How would one go about that kind of time lapse video? I have a multiple day project I want to document.

I'm a big fan of Wyze cams. They have a built-in time lapse feature that works great. You can set your interval all the way down to a picture every 3sec. (I think most of mine I do ~3-5min)

All you need is the camera and a microSD card. All in ~$30.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076H3SRXG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_FmuAEbJKYGKSZ

Brickwork: I got 3 masons to come out and give estimate for the limited brick scope. There was crazy variability in the bids, but I did end up choosing a guy.

The mason said he probably wouldn't be able to track down an exact match for the brick (house built in '70). I took it on as a personal mission to scour yards for a matching/similar brick.

I visited 2 different yards in town known for stocking used/old/open-pallet brick. They both just had big yards that let me search though for what I was looking for and the option to buy by the brick. My existing brick is a king-brick size, but is only 2" tall. All king bricks made today are 2 3/8" tall. I was having a really tough time trying to match the wormed texture of the existing brick. Apparently it's not in style these days.


I rounded up 10 options and even painted them a similar gray color to see which one looked best. (original on the very bottom)


While in Houston over Christmas break, I stopped by 2 brickyards and ended up buying 200 brick to lug back to Dallas. All at the low low price of $.40/brick. It's not an exact replica, but I feel like the texture is the closest thing I've found, and it even has some worming. Meridian is the manufacturer, with Ole Country being the brick name.

I'm sure a lot of people think I'm crazy for spending so much time going to different places to track brick down, but this is the adventure part for me. It's all apart of the journey and process of building. Would I have loved to go to my local Home Depot and buy an exact match off the shelf?? Sure...but what fun would that be?

12/30/19: Remember how I said that all king bricks made these days are 2 " tall......but my existing brick is 2 " tall?? This is the day where that " gets taken care of. Being a work holiday & kids at daycare, what else do I have to do other than spend all day cutting brick?? I ended up renting a paver saw from Home Depot.

I made a simple jig that could clamp to the sliding base of the saw so I could ensure the same size cut each time and keep the brick straight since I had to cut the entire 9" length of the brick. This particular saw didn't have a water pump, but rather an outlet to hook up a garden hose to spray out to help with dust control.

I got to cutting and even though the brick cut like butter, I tripped a breaker pretty quickly. After resetting the breaker, I was able to cut a few more before the breaker would trip again. I looked up the wattage of the saw and it was 15A, so not entirely surprising that the breaker was tripping. I got in a rhythm of cutting 4-5 bricking and then giving the saw a break. My theory was that after continuous cutting, the saw motor would start to heat up, increasing the power draw and then trip the breaker. After 4-5 hrs (I missed the 4hr rental window!) I had 180 of the 200 bricks cut to size and decided that was good enough. I spent the next hour hosing down the saw and driveway that was all covered in " of red brick dust sludge.

1/4/20: Another trip to the brickyard to get brick for the columns. I bought 100 Acme Highland Gray brick. I had calculated needing 80 (4 per layer, 10 courses high x 2 columns), but extras won't hurt.

The 2 masons showed up in the morning and knocked out the chimney repair/repointing. They ended up removing alot of the chimney brick instead of trying to clean it up. This was the area where the previous roofline met the chimney and all of the metal flashing was mortered into the brick.


They made quick work of the new columns.

Haha. Back in the good ol days.

1/5/20: I obviously didn't want the brick columns to be responsible for carrying the load of the pillars, so I wanted to fill them up with concrete.

Used a few 80lb bags of maximizer concrete (each yields 1.0 cu ft) to fill up the brick. I was thinking I would be able to get by with 2 bags since I was only calculating 2.08 cu ft needed, but it took ~2.5.


All filled up. I left the top pretty rough to make it easier to adhere the pier cap on top.

Did you have a GC or did you sub out the framing, slab and mason all separate by yourself?

Not using a GC. Yes I subbed out each of the trades you mentioned. They have all been fairly bare bones in-and-out jobs. I've been on the hook for a lot of the small stuff in between.

1/15/20: Dating back to when we bought the house there has always been condensation issues between the window panes of the back door. I could have just replaced the glass, but wanted to replace the entire unit. The current door was getting tough to close and REALLY starting to look bad, with permanent cloudy etching stains between panes. My dad had a really nice JeldWen door from a past build that he had sitting around in storage. I brought it back from Thanksgiving and it has been sitting in the garage ever since.

Got the old door out and the new one in. The new door is " wider and 12" taller than the previous door, so it took a bit of work to make it fit.

1/19/20: The last 2 brick of the soldier course on the left side of the door had been loose since the start of the project. I'm sure they got hit and eventually broke off from the rest of the course. I didn't want to call the mason back out, so decided to take care of it myself.

I ended up removing 8 other soldier brick since the tops of them fell under the top of the door line. There was enough original salvaged brick to do the job. I took my time (I was slow) and ended up doing a decent job (I think)

As a kid I remember an old mason telling me, "If I had a dime for every brick I've laid, I'd be a millionaire." Well, if I had a dime for every brick I've laid, I'd have about one whole dollar.

2/1/20: All material is now sitting in the backyard ready to go:

• 44 16' long cedar T&G boards for the ceiling of the gable roof
• I've gone ahead and prestained them with Ready-Seal
• 4x8 sheets of Hardie for the ceiling of the shed roof
• 12 12"x12' Hardie siding pieces
• A lot of Hardie trim/soffit/fascia
• The massive 8x8 cedar post is sitting in the garage, cut in 2 (was originally 12')

2/2/20: In preparation for setting the pier caps, I drilled 2 holes in the brick column concrete and doweled in 2 pieces of SS all-thread with anchoring epoxy.

2/8/20: 2 trim guys showed up in the morning. They got to work installing the 4x8 sheets of HardiePanel on the ceiling. These panels only go on the shed roof portion of the addition.

I mounted the standoff bases with a few washers and a nut, attaching to the SS all-thread. There's another plate that sits on top and the posts will sit directly on that plate, to give it a 1" standoff height.

2/8/20 (continued)...Last weekend I framed out an access panel in the ceiling so I'd be able to get through if I ever needed to. The guys trimmed the panels around the hatch. I'll go back and trim it out later. You can see the new elec plug that was mortared into the brick.


I went ahead and cut out the holes for the 2 4" wafer lights that will go in. I was able to reach through the holes and just grab the romex that I left lying above. I wiired in the remote drivers that will eventually connect to the wafer lights using a 3pin pigtail connector.


The guys finished the hardie panels and went on to wrapping all the beams (2 sistered 2x12s) and then installed the 8x8 cedar posts. At this time the temporary corner supports were finally able to be removed.


They were able to get started on the 12" hardie siding. The siding on each side of the door/windows will be flush with the brick while the siding above the door/windows will be flush (but inset of the brick). It was either this or have the siding overhang the door/windows by ~3".


One more full day should get really close to finishing things up. To-do's...siding above door/windows, replace siding below windows, install t&g cedar, & finish wrapping beams.

During the day I got the rest of the 45 t&g 1x6 cedar boards stained. They are 16 footers (won't be a seam since the total length to be covered is 15' 10"). I used the same color that was used for the cedar fence in the backyard (Ready Seal - Pecan color). It took just shy of 2 gallons for everything.

Looks good. Keep the updates coming.

Great thread! Can't wait to see the finished product.

2/9/20: Installed the 2gang box above the window and roughed in the electrical. I let the box stick out proud of the OSB since the siding still has to be installed. I also put some extra blocking behind the osb to eventually mount a TV.

2/15/20: I measured out my 4 6" lights, making sure to spread them out enough to allow for the fan in the middle. As nice as a strobe effect sounds, I'm going to try and avoid it.

I marked a 6 " circle in each spot and then cut it out with a jigsaw.


Once the holes were cut I was able to access the slacked romex I left up in the rafters. Got the junction boxes wired in with the 3pin pigtails sticking out of each hole, waiting for the lights to be plugged in.


I plugged them in real quick and we have light. These wafer lights have 5 settings (2700-5000k) that you set using a sliding switch. I set them all to 4000k for now.


The guys came today for a few hours and finished the cedar t&g and the hardie siding above the door/windows. The only thing remaining is the siding replacement below the windows and a minor bit of soffit/trim work.

I think you made the right choice with the 8x8s. The ceiling looks great too.

looking awesome

3/1/20: I had to get creative on attaching the 1x4 pieces of vertical trim to the brick of the chimney. There was nothing to nail into except for the brick. I ended up cutting the 1x4 to size and then drilling a hole through the trim every ~16". I then drilled through the brick at each of these places and inserted masonry anchors I could screw into. LiquidNails was applied on the back-side of the trim and I was able to snug up to the brick with screws into the anchors. The screws were all countersunk so caulking can easily cover up the holes.

I went through and cut 1x2 Hardie trim pieces to cover all the seams on the ceiling. I had to go back with some 2x4 blocking on the top-side of the ceiling to make sure the trim was attached securely.


Hatch for access

Hate to see muddy boot prints on installed material. Lazy a-holes.

Me too...

I've since gone back and cleaned everything off. Wasn't worth making a fuss about.

3/7/20:The guys came today. They finished the last little bit of beam wrapping and then completed the siding under the window. I had to make them rip off the bottom layer since they didn't include a starter strip, but it got done and it looks good.

Great so far. I'm going to do the same this summer, but don't have to tie into the roof. My garage is two-story and there's a large, flat wall to tie the gable patio cover into. I'm guessing that was a large amount of the cost - tying into the roof?!?!?

I would think tying into the roof the way I had to would be a bit more expensive. More costly due to added framing complexity and re-roofing needed at the tie-in. I was able to minimize the cost due to the fact that I was re-roofing everything anyway.

3/11/20: Talked with the lead guy of the crew and let him know the status of things. The only thing remaining in my eyes was the soffit/fascia replacement that I had him add extra to make everything in the back match. Apparently, his crew is too busy for this so they won't be coming back. On the bright side, now I get to save a few bucks and do it myself.

I've been on the painter's schedule for a few weeks, but the non-stop rain keeps pushing things out. We're using this as a chance to repaint the entire exterior (brick & trim). Before anything is said, I'm not a fan of painting brick, but it's already been painted and desperately needs a new coat.