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!

Preparation H

As you'll recall from a previous post, attempts to retrieve my digital camera rocket from the tree failed. Well mostly failed anyway, since we were able to retrieve the rocket fuselage but not the nosecone where the digital camera was.

The tree laughed at us as we attempted to retrieve the rocket multiple times. We tried preparations A through G to retrieve the rocket and all of them failed.
Then came the relief of Preparation H...as Borat would say, "Great Success!"

The secret to this victory: a dog fetching tool, tennis ball and a four-wheeler.
The dog-fetching implement is basically a flexible plastic arm with a cup at the end just the right size to hold a tennis ball snugly. In it's normal function the tennis ball is placed in the cup, the dog stares at the ball in the cup, the dog entertainer then swings the plastic arm and snaps his/her wrist at the end, launching the tennis ball. This device is incredibly effective, and just the trick to launch a tennis ball tied with string over 50 feet in the air straight up! Mad props to Don Lighty for coming up with this technique!

So, with the tools laid out on a sheet to prevent the string from getting snagged on a twig or branch, I unrolled the twine (bricklayer's string).
before:
after:

After a few throws I was able to get the tennis ball over the branch I wanted. The weight of the tennis ball pulled stonger than the weight of the string so the tennis ball returned slowly to earth and I then had both ends of the string. But the string is not strong enough to pull the branch without breaking. And the plan was definitely to pull the branch until it broke. It's on.

So I removed the tennis ball and tied the end of the string to a thicker rope, then pulled the other end of the string until the stronger rope was pulled all the way back over so that I now had both ends of the stronger rope, with the rope looped over the branch.
Now it was time to pull. It was time to see if a small branch in a tall tree was stronger than me. Short answer: yes, it was. Trees are strong y'all! There's a reason it made it through windy days and ice storms.

I pulled, and pulled and pulled some more and the rope only got tighter and the branch only bent more, until my hands were too tired to hold the little rope anymore or even wrap it around my hand anymore without cutting off all of the blood!
Time to separate manfolk from monkeys. Time to get midevil - well, redneck anyway - on it.

I tied one end of the rope to a thin stump, making a loop and knot so it would not come off. Tied the other end of the rope to the back of a four-wheeler.



Got on the four-wheeler and drove! It went about 30 feet before the branch finally broke. Well, not the branch with the nosecone and parachute on it! The branch next to it...sigh.

But what's this? The nosecone had fallen, the parachute still in the tree, tied forever to that branch. You can have it, parachute-eating tree!
The rubber band that had held the nosecone to the parachute had finally given up the ghost, probably deteriorated from being in the tree for a WEEK!
Tree defeated and nosecone retrieved I packed up my stuff and like any good hunter tied my kill to the bumper.


If you're still awake you're probably wondering, "Dude, where are the pics from the rocket?"
Well there are no pics. The batteries in the nosecone were dead (remember - a WEEK) and the memory in the nosecone is volatile - if you shut off the power it erases the flash. So no pics this time. But I replaced the batteries and tested the cam and it still works.
So once I get another parachute and rubber shock cord, and we have a WINDLESS day (ha...Oklahoma!) there will be pics. Oh yes, there will be pics.

And video.

To be continued...

Bonus Pics: Viv's Glasses

Vivi got some glasses today to try and improve her near vision (she is far-sighted).
They are Barbie glasses, black frames with pink hearts on them. Here's her posing with them!

Study in Framing

This post is mostly pictures. Over the last week or so framing has progressed rapidly (everyone who has been through it pretty much agrees this phase is one of the fastest and most noticeable in building). The following pics show just how far they can progress in one week.
Early in the week (from 12/31/07):



Front of house 12/31:

Front of house today 1/3/08:

The cathedral ceiling is now fully connected to the rest of the roof (and there's a guy up there):

Southwest corner of house, where the garage/bonus room is; and a pic of the ladies in the driveway:


The back patio of the house, where now one can see it will be a covered patio with a tall (13') ceiling:

We happened to be there when they raised the north wall of the shop. They built the frame on the ground and then several guys lifted it into place (holes in the baseboards lined up with threaded steel protruding from the stem wall). These guys held it in place until temporary lateral supports could be nailed into place.


Overall pic of shop and house so far:


So we should be ready for roofing (plywood/shingles) and gables soon!

Geeking out and Failing

The Plan was foolproof:
1) Buy model rocket with digital camera in nosecone (check)

2) Wait for low wind day to launch rocket (umm...Oklahoma?)
3) Launch model rocket next to home building site to get aerial photos and video (check)

4) Recover rocket, download video to laptop, prepare for relaunch (umm...not so much)
5) Rocket stuck in tree hundreds of yards away, 40+ft off ground (check)


New Plan: Begin Preparations for Rocket Recovery
A) Throw dead branches towards rocket in tree hoping to dislodge it. (failed)
B) Tie rope around horseshoe and flip it as hard as you can trying to loop it around branch. (failed)
C) Tie rope to piece of brick and throw brick hoping to get it over branch (failed)
D) Tie rope to 21mm socket from tool chest (failed)
E) Tie rope to arrow, shoot at branch hoping to loop rope over (failed)

F) Use lighter string and fishing line to get arrow over branch, use weight of arrow to pull down string and then attach to heavier rope and pull branch down (failed)
G) Connect 12-foot sections of 2x2 together with hook on the end, get on extension ladder leaned against tree, hook branch and bring down rocket (failed, wish I had pictures!)

(note arrows and string trapped in branches)


Preparations A through G have failed. The next one will succeed. I shall call it...(to be continued)