We like progress.

Here are some updated pics of the roof (now 3/4 finished) and the roughed in stairs. I can now work inside in any weather and It's fairly comfortable at night with the lights on. As of today the house, with the exception of the basement, is ice free. It's a nice feeling not to have an inch of ice on every surface.

Exterior framing complete!

The exterior framing is complete. The roof is strapped for steel and the sheathing is over half way finished. The weather continues to conspire against me; testing my assertion that I love any kind of day. We've hired a local company to install the steel roof. That should be next week. Stay tuned!

More framing and some cuteness.

Roof Framing

It was a busy Christmas vacation. We managed to do a lot of the roof framing and got all of the common rafters in place and the beginnings of the valleys. Framing the A-dormers is going to be a real challenge. There are two valley rafters in place now (one of which still has to be cut and moved about 3/4") as well as a few collar ties to try to hold everything together. The steep pitch and compound angles of some of the parts is a bit of a trial. The pitch of the dormer roof is about 30/12. If that doesn't mean anything to you please believe me that it is very very steep. For every 12" it travels horizontally it travels 30" vertically. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself one day as I cut pieces by hand in the cold but then I remembered that the house we're modeling ours after is over 200 years old and almost every piece was probably cut to size with a hand saw and a straight shooting eye. While I find myself complaining about the relatively slow pace of this process part of me longs for a time when a compound mitre saw and a nail gun was not an option; when timbers were cut on the land and hewn on site. The next step is cutting and setting the jack rafters, finishing the collar ties and strapping the whole thing for the steel roof.

Raising Video.

Out of sequence but here's a video.

Jody and I spent the last week or so staining the v-groove pine ceiling boards for the main floor. These have to go on before the second floor system for a seamless ceiling above the frame. Saturday was a beautiful working day and Jody and I and our friend Scott got it all on before dark. A pretty respectable Saturday's work I thought. Now they have to be protected until the roof goes on. That's what the big white hat's for! These photos also show the completed stud framing for the first story along with my faithful herd.