Boat House is done, essentially...

My boathouse contractor is done, and what's left to do is workscope that I wil complete, like installing lights, ( half done), outlets and a ceiling fan.  I will also build a bench and fish cleaning table.

Here's the latest picture, with some additional siding installed below the really high roof, to add some shade when the sun is low in the sky.



"Drying it in"

So what's the title mean? "Drying in" the house, is making it relatively watertight, so the indoor trades, such as electrical, plumbing and AC can begin their work.  The house is nearly "dried in", so to speak.  Most windows are in place, special watertight fabric on the roof decking, ( metal roof will follow), plywood siding in place and tyvec house wrap in place.  Some sections of the roof need to be completed still, like above the master bedroom.  The porches haven't been started yet, but that will come in time.

Yesterday we looked at lighting fixtures and cabinets - Wow, we have alot of choices to make.  Let me rephrase, Maggie has alot of choices to make.  I think the lights will be alot of work, due to the shear number and possible choices.  The cabinets might be a bit easier, because the cabinet man does beutiful work and has really good taste.  I am told that the cabinets are very reasonably priced and are built custom to what you want and prefer.

Ok, here are some pics:

View from the street:

Side views - notice the columns without porches - these will go on the front and side.

Stairs from ground floor, which will be in a ground floor storage room.  If its raining or snowing, you can drive under the house and come up these stairs.  If the weather is nice, there will be a nice set of stairs that will go up to the front porch and front door.

The view while standing in the living room, looking toward the master bedroom beyond.  Notice how light the bedroon looks?  That's what no roof will do for you.

The view looking into the kitchen from the dining room.  A window on the right will be over the sink.  The skinny windows high up are above the cabinets, to add a bit of natural light.

I turned around from the view above, and shot this one, again standing in the dining room, now looking west toward the water.  The dining room has two windows, and opens to the right to the living room.  The open area in the wall is for the front door.

Upstairs bedroom, with dormer and window.  The gap in the wall will be closed, I hope!

Framing continues

Yesterday I made a trip over to work on installing lights in the boat house.  While there I took a few pix of the house progress.  The framer has been working on the roof structure and dormer framing mainly, which takes some time due to height and complexity.  He's gotten most of the roof framed, and now decked in with plywood.  There are special nailing requirements for the decking due to high wind loads that the house will experience.  He'll take pictures of the nailing patterns so we can use them to get wind insurance.

Here's a view from my neighbor's yard.  You can see the big center dormer framed up.

Now, directly in front of the house.  There will be a porch across the whole front, but its not yet framed.

The south side view.  A really big porch will be added on this side, to tie into the front porch.  The concrete columns with nothing on top of them will form the base of the porches.

A view of the back of the house.  One of the two big windows will be in a sitting room that adjoins a bedroom, and the other will be over the stairs going to the second floor.  On my trip last week I requested some changes that will open up the stairs and upstairs hallway area, making better use of the natural light from the window.

Framing the Second Floor

The second floor is coming along.

On 8-24 it looked like this, before the storm:

On 9-1 it looked like this:

On 9-7 the second floor walls are up and roof structure is taking shape:

They haven't yet begun the porch framing, which will help balance the house.

Here's a view of the sunset from the boat house.  I put the sun behind a piling in the pic.

Boat House Update

The boat lift has been mounted and power/water run to it.  The only thing left for my contractor to do is wrap the area below the roof line with a vertical section of siding.   This is going to be a great place to fish, visit and enjoy the view.

There's an aligator that lives in the area, and all kinds of marine birds, along with the fish, crabs, shrimp.

Hurricane Isaac

Hurricane Isaac threatened Ocean Springs with high water more than high winds.  The water level got up to our slab elevation, which is around +9.5 feet.  No damage to the house or boat house, but some bundles of lumber did try to float away.

This is the view from my neighbors front porch on 8-28.  The water has covered over our dock and is about at street level:

Here's a view on 8-29 from her porch.  The street and most of our front yard is flooded.  The black bundle is lumber trying to escape.

Another view on 8-29, looking out toward the bayou, which has encroached on alot of normally dry areas.  The tuft of marsh grass is the normal bank of the bayou.