Frodo’s Fate is No Longer in Our Hands…..(Jude Gets Hold of a Camera)

A little more caution from you, that is no trinket you carry.

I carry nothing.

Indeed. I can avoid being seen if I wish, but to disappear entirely that is a rare gift! (Aragorn to Frodo on the carrying of the  Ring)

It’s never going to end Jim. These references to the Lord of the Rings movies? Sorry, but alas no. ‘Tis my doom.

For the fate of the Ring and the Ringbearer himself is no longer in our hands. As is the Hobbit house. It will now be borne by the men of Bree and possibly their companions….. at least for a while. For the summer months are upon us and father is not opening his wallet to fill anyone’s gas tank this summer! That’s a promise! Trust me.

So welcome and enjoy a short tale of the building of a Hobbit House. Thanks for stopping by! I hope everyone’s summer is getting up and going. We are hitting the Memorial Day weekend here in the States. Beautiful weather this weekend! No complaints.

So as I was saying the fate of the blog is now in the hands of my sons. Me thinks that things are going to be a bit silly for a while. That’s okay though. Hobbits love their creature comforts and a good hearty laugh as well. Let’s see how much gets done. Like I was saying the whole idea here is to document the progress of building a Hobbit house. So before I sent Jude and Ethan over there this first week I tell them to take some pictures of what they’re doing. Look at the first one Jude sends me.

Prepping the walls for waterproofing?
Prepping the walls for waterproofing?

Everything has got to be some kind of a joke. They can’t just document what’s going on! Look at the second one he sends me.

Ethan scales a ladder.
Ethan scales a ladder.

Two blog worthy pictures right off the bat.

As I’ve stated this could be a rough summer as far as blog posts are concerned. It’s a good thing I go over on the weekends and try to make some sense of what is going on.

In their defense they actually did get quite a bit done this week which was great.

The blog ran into some technical difficulties while I was trying to write the other day so we’re way behind schedule. I’m probably not going to have enough time to get everything in the way I would want to. Bear with me if you will.

So onto bigger and better things.

We received the balance of the styrofoam for the external insulation this week. It was over a tractor trailer load. I hope I figured this out right because there’s a lot of styrofoam here people. Check this out.

Styrofoam delivered.
Styrofoam delivered.

What you don’t see is that alot of it is inside the Hobbit House. I told the boys to have the guy stack it inside so it’s out of the way. Boy, we have a lot of work to do.

So the main objective for this week for the boys was to prep the East and West walls for waterproofing, prime the walls and install the waterproofing. The prep is pretty critical. You don’t want any sharp objects piercing the waterproofing and compromising it’s integrity. So that entails cutting out banding wire, flat ties, rebar, threaded rods and the like that we left behind for now. It also means grinding the seams of the forms and having a relatively smooth surface to put the waterproofing onto. Check it out.

Ethan priming for the waterproofing.
Ethan priming for the waterproofing.

So this is a commercial grade waterproofing membrane we are using. It’s really easy to install  and as long as you do a half decent job with the prep you should have no problem. We used a product from Grace called Bituthene 3000. It’s a peel and stick membrane that is really tough. After you prime the surface and put it on there’s no way you are getting this stuff off.

West wall waterproofing.
East wall waterproofing.

What’s really great about this product is that it is not rigid. It kind of moves with the building and has a lot of flex to it. I think once we get this all down we’re not going to have any water issues. On another note, this also helps with our air sealing issues for Passive House certification. Putting this stuff on over everything is definitely going to help.

So Saturday arrived and I had Jeff the mason come up to do some patchwork on the roof for us. There is a spot on the roof where there is exposed styrofoam for a thermal bridging issue. I wanted to cover that up and coat it with a product called Sika 123. This product is waterproof when you put it on at a quarter inch thick. We had a bit of a mess at these locations from the pour but Jeff was able to straighten it all out. He did a really good job. Check it out.

Jeff patching the retaining wall curb where the styrofoam is.
Jeff patching the retaining wall curb where the styrofoam is.

Here’s the finished product.

Patched retaining wall curb.
Patched retaining wall curb.

Terence worked with Jeff cleaning ahead of him and chopping any minor concrete issues that Jeff thought should be removed. Terence and I also set up some fall protection for roof work as well. We bolted a 2×4 onto the roof as a kick plate so there’s a positive stop at the bottom of the roofline. Here it is.

Bolted on kick plate.
Bolted on kick plate.

I took care of a number of items during the course of the day but the one I want to show you is the beginnings of the styrofoam layout. The styrofoam on the sidewalls has to be cut to fit. What I want to have happen is the roof styrofoam to sit over the top of the sidewall styrofoam. This sounds a little weird but once you see it you’ll get what I’m trying to do with it. So I stood up the first sheet and found the right pitch angle to cut the top of the styro at. (Side note: The sidewall styro is custom. 4x9x 5inches thick and 4×10-6x 5 inches thick) Here’s the first piece.

One down 47 to go.
One down 47 to go.

Here it is installed.

First piece of styro up and in..
First piece of styro up and in.

So I’m looking for the boys to get the roof prep done this week and possibly start securing the sidewall styro….among other things.

Enjoy your week!

Hobbit Hollow Jim

4 thoughts on “Frodo’s Fate is No Longer in Our Hands…..(Jude Gets Hold of a Camera)”

  1. Hi there! We live a bit further down the road you’re building on … there’s a reason the guy delivering the styrofoam didn’t put it inside. His tractor trailer was blocking the road as we were trying to leave, so we and some guys from a lawn mowing service (who were also waiting to get out) helped him with the last 6 or so bundles. He was all alone, and the chain was across your driveway, so he had to lift each block (the big ones in the picture) out of the trailer and get it over the driveway chain. Really nice guy – we helped him with the last few, he just didn’t have the time, manpower or access to put it all where you would have liked.
    We enjoy watching the progress! Wishing you and your endeavor the very best of luck!

    Reply
    • Hello Sterry! Thanks for helping out! That guy was supposed to come the same day as the bigger delivery. They never called to say when it was supposed to get there.

      Thanks for writing and I’m sorry for the inconvenience that day.

      Jim

      Reply
    • Hey Mike! If you’re up in this neck of the woods you’ll have to stop by for lunch. I’m buying this time.

      Take it easy,
      Jim

      Reply

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