Family Affair

Between the very hot weather and Rick's work, progress on the house has been slow to non-existant.  Family arrived on June 28th and while we needed to play tour guides, we did manage to get some things done.  The small trusses on the hip roof needed to be installed and some gussets needed to be added on the back side of the beam across the opening to the garage.  Diagonal strapping also had to be installed.

But first a little play.  Our grandsons, Kyler and Riley thought the scaffolding made a wonderful jungle gym!

Here's my niece, Caroline, putting up one last piece of the bond beam that we had forgotten.  She drove all the way out from North Carolina and brought her hammer (that was her late-father's) and a couple of nail pouches - also her late father's.  After a couple of hammer strikes, she started feeling more comfortable with her role as house-builder-helper and did a wonderful job.

Here's Rick and my son, Dylan, getting ready to install the final trusses.

Almost done with the last of the trusses.

Dylan nailing up one of the gussets at the back of the big posts at the garage opening.

Daughter-in-law, Julia, nailing up the other gusset while Kyler and Riley hand her nails.

 

Because they were such good helpers, they got to add their names (and hand prints) to the framing of our house.

Caroline and Rick adding strapping to the inside of the big garage beams.  The wood for these beams was pretty green when we got it so we added these straps to help keep them from twisting as they dry.

The day I had to take my son and his family to the airport, Caroline and Rick installed diagonal strapping.

It was wonderful having my family out here to help.  Their energy will forever be a part of our house.  Now to get them back to help with the plastering!!!!

July 8th

All of the manufactured trusses were finally up but there was one that still need to be constructed and installed.  We will have a pull down stair in the garage that will lead up to the storage area above the garage.  In hind sight we could have had them construct a regular attic truss for us that we could have modified but we didn't realize that at the time so we had to build one.

Installing this truss really made me appreciate even more the help we had with all the other trusses!  And to think that we thought we could do it by ourselves - not!  This truss wasn't big but it was a challenge for just the two of us to get it up.  We did it, though, so now our house doesn't look like it's missing a tooth!

This is Rick installing the framing for the opening where the drop down ladder will go.

After much heave-hoing and up and downing (Rick had to go from one side to the other, up and down the ladders a number of times, in order for us to get the thing centered correctly) we managed to get it in the right position!  I'm still not sure how we did it but all of a sudden it was right!  Must be a Spirit truss!

Done!  Just a couple of braces yet to add.

The final roofing project before sheathing and roofing material can be installed will be to build the extension that goes out over the garage end but that's for another day.