Tag Archives: make it happen

Construction Day 10: Deck Roof Framing

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The roof is now fully framed.

On May 20, 2014, I began blogging about the construction of my new home in Malaga, WA. You can read all of these posts — and see the time-lapse movies that go with them — by clicking the new home construction tag.

On this tenth day of construction the crew of three guys mostly worked on the framing for the roof over the north-facing deck which will be just six feet wide but run the entire depth of the building — 48 feet. The final building will have decks on two sides, but the east-facing deck, which will be 10 x 24, won’t have a roof over it.

Deck Roof Framing
They framed out the roof over the north-facing deck. At this point, their roof framing work should be done.

The day started out nice enough, but soon got windy as thunderstorms rolled by on a northwest to southeast path, never quite going over us. I did hear loud thunder once, but never really saw the storm that it was advertising — it was south of me, beyond the cliffs.

I was out for a while, running errands in town, and when I got back a big truck was partially backed into my driveway. He’d just dropped off a load of roof insulation for the RV garage/shop side of the building. (The living space will have more substantial insulation.) Since he blocked my way in, I parked on the road. I chatted with him for a while about how great it is to live in the country — he lives in Cle Elum — before he got a phone call and then headed out for his next delivery an hour away.

Glulam Beam
Here’s one of the two glulam sections left in the scrap pile. The bottle is for scale. While pine can’t be true butcher block because it simply isn’t hard enough, I should get several years use out of it as a food prep surface beside my BBQ grill.

One of the bonuses of this construction project is the scrap wood being left behind. The beams supporting the second floor, for example, are glulams (glued laminated timber), created by gluing together standard pieces of lumber. A few of them are made from 12 2x6s. The builder ordered them slightly longer than necessary and the workers trim them as they use them. When they trimmed for the second floor support, they left me with two nearly perfectly square blocks of wood suitable for making small “butcher block” tables. I’ve already researched ways to seal the wood to make it safe for use with food; I’ve got a woodworking friend who’ll put legs on them for me. This creative use of scrap wood has been a lot of fun for me; I’m really looking forward to setting up my tools in my shop to hone my skills and do projects like this on my own.

The builders made progress on the building, but it seems to be going more slowly now. I think it’s because the novelty of this construction project out my back window has worn off. Seeing the second story floor start to go in yesterday really energized me, but they did very little work on that today. I think it’s interesting to note that they moved their lunch area into the building’s footprint; I think it’s because they’re looking forward to the shade they’ll get when they put the floor in.

Building Front
The front of the building, shot from the southeast corner.

There’s a good possibility that metal for the roof and sides will be delivered this Wednesday or Friday. With the insulation handy, once the roof metal comes there’s no reason why they can’t put on the roof. Got my fingers crossed!

Here’s the time-lapse for Day 10:

Construction, Day 9: Placing Second Floor Beams

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Interior is starting to come together.

On May 20, 2014, I began blogging about the construction of my new home in Malaga, WA. You can read all of these posts — and see the time-lapse movies that go with them — by clicking the new home construction tag.

My building will have a second floor over a four-car garage. This 24 x 48 foot space will be my home.

The builders who have been working on my place for the past two and a half weeks are providing a shell — an enclosed but otherwise empty space. The only things they’re doing for the upstairs living space are providing an unfinished (plywood) floor and stairs. They’ll also be installing the windows and doors, and providing the basic framing (but not the floor) for my deck space.

Once the floor is in place, I can begin getting bids from contractors to do the interior framing — in other words, build the interior structure of that living space. The framing needs to be done before I can move in and install the plumbing and electrical systems. So the completion of the second floor’s floor and stairs are a key milestone for moving forward with my living space.

Yesterday, they began work on the second story floor by installing two very thick laminated beams and then hanging the framing between them.

First beam Installed
The second floor will be supported by a series of laminated beams like this one.

First Beam Support
The beam sits atop a 4×6 post on either end.

The laminated beams come from the lumber supplier a bit too long for the job. The workers had to trim them to size. The scrap piece from one of them is a serious block of wood that, with a little work, would make a nice butcher-block table. I’m thinking of fixing it up for just that purpose, perhaps for the east deck where I plan to put my BBQ grills.

Second Floor in Progress
Here’s where they left off on Day 9.

Framing between the two big beams really gives the second floor some structure. I found myself getting really excited, knowing that before the end of the week, I’d be able to walk inside the upstairs space I’d soon be living in.

Angel, the lead worker, told me that Tanya from the office would be by on Tuesday or Wednesday to finalize the locations of each window. Throughout the planning process, windows have been a huge deal and I’m happy that they’re as serious as I am about getting them just right.

The crew also prepped some other beams with hangers, getting a head start on the work they’d do the next day.

Here’s the time-lapse video:

Construction, Day 8: Framing the High Roof

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A lot of work high above the ground.

On May 20, 2014, I began blogging about the construction of my new home in Malaga, WA. You can read all of these posts — and see the time-lapse movies that go with them — by clicking the new home construction tag.

Week 2 of construction on my future home was mostly done high above the ground, framing out the roof over my garage and living space. They used up quite a bit more of the lumber that has been stacked in piles all over the place; my pile of scrap lumber is getting very large indeed.

