End of Phase 1 of Framing!

After an unexpected trip to North Carolina, a severe sprained ankle, cold and windy weather and a touch of stomach flu for Rick we have finally finished phase 1 of the framing!

Start of East wall.   Rick is standing where there will be a sliding glass door.

East wall finished

Start of North wall

North fall finished

Start of wall between garage and house.

Garage wall finished.

One of our focuses in building this house has been to re-use and recycle as much as we can.  The old Highway 96 (where we live) used to cross one corner of our property.  On the property right next to us was a bridge that spanned Rito Enceno, a creek really that crosses the NE corner of our property.  Before the next door property was sold, the owner removed the bridge to install a couple of large culverts under a new road. We got all that wood!  Some really cool stuff!  There's a lot of dry rot but there's also a lot of good wood.  We are hoping to use some of the big pieces (some of it 30' long!) to frame the front door and garage.

Rick measuring the bridge wood.

Another shot of the wood.  Despite the dry rot on the end the rest of it seems pretty sound.  We won't know for sure until we get out the chain saw and make some cuts.

Doesn't look like much but there's a lot of really good wood here!

I'm hoping this pile will at some point turn into a trestle table.

A couple of years ago a neighbor dismantled an old log cabin in the village.  These pieces will be vigas over the bedroom.

Another shot of the soon-to-be vigas.

I especially like the idea that pieces of our community will become part of our house.  It will help to make our house feel connected to the history of our village.

Here's the view from our road.  You can now see the beginnings of a house!