bedfordlandings

This week was SUPPOSED to be the week that we start making our house look real by raising the timbers. However, the timbers didn’t come. Blue Ridge TimberWrights discovered some defects in the timbers called “Shakes.” There is a photo here that shows these defects.  We know we want strong timbers, not ones with defects.  According to this website (linked above), “shake” is the separation of the rings in a piece of wood that occurs as it dries. The wood can also ‘peel’ off around the rings, similar to the layers of an onion. The Timberwright crew could not see the shake until they started working the wood.

The crew is now saying they will be here Monday the 4th to start.  That’s OK,  it will be just in time for mine and Jack’s birthday (March 7 and 8th respectively).  All we want for our birthday is to see some sign that the timbers are taking shape!

This year, Jack will be 60, so he got an early birthday gift!  He has been grunting and complaining about his aches and pains while building.  We knew we would get a hot tub anyway for the house once complete, so we found a pretty good deal with Water By Design in Christiansburg, VA. We put it on the hangar porch and they will come back and move it once we have our house deck on. It only sits 4 people but one at a time, you are each invited to sit with us!  Here is happy Jack with his early birthday present!

Warming up for our first soaking!

The weather has been cold, cold, cold, so we have mostly stayed inside the warm (radiant heated) hangar.  I completed another stained glass that will be used in the front entry hallway of our house. They are poppies and a little more orange that this photo conveys. The next design is for my brother’s new house (in Floyd, Virginia).  As a retired Fire Chief, what does he want?  The maltese cross, of course! I am just cutting the class now.

For the front hallway

I know we keep promising timber photos, but hopefully soon…soon!

We generally awaken between 6:00 and 6:30 but some nights we toss and turn all night with the sound of wind or rain on the hangar tin roof.  Relaxing, you say?  Not anymore!  It means there is a storm, it means a wet subfloor and a wet basement floor!  But by morning, the sun is usually shining and we are thankful for another day.

Each morning about 8:00, Jack loads up the cute golf cart.  Remember the cute golf cart we got this summer (scroll to the bottom of the link)?  It has become a tool cart!

Ready for a day of work

Now that I am working for Virginia Cooperative Extension, I work at my desk.  Jack says it looks like Mission Control with all of the monitors.  I have the Va Tech computer and monitors on the left and my PC on the right.  I am really enjoying what I am doing!

Karen at Mission Control

This past week, Jack has been framing in the basement.  On the lower level there is the garage in addition to steps up to the kitchen, a game room, fitness room, theatre room, steps up to the Great Room, a half bath, and Jack’s workshop.  He is almost through this framing. Note the wet floors.  Each time it rains, we sweep water.  Once we put a lid on all of this, it will be ok!

Basement framing looking into the theatre room through to Jack’s workshop.

This week, I attended a Rain Barrel workshop. It’s far easier to make one than I thought. We don’t have any gutters yet so no place to put it except inside where it won’t blow away.  Here it is with the dumb waiter shaft that Jack has framed.

Rain Barrel & dumb waiter shaft framing.

So in our separate worlds of work each day, sometimes there are mishaps.  Nobody knows that my home office is actually a hangar.  Sometimes the air compressor comes on in the middle of a conference call (really loud) or the dog starts barking.  Or occasionally Jack comes to the hangar and says he needs a bandaid or ice.  Poor baby. I swear I did not hit him!

On Saturdays, sometimes I work on stained glass.  This piece will be for the front entry hallway of the house.  Once it is done, I will share the full piece. Below this picture is a picture of the one I completed for my sister’s new house.  She is building across the lake from us.

Karen working on stained glass.

Lighthouse Glass.

So that’s typical winter life at Bedford Landings!  

Until later, stay warm if you are in the line of Orca & Nemo!

The past two weeks have been brrrrr cold!  Snow, then wind, then rain, then freezing in the basement! We wrapped the completed first floor with plastic.  That was like wrestling an octopus in the wind!

Despite that, Jack has been working on building steps from the basement to the main floor. There are two sets of steps to build and he has one complete.  He is using this time to frame in the rooms in the basement and build these steps while we wait for Blue Ridge Timberwrights to finish milling the support beams and posts.

The Laker Weekly ran a nice piece on our project in the newspaper which is an insert in     the local paper, The Roanoke Times, and also is weekly paper put out at grocery stores on Fridays.  The article was very detailed but included horrible photos of us both.  We had no idea she was even taking our picture when she did.  You can’t read this so we’ll save you a copy to read when you visit us!

This week, I have an Extension Conference where I need to teach in Blacksburg and Jack will work toward stairway #2. 
Cheers!