I was out running errands all morning and, when I got back around noon, took the usual photo from the road that runs along the south boundary of my property.

Building Site
Another look down on my building site.

I also wandered around inside the building. I do that a lot lately. As its frame is filled in, there’s a real sense of enclosed space. It’s a big space, a space with lots of room to store lots of stuff. I know that my biggest challenge will be keeping it all neat and clean — I hate dust and cobwebs and spiders. I suspect that my wimpy ShopVac from my Wickenburg hangar will need to be replaced with something more substantial.

Another big challenge: not acquiring more stuff to fill the space. I have enough stuff.

I experimented with my iPhone’s panorama photo feature and captured this image from the southwest corner of the building, in what will soon be my “shop”:

Inside Panorama
The wide angle view of this panorama makes two perpendicular walls seem parallel to each other. Click this image to view a much larger version.

The shop, by the way, will be 12 x 48 feet. I’ll eventually have a workbench and a bigger toolbox — but even that won’t come close to filling that space. I realized on my last trip to California that I’d have ample space to install a recording booth for training videos, podcasts, and voiceover work and may do that next year if I can find an affordable solution. It sure is quiet enough here most of the time to do recording work.

I also realized that because there won’t be many interior walls on the ground floor level — at least not at first — I’ll be able to pull my little boat, Honda, and Jeep straight through one garage door into the back of the building, making it possible to rent winter storage space for vehicles in three of my four garage bays.

These are the kinds of things I’m thinking about as I wander through this space. I designed it to be flexible — to meet my needs now and in the future — and to make it attractive for a future buyer.

Here’s the Day 8 time-lapse. Unfortunately, because of the camera’s angle, you really can’t see much of what the workers did. Full-screen helps.

Construction, Day 7: Adding the High Roof Beams

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Construction begins on the challenging roof.

On May 20, 2014, I began blogging about the construction of my new home in Malaga, WA. You can read all of these posts — and see the time-lapse movies that go with them — by clicking the new home construction tag.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, my future home has two roofs — or a split roof. One is higher than the other. While the roof over my RV garage could be constructed with trusses made off-site and shipped in, the roof over my living space had to be fully constructed on site. That’s because the space beneath it will have a vaulted ceiling; I didn’t want to look at trusses or beams.

The beams to support this roof are not only long — more than 24 feet each — but they’re thick. They’re laminated beams made by layering multiple pieces of lumber into one thick beam. And because their highest point is more than 30 feet off the ground, they needed to be hoisted into place with a crane.

The workers spent the morning prepping the tops of the poles that would soon support the beams. They installed specially made pieces of hardware atop each pole. Then the crane went to work and the workers guided each beam into place. They were about halfway done when I returned from some errands and stopped to take some photos.

Building Site
Here’s a slightly different angle on the building site. The building looks big from this angle, no?

Hoisting a Beam
This beam gave them a bit of trouble getting into position. Corey, the boss, said it’s because of the audience; none of the other beams were difficult to place.

While I was out, the windows were delivered. I was delighted with them, as I blogged about here.

Later, I took a walk out to visit my bees and looked back at the construction site. I’m really looking forward to getting the RV back under cover and a real roof over my head again.

Looking back from my Bees
Here’s a late afternoon look back from my bee yard to my construction site.

Here’s the time-lapse for Day 7:

Or if you want to see the first 7 days, edited with titles and music, try this:

Construction, Day 6: RV Garage/Shop Girts

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Half the building framed.

On May 20, 2014, I began blogging about the construction of my new home in Malaga, WA. You can read all of these posts — and see the time-lapse movies that go with them — by clicking the new home construction tag.

A “pole building” is built with post-frame construction. The entire building is hung on a series of vertical posts that, in my case, are set 3 feet down into 4-foot holes and anchored with concrete. The holes were dug and the posts were set last week. The roof over one half of the building is built with triangular trusses that are tied together with rafters. The construction and raising of the roof over the RV garage/shop side of the building kept the builders busy on Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5.

Installing Girts
The crew framed out half the building yesterday with horizontally placed girts.

Yesterday, the crew worked on the wall framing of the RV garage/shop. In a pole building, this is done with horizontally placed beams called girts. The girts are nailed right into the posts, evenly spaced. This is what the workers did yesterday, on the sixth day of construction. They also finished off the framing of the roof and the place where the roof meets the walls on that side of the building.

Although I’ve got 10 acres of land, the area around the building site is quite crowded. The workers need to clear some space to make room for the steel delivery, which will be on a Wednesday or a Friday. I’m hoping they clear space by continuing to use up the lumber scattered in neat piles around the base of the building and my RV. They may, however, start storing construction materials inside the base of the building. Doesn’t matter to me, as long as they keep up the good pace.

Day 6 Site Photo
I shot this photo of the building site on my way home from some errands mid-morning. I’d flown in my helicopter the previous afternoon.

I’m hoping that they begin work on the other roof for Day 7. I suspect that will be quite a challenge, given the height and the fact that they can’t use pre made trusses.

Until then, here’s the time-lapse for Day 6: