Day 155

Soffits are good....
Yesterday Northern Neck Building Supply delivered a bunch of stuff including shingles, soffit, trim, and stuff (that's the best way to describe the rest.
Electrical guys have been working running the wires throughout the house.
Target is for the roofing crew to be started about the middle of next week...
Shingles without the pain...

Day 152

More Electrical...
Boxes and 14/2 cable running around and through the headers, footers, studs, etc...We are tweaking the kind and type of lights that are going to installed throughout the building. The greatest attention is now at lighting in the foyer and switches. The foyer, because that's the first view of the "cottage" someone will get, has to be lighted well...
The other major for today is reducing the size of the wall on the stairway going to the second floor. Removing that has a great impact on opening up the foyer visually and will aid in getting stuff from the first to the second floor.
Getting ready for the shingles, Wed. or Thursday...

Day 149

A virtual beehive of activity today...

Had the carpenters stapling more Tyvek to the exterior and cutting the stringers for the stairway...they put 2x6's for the temporary treads...

Had an electrical crew from Rick's running wires, mounting boxes, and working on the breaker panel...

Barb did take a tour of the new steps to take a closer look at the second floor...

We've been working behind the scenes on the appliances, cabinets, counter tops, etc...

Should be getting shingles next week...

Weather looking good...

Day 148

More progress...

More Tyvek applied and a visit from the electrician, putting in the breaker box and a few of the switch boxes. Couple more days for the fascia board covers and then the shingles will go on.

More info tomorrow...

I was in Alexandria shooting a job today and just got back...

Day 147

Tyvek tacking...
The first piece of Tyvek is nailed into place at the end of today.
The rest of the house will get the Tyvek wrap. Today also finished, for the most part, the complete structure of the house. We can now get around the new space we will have to begin shaping our daily lives. As the interior gets more attention that space will be honed.
Now there will be a couple of days to get some trim pieces in place to get ready for the shingles.
Looks like the weather will hold, 30% chance of t-storms tomorrow, but a good looking day on Friday.
More to come...

Day 146

There is felt paper on the roof...

Getting ever closer to getting the project under roof...

Once the paper is on the shingles will get installed and then the Tyvek and windows...

The visual clues to the progress will become harder and harder to show, I guess...

The grand exterior view will change slowly while the interior will begin become more of the focus of the construction.

To quote a good friend of mine, "it's OK, I'm jiggly with that!"

Day 145

Roof, roof, roof...
Today is roof day at the "job site."
Finishing the installation of the rake ladders this morning led to cutting and fitting the underlayment of the roof plywood.
Next will be to finish the dormer roofs then begin laying the roofing paper.
The weather seems to be holding well for the project. There is a chance of rain on Wednesday.

Day 142

Happy Hour...

It's the weekend and, no, we aren't under roof...you can see that...

There was some "slow downs" this week measuring and cutting lumber for the roof over the entrance foyer. Derek got it done and finished with the "ladder boards" around the front of the entrance for the roof. With just a bit more framing and plywood work on Monday and the blue edged plywood will begin to be laid on the roof first thing Tuesday morning.

Day 141

Slow day...

There come times when the seemingly blazing speed of framing comes to a snail crawl...

Today Derek had a whole bunch of measuring, figuring, cutting, and sometimes recutting...

The ridge pole (the contractor calls it that and so do I) and framing for the entrance is not quite as straight forward as the rest of the rafters. The angles are different and it has to be tied into the other roof rafters...

Derek did the work without help, Rick came down with a cold...

A chance of rain tomorrow so "under roof" may be put off for a few days...plywood for the roof is to be delivered tomorrow...

Day 140

Let's all say Ridge Pole...
Today there was a whole bunch of lumber cut with angles and notches...Rafters on the front and back of the roof were nailed into place leaving the dormers and entry foyer to be completed...
Then the plywood goes on top with felt paper on top of the sheathing...
We're close, very close to being "under roof."
With cooperating weather the roof can be done by Friday....
It's now possible to get a more distinct visual idea of the look of the final exterior of the place...

Day 138

Houston, we've got rafters...
This morning the first rafter was nailed into place alongside the dormer on the left of the addition...during the day all the rafters for the road side of the cottage were in place. There is a good chance that by the end of this week we could be under roof (the felt paper on the roof).
It's a bit of a struggle to get the 2/12's cut and hoisted to Derek to be nailed. Measure another rafter, yell the measurements to Rick at the saw on the ground, buzz, buzz, buzz, hoist the rafter to Derek.
From a photographic point the options available to shoot are becoming smaller and smaller. Not sure I'm ready to be walking across the rafters, don't think I'll ever be. I will keep working on getting the pix that show the progress...
Another 70 degree day predicted for tomorrow...

Day 134

Up, up, up in the air...
The structure makes its way higher and higher with the framing of the second story.
I took a walk to the pier today and looked back to the house (cottage). Now that the framing is above the existing roof the building is beginning to look like the elevations in the drawings.
More lumber arrived today with more framing lumber and the roof rafters...finishing the plywood walls and putting the "Tyvek" on as the skin will be next, then the rafters and felt paper....windows installed and we will be "under roof."
Stay tuned...

Day 133

Distinguished visitor today...and a gorgeous day it was...

Seth Ballard, the architect for the project, came by the "job site" today and was able to work out some minor questions about the progress being made. He talked with William Cooke and Derek about specifics of the framing construction...I stayed off to the side...
Derek and Rick worked on and almost finished the second floor framing today. The roof trusses are to be delivered tomorrow and installation should begin...
The spinning whirlpool of events is beginning to edge ever closer to the vortex with a slowly increasing amount of speed with the "behind the scenes" tasks coming more frequently...
Rain predicted for Friday in the morning so we may loose that day for roof trussing...

Day 131

Snow Day...

Winter has reared it's ugly head and ceased progress which had been going so well...

About 9:00 am a light flurry event began which has by now (11:00 am) turned into steady flakes falling straight down and covering the "job site."

The addition of a snowfall will quiet any activity except the squawking sound of an osprey returning from its southern migration. The vocalization could be in response to flying through the frozen precipitation...

Forecast for tomorrow is for sunny and 50 degrees...guessing that there will be construction activity then...

Stay tuned!

Day 127

"Up in the air junior bird men."
Now there is a new perspective with the framing of the second floor.
FYI; the top photo will by the view from my office.
Finishing the framing will take another day and then the rest of the week for getting the trusses assembled and put in place (depending on weather...)
No work tomorrow, rain in the forecast but at it Monday (flurries predicted, NOOOOOO!)
More postings coming...