Closing in

Three walls went up this week.  Left is the wall between the main building and the screen porch.  The opening is for the door.  The wall on the right has openings for windows in the dinning room and library.

Inside view of the screen porch door and dining room window.

Most of this missing wall will be windows.  The rough openings will be built after the rafters are in place.

The two ply beam is bolted to the post.  Next week a crane will lift the rafters on the beam.  Bolts shown are temporary -- still sourcing nicer hardware.

Here's a short video of the planer at work preping the timbers that will be the rafters:
http://youtu.be/rr6RPW5UfJg

Building is nigh

The floor of the main building is nearly completed.  Two side walls are built on the floor and ready to be lifted.  Working is easy because the weather is unseasonably warm and dry.  Planer shavings carpet the building site and help to keep muck off boots. 

Timbers are graded and sorted into piles according to their use as rafters or beams.  The best looking ones are tagged blue for use in areas where they will be seen the most.

This section of floor is the overhang in the main building.  Blocks of blue rigid foam provide R30 insulation.  Any gaps in the blue foam were sealed with sprayed yellow foam insulation.  Ducts for the heating system are installed while the cavity in the floor is still accessible.  The boards are part of the side wall.  When that four ply post is stood up it will be under the main beam.

Wood prep

Timbers in the foreground are 2x10 inch white oak, mid ground are 2x6 inch white oak and the pile in the back is 3x12 inch red pine 30 feet long.  We felt that their rough sawn finish needed to be refined to match other planed materials.

White oak timber rough sawn,

Planing a timber on all four sides takes about 45 minutes per timber.  The first step is to scrape the surface clean and remove any frost.

A small electric planer is best for the edges.

A large 12 1/4 inch planer smooths the face of the timber.  It usually takes three passes and the slower it progresses, the better the finish.  It weighs 40 lbs and cuts with two blades at 12000 rpm.  It's performance and the results exceeded expectations.

Planing reveals a lot of personality in the timbers.

The red pine cleaned up beautifully.

After only a few days of planing, a mountain of shavings piled up.

Going up

The three steel posts that will support the beam and the rafters were installed with anchors epoxied into the concrete.

Made of stainless steel, the hollow post is 1/4 inch thick and polished with a 180 grit.

Two plies of 3x12 inch red pine will sit on the post and be bolted together on either side of the knife plate.  The seat and knife plates are 1/2 inch thick.

Wood delivery

Semi trailer arrived from Wisconsin on January 7 pulling a 43 foot flat bed trailer.

The road leading to the cottage site was too narrow for such a long trailer so the load was dropped about one kilometer away at a wide bend.

Tarps pulled back and the first sight of the lumber.

15 flats of assorted timbers, decking and siding.

A skid steer with a fork lift removed all of the wood from the flat bed.  The skid steer ferried 10 of the flats to the bulding site where they were hand bombed into storage.  The timbers were too long for the narrow road so a few at a time, the timbers were transported using a pick up truck. 

Each pine timber weighs around 400 pounds but with sufficient leverage and the help of good friends, they were managed.

Load balanced and secured for the trip down hill to the cottage.

Piled at the building site.

The last timber of the day.

On the left is interior roof decking and in the corner is a pile of outdoor decking.

Backfilled

View from where the guest bedroom window will be.  Water is easily visible when the leaves have fallen.

 

On November 3 the excavation was filled in all around both buildings and the piers.  Hyrdo line is installed below grade, seen looped over the wall in the middle of the main cottage. 

The lot slopes gradually around the building and drops off faster as you approach the shore line.  The two large boulders flank the entrance to the path down to the water's edge.

The workshop portion of the guest cabin is partially built.  The side walls and roof are temporary for the purpose of storing materials required for the framing. 

The front yard is a blank slate for landscaping.

This pier, now buried to the hilt, is almost five feet tall.

This enormous boulder is a main feature in the front yard.  Better learn to like it because it's not going anywhere soon. 

Guest bedroom and workshop foundation walls

Footing is plated and crawlspace floor is insulated in readiness for the foundation walls.

Walls nearly completed.  Made of PWF, a pressure treated wood suitable for below grade building. 

Blue skin applied, footing backfilled and plenty of frostshield installed all around.

Guest bedroom frost shield overlaps the frost shield under the deck.

All of the piers are wraped to prevent them from being lifted by frozen ground.  This heavy black plastic is re-purposed packaging material from the insulated concrete forms.  It will all be buried soon by the back fill.