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!

Bedford Landings continues to take shape.  It is just as we had depicted in the model that Jack built.  See model in foreground.

The Blue Ridge TimberWrights crew continues to be a wonderful. Here they are placing the front, and largest, bent.

The photo below features the SIPS (Structurally insulated panels) that are cut for windows and doors.  Wiring is fed through the SIPS before they are placed. This is the corner of the dining room with windows overlooking the cove.

Then turning around, the window below looks across the driveway toward the neighbors. Each post will have a sconce.

Each peg is cut to flush on one side and within one inch toward the exposed side. Yikes- really high!

The SIPS are being worked all the way around.  This side is the Master suite.

I love the intricacy of the timbers with the complex morning shadows!

The crew will work Friday and again Monday then they will leave and we will begin laying the second floor!  Stay tuned!

I know it may just be a Karen moment (only funny to me), but when WSLS Channel 10 did the interview with me on Friday about Bedford Landings, it seemed (to me) much like the interview with the wives in the Apollo 13 movie.  Marilyn Lovell told the other wives to just comment on camera that, “We’re proud, happy and thrilled!” Here is that clip. There is a 30 second commercial first.

Now watch this 30 second news story on Bedford Landings. I just wish I had said “We’re proud, happy and thrilled!”

On a side note, some of you know that Jack’s birthday was Friday and he has been so wrapped up in the house that he didn’t realize the super surprise party I set in motion for him!  Thanks to all who kept it a surprise! 

Stay Tuned!

 

 

Usually Karen does the posts, but Jack is posting today.  This is an email he sent to non-facebook users. He outlines more technical aspects.

Today we began raising the timberframe for our house/bed & breakfast.  In the central part of the house there are four “bents”, that separate the space into 3 bays.  We got 3 of the 4 bents erected today.  Tomorrow we’ll get the fourth bent in place, then finish inter-connecting them with girders and purlins.  All joints are standard wood joinery (primarily mortise and tenon joints – see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortise_and_tenon) pinned together with 1” diameter oaken pegs.  The timbers are Eastern White Pine from an old-growth forest in the Appalachian mountains of northern Georgia.  Most are 8”x10” but some are larger, ranging up to 10” x 12” for some of the posts and 8” x 16” for some of the girders.

 Here are some pictures:

 

 

In this picture, the first bent is being prepared for raising.  This bent frames the fireplace so it was actually raised in two pieces – the stone fireplace and chimney will fit in between the two halves of this bent.

 

 

Here you can see the size of the crane (45-ton) that was used to raise the frame and set it in place.

 

 

The first half of this bent is in place with the posts seated in the pockets made into the floor system to receive it.  The crew is bracing it with 2×6’s screwed to cleats on the floor.

 

 

Then we raised the second bent, which has a “Hammer Beam” truss in it (see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammerbeam_roof) .  This will visually frame the stone fireplace in the finished great room.

 

 

Then the girders inter-connecting the two bents were installed, one at a time, including the knee-braces that add rigidity to the frame.

 

 

By the end of the day we had 3 of the four bents in place, with enough of the interconnecting girders to assure us that all would still be there in the morning (that’s me in the orange hat, talking with Paula Davis, the Project manager from Blue Ridge Timberwrights).  Tomorrow we’ll install the fourth bent and all the rest of the interconnecting girders and purlins.  Today was Karen’s birthday and tomorrow is mine.  This is the best birthday present either of us has ever had!  We are so thankful to see the house that we have dreamed of for over 6 years finally coming together.

 TodayWSLS-TV, Channel 10 in Roanoke is coming out to do a story on us, our timberframe house and our B&B.