Friday, April 29, 2011

Taking Shape

     Had three days in a row to pretty much just build---all in really good weather.  AnnaMarie kicks me out early but as a courtesy to the neighbors no power tools until 7:00 am.  Sometime around 11 she'll call me home and we'll have lunch together, then back at it until sunset.  It takes a little while to put things away for the night.  Then shower, help with homework, visit, eat dinner, then off to bed---typically with a few things to figure out for the next day.
     All the steep rafters with compound angles are in.  All the curved rafters, too.  The rafters on the back side are pretty simple, just an angle where they meet the beam, a birds-mouth cut where they rest on the wall frame, and an angle on the rafter tail for the soffit later.  I have 5 out of 11 of those in--should be able to finish that tomorrow if I get off work at a reasonable time.  The back upstairs wall was plumb on the two ends but about 2" off in the middle, so it got pulled into shape and held there with a board until the rafters are in place to secure it (if you don't do this, the wall is forever held in the wrong position.  Doors and windows stick, pictures don't hang straight, all sorts of bad building karma)
     We're slowly regaining our driveway, too.  What had been three semi truckloads of building materials in our home's driveway, eating up three parking spots, is now down to a little stack.  I'm going to have a fair amount of wood left over.  Maybe for a single car garage, which would be nice
   Here's the boards that become the long rafters.  They're 20' long 2x12's (80-100 pounds each) The old truck just keeps chugging along.  It isn't a far trip---across the street---but then up a very steep driveway.

No comments: