tower time-lapse

Jack brought a full crew today. He's taking it easy - as you can see - but the rest of the guys are hard at work.
Here's the tower. He's assured me the guys will shortly transform it.
Right. So here they go!
It's amazing how they walk around up there. Here, they're putting on the moisture barrier.
I'm liking it.

Almost done. . . .
Wow! That dog Jack's the best. Tomorrow, he thinks we'll actually have the shingles on, concrete slab poured, and - wait for it - maybe the cupola up.

Because the cupola's another story. . . .
Measure twice - cut once - measure again, consult owner, make more marks, decide to cut tomorrow. . . .

I like the little roof mock-up. We'll see what happens with the final cuts tomorrow.

Thanks, Jack! See you in the morning. Mwah! xoxoxo

hats off to the tower

The window was put in the tower! Yay!The only problem is that it reminds me of something else.


A pilgrim hat.

See?

What do you think?

Here's hoping that image changes - perhaps with the addition of roofing tiles.

tower and roof

A glimpse of the tower from Penny Lane. It's so whimsical. . .Here's the view further down the logging trail, at the bottom of 'grand avenue'.
Close-up of the roof. I'm really delighted with it. It's always so hard to tell from a small swatch what something will look like on a rather large expanse. . . .
All right. . . . here's the 'big picture'.

icy woods. . . .

If you look close, that's a very thin coat of ice all over the reworked wood roof on the studio. It wasn't as cold as yesterday, but it was wet, which turned to ice. Not a good combination!
The new crew (whom we haven't met yet) finished the roof - and got the raking done on both the roof and the studio. Yes, that's a new term for me: raked roof. That's when the roof kind of swoops at the end. . . Looks whimsical, I think. Tom-builder is ready to shoot it.
The hardest part of our visit today? Walking on the slickery construction gravel. Who'd have thought that heavy grade rock could get so slick?It took us almost 2 hours to get back into town. Apparently the main bridges and highways around town were all shut. . . . So everyone in town had come to a standstill trying to get out. There we were, trying to get into town, but held up by the gridlock of those trying to leave. And not a cop to be found anywhere. Or a sand truck - apparently the problem started because the bridges froze.

developments

Developments are hard to see, perhaps, but there if you look closely. Here, the wrong bit of the engineered trusses that was ripped out in the studio roof has been stick-built back in. Inside, the floor has been prepared for a concrete pour. I do hope that they've remembered that a water line must still go in there. . . .
Here, you can see the tower roof trusses stacked to the right of the tower - my, that is a steep-pitched roof!
And here is a nice overall shot that really does look like an actual house. . . . This, in spite of the fact that the crane never did appear this past week, and as a result, Tom-builder says he's no longer working with Joe - which I assume means he's fired him . . . .

He assures us that he has another - even better - crew that will be on site tomorrow morning. I have to wonder why we didn't start out with the "better" crew, but hey. Better late than never. We stopped by today and saw there was some kind of a red machine on site, which appears to be a lifter of some sort. . . .

Rain is predicted Tuesday and Wednesday - I wonder what will get done. I also wonder about the 'new crew'. . . . I'll miss Julio and Gilberto. They were always so nice and friendly. Joe was actually rarely there. (not that we saw, anyway. . . .)

Did I tell you that the kitchen details were finally hammered out? We decided that the roughed-in pantry really doesn't work where it was built, but I finally decided that a pantry was quite important after all, so I moved the fridge to where the stove was, a pantry goes where the fridge was, and the stove moved caddy-corner to the left of the sink, which - incidentally - provides me a lovely view of the back forest as I'm cooking, rather than a blank wall in front of me.

Why didn't I think of this sooner?!

We're mostly done with kitchen stuff; just trying to get final prices and details ironed out with our kitchen-guy. It's been a bit of a one-step-forward-two-steps-back process. . . .

agonizingly slow. . . .

The fog has lifted, but the fog of miring construction details continues. There is little new to see, and this is frustrating.

You will perhaps notice that the very top trusses on the main roof are on. There are also some more plywood panels up, but not so's you'd really notice, and I'm not sure if they are in preparation for roofing, or to keep the [as yet unsecured] trusses in place.

Here's one development: steel rebar secured along the foundation walls of the garage floor, in anticipation of more concrete that remains to be poured. Unfortunately, not very exciting. But I guess we have to take what we can get, here.

As it turns out, there are three issues leading to what seems to be a 'slow-down'. Four, if you count weather, and Joe's conviction that it was certain to rain today. Anyway: 1. a problem with the roof trusses (and this is a multi-dimensional problem that I really don't want to get into, here), 2. although construction work is down, demand for the good workers is up, and Joe and his crews are much in demand (read: "He's got other jobs to do"), and 3. although pre-engineered trusses go up real fast, there's an awful lot of virtually invisible work that has to be done in order to secure them properly.

So that leads us to 4. - the weather - and since Joe was convinced it would rain (it did not, and it's almost warmer outside today than inside our rental sieve of a house), he worked on another [indoors] job and didn't book the crane for the greenwood. . . .

