Of Beams and Rain

Looking to the Northwest, at the back of the house

Well, things have been a little slow the last day or two. We're finally getting some rain in the area and when there's no roof that makes it a little more difficult to move at the rate they've been moving at! Nonetheless, I have a few pictures that I've taken since my last post...and a couple of interesting stories!

As I was pulling up to the house for my usual daily stop after work, there was a family coming out of the house with a camera. I smiled and said 'hello' and they were on their way. I didn't think much of it - just the night before I had told Rich to feel free to have any of his other clients who were thinking of building walk through the house. After all, we are pretty proud of our design, and the guys are doing a great job with the framing. When I talked to the crew
though, they told me that the family was actually from somewhere in Europe and that they were really interested in how we build houses here...they were quite surprised at how much wood went into the process - seems they're more used to seeing homes that are not only smaller, but more frequently built out of brick, concrete, or pre-fabricated panels. So, our house will be featured in some European family's American vacation scrapbook!

We met some more neighbors - 2 doors down this time. They have a 4 year old boy and a 10 month old boy and seem like really great people. They were really excited about the house and their boys were really interested in the piles of dirt and the bulldozers. We can't wait to get to know them better!

The view out the back of the house is turning out better than we EVER could have hoped. Our own little slice of paradise!View from what will soon be our living room!

We didn't realize it when we designed it, but the combination of our compact (though spacious) floor plan along with our exterior design made for some pretty fancy truss and beam work. In fact, it accounts for our lumber price being about 20% higher than what one might have expected. Throughout the ceiling of the first floor there are beefy laminated beams that will serve as anchor points for the roof trusses that will span the second floor. Those trusses have to have extremely strong anchor points because they are shouldering the entire weight of the roof (and snow). In addition to just the downward weight, they have to be able to deal with the spreading forces of the weight of the peak pushing diagonally down the roof sides. Imagine standing with your feet spread apart as wide as you can on a slippery surface and trying to hold up a heavy object. You get the idea!
At any rate, those trusses were supposed to be set yesterday, but for some reason none of the crew wanted to stand on a forklift next to a big steel crane in the driving rain and lightening...go figure! ;-) So, they're setting them today, I think. I'll know for sure in a couple of hours.

I think that's it for now. Lot's of fun to see it come together! If you have questions or comments, feel free to post them - you don't need any kind of account to do so anymore!