Roof Trusses

The stack of roof trusses were delivered last week and the crew got to work very quickly getting them up.

It required a pretty big crane to get the second floor roof trusses up.  One of the other requirements for installing trusses is that there can't be any wind.  You don't want the truss swaying around with guys on either plate trying to get it in the right spot.

All hands on the roof.

"It's Looking Like a House" Party

  We have been planning to host a gathering at the new house since we started construction in August and finally we have walls and floors enough to make that happen.  With weather forecasts of colder weather, we couldn't delay any longer.  Trapper and Hans joined us for a beer, but not for the group photo.

It was also time to carry out a few traditions for new construction.  The first is placing an evergreen in the rafters for good luck.  This must be an eastern tradition, because of the ten people at the gathering, only Gary and I were familiar with this practice.

The other tradition that we were encouraged to follow was breaking a champagne bottle against the house to launch the house.  Of course, we had to drink the champagne before we could break the bottle.

And Merv found the pink lining in the clouds.

Fall Aerial View of the West Fork

 Merv Coleman flew over Red Lodge last week to catch the fall colors and got a shot of the house under construction.  If you biggify the photo, you can see the plywood just to the left of the label.  Thanks, Merv.

The Crew

Joe

Joe, Trapper and Hans

Trapper and Joe

Joe, John, Kurt and Trapper

View from the windows

Bathroom view of the Palisades to the northwest

Western view from the bedroom

Sunrise from the kitchen window

Framing, Part III

Telescoping Sky fork lifting the walls to the second floor

Placing the biggest wall, 23' tall on the south side.

Framing, Part II

Placing the second floor wall on the north side.

Stairs to the second floor.  No more climbing ladders to move between the floors.

Framing - Part I

I have been traveling for the past two weeks and not at home in Red Lodge to watch the construction as it progresses.  Gary has been holding down the fort at the construction site and making decisions and changes as the crew moves forward.

Gary has been documenting the progress with photos, just not posting them online.  So it's catch up time on the blog.  Lots of progress has occurred over the past two weeks, with the framing now ready to begin placing the roof trusses.

Piers formed for the porch supports.

Window wells installed on the basement bedrooms.

View of the front of the house from the driveway.

South side of the house, dining room windows on the right and living room window and door on the left.

Floor

Photos from 2 weeks ago, just getting around to posting.  We now have walls on the second floor, just no pictures of the walls on the second floor.

Shades of Blue

OSB Board, Dumpster and Porta-John are all color coordinated.  The only one that really looks like Duke Blue is the Porta John.  We may need to get out the spray paint to lighten up that color to a Carolina Blue.

Floor Trusses and Basement Walls

It's a beautiful day in Red Lodge and I will be sorry to leave in the morning for NC.  The framing crew has been making substantial progress this week, the basement walls are completed and the first floor trusses should be done by the end of the day.  All  we need is two weeks of reasonable weather to get the rest of the framing up.

Finally Wood

The basement walls and first floor trusses are going up.  It's great to finally see some wood on the house, concrete is nice, but concrete does not feel like cabin material.  Once again progress was slowed this week due to snow.  Thursday afternoon, October 2, we had another couple of inches after these photos were taken.  On Friday morning the trusses were covered with snow, so the crew couldn't work.

We also made progress this week on the garage and backfill around the foundation.  The garage floor is scheduled to be poured on Tuesday, assuming the weather holds out till then.  This is great news because it will give us a place to keep materials that is above ground and out of the mud.  It also means that once the crew is ready for the roof trusses, they can continue across from the house to the garage.