Sweat Equity

It has been obvious since we started getting budget numbers back on this house that the only way we were going to be able to afford this without sacrificing too much was to put a little sweat equity into the project. I mentioned in my first post that we cleared the property ourselves with a friend. I think Joe would have been happy if our involvement ended there! But luckily he has been somewhat eager to tackle some other components of the house. (I think mostly because he likes to buy new tools)

We have to go back in time a few months to talk about this first item. Once the roof was on the contractor was getting ready to pour the concrete floor slab in the basement. It was important to me to be sure that there was a continuous vapor barrier and insulation under the floor slab. This keeps any moisture from migrating through the slab and reduces heat loss through the slab. We couldn’t spend all this time and energy getting the walls and roof insulated properly and neglect the slab! This was a a project that the girls actually helped us with. They helped us put the insulation boards in place and also helped us tape all the seams of the plastic and insulation.

They did great the first night but grew a little bored of their jobs the second night, so my aunt and uncle watched them while Joe and I finished up. I only mention this to tell you about the bat who decided to show up and help us finish. I’m glad the girls weren’t there although they do love the video we took of him flying in circles around the basement. We decided to cut the lights in hopes he would find his way out a window opening (this was before windows were installed). He actually rested back up between the floor joists and luckily stayed there while we finished.

Another job we took on was sealing all the nail holes in the zip panels with liquid flash. This, combined with the tape on all the seams, ensures the panels are air and water tight.

Most recently we have spent the past month of weekends working on our deck. First we had to stain the deck framing. We bought a sprayer to help save time. It worked pretty well but we found that you need a lot more stain because you waste so much in the air. It’s also hard to get consistent coverage when spraying between boards. So we ended up using brushes and rollers to go back over some areas just to make sure we had a good base before we started installing the decking.

That brings us to the decking. We really wanted to use a composite decking to reduce maintenance and keep the deck looking great for years to come. The materials are significantly more expensive than wood decking so you can understand why I wanted to consider installing it ourselves to offset that cost. Joe was unsure we would be able to do it until he started reaching out to family to plan a weekend to come help. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful family and friends. His brothers and two cousins all agreed to help. His cousin, Billy, had installed a number of decks like ours at work before. So we ordered Trex decking through Lowe’s. They said it would be delivered in 7-10 days so we set a weekend to install it beyond that. Fast forward 2 weeks to the beginning of the week we were set to install. I reached out to the store because the decking still hadn’t been delivered and I hadn’t heard from them. It was two days of calling them before they finally got back to me and notified me that the decking was on back order until December! We were 3 days away from everyone showing up and we had no material.

You all know by now I had looked at and priced out different options before we ordered the Trex in the first place. One of those was TimberTech decking through Hartville Hardware. It is actually supposed to be a better product because the finish wraps all 4 sides. With the Trex it is only on top and into the groove on the sides. I had originally not chosen the TimberTech based on cost. The color I wanted was in their most expensive line (of course). But right as I was ordering the Trex the salesman from Hartville Hardware had reached out to me about one of the colors that had been discontinued that they had enough in stock to do our deck. It was discounted since it was discontinued. I passed at the time but now ‘in stock’ sounded worth every penny to avoid a winter deck install!

Let me just take a minute to tell you how great Hartville Hardware is. We have gotten nearly all of our building materials there. Lumber, windows, doors, cabinets, flooring, and now decking! They have been so great to work with and their store has to be one of the best hardware stores in the country. For those of you nearby you know what I’m talking about. But for others imagine a hardware store that is 7 acres! They literally have everything you could imagine. Not to mention there are model homes built inside that you can walk through for ideas and on top of that it’s family owned. People come from all over to go there and it’s right down the road from our new house. I can imagine it’s going to be somewhere we take our out of town guests!

I digress. Now back to the deck. The salesman I work with at HH was actually on vacation but had told me to text him if I needed anything. I felt bad but I did and he put me in contact with another guy in the store to help me out. This was Wednesday at 2 pm and we had decking delivered and ready for our crew by end of day Friday!

Carmen, Dan, Billy, and John met us at 7:30 am Saturday and we got started. Once we got the trim pieces up and I made a run to HH for a tool we needed things went pretty smoothly. I went with the concealed fasteners which give it a great aesthetic but slow down the install. We finished the majority of the portion of the deck outside the kitchen and got started on the next section that day. We definitely couldn’t have done it with all the help and are so grateful! It was a really fun day and the kids (Bri, Evie, Blaze, and Sophia) had fun exploring the property and Grandma Patty came to help keep them entertained. Between Lisa and Joe I’m certain this is the most photographed deck install in history.

Joe and I have been slowly working on finishing the rest of the deck each weekend. It’s a big one! Right now we are waiting on the metal guys to install the downspouts before we finish.

Next up on our list is painting! We are taking any and all volunteers