Buttoning up for Hannah

With tropical storm Hannah on the way (which is expected to drop three to five inches of rain) we decided to cover the plywood roof sheathing with tarps until we are able to install metal roofing. Our thought was that tarps would be reasonably fast and easy, and we had other things in our lives to tend to. But it was windy, and the tarps were awkward and required more securing than we thought. As a result it took pretty much all day, and we could perhaps have applied roofing felt and drip edge in this time instead. Live and learn. We also took the time to spread hay on the fresh loam skirting the house and covering the septic, to try to keep it from washing away in the storm.

Finishing off the rubble trench

During the building party, parts of the crushed stone berm, even though it had been compacted, got pushed away from the building by the Feet of the Many. Our foundation contractor, Nick Jose---who has done a wonderful job---tamped more stone in around the berm edges, installed insulation board over the outside of the crushed stone berm as we requested, and then backfilled with topsoil and crushed stone against the grade beam. See how nice and neat it looks?

Plywood Roof Sheathing

We knew that we'd run into surprises---things we hadn't thought through, unexpected aspects, etc. There have been a number of them in the process of roofing. One mistake we made was to try to marry a rough, inexact, forgiving building style to standardized 4' x 8' plywood sheathing. The problem is that the edges of the plywood have to actually have a rafter underneath to nail to. And 4' x 8' is 4' x 8'. Always. But as thoroughly as we (actually more knowledgeable friends who were helping) tried to measure for, mark, and square the rafters, we forgot that the rafters and their measurements were based on a post and beam framework that was cut with a chainsaw.
In some places we have had to sister extra pieces to the rafters. If we were to do this again, we would recommend planking as a sheathing more suited to such an inexact building method.

House Raising!

On Saturday, August 30, a wonderful and eclectic group of family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances came together to help us raise the timber frame and rafters. What an amazing collection of knowledge, skill, sweat, and generosity!!! Here we have set rebar pins in the grade beam and drilled corresponding holes in the precut posts, and laid them out to be raised.
And as you can see, the house-raising crew took our plans and timbers---and raised the framework for a house!