Seeing the Windows

Certain individuals have pointed out that postings have been infrequent lately.  There was good reason for that.  However, I've finally made some progress on the last, problematic five percent of the project.  Today I installed six of the seven windows, leaving only the tower window I was unable to glaze (having run out of molding that day).  

You can also see the stained glass, which Sandy gave us (she got it from a friend, if I remember right, who found it at a garage sale).

One more window, two doors, two ladders and it will be done!

Finicky Frames

This week I cut the 42 pieces of wood that make up the window frames.  This simply would not have been possible, within this year anyway, without the use of Andy's table saw.  There were a few false starts -- as usual, it was a good thing I bought extra lumber.  One mistake, not discovered until I'd cut all the frame sides, was that I made the corner notches on half of them too long (forgetting that the lenthwise rabbet would take out additional material).  Fixing these holes required four fill shims on every window; the closer photo above shows an unfilled gap on the right, a shim on the left, and the stock of more shims.

Today I glued them all up in our basement.  With only one set of clamps, I had to do one window at a time, wait half an hour, then move on to the next . . .

Tomorrow I'll trim off all the bevels, and then we'll find out just how accurately I measured the window casings before starting.

Still Not Done

Despite working every available minute and then some, I couldn't quite finish the house in time for today's birthday party; the doors and windows are not yet built.  Still, it's most of the way there, with the roof complete, a ceiling installed (to cover up the roofing nails pointing in), and the railings in place and painted.   No interior ladder yet, but the inhabitants were quick to figure out how to scramble up using the window frames.

I noticed today that the two primary rim joists have already developed a slight bend, curved like a U from the weight of the structure above them.  How annoying.  But to put in two more concrete piers and a pair of floor jacks seems, well, excessive.  It's just going to settle into place, I guess.

Mad Rush to Finish

Sonia's birthday is only seven days away, and there's no way I can finish.  But I want to get done as much as possible.

The photo is from yesterday, and doesn't show the siding, trim and tower roof nailers I did today.  I painted the fascia after it got dark, working on other stuff just a little too long, and I couldn't really see what I was doing.   Hopefully there won't be any big surprises tomorrow morning.

Progress

I finally charged the camera batteries, so you can see what's been done lately.  I finished most of the siding last weekend, and much of the fascia today.  (The tower has to wait until the gable roof is shingled.)  Not showing in the photo is the north side, the shingling for which is mostly complete.  It's still going to be a challenge gettting the place "habitable" before Sept 27th, but the project is moving along.

Yesterday a woman peered over the fence, while I was hammering away on the roof, and got my attention to ask, "Can I have your card?"  This baffled me for a moment, since I don't have any cards left, but then I realized she wasn't actually asking about my latest writing.  She suggested I change careers, which was a nice compliment, but at the pace this playhouse has been going, I'd have to charge about ten times market rate to break even.

Compromises

I'd hoped to begin putting up the siding this weekend, but as usual everything took longer than expected.  I finished most of the trim, including the corners, doorframes and windows.  Sills for the six windows were cut, at an angle, from a 2x6.  In the photo everything looks neatly painted white, but that's just primer; I have to apply a finish coat, perhaps some morning early before the helpers are up and about.  I also built the balcony door, though it won't be installed until near the end.

Annoyingly, most of the trim is not precise.  Many of the joints show small gaps, and none of the sills fit perfectly into their frames.  If I were a real carpenter I would have shimmed the casements to be square in all dimensions (not just the facing plane), but since I didn't, the small deviations from 90-degree angles proved impossible to accommodate.  I tried slopping lots of extra primer into the gaps but that didn't really work.  

So that's the theme of the project right now:  compromises.  I did rip off one piece of installed corner trim, wasting an hour's labor, to correct an error too egregious to leave in place.  But mostly I'm trying to let go of the pursuit of perfection, and just get the darn thing done. 

Back to Work

As anticipated in the last post, it was indeed some time before I was able to get back to work.  But the weekend was productive.

The balcony is now framed and decked, along with the interior platform -- difficult to see in the photo, since it was still covered by the tarp.  Later, when the weather improved, I stained the deckboards.  

This morning I spent a few hours cutting the veranda roof rafters.  Using the carpenter's square to measure the angles really is the way to go; they came out nice and neat.

Trim next, then siding, then the roof.  Pat needs his tools back soon, so there's new deadline pressure :-)