind?

I know that for me, my interest in modern design is borne out of a visceral aesthetic attraction rather than any larger ideology. Quite a gulf, I imagine, between people like me and people who think seriously about prefab for a living. And between people like me and the people who are the subjects of this book (and I’m going just on the blurb and pics here). I’m being grossly conclusory, but where’s the connection between the aesthetics and economics of the homes in this book and, say, a house like mine? Isn’t (a lot of) the original ideology of the Bauhaus movement (and modernism generally) present in the Sears houses and the Levittown houses, notwithstanding their traditional design? How much of the ideology of modernism is really invested in the aesthetic, which – and this is the point – is what I love about it? Or, put another way, isn’t what’s driving the current zeal for modern prefab simply some savvy marketing to people (like me) who like the look/feel/lifestyle of modern homes? As opposed to any class concerns/ideology?

Prefab is still just a meme and all that jazz, but I wonder if it can (or aspires to?) be any more than that right now. I mean, there’s no way that Res4 (or Dwell, its occasional talk to the contrary) is shooting for the same folks who live in these post-war houses. I'm not saying they should be. But for those concerned about cost (and class), where does the aesthetic of modernism come in? Cost is a bottom line concern for Sarah and me, but not in the way that it is for the kinds of buyers who would drive a mass market. So is all the talk about making modern prefab affordable really missing the point? Which is maybe that most people don’t want modern design? And for as long as that’s the case, it ain’t gonna be cheap?

(I wrote this last night - see what happens when you're stuck in the woods by yourself?)

Barbaric yawps

I spent a lot of time on my roof today (yawping for only the occasional miss with my hammer). I got my roofing estimate back from the roofer who did The Plains House. Took a lot of phone calls (which are a pain here at the site) - I think this is a relatively small job for them so I'm not a huge priority. But they know exactly what I need, and they are apparently very good (if not prompt in getting out estimates). One of the headaches here is that their original bid (which they never sent me) included time and materials for framing out the eave. But then their "boss" told the roofer in charge of my estimate that they won't do the carpentry ("we're not carpenters"). So I'm doing it. And hopefully they'll be out here soon.


This is what the roof line looks like under the housewrap with the rubber membrane pulled back:


I have to build out the eave, which means adding a strip of sheathing, a 2x3 and a 2x6, and an aluminum vent:


The roofers will then hand-shape galvalume flashing across the entire eave (all four sides of the house):


Rubber membrane tacked down onto the eave:

Finally ran out of siding this week

Despite my ordering error, I almost had enough to finish. I ordered 300 additional linear feet of siding, which should be plenty to finish the bit above the sliders. Here's what things look like right now:


The scaffolding should get picked up tomorrow. (DIYs beware - these are the kinds of costs that are easy to miss when budgeting, and that contractors don't have to think about cause they already own this stuff. My checkbook is littered with little costs like this - "Tri-County Rental - $788" - and they are hard to anticipate ahead of time.)


Last bit of corner trim:


I poured the footer for the wraparound part of the deck yesterday, and framed out the stepdown in front of the door today:

Thank you Michael and Joshua!

See you soon!

Places you don't talk about at parties

On Wednesday, our septic materials arrived and Jim started getting 'em in the ground. I think he'll be back tomorrow to install the field and we'll get the whole thing approved on Tuesday (septic is the only inspection item here in Hardy County).


Making sure "it" flows downhill:




The tank gets backfilled with limestone dust to protect it from damage:

Flesh Wounds

We've been lucky overall so far. No big injuries. Worst had been some road burn (Carter took a spill on his skateboard). And then on Wednesday I banged my knee on my newly-filed chain saw and one of the teeth bit me (I hadn't put the cover back on after had I finished using it - let that be a lesson to you). But as they say...

Getting a lot done out here by myself. Of course I picked this trip to forget to bring a fleece - forecast low of 50 degrees tonight. Pretty, though:

All by Myself, Don't Wanna Be

I worked by myself on Friday, mostly on siding. I could only reach about this high with one level of scaffolding (note the dry erase board to write down my cut lengths, which meant I could minimize the trips climbing up and down between cutting and nailing):


When I couldn't reach any higher I had to add another level to the scaffolding (by myself, need I remind you):


And then I got tired of climbing up and down the scaffolding, so I eliminated the climbing from the process completely. I set up the chop saw on some 2x10s on top of the deck (and though I'm not the savviest guy with a computer, having my laptop on site saved me when my iPod froze):


And while the folks (and the food) at the Lost River Grill have been a treat, I've been eating the same three sandwiches for too many dinners in a row. So this was a welcome change:


On the menu - bratwurst, grilled peppers and tomatoes, an ear of corn, chips and hummus:

I have the bruises to prove it

Though it may not appear from these pics as if I'm doing any work, I promise I am. Quelman and Juan Carlos have a lot of framing experience (they framed the basement, too), and I basically did what they told me. Which, as has been the case for much of this project so far, involved carrying heavy stuff. Pressure treated lumber is no exception...

