Friday, November 9, 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Yum Yum Farm House

While there is obviously still some work to be done, these photos give a pretty good sense of the finished home. Imagine our delight as we crested the hill and saw the painted house for the first time!


Wednesday, November 7, 2007

A Breath of Fresh Air

This will be a one-photo post so you can zoom in. These little circular things allow air to move across the underside of the roof, to prevent condensation. This is a somewhat more complex method than what is usually employed in home building. Earlier posts showed gray styrofoam channels attached to the underside of the roof, but above the insulation. These vents are the openings that allow the air to flow through those channels, and keep the roof dry, and mold-free. This is the same thing as the vented soffits on most (perhaps your) houses. Look underneath your roof overhang, and you'll notice that the panels underneath have small openings. Those are a different version of what you see depicted here. We can all breathe easier now.

In Living Color

This is the first part of the Yum Yum Farm house to receive its finish color. This barn red has been applied to the north side, or the main entrance. I suppose this is the "front" of the house, because it's where we enter. But the south side feels kind of "front" like too. Whatever.

It's suddenly become very chilly in Iowa, as it often does at this time of year. It is, fortunately, still warm enough to apply paint, once the frost goes away, and the air temperature warms up a bit. The forecast calls for warmer weather the next few days, so we should be fine. You'll notice in the photo below wires for the porch light, door bell, speakers, and electrical outlet. For cryin' out loud, this porch is better equipped than any room in our current quarters!
This isn't the greatest picture, but it's as close as we could get to the main floor bathroom, which had its tiling completed today. The grout was just finished, so we couldn't walk into the room. Around the corner to the left is white tile surrounding the Zuma tub. The dark tile will be a dramatic background to the various materials that will be used in this room, including a safety glass shower wall, corrugated galvanized steel as a shower surround, and the rugged old sink you've seen in previous posts. There's even some wood in there somewhere!
Here's that lovely old bathtub from Ohio, in its permanent (almost) location. This pedestal tub will delight our guests in the downstairs bathroom, and we'll enjoy it too! We've found some gorgeous reproductions of hardware (faucets, shower head, curtain ring) that will complement this very nicely. It was necessary to move this in before all of the basement doors were hung, as it's a rather bulky fixture. While much work still needs to be done in the lower level bathroom, it can all be accomplished by moving the tub around a bit before it settles into its permanent home.