roof panels and windows

 Dining room

We have the dining room windows installed as well as the 2 beside the back door and  1 in the master bedroom.  The Crew has cut out the drywall from several more windows and doors, but have left the green wrap intact to protect the hole. 
The final panels are installed on the peak of the great room.  The next step is the cold roof.
Paul checked the sump early this morning; it was dry.  It hasn't been above freezing since Jan 1 although it could have been at 32 for a few minutes today while the sun was out.  He also swept the basement of snow but only managed 2 shovelfuls.  We only have the door and 2 windows open to snow in the basement now.
Reading Midnight in Madrid *** Noel Hynd, Fair mystery with international intrigue, terrorism and the good guys win, the bad guys die.

Dormers

With the crane doing all the heavy lifting of the long roof panels yesterday, it was up to the crew today to work the smaller pieces of the two dormers using only the forklift. There are more angles on these pieces so precise fitting is required. The front and sides of the dormers are up and the first section of the dormer roof on the left side dormer is in place. Besides finishing the roof of this dormer and installing the right side dormer's roof, there are some panels that will go on the peak that extends out between the dormers over the front living room bump-out.

To celebrate the panels on the roof we had an indoor pizza lunch from Faccia Luna.  It was nice to have a reason to come home for lunch!  Weather today was in the upper 20s and there is snow forecast for tonight, possibly 1-3 inches. Bring on the January thaw!

Roof panels

Crane made it up the driveway without a problem at 0845.  Let the work begin.  The temps were only about 27, continually cloudy, light snow occasionally, steady light breeze for Jonas, Kyle, Corey, John and Doug plus the crane driver.  We have about 4" of snow on the ground with ice underneath in places where trucks and the forklift have been.  Last Sunday Paul tried to hack away the deeper ruts but made little progress so today he moved driveway rocks with the tractor for about an hour to make  landing pads in front and in back of the house to help the forklift stay steady. That will be a job for the landscapers to repair.

First The Crew did the entire back, then the front except for the dormers. The crane has other work tomorrow so the dormer panels will have to be lifted by forklift. They are smaller so that shouldn't be a problem.
The roof panels are 20' long and 4' wide so each lift covered a lot of exposed roof, but it was still a lot of work. The back roof took 11 panels. They weigh a (figurative) ton, maybe 300-400 lbs.

Each lift required 2 brackets of 2x4s to be screwed into the panels at balanced points near each end. The lifting straps were threaded through and then the crane operator lifted the panel to the exact point the men on the roof needed. They caulked and cranked the locking cams, removed the brackets and were ready to prepare the next one. All the panels were labeled like the rest of the house.
The crew was here from 8:00-5:00. I think they are as anxious as we are to get the house enclosed but for different reasons perhaps.
I finalized the plumbing fixtures with Ted at Crescent this afternoon. I hope that 4.5' bathtub upstairs will be enjoyed because it's the most expensive fixture in the house.

Back to work

Makes me thankful for my home on the hillside.

The Crew moved all the panels in to position for the crane on Wednesday. They also framed in the kitchen door to the breezeway. It's a 32" door. It's easier each day to see us using the space.

Reading I, Alex Cross James Patterson **** murder mystery at highest levels of US govnt, but not terrorism. I like his stories, but you know he's going to figure it out.

New Year's Eve house work

We met our Crew on the driveway as they were coming up to work and we were going down.  With 3" new dry unplowed snow that encounter was a little hairy but the old Subaru off-roaded just fine.
Today's weather wasn't ideal for making substantial progress with the panels.  In spite of the falling snow and cold temps The Crew, (now including Scottie and Jessie, the shinglers and tilers) was able to finish the front paneling,  retarped the roof in preparation for 3 days off with more weather coming in and enclosed the new panels in greenguard. We'll need lights inside now; the cathedral-like view out the living room windows is all purple drywall.

