Last Sunday, Jack started rattling off everything that had to be accomplished this week. He was getting overwhelmed and I was overwhelmed in listening to him. I said, “let’s put it on a list so we can keep track.” And we did. Now that it is Friday, I am proud to announce 98% of the items were accomplished.

Among the items on that list was to have windows and exterior doors delivered. Check. Begin installation, check. Those windows were heavier than they had anticipated. After a few strained muscles, they rented a lift.

A friend sent me a photo of our house under construction from the water. It gave me a new perspective. Then last week, I was taking a golf cart ride down the runway and got another perspective. One day I had to use a neighbor’s driveway since ours was blocked and got another perspective. I think the house will blend in once it is complete. It’s often good to see things from more than one angle (or perspective). That is so in life too, right?

Panel Pros are pro! They spent 10 days here and put on the roofing panels, completed the tongue and groove, foamed all of the joints, added vapor tape and cleaned up! Coming from New England, they loved our weather and southern hospitality. They went home with a better tan than any beach vacation!
Here is Scott working on the lift. Those men scampered all over that roof!

Jack took several of the crew for airplane rides then I insisted on a photo. This was taken as they left the job site Thursday April 18. Thanks guys!

Next steps: Footers for the porches, Tyvec house wrap, install doors, windows and garage doors, build chimney shell, and tarpaper and tile the roof.

I am thinking of these colors:
Feedback?
Hardiplank or Certainteed (the same thing) reps are coming this week to do an estimate on siding. The two beiges are my finalists for the main siding with the darker trimming around the large windows and using the same color on the decks and porches. The green is the roof.

Enjoy the pollen!

OK, so last week, we got 3 inches of snow and yesterday it was 87 degrees! Crazy, I know! But, we remain busy! Jack worked to build the second floor walls. Tom R. and Tom B. helped in addition to Matt and Steve.

Destiny was here for Spring Break when just last week it was windy and still cool. She loved my Blue Ridge TimberWrights sweatshirt and we loved having her here!

This week, a new crew came to put up the second floor exterior walls. The Panel Pros crew of 6 drove down from New Hampshire and the first thing they did was take off their shirts so I supplied them with sunscreen for their poor white bodies.

Although they are raising exterior walls, Jack is still framing interior walls staying a step ahead of them.

I took this photo about noon today and I just love the complex shadows of the timbers and 2x4s. So this is Jack at work…

And this is me in my work clothes. I go out and check on things in between my work (At Va Tech). I have been super busy this week writing materials for Extension Agents and conducting online training. The only drawback from a hangar/home office is when the air compressor kicks on (very loud roar) during my live presentation! Oh, and it is heating up in here. I have to keep it closed because of the noise when I am online live!

When I took photos today, I couldn’t help but notice how the house is starting to actually look like the model Jack built to help me visualize things. Do you recall I posted about this a few weeks ago ?

So look at these great comparisons!
Here is the model of the kitchen and below is the rough in of the kitchen. Can you see what it will look like now?

And here is the Common Area upstairs with the rough in and the model.

Those support beams for the common area will be added this week!

And here is the MASTER bedroom rough in without the walls to the sunroon and bath off of it as well as the model photo.

Once the roof is on, I will post again! Yes! No more sweeping rain and snow out of the house!

This is Jack posting this time – Karen is doing her Grandmotherly duties with Destiny (who’s on spring break and staying with us this week).  I wanted to share what we’ve done in the past week.

Blue Ridge Timberwrights have gone now, having raised the timber frame and the first floor exterior walls.  Now it’s our turn.  We have until April 9th to install the second floor joists, the second floor subfloor and three load-bearing walls that will support the timber roof purlins over the upstairs bedrooms.  Then, a team from PanelPros in Massachusetts will arrive to complete the exterior structure, installing the second floor walls, the timber purlins, the tongue-in-groove pine ceilings, and the SIP roof panels.

We’ve gotten a lot done this week, and have completed installation of all the second floor joists and the installation of the subflooring. 

Here you can see our neighbor, Steve, setting one of the joists for the second floor.

This picture shows the catwalk between the two wings of the house.

We got a good start on the first of the load-bearing walls yesterday (you can see part of it in the foreground of the picture above, laying flat on the subfloor), then knocked off early, bringing all the tools in because it was forecast to rain last night (which it did).  Since today is Easter, we all took a well-earned rest.  

Here is a picture showing the breakfast room (one of the more important rooms in a Bed & Breakfast) with the floor above completed:

I love the look of the timbers and the knee-bracing.  The ceiling above the timber framing will be 1″ x 8″ tongue-in-groove white pine planking. and all the timbers will be left exposed, with drywall between the timbers.

Exciting times!  This is the part of the project where every day we can see great changes.  Once we get to the part where we’re just doing wiring and plumbing, no one will be able to see much change for weeks at a time. 

Many thanks to the friends that have helped us this week – Tom Brown (who sits next to me in the choir at Bethlehem United Methodist Church), Tom Ruckdeschel (an old friend from Raleigh, who originally got us interested in Smith Mountain Lake), Matt Kidd (a neighbor across the runway) and Steve Watts (our next door neighbor). Without them there is no way we could have done this.

Today, we earned our whetting bush!

The timber framers are well in tune with this tradition and were willing to assist as we posted the bush. They congratulated us on the completion of the structural timber portion of the house.  The whetting bush tradition represents a symbol of thanks and respect for the timbers, the forest, and a safe timber raising.  Jack and I proudly stood out front while Tim (with BRTW) added the bush to the top of the timber outriggers.

Jack and I said a prayer to ask God to bless and protect our home and all who enter it. We thanked the forest, the sun, the moon!

 

Standing back, you can see the passive solar system that we have designed that Blue Ridge TimberWrights helped us engineer.  These outriggers were a pain for the crew to install, we are sure, but it will pay off in the summer sun!

 

What a wonderful crew!  On time, paid attention to details, polite and knew what they were doing! Thank-you Aaron, Jamie, Tim and Scott!