Finishing the Framing

Today was the final day of framing.

Here's a walk through of the framing work, including short explanations of staggered studs, thermal bridging, space efficiency.




Here's a homemade 'music video' of the crew putting the final window into place.

Putting a Roof Over Our Head

The framing is almost complete! All that is left now is to put in the windows.

Starting next week, we’ll be putting in the windows, and beginning the electrical work and doing the rough plumbing. In the last couple days, we've placed the sheathing on the roof, finished framing out the windows and skylight.

For those of you in the Portland area, I hope you are able to come to the first open house on Sunday from 12-2pm. Here’s more information about it. This will be the construction phase open house, where you will get to see the completed framing work. If you're not able to make this open house, fear not. We'll have one or two more of them in the next three months.

Siga wrap-the weather resistant barrier

The Second Floor and Roof Sheathing

This video series shows the sheathing, facia board, interior and exterior walls, the stair design, and more!

Raising the Roof

The roof framing

Raising a 500 lbs ridge beam 20ft into the air by hand is not an easy task. It takes strength and communication.

Here's a five minute video of the crew of eight, raising and placing the ridge beam at the apex of the structure.



The roof itself rests on joists, which span from the balloon framed sidewall members, to the ridge beam.




Here are some pictures of the day's events



The skeletal shell of the ADU is almost complete. The next several days will consist of sheathing the roof, framing the interior walls, installing windows, and wrapping the structure in a weather resistant barrier.

Framing (part 2)

The first floor has been assembled. Here are some videos of the 2nd floor being built.

First, the wood must be dropped off. This is not how I imagined they did this.



Here's videos of the second floor being built.


Then, we balloon framed the west wall.



Here's an update at the end of the next day.



Holy cow! Tomorrow, we'll be finishing the roof!

Framing

The Framing has begun. Amazingly, this phase is only going to take 7-10 working days, but will result in what will look like a house. I won't be able to keep up with the pace of this framing crew, but will certainly post pictures and videos as I'm able.

The first day of framing was incredible. Before my very eyes, the structure that I had been seeing in SketchUp models and in my mind's eye for months, was crystallizing into a solid, beautiful, purpose-filled form.

Here's a four minute video that shows the Balloon framing process during the first day.



Here are some pictures of the framing.

Foundational Fundamentals: (Part 3) The Pour and Flatwork Finish

We poured and finished the concrete floor.

This phase of the project, more than others leading up to it, make the house seem all the more real to me. There is no turning back now.

For the concrete slab floor, which will be my interior floor, I had insisted upon a glassy finish. The tradesmen did a solid and fine job at pouring and smoothing the concrete. However, the great Cherry Tree in my backyard, for which I dedicated an earlier post, had other ideas about my glassy finish, mocking me yet again. More on that momentarily...

This five minute video is a series of nine shorter videos that capture the stages of the concrete slab pour and finish.



The concrete slab pour and the delicate steel-troweled flat finish all happen in one quick day. The concrete team doesn't work on rainy days because the concrete won't cure properly. If it's not raining, they work.

And if it's windy, they work. As it so happened, this day was a windy day. On windy days, trees in full bloom, tend to lose grip upon their flowers.  And "The Cherry tree" as I wrote in my post, "is in full bloom".

During the final sweeps and steel troweled finish of the concrete, it was snowing cherry flowers all over the wet concrete slab. The concrete guys would diligently sweep and pick the flowers off the wet concrete floor, but the flowers kept falling.

Eventually, in the arced sweep of their steel trowels, they pressed the remaining flowers under a thin layer of concrete. And, when the wind died down, and the concrete finish was done, it appeared as though the cherry leaves had been forever buried by concrete, forgotten to all but those who had seen the leaves swept under the final finish. That night, as the concrete set, the flatwork finish looked picture perfect.

24 hours later, the concrete has dried and the smooth finish has revealed its disposition. Scattered Cherry leaves have emerged through the top layer of concrete, leaving cherry tree flower fossils densely speckled throughout the glassy smooth finish. My best guess is that the concrete dried and shrank downward just enough to allow the thin veneer of Cherry flower leaves to emerge through the drying concrete.

Instead of a steel troweled smooth finish, this laughing tree has left a permanent etching of its character. Despite our crafty effort, the natural world has left another unforeseeable biotic stamp in its wake.

My eyes and feet will be left with an unforgettable memory of this day in the foundation.

The fossilized imprints of Cherry flowers in otherwise perfect concrete flatwork