Porch Roof part III - Assembly!

Today was fun.

To begin the day, we had almost all the parts that will be the roof over the porch cut and ready to go. On top of that we had the warm glow of the morning sun to take the November chill off.

When we were ready, we cleared the deck off, attached the little flat bases to each of the three posts and then stood them up.

Next came the beam that connects the posts. The beam sits in the pocket at the top of each post, and was installed in two parts with a lap joint over the center post, shown in the second photo.

After the beam came the rafters, and when they were all attached, we installed the lookouts at the two end rafters.

Once we had everything squared away with the post-beam-rafter assembly, we still had some time left in our day, but the sun had already set and the last glow was quickly fading. Having initially decided to call it a day, we rallied, pulled out the halogen lights, and put the trim on.

To finish off this little project we have the put the rough-sawn sheathing on, the last bit of trim and drip-edge and we're good. Oh yeah, we're going to peg some of the connections as well between the posts and beam.

The Porch Roof

On Friday we began work on the porch roof. In designing the house I'd done some basic dimensioning to make sure everything would fit as it needs to, but beyond that figured we'd work out the details when we got to it. Well, now we are at it and Joe and I spent some time setting up a mock-up of the post and rafter to make sure we liked the height. I had drawn the posts at 8' and thats what we set up at first but it was immediately obvious that that would be too high. I chopped off about a foot on the post height and that seemed better. We screwed the parts into place and I had Nancy feel it out with me and we decided that what we'd set up felt about right.

On Monday we'll set about shaping the posts, beam and then setting up the rafters, which Joe cut Friday afternoon. Like the roof on the main house, there's a certain level of finish detail which will make this take a bit of time, but I think for the most part it'll fall together pretty easily.

Shed dormer and Lookouts

Nancy's dad Lou wrote with a couple of questions. The first question was in regards to the shed dormer. The dormer is the space created by the bit of roof that extends out from the main roof at a lower pitch, allowing for more floor space inside and room for a window looking out to the west. The photo shows a nice profile view of the dormer. Its a "shed" dormer because of the style of roof--a flat surface at a low pitch.The shed-style dormer

Another view showing the dormer

Lou's next question was about the lookouts. The photo below shows them: they are the spiky things coming off the end of the gable wall and will allow the roof to extend beyond the edge of the building. In other words, they are the structural members of the roof overhang and intersect perpendicularly with the main roof rafters. You might notice there are still two lookouts we need to install on this end of the building. Its also worth mentioning that I was mistakenly calling the lookouts "fly rafters" for a while--I now stand corrected.

A view of the lookouts

Today was a bit of a slow day for us. It was raining on and off throughout the day. Our main project was cutting and installing the blocking between the roof rafters. The photo below shows the blocking installed in all but one of the rafter bays. This essentially serves the purpose of extending the wall up through the rafters to where the roof will be. On something of a whim, I decided to install them so that they are at a 45 degree angle to the top of the wall, which makes them tilt out rather then come straight up through the rafters.

Blocking being installed

Main Roof rafters

This week we've been working on the roof rafters over the main part of the house. We've got a few common rafters in (common rafters are the full length typical rafter that's not altered or modified in any way) and today put the valley rafter in place. The valley rafter is the crucial junction at the intersection of the two roof planes. Its a non-intuitive piece of wood and has a bunch of cuts. Joe and I discussed it for a bit this morning and then I let him puzzle it out. The thinking and planning takes way more time then the actual cuts, and to Joe's credit, it came out dead nuts. There are other complicated pieces to go in, but the valley rafter is the biggie.

Meanwhile I've be shaping, priming, and painting the fly rafters that'll project off the main roof gable ends. 34 of them in total. Its a repetitive process, but it's fun to get into production mode and work out the most efficient sequence of actions to mark, cut, shape, move, trim, prime and paint each piece in a series. Tomorrow morning these will start being installed in conjunction with more of the rafters.

Roofing begins

Joe and I got the rafters over the kitchen in place at the end of last week. Yesterday we put in the blocking and fly rafters to create the 2' overhang at the gable end of the roof. The fly rafters are the short rafters that extend out from the end of the gable wall, creating a sort of ladder up the edge of the roof. With these in place we were able to install the rake board trim and then start installing the rough sawn 1x6 lumber that will be seen from below when looking up at the roof overhang. With the snow this morning, working was a bit of a challenge since we were pretty much wet and cold all day. A little warmer or a little cooler would have helped, but rain in the 30's is not fun. Suffice to say we enjoyed the hot meal Nance heated up for us for lunch along with a cup of hot cider.

