Roof Trussed

The roof trusses on the second floor are all in place! The porch, sunroom and mechanical room trusses haven't been put up yet, so the house looks extra tall and kind of skinny. The visual proportions of the final house will really show once those are done.
The gables have been sheeted on the east and west ends of the house. I expect they'll do some more sheeting today as well.

Here's the interior of one of the bedroom gables, you can see the trussing and framing that goes into each one.

Also, you can see the outline of the fancy window in the north/front bedroom now that they've framed and sheeted the space for it.

L-R: Cary, his brother Eric, Eric's partner Miriam, and Brian Bird, potter, tenant & friend. Eric and Miriam just returned (literally, they flew in yesterday morning) to the US after several years of teaching english in Japan. It was great to see them!

This afternoon I have an appointment to meet Robin at the plumbing supply store. I'm looking forward to picking out sinks, faucets and other fixtures. :)

Friday Framing Fantastic

The roof trusses were delivered and raised onto the top of the second floor walls. They haven't been positioned yet, but just having the bundles of trusses sitting on top of the house is pretty impressive.

The interior walls of the second floor have all been framed now. There's a lot of bracing in place, which is necessary until the trusses have been positioned and nailed into place.

Clockwise from bottom: Bo, Marty and Cary had fun climbing around in the rafters like a bunch of monkeys.

Here's the view from the SW corner of the house, you can get a sense of how big it will look once the roof is all framed. Don't worry if you can't make sense of the roofline, I'll have better pictures tomorrow - because they're placing the trusses and hopefully sheeting the roof today!

Upstairs & Stairs Framed

First the Stairs:
I got a little carried away with pictures from the outside last night. I'm just really excited (I bet you couldn't tell), it's like Christmas every day when I go see what they've finished. And, just for a little extra fun, I've labeled the rooms on these shots so the folks at home can see it taking shape like I do. :)
As you can see if you look closely at these photos, only the exterior walls were framed on the second floor. I expect that they'll finish the interior wall framing today, and also start framing up the porch roof. After that, I think we're just waiting for the trusses to arrive and the roof will go on. Wow.

Meanwhile, I got the quote back for the cabinets, and if we take our whole wish list of options and upgrades we'll be about $200 over budget. So now we have to decide if it's worth going a teensy bit over budget (dangerous thinking, I know) or if we should trim *something* from the order to bring it under budget. Which, it goes without saying, is a real conundrum. Cary and I will have to think it over through the weekend, if not longer. Functional stuff has priority, but it's also hard to put the extra-pretty finishing flourishes on the chopping block.

Bonus pictures from Mark

Mark was kind enough to e-mail me a couple pictures which actually feature some of the crew at work! Since I don't usually get off work myself and out to the site in time catch the guys before they go home for the day, I thought these picture were really fun.


I don't know their names (yet!) but these guys are doing great work and I appreciate all their effort. A big, heartfelt "Thankyou" to the framing crew!

Framing Day 2

Plywood sheeting is up on almost all the first floor exterior, and the ceiling/second-floor-floor is also done. It's really looking like a house! Here's the view from the NE:

View from the SW:

Bo checks out the interior (he's in the kitchen):
Cary & Bo take in the view out over the top of the hardhack (Spiraea douglasii). From the ground this plant forms an impenetrable thicket about 8 ft high, but from above it is surprisingly beautiful, with its pink flower spikes scattered across the marsh. Turns out there's no view of Mt. Baker, but that's ok. It was a slim chance and we knew it. The views of the fields, trees and marsh are beautiful in their own right.

Today they will be building the stairs and framing the upstairs walls. I'll have more pictures for you tomorrow!

First Floor Framed

WOW!!! It's simply amazing how much they did in 1 day. Yesterday there was just the slab and a load of lumber. Today, there's a house taking shape. :) You really have to see it in person to get the scope of my excitement, the full coolness of all of this doesn't really come through in the pictures. Nonetheless, here are a couple of pics to give you an idea. This view is from the NE: View from the inside across the kitchen to the sunroom:

I can hardly wait to get out there this evening to see what they accomplish today! Maybe the second floor...

Whoops, that's not going to fit.

Today we encountered our first problem with the plans. (I understand this sort of thing is very common.) The bedroom on the north/front side of the house has a kind of fancy custom window, shaped like this:Well, what I didn't notice before is that the window is too tall with that little half-circle on top. Mark noticed it when he was reviewing the framing and trussing plans. We can't lower it because it's already sitting right above the porch roof in front. The ceiling inside is 8 ft. high and has a dormer (on the east side) which starts just a few feet from the north wall, so we can't raise the whole thing. We've already ordered the window, it's on it's way here. There's nowhere else on the house that this window would fit. Drat!

So, the solution I've decided on, after discussion with Mark, is to have a bump-up in the ceiling behind that window, so it'll let in the light and then the ceiling will drop back down to the normal level. This requires some changes to a couple of the trusses for the roof, but shouldn't be too much of a hassle. It'll be a little funky but I think it'll work out fine. And it'll add a little bit of character, which new houses often lack. Wouldn't want that! :)