MORE OF OUR HOME
Construction continues at a frantic pace here. At least, it will if the materials and sub-contractors show up on time....
The first picture above is of the dirt pile, looking north. On the left you can see the kids' clubhouse -- on the right, just past the swings (and behind the dirt) the remnants of the shrub gone mad a.k.a. the climbing tree. The swings were moved for construction, BTW. The picture doesn't really show how big this pile of dirt is. I've had to be very stern to keep the kids off of it. And if you think this looks bad, you should see the east side of the yard, which resembles nothing except a dirt racing track for monster trucks.
The second shot shows the west side of the house. The top window you see is our current bedroom, the bottom window is in my studio. This was taken just before they closed in the basement walls. You can see where the windows are on that side. The next shot shows the view from the NE -- looking toward Dave's yard on the west. They've got the "plywood" up on the exposed basement in this shot. The last shot was taken on December 5th, 2003. The plumbers had finished digging our new sewer connection, and then the basement guys came and backfilled the hole that had surrounded the house. The shot of all that marvelous dirt shows the north side of the addition and the west (sunlit) side, going toward the existing house and studio. Now we're "stuck" waiting for the trusses to hold up the roof. Not much can happen until they arrive, and that may be the end of next week.
So, the trusses eventually came, along with a huge crane to get them off the truck. This thing was monstrous, taller than the 100+ year old trees in our yard. I got vertigo just trying to see the top of it. It picked up the heavy roof beams as though they were matchsticks. The second crane, which was supposed to haul the pieces up to the top of the addition did not show up. So our guys hired some other guys and just manhandled the pieces up -- the same way the Ancient Egyptians might have done it over 4000 years ago. Seeing human beings move heavy and cumbersome architectural members with ramps, levers, and other simple machines makes one realize why our species is running the planet (more or less).
After they got the trusses up to the roof, they had to stand them up and then put the roof sheeting over the top. First up was the north wall -- which will eventually have a window in it. They stood that, pinned and braced it, and then put the OSB (plywood substitute) on the outside. Then they began to put OSB on the roof. The "truss wrestlers" came back and helped put up the beam work for the stairwell cuplola. Then the carpenters raced against snow flurries to get the rest of the roof sheathing attached. Next up, is enclosing the wall spaces (like the cupola) that still have open spots. After that, the real shingling begins. And once the shingles are done, they can start on the interior in earnest. Compare the middle shot above to the similar "newly sided corner" shot at the bottom of the previous page to get some idea of how much our house has changed in just the last month. The last of the pictures above were taken on Decenber 23, 2003 -- just as the snow started falling.
MORE TO COME...
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