2008_01_09 Bad stain job, Pella Fixed Windows, basement framed walls and doors

Remember me? I know, it's been about 90 days since an update. Well, in the next few days I'll try to get you up-to-date.

First, the stain job. It has been a disappointment so far although our builder says that they will fix it later when we're closer to being finished. The builder used a painter named Steve to stain a house they recently finished. He did a great job.

One day the builder or his wife one or the other got a call from Steve asking whether they had any jobs for him and they told him that they did (our house). He got directions, etc and went to work on our house. I was there when he started.

He didn't seem to have any experience doing log home staining because he couldn't get the stain to go through his pump-up sprayer and come out as a thick spray as it is supposed to. The stain can said that it could be thinned with mineral spirits if necessary and it told him how much per gallon of stain.

So, he decided that he needed to do that, but he didn't have any mineral spirits! A painter without mineral spirits?!? So, I volunteered to drive him to Oneonta to get some. When we were back he thinned the stain, but it still didn't work. More thinning. Didn't work. More thinning. Finally worked. Well, sort of.

So, he proceeded to put the stain on, but it appeared to me that it just wasn't going on thick enough (the stain said to put it on until it couldn't absorb any more) and it was also streaky. He was a nice guy, but I mentioned to the builder that it didn't really look good. One of the things that was most discouraging was that the logs (first floor) were taking the stain much darker than the log siding (upstairs) giving it a two-toned appearance. Heck, it looks like a '55 Chevy (you remember the ones that always seemed to be something like aqua and white or something?).

Finally, after I had expressed concern with Kathy (the builder's wife, Kathy) several times Steve and his crew got to see the job too and Kathy talked with them to get their opinion. One of his crew, Roberto, and his wife have done the staining on many of the homes they have done, and he said it was not done well.

The painter named Steve went by to see Kathy (the builder's Kathy) to get part of his money and she discovered that (you won't believe this) this "Steve" was a totally different Steve from the Steve who had done their previous staining job that was done so well! This Steve had just gotten their name from someone and called them out of the blue to see if they had any work for him. They thought it was the Steve who had done a good job, but it was just (what are the odds?) another Steve entirely!

So, they relieved him of any further duties and just told us that they'd get Roberto and his wife to "fix" it later.

For now, it looks pretty stupid, but I guess I'll just try to be content until they have an opportunity to fix it. The builder, his wife, and Steve the builder all say that there is almost always some difference in how the stain is absorbed by logs and log siding so there is often a slight difference for some unknown reason, but it shouldn't be this different. I'll wait to see if they can fix it before letting my blood pressure go up too far. :-)

Here is a good picture to show you what I mean about the two-toned appearance:



Below is a dark picture from inside showing you the Pella windows that are now finally installed in the great room.

Here is another view from the outside. Just a note about the strip of light colored wood around the outside edge of the windows; this shows where the windows were moved a little bit by the Pella installers when they came to put the fixed glass in. They are not just guys who put windows in without looking at the entire project to see if some adjustment needs to be done.

They determined that it would be more visually appealing if the windows upstairs were aligned better with the French doors below so they used their carpenter skills to make some slight adjustment in the placement of the window frames. As a result, you can see that there is a strip of unstained log siding that was previously covered up by the pine board trim around the windows which is now uncovered and therefore unstained. That will need to be fixed later.

Below you can see the studs put up in the basement for the walls of the workshop, etc. You're looking toward the workshop area that will be an L-shaped work area. If you can see the red metal post that is way in the back and in the middle of the workshop floor that one will be removed by Steve's crew since it isn't necessary (nothing really above it that requires support and the other supports are close enough to support the stuff above) and it will make the shop much more user friendly! You can see that most of the other metal support posts (that appeared to just be everywhere before walls started going up) actually will be either inside walls or just adjacent to them and won't be so unsightly as I'd feared.

The picture below shows the area underneath the stairs that will go up to the main floor as well as the doorway to the left that will go into the area where the elevator will be. That's how we'll go into the house once we get out of the car. Here you can see the one support post that will remain "out in the open" even after walls are put in, but it's needed to keep the house from falling down into the basement! Well, it's needed anyway so it stays. :-)

Sorry to have been so long in sending out an update, but things have been slow since the holidays for a lot of reasons like subcontractors taking off during holidays, waiting on fixed glass windows from Pella (they shut down their factory to re-tool their equipment), the bank requiring a new title search before EVERY draw and the title company for whatever reason taking forever to get their report to the bank, weather delays, etc, etc, etc.

Now things are moving again with plumbing, electrical, heating and air, metal roof, etc all being worked on recently. So, I've got several reports to send you in the next few days so get your reading glasses and get ready to be overwhelmed with lots of pictures, etc in the next few days!

2007_12_08 Windows and doors and a hint of stain

For those of you who look at all the pictures on the Kodak site where I post more of the pictures and comment on them individually I apologize that a lot of this commentary is copying from there. I really need to get this stuff caught up and my back hurts and I need to go to bed so you're getting the short version here this time. :-)

Saturday Steve and the crew worked all day and into the night to get the Pella windows installed at least to the point that it'll be able to keep the water out pretty well. They also put in the 4 sets of double French doors and the other 3 upstairs regular outside doors.

The front door is still an issue so it will be done later. Heritage sent the wrong materials list to Pella and the hinges are on the wrong side, so we're waiting for Heritage to tell us what they will do to get that straightened out.

The garage doors and regular exit door in the basement as well as the basement windows will also be done later.

The outside wall outside the dining room was stained the other day. There's one picture of that.

As I said, the guys worked all day and some of the later pictures were taken when it was pretty dark.

Here they are trying to see how the half-round windows fit above the dormer windows. They finally got it, but it took some doing.

By the way, the muntins are still in the boxes. They'll go on the windows later. They're the things that go on the inside of the glass to make them look like individual panes of glass instead of one large glass pane.

Below is the result when they finally got them together. Now they have to cut the semi-circle in the header above the dormer window! Steve was on a roll when the windows were done and didn't realize that the little half-circle windows were to go there. So, they had to cut the curve into the house before putting the window in. All's well that ends well.


There is something that sticks out around all the windows that is used to attach them to the house and then Pella provides a tape that goes over that and against the surrounding wood. See the top edge here. There is a board behind the tape. The opening above that allows for log settling. They'll insulate around the windows later. On the right side notice that wood trim goes over the tape.

The picture below is of the 2 sets of double French doors in the great room. Since Pella shuts down their plant for 2 weeks or so during December to recalibrate some of their equipment (if I understand it correctly) they cannot get the fixed glass windows above the French doors ready until early January so they are simply covered with plastic for now.

Now Randy and Steve are fitting the semi-circular wood pieces that will serve as the window trim at the top of the half-circle windows. They had to be cut manually and it required several attempts before getting it right. They are standing on folded up stepladders that are just standing on the roof above the area outside of the dining room and just leaning against the dormer. Not the safest position! One fall and if they didn't stay on the deck they'd drop another 19 feet or so to the rocks below.

This is the part of the outside wall that HAS been stained with the honey colored stain that protects it from water, sun, insects, mold, mildew, etc. It's Wood Guard with stuff mixed in with it to protect against insects and mold, etc in case you're wondering.

This is a view of part of the dining area (to the left) and the great room (to the right). As you can see it's getting pretty dark out there!

Here is a picture from the kitchen area toward the dining area. The frame sticking out is where a peninsula will be once the kitchen is installed.