Truss Instillation

Day Three 

Today we have more help - Chris.  A strapping young guy who turned out to be a god send.

Here are the guys "bonding" before the start of work.

The first truss of the day going up.

The morning's work - all the trusses over the bed/bath area are up.  It is really awesome to see the change in the house.  The scale is totally different. My big adobe wall that has always seemed so massive now looks just right.  And you can walk around inside and get a much better sense of the volume of the place.  What a trip!

The big challenge of the day - putting up the big diagonal truss.  Here we are moving the first of 4 pieces into place.  When all is done, it will be a big four-ply truss.

First of four pieces in place.

Here's Rick nailing the first two pieces together.

All four are finally in place. Here Rick's securing it with a 2 x 6 so the wind won't blow it over.  Getting all four pieces up and secured took as long as getting all the trusses up over the bed/bath rooms.  Big challenge but it's done.

This is where the dinning room and living room will be.  The ceiling will be vaulted and at the peak it will be 14'!

End of day 3.

Day 4

We were all pretty tired (except for Dennis).  Rick had a job due, Ramey had something he needed to do in the morning and my feet needed a rest so Dennis and I went into town to get some nails we needed for the hurricane clips.  We spent the afternoon nailing them on - they help hold the trusses to the bond beam.  Up to this point I have done a lot of nailing but today I hit the same finger THREE times - ouch!!!  Oh well, so it goes.  Thank goodness for my Joint COMfort salve!

Seeing the roof trusses go up I am in total awe of what Rick has done.  He designed our house and that included figuring out this roof.  I am also immensely relieved that the trusses are fitting!  That means that all my obsessing over measurements between walls at the foundation stage worked!  Whew!

We have been dreaming of this house for a very long time.  It is truly an amazing experience to see our dream finally becoming a reality.  We have a long way yet to go but the progress so far is awesome.