The 5° Solution

Foundation walls are in place and Attila just helped me finish the "wet" sills last night (no pictures of that as it was too dark by the time we were done).  But let me digress for a moment.  Our earthwork and concrete work is being done by a local contractor, Doug Gott & Sons.  They've done a good job so far and are on board to get things done, even as some unforeseen events shifted our schedule.  The project was being handled by Jeff Reed.  Some of you may know Jeff; I did not know him well.  I worked with him on a couple of projects and I found him to be a straight shooter and very organized.  That is one of the reasons I hired them to do this project.  Unfortunately, Jeff passed away on Sunday of a heart attack.  It's tragic and I know he will be missed.  The service is this Saturday at 1:00 in Bar Harbor at the Episcopalian Church.  Thanks, Jeff, for all that you did.

If you have been here before, looked at the very first post and clicked on the plan, you may have noticed the addition is rotated slightly so that it is not parallel to the main house.  This will become more noticeable in the photos below.  No, this is not a screw-up.  The rotation is not much, just 5°.  The reason for this is twofold.  First, the septic field for the house is at the eastern end and the addition must be a certain distance from it.  Because the addition goes past the existing house, we were going to be too close.  Why not just pull the addition a little farther away from the main house, you ask?  Great question.  The problem is that we are up against a setback issue to the north.  This is also partly why the addition is set back from the front of the existing house.  You can see this in the site plan below.  We could rotate the building, to a certain extent, but not pull it farther away.  Thus the 5° solution.  This gets us far enough away from the septic field without encroaching on the setback.  It is very subtle but interesting.  When you stand between the two buildings on the driveway end, it is not readily apparent.  The perspective reduces the impact of it.  But from below, it becomes more apparent - see for yourself.

 

The setback is the dashed line inside the property line.

Ramona wanted to help, though she is better at knocking over tools than anything else.

The start of wet sills.

Sill sealer.

From this view the the angle is much more clear.

When the world is your litterbox...

This weekend I hope to get the "dry" sills on.  Unfortunately I can't start framing the floor until the slab is poured in the basement.  That is scheduled for Monday.  So I'll probably spend the rest of the weekend cutting material and getting ready for next weekend when I plan to throw a large framing party.  More on that to follow.