Sunday, November 17, 2013

Doing Two Things At Once

Now that the holes have been dug for the sonitubes,and they have been placed in the holes,the next step is to level them,fill the holes around them,and tamp down that dirt.  The holes,according to town building regulations,have to be at least 4 ft deep,which,where we live,can be a bit tricky,because our land sits on granite ledge. However, if ledge is the issue,it provides a sturdy foundation for the sonitube to rest on,so the support of the building is not an issue.
This is what sonitubes look like:



The sonitubes once levelled and dirt filled in,have to be approved by the town building inspector to make sure that they are up to code as far as how many per feet,etc. Then,once that clears,we pour cement into the tubes,and place hurricane strapping into the tubes and cement. The exposed strapping will then wrap around the pressure treated 6 x 6 that we are going to use as a foundation. Only so much of the board is going to to be above ground level. The barn will then be built with regular lumber,shiplap boards,sliding barn doors,and a metal roof.

Our neighbor works putting in new homes,so he has a laser level and a dirt tamper (stamper?). He is coming over this AM to help us get the sonitubes situated. Since Rick and Brother B had time Friday and Saturday ,they worked some more on the mudroom.

The final goal is to make the mudroom into a regular four season room.Right now it is just an enclosed porch,with wide screened windows which are made with boards and screen. I bought three regular windows,a screen door and a front door that have been waiting to be installed!

The boards around the windows were rotted,so those had to be taken. Zach helped out with the demolition. We decided to place each window in the center of the old screen window area,so those needed to be built out:




When those built outs were done,the outside boards needed to be replaced:


Those are done,and today the sonitubes get seated. That will not take long,and I should have two windows installed in the mud room by nightfall.

1 comment:

  1. You all are so ambitious. There really is never an end to the work, is there.

    An all-year room will be so nice this winter, just sitting together, dogs lounging around, steaming mugs of tea, enjoying the frosty and sparkly outdoors whilst being snug inside. Sounds lovely.

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