Walls, roof and driveway

This week the carpentry team was busy finishing the walls in the timberframe part of the house, and building the insulated roof. Meanwhile, the excavating team was busy building the permanent driveway which required a lot of fill to be brought in to achieve the correct elevations. We were excited to drive down the driveway this weekend. The firt picture shows the house viewed from the garage end looking into the mudroom and kitchen(garage not yet built), while the other 2 pictures show the view looking down the new driveway, with our car parked at end of drive!

Dock in

It was a nice weekend, so Jack put on his wetsuit to do the water end while Deb handled the land end of aluminum dock assembly and placement. We are now ready to receive visitors by water! And Jack is now thinking that maybe he needs a boat to tie up there.....

Timerframe Pictures by Molly

Last weekend we were excited to have Sara visiting from Abu Dhabi, and Molly and 18 mo old Taylor here to surprise her. We took them to the site and Molly took some pictures with her artist's eye. Enjoy!

SIPS Panels

This week the carpentry team started putting up the structurally insulated panels (SIPS), which serve as the walls. These are foam insulation sandwiched between wood panels, all one piece, and precut per the building plans. The pictures below show the house from front and lakeside. The master bedroom and garage are not yet framed in. The lower 3 pictures show how the spruce tongue and groove ceiling looks against the Douglas fir frame. The first shows the loft over the entry way. The second the greatroom keyed beam ceiling and the last the kitchen ceiling. Pretty interesting timber design.

Timberframe completion!

Tuesday was a high point when the carpentry crew finished assembling the timberframe, and actually began applying the tongue and groove ceiling boards. This crew of Derek, Aaron and Brian, pictured below (left to right) with Otis (the chief construction dog), did a phenonmenal job on this project. We had a hard time convincing them to allow this picture to be taken! There is a tradition among timberframers that a pine bough be nailed to the top of the structure upon completion, so Debby brought a pine bough from our Juniper Lane house, and Brian dutifully scaled the structure to hammer it into place. The video below is a short clip of that action. We were excited to be there, and so pleased to have such a great crew working on our house.

Large "keyed" beams in place

Progress on the timberframe was rapid last week, culminating in the placement of the largest beams on top of the great room. This required a special crane, because the beams are each 12x12 inches, and are attached to each other by the hardwood keys, or cut outs in each piece. The first figures show the crew placing the beams. The lower pictures show the frame at this stage from several perspectives, ending with Debby standing in the dining room.

Timberframe Progress

It's amazing to see how 3 skilled carpenters can assemble the timberframe. Brian and his crew are skilled and are really fun to watch. It would be easy to just stay there all day watching. We love the frame, and it is possible now to imagine the completed spaces. Very exciting for us, and now things are moving really quickly. In the lower picture, Jack is wishing he were working on the timberframe instead of just visiting!

Retaining Wall Progress

Gary continues to marvel us with his machine made walls. All these boulders are too heavy to imagine moving. He selects the correct size boulder from a pile, and places it accurately with the help of an assistant and a laser guided height level. The pictures below show walls in various places with detail of Gary placing a boulder on a wall supporting the patio area on lakeside of house, seen from above in the previous view. To watch him quickly maneuver this large machine makes it look like a living creature. The last picture shows the hill that they have to go up after dumping the boulders below the house. The bulldozer is used to pull the empty truck up the steep incline! Pretty amazing.