A thank you card we received from Kelsey at Habitat for Humanity for our support at the Women’s Build project in Philomath, Oregon.

“Carl, Tanner, and G. Christianson Construction Co,
Thank you very much for your support of Benton Habitat for Humanity and Women Build. Your construction expertise was a valuable contribution. The Women Build participants were able to learn much through your teaching. Your sponsorship that allowed us to provide lunch for the volunteers was also greatly appreciated. Thank you for your tremendous support!
Sincerely, Kelsey”

Today, G. Christianson Construction donated our lead carpenter Tanner’s time for a full day supervising the site. Tanner is busy overseeing a group of volunteers hanging siding, building a deck and painting.

Last weekend, G. Christianson Construction volunteered with Habitat for Humanity’s National Women’s Build Week event in Philomath. On Saturday, I helped with siding and on Sunday I volunteered as the project’s site supervisor. We also donated $250 to support the construction effort.

This year Habitat is re-siding a home in Philomath to help keep a single mother with three children in her home. The house’s old T1-11 siding was installed directly onto the framing with no vapor barrier or sheathing, the only thing that would keep water out is the caulk around the windows. As you can guess, this caulk had failed and water was coming in around her windows in every rainstorm. This project will replace her windows, install new siding, insulation, trim and paint her house. We are excited to be helping out.

Supervising at Habitat for Humanity

-          Carl

We recently completed an insulation project for a long time member of the Corvallis community. Pat requested that we give her a quote on installing new wall insulation in the home that she and her husband built in the 1950’s. Many of the older homes in Corvallis don’t have any insulation in their walls which can lead to drafty, uncomfortable rooms and high energy bills.

When we provide Home Weatherization inspections or Energy Audits, we typically recommend spending money first on air sealing and insulating attics and crawlspaces because they are easy to access and thus less costly. Wall insulation is usually a secondary project. Wall insulation retrofits are expensive because we need to drill holes either on the interior or exterior of the home to blow in the insulation. At Pat’s house, her vintage wall paper meant that we had to drill from the outside.

In one marathon day last week, we removed a row of cedar sidewall shakes from her home, drilled holes and filled each stud bay with blown-in dense pack fiberglass insulation. A brief description from the University of Minnesota: “Dense pack insulation is ideal for insulation retrofits in older homes. For instance, it can be blown into closed stud wall cavities with minimal disruption to the exterior cladding or interior plaster. In addition, because the stud cavities are fully closed, it can be blown at high densities, which can improve the R-value of fiberglass insulation and prevent future settling. Finally, since the exterior walls of older homes are commonly constructed with boards rather than sheet goods and don’t typically have a continuous air barrier, air infiltration through the wall is often a significant issue. In this situation, the air sealing benefits of dense pack cellulose or fiberglass can significantly reduce air infiltration.”

Insulation values of R 3.5 to R4.2 can be achieved, so in a 2×4 wall you may see insulation values between R12 and R15 as well as reduced air infiltration.

We discovered that a few of Pat’s walls had already been insulated during a previous remodel. To be fair to her, we are crediting back to her the cost for insulating those walls.

Once the walls were insulated, we sealed each drill hole, reinstalled siding, re-painted and cleaned up. Please give us a call if you would like to know more about insulation, Energy Trust Weatherization Inspections or Performance Tested Comfort Systems Inspections. 541-754-6326.

-          Carl

We have just received word that our most recent new home construction project will be featured in Oregon Home Magazine. The architect for this project, Don Livingstone of Livingstone Studios Architecture & Planning, LLC wrote to the homeowners John and Bea to inform them that:

Oregon Home Magazine wants to feature their house in the magazine and will be sending a writer down to check it out sometime after the first week of May.

I will add a blog posting and link to the article once it is published.

We are very proud of the fine craftsmanship, design, and quality materials that went into John and Bea’s home. Please give us a call if you would like to know more about this project, or if you would like us to build your dream home.

-          Carl

One of the local organizations we support is Corvallis Audubon, since 1993 they have been developing a nature center on Oak Creek Road. The Hesthavn nature center has walking trails and a temporary bridge to connect to the west side of Oak Creek. Unfortunately, the temporary bridges are very unstable and not high enough to cross when the creek is flowing strongly. We are offering to help the Audubon society by building the bridges at cost.

