3/4 Roof

I wanted to post yesterday but had to take Anne to the airport in Portland as she is flying down to Maryland today. She won't be back until Wednesday, hopefully with a truckload of IKEA cabinets.

Friday we got the rest of the north wall sheathing up and Tobin and Lucas got the V-bracing set. Lucas also complained that my Sketchup renderings did not properly show the Ipe siding and that I had lamely used the Sketchup dark wood flooring. I will be sending my Sketchup model to Lucas so he can touch it up for me.

The sloped insulation also went down but the hanger for the Parallam did not arrive so the remaining portion of the roof could not be sheathed. We got as far as we could for John on Saturday. But the WallShield did arrive. Since we are using an open joint rainscreen, we need a UV stable and waterproof housewrap. I elected to go with Vaproshield's black WallShield which is waterproof yet breathable, basically like Gore-Tex. This will go on next week.


Tobin, admiring his handiwork.

Lucas finagling the second rod in place.



Connection of the right brace at the foundation wall.
Ready for the left V-brace.


This is a diagram of the WallShield.




As per Jeremy's request, the floor plan (I even placed the couch for you).

Genesis of a Light Monitor

Quick update: Today Tobin, Lucas, and Ander got most of the light monitor on and some more sheathing and walls. They got as many rafters as they could yesterday as we are waiting on a hanger for the parallam at the end. The flitch beam went up, with much difficulty, and the remaining post. The rest of the light monitor should go on tomorrow and hopefully the rest of the sheathing. It's beginning to take shape and starting to look like that Sketchup model...

The magic flitch beam that will support the roof over the bedroom deck.

This is the strut that will tie the V-bracing to the foundation. It will be concealed when construction is done though the V-bracing will be exposed.

Looking up at the light monitor sans skylights.

The roof garden (sometime in the not too distant future).

Weekend Work

Saturday
Well we had plenty of help this weekend: Paul and Eliza came up from Boston for the two days; and the Collins' chipped in on Saturday (and Josh on Sunday, too) to help out. The day started out raining and leaving us with doubts as to what we could get done. Tobin had given us a long list and so we had a lot to do. But the rain let up and we got out there right after lunch. After clearing off the rain-soaked tarp we proceeded to get setup. Anne and Eliza picked up hammers and Corey and Paul went to work trying to set the last roof joists over the utility room. Bob, Paige, Josh and Kari showed up shortly thereafter. Bob and Josh jumped on the north wall setting blocks to plumb it up. Kari went to help put set the z clips at the south deck. And away we went.

Bob and Josh managed to get 3/4 of the wall plumbed up and braced but the last section was proving stubborn. Out by 1/2" we needed to pull it in a bit. Paul, Corey and Josh tugged on the rope while Bob tried to set the kicker. Needless to say with the tension applied to the line this did not end well and we found ourselves on the ground with 2 pieces of rope. And so it was time to quit and try and figure out some way to pull the wall in.

Sunday
So we managed to acquire a come along from Rhavi and strung together 2 chains, a rope and a strap all anchored around a tree. It sure as hell looked jury rigged but it proved to be a hell of a lot easier than tugging on a rope. We managed to plumb up the wall set the braces (three this time) and got on our way. Corey and Josh put in the last roof joists over the utility room and we then moved the scaffolding over to set the second 25' long microllam. After a great deal of effort we managed to get in place (this time with the help of our neighbor Bob who happened to come along at an opportune time for us, not so for him), only to realize that it was the wrong one. Getting it down proved to be easier but getting the second one up was just as hard. Finally with that in place we could start setting joist brackets. But the two mircollams were so cupped (so much for the wonders of engineered wood) that we ended up setting 3 - 3 1/2" RSS screws every 16" just to tie them together. But tie them we did and got back to nailing before calling it a day and seeing Paul and Eliza off to Boston.

We didn't get as much done as we hoped but we did make some headway. 12 days to go...
They look happy now but wait until they see how many holes are in those Simpson straps.
"How many joists are there again?"


"Is it time for lunch yet?

What can you do with a rope, two chains, a come along...

a strap, and one red pine? Straighten a building out.

Even the dog has had enough.

Thanks to everyone who contributed this weekend, even Sage who helped hold the tape measure.

Walls

Tobin and Lucas got some walls started yesterday and the deck joists for the side deck are on. Finally starting to take shape.

Homework

We did some work this weekend in preparation for the spray-foam insulation on Monday. The floor still needed to be filled with rigid insulation and the Maine deck brackets needed to go on. We also nailed down the Simpson straps. Then we tarped over the floor to protect it from potential thunder showers tonight. Hopefully it stays dry and it can be insulated in the morning. Any moisture that gets in there will hopefully evaporate out when they spray-foam at 120 degrees.


Start of the day.


Anne hard at work.

Finished product.

Bay nearly ready for spray foam.

Floor Framing

Tobin and Ander got the floor framing up last week and Corey went to help put up the cementboard on the underside of the house on Friday. We also got some rigid insulation in on Friday and got the Parallams anchored down to the foundation. Tobin gave us some homework to do over the weekend to prepare for the spray-foam insulation on Monday. Basically our floor will be insulated with several inches of rigid insulation topped off with 1" of spray foam. The spray foam will give us a complete air and vapor barrier and therefore better thermal performance and using the rigid as a base saves us money.





Corey and Ander spent nearly 5 hours on their backs putting up this cementboard with Corey wondering the whole time why he put gravel down here...

82*

So we attempted to get a house number to appease the gods over at Verizon who refuse to come hook up our telephone until we have a physical number. We spoke with Jai over at the Bar Harbor Fire Department and he agreed to go out and measure. He called us back and said that we were number 122. Since Bob and Paige are number 97 and they are the lot just beyond ours (and on the same side of the road) that didn't make any sense. But he was certain that 122 was correct and the other numbers had been done incorrectly. Additionally Sylvan Way forks, with our house being to the left and the Clarks to the right. Therefore, to avoid confusion on 911 calls, Jai said one of the branches would have to be renamed. While Anne was excited at the prospect of naming a road (Quidditch Way came to mind), Corey did not think the other people on the road would be too pleased. However, Jai called Corey two days later and said he had been back up there to re-measure and he realized his initial measurement was off by a 1000 feet! We should actually be number 82. And the road would not have to be renamed. Not wanting to push the issue of why we were even and Bob and Paige were odd (though we could come up with an explanation of why Bob is odd) we left it alone.