The roof is done!

After a long effort we finally finished the roof on Wednesday!

This means that the house is dried in, which is a major milestone in the house building process. Before we can completely be done on the roof we have to cut holes for the various vents that come through with what are called boots, which are the sleeves that the vent pipes pass up through. To celebrate, Nancy, Joe, and I went out for dinner at the Den and raised our glasses "to the roof!"

Sally and Silas dropped by to say hi and it turns out that although the roof is cool, Silas is really what everybody wanted to check out. Even Motion.

Yesterday we worked most of the day on the rafter ties. This started off with a little consultation amongst the future homeowners about the height they should be placed at. I designed them to be installed at 7 feet off the floor. Joe and I put a few in at this height and we all had this feeling that it was just a little low, so yesterday morning Nancy and I discussed it and decided that it was worth pulling out the ones we'd already installed and moving them up about three inches. Joe and I spent the rest of the day putting them in and at the end of the day it was clear that moving them up that 3 inches made all the difference. It was worth it to back up a little and re-adjust.

Snapshots

Today was another day of great weather and we got as much done as we could, leaving part of tomorrow to finish up the roof. Yes!

We had some visitors today.

Roof roof roof

We spent the better part of last week doing all the trim/rough sawn edge work around the perimeter of the whole roof. This includes the drip edge, the roof trim, the ice and water shield and the visible rough sawn overhang sheathing. This is labor intensive and, once done, sets us up to install the plywood over the main part of the house and run right up the roof in short order.
This morning we polished off the very last of the pre-plywood work and then installed a few rafter ties. The rafter ties serve two purposes: mated to the rafters they complete the triangle that becomes the structural unit of the roof, tying the rafters together so they resist spreading from the downward force of gravity; their other purpose is to create a lowered ceiling effect on the second floor while still providing an open view up to the cathedral ceiling. There will be rafter ties on each set of rafters all the way down, so they will act in effect like a loft floor above the second floor. The ties need to be placed within the lower third of the length of the rafter which puts them about 7 feet above the floor.

I am particularly excited about the creative possibilities created by this element of the house design. We can hang things from them, create a loft on top of them, put lights in, on, or around them--whatever we like. They are going to give the second floor a playful and spacious quality that feels great to me. We only installed a few of them today. Once we've got the plywood up on the roof we'll put the rest up.


The weather today was an astounding 65 degrees. It was the first day in weeks that we actually felt hot. I kept joking with Joe that it was too much for me to take and that I thought we'd have to quit early. Given the fact that we are working up high and you have a lot to manage at the same time, its a blessing to not be fighting the cold at the same time.

Give us a couple of days...

We're hard at work on the roof and making progress. We spent much of today working out the trim details around the dormer; that stuff takes time. We have high hopes for lots of progress tomorrow and I think we just may get this thing roofed by Friday.

Now to sleep...

All Hallows Night After!

Our faithful Canon camera bit the dust from too much, um, dust, dropping, maltreatment, rain, etc.. so we bought a new one and we're (me) gonna treat it like a precious jewel. It has a cool feature that allows long (up to 15 seconds) exposures, so I just went out and played around a little. These seem appropriate to the spooky mood of the season.

Ah ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!

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

The Roof

Adam

Joe and Adam in the dormer preparing to put on the shed rafters

Me, installing a lookout

The house with almost all the framing in place, save the shed dormer rafters

Adam, having just installed Joe's expertly cut rafters that form the shed dormer roof

Sunday we received an email from our friend Adam wondering if we'd like a little help. Adam lives down in western Massachusetts and wanted to come up our way for a concert in Burlington and offered to help out while staying at our place.

Of course we said "Great!"

So today Adam showed up just around lunch yesterday and he joined Joe and I as we continued closing in on completing the roof framing. Today all three of us went at it again and completed the framing. This means we still have to install the roof trim and rough-sawn perimeter sheathing before we actually sheath the whole thing, but Adam's help is just what we needed to move us very close to this important milestone. The three of us made as much hay as possible and got a lot done. I was just struck with a feeling of gratitude for the efforts of both these guys helping to make our dream become reality. (It also occurred to me that the three have contra dancing as a common bond between us, among other things, and, with Nancy nearby in the yurt, that there was an uncanny density of contra dance talent present on site today.)

Joe is headed to Louisiana this weekend for a Cajun dance event on Friday and Nancy and I are headed to a couple of events in Massachusetts Thursday afternoon, so we are temptingly close to closing in the house. I suspect it'll happen early next week, but we'll just have to see.