Local Engineer James DiNardo has volunteered the preliminary design. The bridges would each have a clear span of 40’ over the creek and set on strong concrete abutments. The plan is to carry each glulam from the road to the creek and set them across the creek with a mini-excavator. Then the excavator will dig for each abutment. Following that, we will form and pour the concrete with a concrete line pump. Next, we will bring back the mini-excavator to set the beams onto the abutments and build up the gravel path to the bridges. After that, our carpenters will secure the beams and install the decking and handrails. We are planning to minimize our disturbance to the meadows, trails and creek bed by using rubber tracked equipment, pre-planning our activities and working in August.

According to the Corvallis Gazette Times article “the Audubon Society of Corvallis is raising money to build two bridges to cross Oak Creek, which would create a looped-trail into the wooded area of the land.

“It’s just such a stark contrast and all on the same property,” Atkisson said, looking at the prairie area and then glancing across the creek at the growth of fir, cedar, maple and oak trees. “It would just be so much nicer to have a loop.”

The project will cost between $15,000 and $20,000, which will go toward hiring a structural engineer, building permits, building costs and other requirements such as a handrail and flood studies.” Read more at: http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/bridges-to-the-future/article_27fade55-1504-52e0-ae35-ff7ca86fc702.html#ixzz1sc53pYPN

Audubon Hesthavn’s page: http://www.audubon.corvallis.or.us/hesthavn.shtml

HOW TO HELP

Those interested in making a donation can send tax-deductible cash or checks to the Audubon Society of Corvallis, P.O. Box 148, Corvallis, OR 97339. Those interested in volunteering their time for Hesthavn Nature Center can do so by contacting volunteerasc@gmail.com.

- Carl

Seth and Robin first talked to us about a month ago about updating their master bathroom. Robin found photos online of bathroom styles that she likes. We met with them in their home to find out what they had in mind. Their home is from the 1940’s and was custom built with a lot of unique features. However, their master bathroom was looking dated. The old tub was surrounded by yellow and black tile, the window didn’t open, and there was a large vent to the outdoors behind a cabinet door. Robin wanted to convert the tub and its room into a shower room, with modern styling. We talked though some of the details and found out that Seth would like to help with the project to keep costs down.

Seth is very handy and offered to take on a large portion of the project. We are going to install new large style tile, a glass shower door, new lighting, an exhaust fan, a new privacy window, drywall, insulate and redo the plumbing. Seth is going to demolish the existing tub and tile, paint, install the bathroom (not wet areas) tile floor and install the new cabinets.

We enjoy working with handy homeowners, and don’t mind letting the homeowner be involved to help keep the project costs down. Of course, there are certain activities such as electrical, plumbing and shower tile that should be done by a professional. For this project, we are having Mid Valley Tile provide the tile and install it.  The shower floor will be sloped to a four foot long linear drain with United Island Pebbles as the floor tile. The shower walls will be similar to Wanke Cascade Alchimie Gris with a custom accent on the right and left walls in Emser Metro Gray. Using their tile choices, we were able to provide a rendering of their shower room to help fine tune the design.

Please give us a call 541-754-6326 if your shower needs some help

-          Carl

Doris and Paul decided to upgrade their home to accommodate them as they age rather than sell their home and move. They were partially inspired by a friend’s difficulties with stairs.  We worked last summer with Doris and Paul to remodel and expand their kitchen and add a new deck. You can see photos of their new kitchen on our Kitchens page. That project was the first stage of a larger plan to update their home and add a spacious master suite.

We provided Doris and Paul with a Master Suite design build solution by working with closely with our clients and local designer Susan Harthun.  The key to this design is to move their master bedroom and bathroom to the main floor level and plan ahead for accessibility. Greg’s experience teamed with his Certified Aging in Place training helped with many of the crucial details. The new bedroom will have expansive windows, vaulted ceilings, custom cabinetry and a door to the deck. We designed the deck last year with the new addition in mind. In the new bathroom, we are going to install a full tile shower with no curb, a beautiful soaking tub and radiant floor heating. The cabinetry is going to be made by a local business Eager Beaver Cabinets out of Clear Vertical Grain (CVG) fir. In addition, we are going to be reconfiguring the laundry room to make it more useable.