The center panel between the left dormer windows is in the breezeway ready to be installed.
Doug said the roof panels are 20' long and will need a crane to hoist them long-wise to the roof. 

Tonight is a blue moon, the second full moon in December;  We don't expect to see it because of clouds.

Front walls

The Crew worked on the front window wall today trying to beat the really bitter cold and high winds and get this house buttoned up.  With the high only in the low  40's and only 3 men working, it was slow going.  The 2 side door panels and the lower panel on the front are done.  The church-like feeling is gone for a while until they get the drywall cut out and the windows put in, anyway. 
They have tarps covering the most of the ceiling boards but there's lots of flapping in the wind.

Reading Going Rogue (Sarah Palin) She was robbed of the election by incompetent and perhaps traitorous campaign HQ. *****

West wall paneled and north wall wrapped

I like to see the panel coding. G1-G14 completed the master bedroom and upstairs guest wall. 

2 sides paneled

The kitchen/dining room side is paneled.  Notice from the number codes how many panels this side took. The little window is the kitchen; the top window is the play loft.Each panel has several cams that hold it to the next;  there's orange caulk as a final filler and waterproofing.. It's Great Stuff. 

This view is from the master bedroom (through a future wall and heating wood stove) to the kitchen and dining room and on through to the breezeway. The walnut post looks great here. 
We have 4 new bags of hemlock chicken coop shavings.  Doug bought a new portable planer and shaved a bunch of 3/4' boards down to 3/8" to be used between the floor boards and the posts.
Most of the breezeway trusses are installed.  The purple drywall there has to wait for the roofing.  The ceiling here will be drywall.

We could be looking at significant snow tonight and through the weekend so The Crew battened down the hatches and tarped the ceiling boards.  This isn't a long term fix, nor will it work if there's any wind, but we are hoping the boards will be ice free.  John had a ride on the fork lift as he manhandled the tarps.

First panels

A lot has changed since Saturday:  the breezeway received the first panels today.  There's a plate holding it to the floor and a nailing board that goes up the wall where the old garage window was, but since these are structural insulated panels there's no other framing.   The roof of the breezeway will be conventional pre-made trusses. Sheathing and roofing will wait until the main house panels are installed.

The electrical wiring for the ceiling fans and lights has been mostly complete so the tongue and groove ceiling boards were next up.  The holes in the front will be dormers which have to be framed.   Even though the ceiling boards aren't a real roof, it does give some protection from the weather.
After yesterday's rain and relatively warm weather the snow is back to mashed potato consistency. It's down to about 2" deep;  Gambol is much happier when he can drive dirt into his belly as he slides around a corner.  When he takes off running he throws a rooster-tail of snow balls 5' into the air.

too windy

Today started at 10 degrees with a brisk wind so The Crew repositioned the insulation in the garage door and staged the panels for installation. They also shaved off a bit of concrete from the front stoop that had bowed out preventing the panel from sitting properly.  We are set for installation whenever the weather cooperates.

I thought they were moving the panels to give us more parking for our open house tomorrow.

Panels delivered

Panels for the walls and roof were delivered on pallets on a very long truck. The poor driver drove up the hill only to back down to the Toy Shed because there was no room for off-loading with the forklift.  With crew cars and trucks and our assorted vehicles, and now the panels, it's pretty crowded on our hill.  Each brick of panels is wrapped in plastic and clearly coded.  About a third of the pallets are on the construction site and the rest are stacked down by the shed. We have some solidly compacted soil to repair next spring.

The driver took out Murch's mailbox but our Crew replaced it with a sturdier post before the next mail was delivered. They got credit from Murch for knocking it down out but not for replacing it better than new.

The plate sill was anchored to the foundation wall.  It's parallel strand lumber which consists of long veneer strands laid in parallel and bonded together to form the finished structural section. 

The side door from the garage was removed and a new post placed in the opening to support the metal beam that supports the second floor of the garage (placing the door directly under the beam was probably an engineering error in the original construction of the garage, so this will fix that.)