Notched posts:


Running a line to level the first side of the double-beam:


Setting the joists:








Quelman had a tico nail gun, which I didn't know existed. Made fastening the joist hangers to the ledger board against the house SO MUCH EASIER than hand nailing. We started at 7 on Wednesday morning, and finished at 5 on Thursday afternoon. Not bad for a couple of days work. (I paid them $1000 total for the two days, which is a pretty expensive hourly rate by WV standards. But they worked pretty fast and they did a nice job.)

Ipe comes on Wednesday, all 3,256 lbs of it. I believe I am on the hook for unloading it (story of my summer). Hopefully they can get the truck nice and close to the deck.

My travelling companion is nine years old

Mookie stayed with me in WV this week after Sarah and the boys left on Tuesday; old as he's getting, he still enjoys a good ride in the car. I think I made him nervous taking these pics (I'm sure I made oncoming drivers nervous).

Here's what the house looked like when I left tonight (I'll get some details up over the weekend). Framing for the deck is finished:


Almost done with the siding:


Won't have enough to do above the windows near the roof, but I need a break from siding anyway:

Location, Location, Location

Mine is the deck of the ranger station in the Lost River State Park, watching some deer munch on the grass and stealing some wifi. Other people's locations (I know cause they've visited the blog and the blog sees all...): Bulgaria; the Netherlands; Canada; Mexico; Sweden; India; Nigeria; and various and sundry locales in the United States of America. Any of you out-of-towners wondering how hot it was in DC yesterday?

102 degrees.

Got hot here in the mountains of WV, but not that hot, thank goodness. Not so hot that we couldn't get some work done. We started framing the deck yesterday morning, and just finished up about an hour ago. Really looks terrific. Changes the elevation of the house quite a bit. I'll get some pics up over the weekend, along with a recap of the last week or so (Simplex was out to the site for punchlist stuff, Res4 came and saw the house for the first time since the set, and our friends from TV land were here too).

Another reason to blog more

I have a long list of things for which I need to thank Res4, and it's time to add publicity to the list. Thanks to an email blast about the progress of our house, I've got lots of new traffic and the onus is on me to keep everybody coming back, heh?

So here's a rough recap: Sarah is eight months pregnant (and was manning the table saw today!); our two boys are managing to entertain themselves at our construction site (gravel, gravel, and more gravel) while we try to finish the siding and frame the deck; my brother Craig and his friend Carter are off to parts unknown so I've lost my captive labor; still no water or electric; the basement is framed and we've got an electrician starting our rough wiring tomorrow. My ambition was to finish this house all on our own - earn some sweat equity, pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. And while we've definitely saved some money (and our cedar siding looks awesome), we're not setting any land speed records. The reality is that grad school starts back up for me again at the end of the month and my "summer vacation" is almost over. So I'm gonna put in as much time as I can at the site but also start farming some more things out that we were initially hoping to do ourselves. We'll still be saving some money by acting as our own GC, but we'd really love to get some renters in by leaf season and that ain't gonna happen if I'm still out here on the weekends in the fall working on the plumbing...

Long story short - we're hoping to finish by early September, we're keeping a list of names of people we've heard from about making reservations (send any inquiries to lostrivermodern AT gmail DOT com), and we'll keep getting pics of our progress and updates about money posted as often as we can.

What's YOUR basement look like?

Here's how ours shapes up at the moment. Framing lumber:


Insulation:


Our tiny little bit of remaining cedar:


Which we hope will cover what's left to be sided (basically all the white) on the front of the house. Gonna be VERY close:

Deck Status

Here are our deck post bases, which aren't all precisely the same distance from the house, but were set at the same height and will do just fine:


All our pressure treated lumber for the deck is on the site; I need to get the ledger on the house and then we're ready to go. Ipe is ordered (1300 linear feet of 5/4" x 6" x 8' boards at $3.34/ft from Mike at Austin Wholesale Lumber; came to just under $5000 with the $700 delivery charge). Haven't bought any of the materials for the posts/railing system yet - Feeney stainless steel cable system is what Res4 spec'd.