We awoke about 5:45 like it was Christmas Day!  And all day, Jack and I have had that butterfly feeling of excitement and on the edge of tears happiness as the timbers were delivered and the assembly started!  It has gone way faster than we had imagined.  The Blue Ridge TImberWrights crew is laying out the structure on the ground and barring snow on Wednesday, the crane will be here to raise these sections! The following is a sequence of photos from today. More later this week and things progress!

 

 

 

 

This week was SUPPOSED to be the week that we start making our house look real by raising the timbers. However, the timbers didn’t come. Blue Ridge TimberWrights discovered some defects in the timbers called “Shakes.” There is a photo here that shows these defects.  We know we want strong timbers, not ones with defects.  According to this website (linked above), “shake” is the separation of the rings in a piece of wood that occurs as it dries. The wood can also ‘peel’ off around the rings, similar to the layers of an onion. The Timberwright crew could not see the shake until they started working the wood.

The crew is now saying they will be here Monday the 4th to start.  That’s OK,  it will be just in time for mine and Jack’s birthday (March 7 and 8th respectively).  All we want for our birthday is to see some sign that the timbers are taking shape!

This year, Jack will be 60, so he got an early birthday gift!  He has been grunting and complaining about his aches and pains while building.  We knew we would get a hot tub anyway for the house once complete, so we found a pretty good deal with Water By Design in Christiansburg, VA. We put it on the hangar porch and they will come back and move it once we have our house deck on. It only sits 4 people but one at a time, you are each invited to sit with us!  Here is happy Jack with his early birthday present!

The weather has been cold, cold, cold, so we have mostly stayed inside the warm (radiant heated) hangar.  I completed another stained glass that will be used in the front entry hallway of our house. They are poppies and a little more orange that this photo conveys. The next design is for my brother’s new house (in Floyd, Virginia).  As a retired Fire Chief, what does he want?  The maltese cross, of course! I am just cutting the class now.

I know we keep promising timber photos, but hopefully soon…soon!

We generally awaken between 6:00 and 6:30 but some nights we toss and turn all night with the sound of wind or rain on the hangar tin roof.  Relaxing, you say?  Not anymore!  It means there is a storm, it means a wet subfloor and a wet basement floor!  But by morning, the sun is usually shining and we are thankful for another day.

Each morning about 8:00, Jack loads up the cute golf cart.  Remember the cute golf cart we got this summer (scroll to the bottom of the link)?  It has become a tool cart!

Now that I am working for Virginia Cooperative Extension, I work at my desk.  Jack says it looks like Mission Control with all of the monitors.  I have the Va Tech computer and monitors on the left and my PC on the right.  I am really enjoying what I am doing!

This past week, Jack has been framing in the basement.  On the lower level there is the garage in addition to steps up to the kitchen, a game room, fitness room, theatre room, steps up to the Great Room, a half bath, and Jack’s workshop.  He is almost through this framing. Note the wet floors.  Each time it rains, we sweep water.  Once we put a lid on all of this, it will be ok!

This week, I attended a Rain Barrel workshop. It’s far easier to make one than I thought. We don’t have any gutters yet so no place to put it except inside where it won’t blow away.  Here it is with the dumb waiter shaft that Jack has framed.

So in our separate worlds of work each day, sometimes there are mishaps.  Nobody knows that my home office is actually a hangar.  Sometimes the air compressor comes on in the middle of a conference call (really loud) or the dog starts barking.  Or occasionally Jack comes to the hangar and says he needs a bandaid or ice.  Poor baby. I swear I did not hit him!

On Saturdays, sometimes I work on stained glass.  This piece will be for the front entry hallway of the house.  Once it is done, I will share the full piece. Below this picture is a picture of the one I completed for my sister’s new house.  She is building across the lake from us.

So that’s typical winter life at Bedford Landings!  

Until later, stay warm if you are in the line of Orca & Nemo!

 

The past two weeks have been brrrrr cold!  Snow, then wind, then rain, then freezing in the basement! We wrapped the completed first floor with plastic.  That was like wrestling an octopus in the wind!

Despite that, Jack has been working on building steps from the basement to the main floor. There are two sets of steps to build and he has one complete.  He is using this time to frame in the rooms in the basement and build these steps while we wait for Blue Ridge Timberwrights to finish milling the support beams and posts.

The Laker Weekly ran a nice piece on our project in the newspaper which is an insert in     the local paper, The Roanoke Times, and also is weekly paper put out at grocery stores on Fridays.  The article was very detailed but included horrible photos of us both.  We had no idea she was even taking our picture when she did.  You can’t read this so we’ll save you a copy to read when you visit us!

 

 

This week, I have an Extension Conference where I need to teach in Blacksburg and Jack will work toward stairway #2. 
Cheers!

Karen  & Jack

 

How much glue does it take to lay a floor on a 2700 square foot surface?  A whole barrel full! The guys just throw the tubes anywhere so I am left to clean up the debris.

 

Here is a full barrel of empty glue tubes used to secure the tongue and groove flooring for the the first floor!

And speaking of debris, I noticed in this pile of debris, how math is used to build a house. There are a lot of fractions!

The photo below is another debris pile.  (Aren’t you impressed by me blogging about our trash pile?)

And in this photo, I want you to notice is the small piece of wood with the ‘ciphering on it.

We are done with floor deck one, awaiting the timbers to be milled. and Jack will start framing the basement this week.  

Here is an aerial shot from the Pietenpol.  With such lovely weather, he couldn’t resist flying!

This week, we are braced for the change in weather but the last two days have been glorious!!