The work we've done the last couple of days sets us up to sheath the roof over the kitchen and then move onto the main roof. That'll mean we're back to cutting rafters and working out the intersection between the two roofs. I'm psyched to do work this stuff out. Lets hope for some dry weather and sunshine. Getting the roof over the kitchen is perfect timing as our window order is scheduled to show up late Thursday or early Friday and we need to be able to insure they are kept dry. The roof will be a big help.

Roof Rafters

Friday Joe and I got the roof rafters in place over the kitchen. It went smoothly and they look great. Being able to see the shape of the roof over the kitchen area helps tie everything together and gives the high roof area something to help proportion the whole as a unified entity.

Having a series of rafters together lets us begin to see the alliteration of the rafter tail detail. In other words the fun of the rafter detail begins to show when you see them in a line. Once the house it done, you'll be able to look up and see the rafter tails from below and I am particularly excited about this detail. It's a little rustic, camp-ish, but it'll be painted and a little more on the formal end of rustic. I just love the play of rafter tail design too much to cover it up with a formal sofit. The last photo shows one flying rafter coming out of the gable end through the notch. There will be one of these in each notch and these will create the overhang on the gables.

Some of these rafter weigh a ton. They are a mix of hemlock and pine and the green hemlock weigh a lot. As usual, we figured out a step-by-step way to get them up there, but it took a little umph each time.

Happily, we received a call from our window supplier, Thermotek, yesterday to tell us that our windows will be arriving next week. This is great news and the timing is perfect, as we really should have had our order in earlier then we did around September 1st. Our doors arrived yesterday.

Next up, roof sheathing over the kitchen and continuing on the roof framing of the large part of the house.

East Gable Wall-The last

We've been seeing great flocks of geese flying south. (Click on the first photo and you'll see the line of them across the sky).

Since the last post, we raised the kneewall along the west edge of the second floor (seen in the last photo above). Today we put up the last of the three gable walls (over the kitchen on the second floor), which is the last exterior wall of any serious magnatude; we have partial kneewalls to fill in once the roof framing take shape, but that'll be quick fill-in stuff. So, this means we are effectively onto building the roof, and to that end we put up a pair of rafters at the end of the day on the lower roof over the kitchen. It feels like we're turning a corner where we'll soon be done with all the framing and moving onto the next phase, which will be the trim, siding, windows and doors--but we're not there yet. The roof is it's own project and will offer some interesting challenges to make the roof framing come together correctly. Stay tuned.

The south end wall

Today we kicked in with the south end gable wall and made excellent progress. With only a whisper of rain the weather was chilly, but good. Word is there was snow at Stowe and thought maybe I saw some coming down up around Mount Ellen, thought its hard to say. Flurries are in the forecast for tonight and we just lit our first woodstove fire of the season.

To cut the notches on the end rafters Joe pulled out his 16" (415mm) Makita timber saw. Impressive machine, huh?

Tomorrow we put on the clapboard and stand 'er up.

The Gable-End Wall

Today the gable-end wall on the north end of the house went up. There's a lot that needs to be done before lifting can happen, which we've been doing over the last couple of days. The rafters were shaped and installed, the sheathing was completed, and the furring strips installed. Additionally, we installed the frieze board and some of the clapboard siding at the peak, since this stuff will be hard to access once the wall is up.

Tomorrow we start on the south end.

Rafters

Yesterday Joe and I shaped the gable end rafters and then installed them in the gable end wall in preparation for lifting the wall, probably today. There are some fussy details that have to do with the way the roof sheathing will meet, so it took some time and careful planning to make sure we were on the right track.

Before we finish off the wall we'll be installing trim and some of the clapboard siding up at the peak of the wall since this stuff is so much easier to do while the wall is laying down then it is at the top of a ladder some 25-30 feet up in the air.

The Week in Review

With good weather continuing, Joe and I completed building and sheathing the second floor deck of the main part of the house. We haven't built the floor over the kitchen yet because we decided to build it a bit differently then originally conceived which requires delivery of a bunch of rough sawn lumber. So, we're building up to the point that we can until that delivery happens and then we'll build the rest of the second floor.

In the mean time, we spent time laying out the gable end walls on the deck full size with chalk lines. In other words, we drew the gable walls on the floor as a means of determining our stud lengths where they meet the roof rafters.

We then cut all our wall parts for both walls, north and south. We can't complete these walls until the rough sawn lumber order shows up, so we moved onto other projects.

To keep busy we installed an important structural steel post in the basement, finished building the stairs down the hatch to the basement, and installed the Bilco bulkhead hatch that goes over the stairs. With these complete we started on the porch, located off the kitchen end of the house. We dug, set, and poured the concrete piers and then installed the ledger that will carry the joists.

It was a productive week and we are well positioned to put up the roof efficiently once the rest of our materials are on hand.

Members of the team, and the root cellar

The Supervisor

The crew

The root cellar rafters going in

The root cellar enclosed