Rain sandwich

The day started out with rain, and lots of it, between 5 am and about 10.  This gave us a chance for a leisurely breakfast visit before the slave labour began.  Part of our preparation for the next shipment was to make space for pallets to be placed.

Len did such a nice job it is a shame to cover them up with pallets

Doggy Jail kept Banjo and Tucker safe while we worked

We decided to put the beams into the garage for safe keeping and to clear more space in the driveway.   Here you can see how we managed this.

there were two big piles of beams to move

We moved a lot of timber this way

Mother and Daughter power

The last big beam is placed in the garage

Victoria proved that you don't have to be big to have power.  She used the electric drill skillfully to remove screws and especially liked using the crowbar to take out nails.

Then we all helped Len make particle board coverings for the posts in the house so they are protected against bumps and bruises.

cutting up the panels

Cathryn taping the protective pieces in place

About this time, the storm clouds gathered again, and it began to rain.  Thus, our work was the meat in the rain sandwich of the day.  We went for supper at Vida's down the road and had a nice meal and great conversation.  Ask Cathryn (the younger) about her chocolate lava cake.  The rain stopped and the sun shone, so we finished off a great day with a walk down the Walker Valley (with bonus of burrs on both dogs) and a hot and heavy session of Domino Trains.  Victoria and Melissa were the winning team taking the first three rounds.  Tomorrow the Dunkley family heads back to Edmonton and the work crew will be back at it. 

Cathryn (senior)

Many hands make light work.

Lots of visitors to help out today. Our daughter Melissa and her daughters, Cathryn and Victoria came out for the weekend.  We've been busy cleaning up around the lot in preparation for the next load of lumber. Cathryn was doing an inventory so we now know where everything is and how much we have.  Victoria was busy loading the truck for a dump run.

Cathryn taking numbers.

Victoria doing the "I love work" dance.

My favorite pastime is watching people work.

The big deal of the day was repositioning the large beam, soon to be installed, over by the garage.  I am trying to free up a bunch of space for incoming siding etc.

A very heavy piece of lumber.

Keep your toes clear.

And so the day ends with a shower and some thunder, even as we unload the truck at the dump.  Hoping for nice weather tomorrow to finish up preparations.

Len

On to something new.

I enjoy every thing I do on the house but some things are nice to get over with, like the rafters on the main house, which scared me some times. I wouldn't do that for a living or at least nothing at those heights. I'd rather fly my plane at 10,000 feet than work out on a limb like that. We did finish the rafters and have moved on.

Last rafters on the west side.

Our plan is to get the garage upper floor on and use the space for plywood for the trusses.

Beam in and north floor joists in place above the garage.

Starting to put things in the garage for storage, windows and timberframe bits.

It has started to rain a bit but we should get some small things accomplished with the grandkids this weekend, they seem pretty keen.

Len

There's always something.

This has been the smokiest day yet.  I woke up with a sore throat from breathing smoke all night.  I feel better now but it sure is nasty here.

Before we could continue on the east rafters for the north side of the house we noticed that the main center beam was not seated in its cradle on the north wall.  It seems that the framing was 3/4 inch higher than the post beside it.  Well this entailed placing 2 2x12s on the upper beam extensions so I could stand there and, using the electric chain saw, cut out the extra material.  When I finished, and we hammered the beam home, it leveled up quite nicely.  We did a little twisting on another beam and used a couple of the 1/2 in lag bolts to hold it in correct alignment. We're trying to eliminate any tapered gaps seen from inside the house.

The gap was quite visible on the underside of this center beam especially on the inside.

Walking the plank timberframe style.

That done, we did some more leveling and put up the rafters to finish this side.  We are all ready to put up the rest of the rafters tomorrow and then we'll start the floor on the garage.  We're hoping to use the floor as a staging area for the plywood on that side of the house roof. I have the beam ready to go in place over the garage. I did a dry run to make sure the truck would reach.  More on that excitement tomorrow.

I am going to cut up some garbage sheeting and wrap the lower timber posts with it.  We have been pretty lucky so far and haven't injured any of them too much but the likelihood of damage will increase as time goes on. Our grandchildren are coming for a visit this weekend so that might be a great job for them. They might even do it for free, you never know.

Len

Rafters going up.

Today we did some hard work hoisting 20 foot fir 2x12s up 20 feet and in to place.  If the big crane wasn't $160 an hour I might consider it but I prefer the challenge and the exercise.  We should be finished the main rafters tomorrow and then on to the garage upper floor so we can line up the roof trusses in that area. Here are a couple of photos of the rafters.

I spent some time lifting 12 foot 2x12s onto the loft floor so we would have a sturdy floor to put the scaffold for the rafters on that end of the house.  Here are a couple of shots from the loft overlooking what will be the great room.

I pulled out these three beams in preparation for them going in tomorrow.  When installed we will build a wall on top of them to finish off the west upper section of the great room.

So that's it for today, I think I'll do something exciting and go to the 108 Mall to get some groceries.

Len

Back to work

It's fairly smokey here which has the great effect of blocking some of the suns heat. I've been drilling and placing 12 inch lag bolts from the outside of the house into the posts of the timberframe. Some of it is too tall and I will have to wait for Ross to bring out his big ladder.  This is going to be some big job when we get to the siding.  I'll have to build some scaffolding for the high walls.

One of the finished lags is visible lower left.  All have to be counter-bored to allow the siding to go over top.

One of the lags before I reach around the window and, with a very heavy impact wrench, suck the wall in to the post.

 My next task was to prepare the beam that runs front to back in the garage to hold the floor joists for the garage suite.  I broke 3  3/16 bits and 1  3/8 bit on this sucker.  It's pretty thick and I'm going through at an angle so the screws will be easy to install with a screw gun.

The beam after moving it to a more convenient spot.  It's a lot easier to drill on the ground than when it is in place on the garage.

Holes drilled to anchor each joist.

A parting shot of the orange sun.

So Ross is starting tomorrow and he likes to work in the early hours. We'll be at it at 7:00.  We're going to get the rafters up on the Timbers as soon as possible so I can get the roofers to install and protect the beams. Winter is coming.

A weekend off.

I decided to go to Kelowna for the weekend. Got the truck cleaned got a haircut and my laundry cleaned.  A fruitful visit. I have a couple of days work before my helpers get back on Wednesday. Now I am back and I spent the rest of Monday squaring up the garage and aligning a couple of walls.  More tomorrow.

Len