Karen  & Jack

How much glue does it take to lay a floor on a 2700 square foot surface?  A whole barrel full! The guys just throw the tubes anywhere so I am left to clean up the debris.

Here is a full barrel of empty glue tubes used to secure the tongue and groove flooring for the the first floor!

And speaking of debris, I noticed in this pile of debris, how math is used to build a house. There are a lot of fractions!

The photo below is another debris pile.  (Aren’t you impressed by me blogging about our trash pile?)

And in this photo, I want you to notice is the small piece of wood with the ‘ciphering on it.

We are done with floor deck one, awaiting the timbers to be milled. and Jack will start framing the basement this week.  

Here is an aerial shot from the Pietenpol.  With such lovely weather, he couldn’t resist flying!

This week, we are braced for the change in weather but the last two days have been glorious!!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 3,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 6 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

I just had to do another blog post for today to tell you what a flurry it has been this week.  Last Wednesday, we joined the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce.  By Friday, we got a call from WSLS-TV Channel 10 locally.  They wanted to come do a story about the B & B.  How exciting and good marketing for us!  They made an appointment to come Monday at 10:00.  It was my second week on the new job with Virginia Tech as a Human Development Specialist, so I fit this into my work day.  But I knew that I had an appointment in Roanoke for a luncheon with Smart Beginnings at noon (it is a 45 minute drive).

The interview went well and resulted in a nice story in which we were included in a growing local economy segment.  Here is the clip.

As the reporters were editing us into the B & B story as Jack & Karen Phillips, then Karen DeBord was busy working the Child and Human Development network.  The communications office for Extension called and another reporter from Channel 10 wanted to quote me in a related child stress segment related to the horrible Newtown shootings.  I knew that I could not wear what I had on in the B & B segment so after the luncheon, I ran to Belk’s and bought another “look.”  I showed up at the station in downtown Roanoke and saw the morning reporters, who I greeted. This is the resulting segment . I clearly told them I was not a Psychology Professor, but oh well!  Note the pretty new red dress!

Today is 12-21-12 and I am still blogging.  I am alive and well and hope  that as you read this,  the Earth is still spinning and you are warm, snug and thankful for another day ringing in the Christmas season!  Live on!

Pray for the families in Newtown and love your families this season!  Peace, Joy and CHRISTmas love!

Karen & Jack

Here is an update on our progress (written by Jack). In the past two weeks since we closed on the construction loan we have poured the slab for the basement floor.

We also trenched the sewer drain from the house to the septic tank and got that all connected and buried.

Then we started putting the floor joists in place.

Not a bad amount of work for two weeks in December. The concrete work was subcontracted but the rest has been done by just Karen, our neighbors Steve and Matt, and myself. We’ve gotten about 2/3 of the first floor joists in place, but will stop now for Christmas. We’ll resume work New Year’s Eve, and should have the first floor finished up through the subfloor and ready for the timberframe by the middle of January. Once the first floor is complete and while waiting for Blue Ridge Timberwrights (www.brtw.com) to finish the timberframe and bring it out for the “Timber-Raising”, we’ll work on framing out the interior walls in the basement. It is very exciting to see all this coming together, after building it in my head so many times over the last 4 years.

Kramer is a 15 year old black Peke-Poo with a severe underbite.

Even Kramer is ready to get busy!  It all happened at once.  We signed the loan and I started back to work with Virginia Tech as an Extension Specialist in Family & Human Development.  Virginia Extension is where I started in my career–so it’s full circle and I am already loving it! I worked hard from my home office while Jack supervised the pouring of the concrete basement level floor.  It turned out as smooth as glass!

Of course now that we have re-started building, it started raining, But, maybe that will raise the lake water levels which are critically low.  Some people don’t have enough chain on their lift to get their boats lowered to the water while others have boats docked on dry land where there once was water. 

This week, Jack will start building the first floor deck in preparation for the timbers.  In celebration, we had a little date in Roanoke.  While in the big city, we delivered a gift basket of Bedford Landings goodies to the contact with Hometown Bank who helped us obtain the construction loan. He took it to a bank board meeting and the next day we got a thank-you note from the bank president saying how scrumptious Jack’s biscuits were!

Always time to stop and celebrate!

After joining the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce this week, apparently they sent a tip to WSLS-TV10 about our project.  In turn, WSLS is sending a team to do a story tomorrow (12-17) so we will post a link if it turns out well.  Then, hopefully soon, we will have part of that first floor decking to show!  

Fa la la la la!!  Enjoy the season!