Meanwhile, there are no trusses at all on the guesthouse, courtesy of [one dimension of] issue 1, above. . . . I understand the "proper" trusses have now arrived, but [see item 4.] no crane, so they are stacked up somewhere, hopefully separate from the improper ones.

The thing to do for today is just to take a walk in the woods and forget all about construction details. Tomorrow is another day. Tom-builder promises many workers and a big crane. Weather man says "colder", but "no rain."

Watch it snow.

the cupola

. . . has arrived.The king suggests a contest inviting you to Guess Which One's the Cupola!

The only problem is that I'm worried about the the results if I suggest that - as the prize - we will put up the one that gets the most guesses.

It's an interesting thought, that's for sure. . . .

So, what do you say if I say that the winning entry will be installed atop Houndstooth Studio, pictured below?. . . that blue oughta stand out real good. . . .

roof and tower

Remember the front left corner? Here it is again. Finally - something is happening on this corner. We have a a roof! And to the right, you can see the beginnings of the tower. . . .
Here's inside the tower, looking out front.
And a goodly portion of the roof is on. The sky is still visible for a few days longer.
The house is finally starting to take shape.
This is so cool!

roofings, continued.

The roof is going on.

Here's the studio - roof on - looking out the hole that still remains where the fireplace will go. Eventually.
Below, the cathedral-ceilinged bedroom stands out, as the main roof is still off. The Dulles Airport-like roof to the right of the bedroom is over the porch, and will tie into the main roof.
I find it amazing to look at this structure! Here's the bedroom ceiling close up.
The courtyard is finally frozen hard enough to walk without accumulating heavy pancakes of mud on my wellies. Below: a view from the courtyard out to the front.Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing the front "yard" restored to meadow clearing - minus construction skiffs and lumber stores and scraps. I've been haunting all the garden catalogues and trying out a million and one colour and plant combinations in my mind. How's this one for a gorgeous day dream: a wildflower field of Queen Anne's Lace, Echinacea, and Cosmos? oooooooh! gorgeous. . . . .

one step forward, one step back. . . .

What a puzzle to put together!
OK. . . . the trusses are on. Looks like a cathedral, doesn't it?

Let's step back a bit to get a better overview. Here's the view from the living room (still uncovered) towards the kitchen, which is now covered by the engineered trusses.
Unfortunately, the studio is going backwards. . . . It appears that the trussing didn't match the elevation - meaning: "It doesn't look like the picture." They've torn out the offending trusses and I think they will "stick-build" this portion, to suit. Otherwise, we were going to be ending up with one tiny little stucco/timbered portion sticking up above the roof that would look rather like the triangle eye on top of the pyramid on a one dollar bill.

In the king's last house, he ended up with what he affectionately referred to as "Neal's tits" - the architect's miscalculation which resulted in two protrusions into what would otherwise have been a circular ceiling line.

"This would be more like a single nipple. . . ."

Anyway, it's gone now.

here we go. . . .

One last shot of the unobstructed sky over the house.
We can still see the sky through the rafters at the studio - but not for long.
Here's Julio and a guy we haven't met yet putting one of the engineered trusses into place.
And another - now a scissor truss - being swung into place.

They've been working all morning.
Houndstooth Studio has a roof.
Here, the view from the courtyard.
I expect things will look very different - yet again - tomorrow, but here's what we've got so far.
Stay tuned.

raising the roof

It's scheduled for today!

Tom-builder advises that the crane arrives this morning and will hoist all the puzzle pieces into place. The king is coming home early and we're going down to watch. Oops - 'scuse me while I go recharge the camera batt'ries just to be safe!

OK. I'm back. But not for long. The king is home and we'll be off shortly to watch the roof raising. This, in spite of the general gloom of the day and plummeting stocks. . . .

Meanwhile, here are some final pictures of the house sans roof, with the sun streaming in.
It was sunny this weekend - but don't let it fool you - it was freezing!!!This evening, I trust we will have pictures of roof trusses on top of walls. . . . beginning to shut out the weather. Which, today, is a bit gloomy. Like I said.

snow day - proof

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday - actually, I guess that was day before yesterday. . . . sun out. no trusses.


Today, snow & trusses.


We couldn't believe that Julio and Gilberto were there! Apparently some of the trusses have to be doubled up before they're hoisted into place.

Yesterday, we couldn't figure out what this was, assembled and laying in the entrance hall.





Today, it appears that it's the tower walls, which will also be hoisted into place when the crane arrives to truss the roof. . . . wow!







The trusses have arrived. As you see.
They've been stacked everywhere.


In the front.





In the courtyard.








Gilberto thinks it's funny we're here in this weather. Crazy owners!




But you don't get a chance to see your kitchen in snow everyday.

Or walk through walls.
Or see the bedroom blanketed in snow. No, all that will change very, very soon so I have to grab the chance while I can.

Meanwhile, "the woods are lovely, dark, and deep. . . ." *

*Robert Frost's Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening