Painting with a full pallet....................

Another normally wasted product is the wood used to build the pallets on which other materials are shipped. Often the pallets are made of oak.

Here in the foyer/mud room, I've harvested that wood to create a rustic wall veneer.

This is probably not to everyone's taste, but to me it's consistent with the barn-like character of this home.

To the dump...not !

When you go through the phase of installing electrical & plumbing fixtures, there's a great amount of cardboard & plastic waste generated.

If you don't recycle it, those products just sit in the landfill for many, many years.

So I hope that everyone is taking advantage of local recycling centers to give a new life to useful materials, rather than creating more needless waste for generations to come.

In this photo I'm making one of many trips to the local recycling bins.

One of my proudest accomplishments on this build was completing the project without ever needing an on site dumpster.

Down the home stretch.......................

These horse stall doors in our car porch were rescued from a barn that will be demolished soon. I'm designing a new home for that property, & the owners were very gracious to let me raid the barn for items to re-use & re-purpose.

Soon I'll highlight paint the signs of each horse- Rex, Buttermilk, Chester, & Shadow.

Here are some other photos, as we near the finish line. The large pencil now hanging below the master bedroom was made from a tree that had fallen. I used a chainsaw to transform it into the pencil.

The interior door to the right was once a smaller window from the horse barn. We beefed it up using wood that was leftover from our porch decking. That will be painted soon too.

On the front porch are 2 very hefty rocking chairs that I found in the barn. The deer antlers in the wreath were found on our property. It's really a Christmas wreath, but since I added wine bottle corks all around it, I figure it's good for all year now.

The back porch railing is mainly electrical conduit. It was quite inexpensive to use compared to traditional railings.

The last shot is another view of the back porch. The "garden angel" is a wonderful gift from many years ago. It was once mounted on a post in our garden, but now graces the wall, & is finally protected from the elements.

The inside scoop................

The large dining room window has not been installed yet. That will be done by a separate contractor.

It's an aluminum frame with energy saving glass panels, similar to the storefront glass you would see in a retail center or office building.

Below, to the left, is a photo of the vanity area in the future master bathroom.

Though not in my original plans, the low wall will become a continuous shelf across the sink cabinets. It was necessitated to get the plumbing lines extended into the crawlspace, but now will be a fortunate unforeseen revision.

To the right is my future office. The sloped ceiling allows for a loft above, the purpose of which I have no clue so far. But since the design is based on a barn- :What the hay" !

Spring has sprung.........................

As many of you have noticed, spring has arrived a bit early this year.

I had transplanted many plants from our current yard to the new home site this winter.

And now it's highly rewarding to see that those labors have been worth the effort, as they end their hibernation, & take root in a new location.

Even the rocks you see below were transported from our existing home's yard.

Where you see our famous Georgia red clay marks a path that I dug by hand to form a path for the water line leading to the new house. This area would have been ruined using mechanical equipment to dig, & the tree roots could have been heavily damaged.

Another layer........................

Because the final exterior finishes will be stucco & stone, a second water barrier must be applied. This time we're using felt paper to go over the Zip board.

The windows then follow, and are taped to avoid future rain intrusion.

This photo of the carport columns illustrates the complete construction process from framing, to Zip board, to felt.

Zipping right along........................

Over the blue insulation board we recently applied a relatively new product called Zip board.

It's a particle board sheathing product with a water resistant coating already factory applied, to keep out moisture.

A special tape is applied at all the joints to create a continuous seal, wrapping the house to keep it air tight.

This saves an entire construction step from the usual method of wrapping a home's sheathing with a separate water resistance product as a separate installation.

The application of this new product went very smoothly.

 Zip board proved to be very efficient.

Part of my duties as job janitor was to stack the cut pieces according to size, so that Steve & Ronnie could use an appropriately sized piece, rather than cutting a full sheet.

By the end of the application there was definitely minimal waste left over.

Getting a bit further along..........

 Steve & Ronnie are now installing OSB board on the fascias and soffits.

This will provide a separation between the steel & the eventual aluminum finished covering. It's important that the steel & aluminum don't touch, or electrolysis will occur between the dissimilar metals. The OSB will also provide anchorage for fastening the aluminum.

At the front entry porch we've started pouring concrete stepping stones. Eventually these will be covered with stone after there's no danger of construction traffic causing damage to the stone.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Using leftover concrete block, the masons
have built this fire pit in  the side yard.

The synthetic stone we're using is manufactured just over a mile away. Part of being green is not specifying products that have to travel a long distance to the site.

Also, we're using stone lots that were left over or rejected by others. We did this on our current home, & it looks fine & saves a good bit of money.

BTW, my contribution was to dig out the footings for the pit. Yesterday I dug the footing for a low sitting wall to the left side. That provided fill dirt that I needed elsewhere.


                                                                                                                                                                     

Up on the roof...........

Finally the upper roof beam are going in, and we're a step closer to keeping out rain.

During the last cold snap you could literally ice skate in the bedroom wing.







In this photo the house looks as if it's on fire, but it's actually Steve cutting some steel.

The sparks fly off, & I know from experience that you have to watch out to keep from getting hit by a hot ember.