Finishing up the details...

Josh and Brad complete the ridge cap on main living.

Is it a porch or is it art?

Here comes the glass

Here is the beautiful laminated glass for our entry porch.

Getting the glass on edge before it is put on the skids to move to the roof.

Putting the glass on the skids, being so very careful to support it so it doesn't bend and crack. 

Slowly, inch-by-inch, the glass is moved up the skids to the porch roof.

Working the glass upward and forward...

Moving it into place.

Making fitting adjustments.

The smile of gratitude and pleasure that the glass is in place and in one piece.

Testing the structural integrity!

Welding Trusses for Entry Porch

Here Brad and Josh are busy building the structure for the front porch roof.

Entry Porch

The past few days Brad and Josh have been hard at work building our front door, which is now glued and drying.  The threshold is installed, as is the door jam.  The front porch is also being constructed which started with metal posts being welded to a steel I-Beam.

Engineering Questions Answered...

Remember, back on 10/15/08 there were engineering questions (See Main Living Engineering Questions) regarding our roof and wall structural integrity?  Josh, in this photo, is installing one of the solutions.  See the crisscross metal between the rafters in the photo?  On the interior there were bird blocks where the crisscross metal pieces are being added on the exterior.  Outside Brad didn't want bird blocks because he wanted the light and air to pass between the roof and the beams so these metal straps solved the problem.  Also, part of the solution involved adding double blocking along the ridge line.    

Milestones

The roofing is on the last of our three buildings and the gutters go up.  Dan and Josh balance on one unsafe looking board after another to get the job done.  Note our "lake" in the background, under the bridge.

Roof at "finish-up" stage

Main Living Roof

Mainliving roof is happening this week.  At the end of the  day it was about 1/3 completed.

The guesthouse and north side of main living.

Pondering the roof's connection to the porch.

First piece of roofing...

Brad fits the first piece of roofing on main living's roof after carefully custom cutting the top end and folding it for the perfect fit.   Before walking on the freshly swept roof, Josh cleans Brad's boots (Hum, who is the stable boy?  Horse?).   In the background, Dan is working on tedious blocking. 

Main Living Moves Forward

Tar paper prepares the roof and walls for roofing and siding.  Also, hard to see, but the flashing in almost completed around the bottom of the walls.

Southeast corner of main living is waiting for the large corner window

Covered porch of main living looking out on the greenhouse and garden

Main living and guesthouse

Tar Paper

A little supervision from Elliott

Brad, Dan & Josh

Josh & Dan putting up the tar paper

Ready for the metal roofing, except for one small spot of  plywood I need to paint

A roof before Thursday's rain...?

                                          

Soon -- a roof!

Main Living rafters are in place and plywood underside has been painted white.

Onward and upward with the rafters

Dan, Travis, Josh and Brad still working at 6:30 this evening.

Guesthouse and main living connection from the west

Guesthouse and main living connection from the east

A complicated mass of steel and wood angles

Rafters, collar tie and beam

Pretty strange looking building at this stage with rafters only at both ends.

The first steel rod collar tie is in.

Rafters, collar tie and new beam.

The Roof is Happening

This is the outdoor porch part of the roof.

Brad, Josh and Dan cutting and fitting rafters

Construction site from the southeast looking very much like a construction site.

Construction site from the west looking very unlike a construction site.

Unfortunately, by 3:00 work had stopped. A huge downpour moved in requiring a quick scramble to put away tools and cover lumber. Tomorrow the forecast is for a couple of showers, but no rain like today. Hopefully we'll be back up on the roof tomorrow. We're all, needless to say, anxious for the main living to take shape.