Slow progress

Well thanks to Old Man Winter we made very little progress over the last couple of weeks.
On the plus side, the roofers were able to pretty much finish the roofing during the weekend when it was warmer so the house is at least mostly protected on the roof.
But of course today it snowed a couple of inches so now we're back to waiting for the weather to change. Unfortunately many of the next steps in the process need to be done outside!

Here are some pics from today anyway with the snow:

icicles and all!



Lucie goes on my walks to the house with me but in the snow she really wants to go home after a few minutes!


My first project in the shop: a mid-1950's Ford 640 tractor, given to me by my generous neighbor. Needs work (that's classified ad-speak for rusty and doesn't run).




Saturday when the weather was nice, we burned some of the trees that had been cleared during the pad-building process. Along with the trees we started burning some of the scrap lumber left over from the framing, all small pieces of wood a foot or less and some boards with lots of nails in them that could not be reused. The rest of the wood will be reused as cement molds or is nice enough to keep or return for credit. Anyway, that was 5 days ago and today there is still a small section of tree trunk with dirt around it that is smoldering!


Hopefully the weather will hold for a week in a row so we can really get rolling again. Next steps, not necessarily in correct order: preliminary frame inspection, blow insulating foam on the rafters, get power transformer, dig water well, dig geothermal wells, run HVAC pipes, start plumbing...

Short Update; More Roofing Supplies

Well not much went on this week because of the super-cold weather. I suppose it's hard to get on a roof when it might be icy! It's been getting into the mid-teens at night, well below freezing and turning dew into frost.
They did drop off more roofing materials Wednesday and installed the windows and set the side door up in the shop.
To get the shingles and tar paper up to the top of the roof they use a truck with a hydraulically lifted conveyer belt and just set the material on the conveyer and it is taken to the top where the guy up top takes the things off and sets them on the roof boards. It only took two guys to do this. But one of them has to be crazy enough to get up on the top.


The bracing used for the framing of the shop was all taken down now that the framing is done so you can really see the size of the ceilings..they are nice and high.
At least it has windows now!




That's probably gonna be all for this week. We were supposed to get our power transformer from the city but they never showed up. And Friday is supposed to be snowing/sleeting and freezing so that's probably a no-go. Maybe they'll work on Saturday when it's supposed to be in the mid 50s.

Shingles and Windows

As planned the shingles and windows showed up early this week and are in the process of being installed.
First a cool shot from Sunday of the shop framing (did I mention 15' ceiling in the center? ;-))


Some shots of the shingles and windows (and side doors to the mechanical closet):




We got our fireplace already! Here are some shots of the fireplace and routing of the pipe through the roof:




Windows waiting in the garage for installation:


The shop in it's current state with eaves and trim, ready to be covered with roofing board.



Closeup of shingles - the color is "antique slate" which is fancy for grey with a greenish tint.


Here's a low-angle shot of the front of the study/office. You can see how the window sticks out from the wall and the trim around the roof is all set off from the wallboard in preparation for adding brick to the wall so it will all be flush when the brick is done.

I will take a shot after the brick is added and it will hopefully all line up!

It's supposed to snow or at least freezing rain tomorrow so I don't know how much will be done. Also the high temps for the next few days are in the 30s! More pics to follow when there's progress...

More Pics Update

Another post with lotsa pics!
Framing on the outside is basically done on the house, and roof board laid down ready for shingles.
The shop is getting a "Texas Hip" treatment to the ends where a little bit of roof is brought down on the ends to give it some character. It's brilliant-looking, and the inside of the shop framing is 15ft high in the middle!



Lots of exterior trim details were done like the roof under the back patio, little arches in the hallways, the cathedral ceiling in the study/office, and the many rafters in each room.






Our attic space has been cleaned up and some wood laid down for the next team to come in a do the AC/heating vents (aka HVAC). The bonus room is all framed up and the framing for the clerestory was actually re-done at an angle to bring even more light into the laundry room.






More exterior shots (when these pics were taken not all of the roof panels were on but they are now!):





Finally two more shots of the shop - these were taken about 20 minutes after the first shots in this post. If you look closely you can see the guys have added several framing beams in just a few minutes!



That's all for the week of 1/7 - 1/11/08!
This week we're supposed to get shingles on the roof and the windows come in. But we're also supposed to get snow Wednesday so we'll see how far things get.

Lots More Framing Pics!

Another post with mostly pics...
The framing is flying along. The exterior walls are up in the shop but they are focusing on the house.


Here are some pics of the front from the weekend:




In only a couple of days the crew had stairs built and we could go into the bonus room above the garage! I took a lot of pics looking out of the bonus room before they roofed it (and good thing I took these when I did).



Some views out of the bonus room window/roof:
NorthWest (the entrance drive):


West (rest of the circle drive, the "generator doghouse", and my transportation):


South (shop):


The front of the house:


North:

Looking down and across the living room cathedral ceiling from the bonus room on 2nd floor:




Angel's dream family craft/laundry room has what's called a clerestory where the light coming into the small windows on the second floor goes into the room. Here's a view of that window from below:


Finally from this weekend shots of the front of the house from the north side:



As I said earlier it was good I got those shots out of the bonus room when I did because it now has a roof over it! Just in the last two days the crew(s) have done cornices and eaves along the roofline (and the entire front porch), the interior framing of the bonus room, and much more. Here are a couple of pics right before sunset today before the guys ran out of light:




At this rate they will be roofing with shingles by the weekend it seems! They will finish framing the shop as soon as they get done with the wood roofing panels, so the roofing crew can get going on the main house. Moving right along!