Roof, Part 1

Earlier this week Joe and his crew of helpers used a beam lift to put the ridge beam in place. This thing is a beast--a single piece of manufactured wood that weighs 650 pounds! They had to raise it 20 feet in the air to seat it within the brackets on either side of the cottage. Unfortunately I was away when it happened so I don't have any photos of that process, but even the aftermath is pretty impressive.

This is the beam lift Joe & crew used to put ridge beam in place

Cross section of beam. That's my hand, for scale (did not have a banana handy)

The giant, burly bracket the beam went into

And here is the whole ridge beam

Another view of beam & bracket

The crows seem to like the cottage too.

Framing, Day 7-10

Framing is mostly complete! The sheathing is nearly finished, all of the window openings have been framed (with the exception of the east wall), and Joe installed the western ginormous bracket that will hold the equally ginormous central roof beam. That thing is a beast! Tomorrow Joe will enlist the help of his assistant Jacob as well as Dave Fasoldt and his crew to assist with manhandling the beam onto lift and put everything in place. Then I anticipate the roof framing will proceed rapidly.

Huge bracket. I don't even want to say how much these suckers cost. However I'm pretty confident the roof won't be going anywhere.

Framing, Day 3-6

Framing days 3-6 involved finishing up the north and south walls of the cottage and installing the first bits of sheathing. The west wall (where the front door will be located) was also framed and was particularly challenging for Joe due to all of the angles and the fact that he had to frame it in place (!).

Sheathing going up

Before the west wall was framed

Joe nailing in the first bits of framing on the west wall.

View from the northwest, looking at west wall. The roof peak is just beginning to take shape.

This is the south wall, looking at the kitchen

Framing, Day 1 and 2

Now that the foundation is poured and cured, the framing has progressed rapidly. I was a bit taken aback at how quickly the first two walls went up, and although I've been looking at the plans for the cottage for several months, it was still a bit of a shock how BIG our 'little' cottage looked all of a sudden. I'm actually quite pleased about that reaction, because it will hopefully translate to a feeling of spaciousness once the cottage is complete.

Lumber Drop

Kinda like a mic drop, only woodier. Framing should begin in earnest today.

Foundation Pour

Friday was the Big Pour--the cottage foundation is a 24" thickened slab. This equates to 12.5 cubic yards of concrete, nearly two full trucks worth! Joe found a great crew of finishers and they did a fantastic job making the slab level and super-duper smooth. With the exception of the bathroom, the floor of the cottage will be the slab itself, so it was important to have a high quality finishing job, and they totally nailed it.

All the forms in place, just waiting for the truck

Halfway through leveling

Finishing the pour

The silky-smooth surface of the finished foundation

The framing package arrives on Tuesday, and then the cottage will really start to take shape.