Howdy Followers!
It's Briana bringing you part 3 of "Our Silo House" story! I am so happy you have, once again, made it over to my little corner of the internet and are here reading my blog. Let's do a little re-cap. In the last blog post, we left off where we had finished putting the cieling together! ALL 768 PIECES OF THAT BAD BOY!
Well you thought we were done and ready to move on from the ceiling. Not so fast, I thought cutting and placing each piece was hard until I had to sand each beam and the individual pieces of tounge and groove with the palm sander above my head. Talk about miserable and a workout. I strapped on my goggles, my mask and climbed on my ladder to sand, and sand, and sand. I had wood particles in my eyes, piles of it in my ears, and in places I never imagined. After we had finished the sanding, it still wasn't done. We then had to varnish and seal to preserve the wood.
Ok, ok let's move on from the ceiling. Next we needed to get the stairs framed, another interact part of the project which we contracted out a subcontractor to complete. While we wanted to complete most of the work ourselves, we realized we are no where near professionals and YouTube videos only go so far. The stairs are curved up against one of the walls and were designed to fit our laundry room and utility closet underneath to conserve space.
After the framing was complete, we were able to get our full framing inspection performed by CID, as well as a partial plumbing, and a partial electrical inspection in order to complete installation of the Batt insulation. Once the insulation was completed, it was time to start installing the sheetrock.
If you recall, it was pertinent that the walls were smooth and round in order to keep the original shape of the silo. In order to get the straight, flat sheetrock curved (without cracking and breaking) the sheetrock had to be wet and then laid over the metal silo panels we had remaining from not going up an additional course on the original size of the silo. By wetting the sheetrock outside and leaving to dry, the sheetrock took the shape of the silo in order to be applied. It was a learning curve and with the help of the "meeting of the minds", it came together. We learned it was essential to install the sheetrock while it was still damp. The sheetrock had to be trimmed just right to wrap around the beams to complete the smooth transition from the walls to the roof and have the smooth, round finish. Once it was installed it was then "taped" and sanded to remove any blemishes since the walls were going to be smooth and not textured.
Once the dry wall was applied and completed, we began another several step process of applying the Venetian plaster. Once again, we subcontracted and assisted with the labor as much as possible to apply. Primer was first applied, and then 4 layers of materials were applied to complete the Venetian plaster look. We had to select the color and the texture we desired and once we committed there was no turning back. The round walls posed a challenge to the process used to apply the material. The stainless steel trawl would not lay flat and consistent with the curvature of the wall so the effect we originally wanted was a challenge and took more work and man hours than originally planned (of, course. This was typical of this project).
Throughout the building process, plans were deployed and it never failed it either took longer than envisioned, more money than planned, and more material than expected. Welcome to construction work folks!
We got the Venetian plaster installed and I hated it, yup HATED it. I lost sleep thinking about how much money I spent for something that I was so unsure about. I felt like it was way too dark. I felt like it made my little space feel enclosed, but I had to trust the plan. I knew my finish work was going to be light and airy and I had to believe that it would make everything seem more light because at this stage in the building process I felt defeated. What had I done? Why did I pick this color after spending thousands of dollars in material and labor. Did I just flush the money down the drain to just end up painting over all the hard work and hours put into this project?
Stay tuned for Part 4 to find out more on my dilemma!
Thanks for reading,
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