Climate gone crazy..

We are the country that spring forgot! What a winter to try to build a house !  Last wednesday was the worst blizzard in 20 years, with howling winds and incredible snowdrifts. Here is the pattern of snow left one our window by the swirling wind.
And this is just an uncivilized amount of snow to land at a time we should be seeing bare ground.






Here is a little bit of hope and cheer from my greenhouse where I have to go now and then so as not to lose my mind.

Between weather events Ben got the extra truss moved up into place where you can see two sets of doubled ones here, to accomodate a future chinmey.            With the next storm upon us, there is inside work to do turning 2 of the old bedrooms into one larger one with a small half bathroom for the bedroom and a pantry for the kitchen.

That means a lot of sheetrock coming down to move walls, create new ones, and accomodate plumbing and electrical. This is going to create a big roomy space, just have to imagine beyond the mess.    Today, after a blessed day of thawing,  there is a vicious ice storm upon us, everything is coated and the trees are bending over with their weight of ice.  The bathtub and water jugs are filled, oil lamps ready, hoping the power lines don't go down...                                                          

Mudroom is added..

Still working around snowstorms that can mess us up for half a week, but the mudroom entrance is now framed up.
There will be a 3 foot roofed landing with the final steps going the other way when they get to that stage.

Another snag sorted out...Because there are no bearing walls, the cathedral trusses are closely spaced at one foot apart. (On the right side they rest in joist hangers fastened to the tripled scabbed together truss set going the other direction.) Eventually we will want a wood stove, but the chimney needs a 14" space between the cathedral trusses. So we ordered another truss which arrived yesterday. One truss will have to be moved over and joined to it's neighbor and the new one inserted to join the next one over, so we have a wider space created, but strengthened by double trusses.

Here is Ben yesterday, sheathing in the back side of the roof over the bedroom extension. Today we have pouring rain and strong winds, not a roofing day..but at least we won't have to shovel it.

Moving Right Along...

Today the guys got the rest of the living room cathedral trusses up and the side sheathed in where the bedroom roof meets up with the living room roof. There were problems to solve along the way, such as the original building being a little off the 8/12 pitch and the truss company making the cathedral trusses 4 inches too small. You can see they dont come to the edge of the wall on the left, where they should. Also something was wrong with the rafter tails and they had to be cut off, but my problem solvers say they can build the parts out to where they should be.

This wasn't the best day for roof work with a brisk wind blowing, but they got one whole side sheathed in..

and the small and smaller trusses in place to join the two roofs together.

So happy !

Lots of progress this week...

It's been a loooooong hard Febuary with way too much bitter cold and countless snowstorms, 3 of them came all within 6 days, so we are very glad to see March. On top of weather holdups, Ben fell off the icy steps and injured his arm so was out for a week recuperating.

This week he built the floor frame for the side mudroom entrance, and with 2 more helpers, all the trusses are up and the gable end closed in for the main floor bedroom.This roof will meet the living room cathedral ceiling at a right angle.

Here is the old roof overhang being cut off in pieces to make way for the first cathedral roof truss.

..and the first truss being manuevered into position, on the ICF wall at this end, and at the other end they will rest in joist hangers fastened onto the first perpendicular truss.

As each truss goes up, Ben measures and braces it in place. This roof is obviously thicker than the old roof. This will allow for a lot more insulation. Farther down the road we can add insulated panels to the old roof to bump up the R factor.









Feeding the next truss trough a window hole, and flipping it up into position...

more to come tomorrow..........