Chinking Party a Huge Success!

It was an absolutely beautiful weekend for our chinking party. Brilliant sunshine with a nice cool breeze. We had quite a turnout on Saturday, and then on Sunday too.
A warm & special thanks to all who came out to contribute: Jim, Deborah, Brett & Ashley, Bob, Rusty, Luke, John & Amanda, Sherry, Bim & Janet, Bobby & Analise. Thank you so much!
We greatly exceeded our expectations because of you guys.

We were just hoping to get all the exterior insulation stuffed in, & most of the nails put in over the course of the whole weekend. Instead, we had all the exterior insulation & all the nails finished by 2:30pm Saturday! SNAP!
We had quite the assembly line going. The jobs were cutting insulation, stuffing insulation, putting in nails, bending nails back, mixing mortar, putting mortar up, carrying mortar to those who needed more mortar.

(Fellow LHBA member, Rusty putting in nails to hold in the chinking)













(Luke using the bostitch nail gun to put in nails)














(All the insulation & nails complete)














(Side view of insulation & nails)















(Close-up view of insulation & nails)

We used 3" clipped head nails with a bostitch nail gun, which made the nails go really fast. They were all nailed except for the corners & other places in about 4 hours!










(Saturday work crew: Bob, Brett, Ashley, Rusty
Bim, Janet, Luke, John, Deborah, Jim
Stewart, Rachel w/ Sherry taking picture)

Sorry Sunday work crew, I forgot to take a picture!

(Sunday work crew: Jim, Deborah, John, Amanda, Bobby, Analise, Stewart, Rachel)







(Lunch Time)















(Sherry putting up mortar)




The mortar was quite an experience. We started on the north wall because it has the biggest gaps and it will be seen the least, so we thought we'd experiment with it first. Bim & Jim did a fantastic job making mortar on Saturday & Sunday, with a consistency of delicious mud mousse! We all worked with the mortar all day Saturday, with several people getting the hang of it rather quickly. Sunday I finally felt like I was getting the hang of it, & we kind of figured out that we could pretty much just get it up there, then come back a little later & fill the crack that would form at the top. Then we would come back about an hour later with a small paint brush & some water & wet brush it. That smoothed all the bumps and made it look more even , and gave it a more matte appearance, which we found we liked, rather than more shiny.



(Still figuring out the mortar)

















(LHBA member, John Simpson's mortar invention, created for putting the mortar between the logs. It needs a few tweaks, but you never know, it may be awesome!!)















(Mortar invention in action)
















(Bim & Janet in the groove with the mortar...)










By the way, we decided to go with a tinted type N mortar mixture by Lafarge with the color "Buff." We were going for a tan color, & I think the Buff is going to be perfect. It's a little dark in the picture b/c it is still wet. We also bought a mortar mixer at Harbor Freight for cheap, which worked great! I wish I took a picture of the mortar mixer, it is really cool...



(Deborah working away with the mortar)




















(Close-up of the mortar after it is up, before we wet brushed it)



















(Mortar finished before we wiped down the logs)


















(Exterior chinking finished!! The mortar is up, the logs have been wiped down, & we are finally finished with the exterior chinking)













(Back wall view of chinking finished)








Over the course of the 2 day chinking party, we got 3 walls almost completely chinked. It took us 2 more days to touch up some places on those 3 walls, finish the last wall, then wipe the logs down... We are very thankful for the friends that came out!
Next up, we are painting the windows & putting them in. Then we'll be moving to the inside for a while. It's about time to finish the electrical & plumbing, finish putting in the second floor, then we can chink the inside!! Stay tuned!