The home’s heating system is somewhat unusual, because it doesn’t have a natural gas furnace. Instead, it has a high efficiency heat pump connected to a forced air ducting system. To save Paul and Doris the cost of replacing their heat pump with a larger unit and higher energy bills, we are going to build their new addition with added insulation and a strong focus on airsealing to reduce air leaks. We are also going to air seal and insulate the existing home. The heating system will be modified by adding a zone to allow separate control of the temperature in the master bedroom and bathroom.

We created some renderings earlier in the design process to help Paul and Doris visualize their project. Some of the details have changed since we made the renderings. The project is in the final design and bidding stage. We will have more pictures and updates as the project progresses.

Please give us a call if you would like to learn more about this project 541-754-6326.

-          Carl

Last Saturday G. Christianson Construction volunteered at Habitat for Humanity’s Philomath home site. We helped to set a kitchen sink and then we worked on modifying the home’s overhangs to meet the city’s property line requirements. Progress is coming along nicely, other volunteers painted the exterior of the homes, installed baseboard, and installed tile in the bathrooms. As always, we had a good time, especially when the new Oregon State University Habitat for Humanity student group brought pizza for all.

We strongly support Habitat’s mission and so do some of our subcontractors such as Dan George Drywall and M&W Electric. M&W Electric has been volunteering over many years, wiring 26 of the local habitat homes. Habitat’s website explains their mission as: “Habitat for Humanity believes that everyone on earth deserves a safe, decent place to live. In equal partnership, volunteers from ALL walks of life, ALL income levels, ALL perspectives and ALL belief systems choose to put down their differences and pick up a hammer to help hard-working, low-income families break the cycle of poverty and build not only homes, but hope!Habitat for Humanity International has built more than 400,000 houses around the world, providing more than 2 million people in more than 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter.”

The project has opportunities for all skill levels, we would love to see you at the site.

This past weekend’s wind combined with saturated soils caused a few trees to fall in the Corvallis area. One homeowner called and asked us for help on Monday. We arrived and helped install tarps on the roof, temporarily repaired some shingles and installed plastic sheeting indoors to contain the damage. The homeowner hired Carl Berg with Limbwalker http://limbwalker.com/index.htmto cut the tree into rounds the following day. We offer tree removal services for smaller projects.

We brought our structural engineer out to inspect the home on Tuesday and determined that 5 of the trusses over the family room are shattered beyond repair. Another 8 trusses have their top cords broken, but are likely repairable. The second floor ridge beam and several rafters were shattered as well. To replace the trusses in the living room, we will need to remove the living room ceiling, and that portion of the roof.

Fortunately, the home is insured. We have experience working with insurance companies and adjusters and frequently find mistakes in the adjuster’s reports that may help you get fairly compensated for your home’s damage. In fact, a few years ago we removed fallen trees from Joyce’s home and Paul and Nancy’s home across the street and repaired the damage from those trees as well.

We will provide the homeowner a contract for repairs this week and once signed we will start making the repairs immediately.

Separately from the insurance work we will be adding recessed lighting in the living room and replacing an old tub with a new tile shower.

Inspecting the damage

A Douglas fir landed on the roof, barely missing the skylights

Trusses shattered by falling tree (top chord is broken)

The impact of the tree destroyed these trusses and knocked the ceiling drywall down

A Corvallis couple asked us to build a handicap ramp for their home to meet their future mobility needs. We investigated installing a pressure treated wood ramp, but decided that a concrete ramp would be a better long term option and require less maintenance. One of our local subcontractors Double Eagle Construction Company http://doubleeagleconstruction.com/index.html wanted to give back to the community and decided they will donate the cost of the concrete and the labor to install and finish it.

Double Eagle Construction has been serving Western Oregon since 1984. Concrete construction is the only thing they do, from high end residential to commercial and industrial work. Double Eagle can even do beautiful concrete countertops for your kitchen or bathroom.

We modeled the ramp in Google Sketchup to help the homeowner envision how this ramp would fit in their yard. Greg Christianson’s certified aging in place training also helped. He modified the design so that the ramp will be partially underneath the home’s overhangs to reduce ice in the winter. The model also helped us prevent a conflict with their carport’s structural posts before we started construction. We plan on starting this project next week and will provide regular updates.

Existing sidewalk and front porch steps

New handicap ramp design

Double Eagle Concrete Company