Topping off party

Part of the topping off is feeding the crew so we invited friends, family and neighbors to see the timbers and help.  Shawn and Katrina and Jerry, Kathleen, Zack and Esra represented The Crew.  The weather gods were with us: 40 degrees and a blue sky, clear and a million as they say in the Air Force. We could imagine lying in bed with the blue sky as our ceiling and the view from the great room windows was spectacular. We had prepared the garage as a party room including The Crew's jet engine propane heater, but managed to squeeze everyone upstairs.  It helped that people came in stages.  Parking is a bit of a problem since the snow stopped meadow or side-of-the-drive parking.  All in all for a short notice 2-weeks-before-Christmas party, we did OK.
The Admiral von ueber Baron remarked on the tight joints in our work of art.  Everyone commented on the walnut live edge post in the kitchen.  Aunt Jan enjoyed a walk in the woods with Gambol, and he appreciated being the lead dog showing off his woods.

BTW: Go Navy, beat Army! (and they did 17-3)  Also, no more blaze orange for a while; today was the last day of deer rifle season.  Paul's license went unused.  Even Ron and Darlene said they saw very few deer in our meadow or in theirs.

Hemlock bough

Paul trimmed a branch from the hemlock below the house down to something he could nail on the peak of the house.  The Crew lifted him up with their forklift and he managed to get the branch affixed to the roof without any problems.  It is now official: the frame is up, we have appeased the tree spirits . Jerry suggested a hemlock bough as a nod to the hemlock of our frame.
We are waiting to see if the Midwest blizzard headed into Canada over the next 48 hours will dump snow, ice, or rain on us.  The Crew put several tarps over the main floor deck to make it easy to clean up when the weather clears.

It was fun to walk through the house, see the cut outs for the lights, and imagine where the fire stove and bed will go. We received a surprise package from sunny Florida today: a box of very interesting wine corks which we will use as cabinet pulls. Thank you, Empress.

Final prep work

After the 1.5" of snow that fell all day on Saturday, Jerry said he would like to come up to use his leaf blower to get rid of the snow that had gathered in the pockets and joints of the frame.  He was worried that the warmer temperatures today would melt the snow and it would refreeze in the pockets, complicating the frame raising tomorrow.  Jerry's snow blowers worked like a champ, blowing out the fluffy snow, and Paul assisted by shoveling off the deck.  After an hour of cold (mid-20s), snowy work the two "snowmen" cleared the deck and the timbers of almost all the snow.  With temperatures getting up to the mid-30s in the afternoon just about all the remaining powder snow left on the deck had disappeared.  Looks like we are ready for the frame raising on Monday and Tuesday this week.

Staging for the crane

We expect the crane at 8 AM on Monday morning.  Paul will be at jury duty in Bellefonte so it's a good thing my conference in Altoona on the Marcellus Shale doesn't start until 1:00. The Crew made final adjustments like bracing the walnut post and has everything in place ready to be raised.  The rafters and purlins are stacked around the foundation. There's enough space in the Toy Shed for the tractor and the RTV again.  If only that were true of the garage.

We made the first draw on the construction loan today. 

Reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See) Wealthy Chinese women's culture in 19th century. *****

The Toy Shed is almost empty

The Crew has made great progress today, so with some finishing preparations tomorrow, it looks like we’ll be ready to raise the frame first thing Monday morning. Jerry says he expects that the whole frame should be up in 2-3 days, if all goes well.  Most of the timbers are now on the deck and attached to something. Even the live edge walnut post for the kitchen is in place on bent 3. The front window wall is on top of bents 1 & 2.  Just as when the excavation happened, things will soon look very different! 

I met Bill, father of Jonas.  We talked about him overseeing an Amish carpentry shop in Howard to do the kitchen (and other) cabinetry.  He is a neighbor of my friends Jean and Ann and knows Gambol's friend Leslie, too.  I love these intersecting circles.

We had a torrential rain storm last night; I feared for the driveway as rain pelted the windows, however we had no damage.  Branches that had broken in the October ice storm are now twisting and falling, littering the paths and trails again.  We only got .2" but it certainly seemed more than that. Thanks goodness for the straw that The Crew put down otherwise Gambol would be all orange from the mud.   Red sky about 0710 this morning.

As I was filling the bird feeder today, a chickadee landed on the lowered feeder less than 6" from my hand.  What a treat: he got first dibs on fresh seed and I got a close up of one of my favorite birds.  He didn't sick around to have a conversation though.

House news

Jerry notified us that ground breaking should be the second week of October. He'll be out to measure later this week. Wahooooo!

Timbers

We went out to the Brush Valley site where Jerry has his workshop. All the hemlock timbers have arrived. He has started to carve some of the joinery. I was impressed at the labels on the ends of the finished pieces. He also put a light natural oil and fungicide on these.
The 2 largest timbers are 8x12. We only need one, for the ridge line; the second is for backup.

A meeting of the minds

Jerry and Michael sat down with us yesterday to finalize the plans. Jerry had his timberframe plans for Michael's inspection and approval. Basic blessing was given. Michael will now tweak a couple of areas (skylight in upstairs bath, laundry area, poured concrete walls instead of CMUs) and we should be good to go. One step closer!

Envinity visit

We visited an Envinity site, the same one we saw in the fall at the League of Women Voters' Home Tour. The house is now fully enclosed but still a shell. Jerry Learn, timberframer, showed us around. We could see the timberframe bones and how it blends with Hardiplank siding. From the driveway there are only a few hints of the wood visible inside. This house used Douglasfir, pine and oak with black locust for an upper storey deck. Hardiplank, brick, stone veneer and real stone will make the outside surfaces. We all felt we could work with this company. I like the local focus they put on all products. Their finishes and detail are beautiful. In the basement manland/recroom behind a wood stove is a herringbone brick wall. Surrounding the brick is a PA stone frame. Liked that. Also liked the live edge wood mantle. Supporting the kitchen corner is a tree held in place with a multiwood laminated spline. Liked that too. Don't really need a meditation or mushroom rooms. Living room was a little small for the massive king post truss. The owners move into the basement on Mar 9 and live in the construction; don't care for that at all.