The view from the loft

This photo gives a good idea of the view from the loft. Click on the photo and you can see Mount Sutton more clearly. It kind of blends in with the sky because of the light.

Looking at this picture, it's very tempting to change the plans and just make a huge picture window to the second floor wall. A lot of the view will be obliterated by walls, but the windows will be large enough so that you can see Mount Sutton once the poplars are cut down if you place yourself.

I'm also tempted to put a small rosetta window in the middle of the triangle at the peak of the wall.

Walls are going up

Walls were up on Thursday, I'm a little worried that the rain tonight is going to get into the unfinished walls as it pours off the roof. We're supposed to get about 30 mm, which is a lot. It will then flash freeze sometime Monday night, and will leave a huge mess on the worksite.

In the photo at right you see the north and west walls. The window opening is in the north wall for the bedroom. I climbed on the scaffolding to take the second picture, which gives a good idea of the view from the second floor.

Window dimension details

The dimensions we used to calculate the window sizes were not Elite's standard sizes. No problem here. You don't really notice the difference.

Item	Qty	Type	Desired dimensions	Standard sizes
1	11 6 2 2 1	Double hung a) living room b) bedroom c) loft d) bathroom	2'6''w x 4'10 h	31 1/2 x 59 1/16 130 mm (5 1/8”) frame 130 mm (5 1/8”) sill sill inclined 6°
2	2	Fixed* (cathedral area)	2'6''w x 4'10 h	(31 1/2) x (59 1/16) 130 mm (5 1/8”) frame 130 mm (5 1/8”) sill inclined 6°
3	1	Double casement (kitchen)	4'w x 3'4''h	(47 1/2 x 39 3/8) 130 mm (5 1/8”) frame, 159 mm (6 1/4”) sill
4	1	Double casement (bathroom)	5'w x 2'6'' h	59 5/16 x 31 1/2 159 5/16 x 31 1/230 mm (5 1/8”) frame 159 mm (6 1/4”) sill
5	1	Casement (dining)	2'6''w x 3'4'' h	30 1/8 x 39 3/8 130 mm (5 1/8”) frame 159 mm (6 1/4”) sill
6	1	Casement (pantry)	2'6'' w x 2'6'' h	30 1/8 x 31 1/2 130 mm (5 1/8”) frame 159 mm (6 1/4”) sill
	17	Total

Finished ceiling

The crew finished putting up the ceiling and roof trusses yesterday. It's starting to feel like a real house. We now have to wait for a nice dry day and a full crew to install the roof insulation, sheathing, and house wrap. The house site is at least protected from the next snow storm.

In the meantime it's now really cozy under the ceiling. It feels a little more like a barn than a house with the winter weather and dampness. You do get an idea of the loftiness of the space. The second picture is actually taken from under the cathedral area in the living room looking towards the second floor.

More progress on roof

Here are a few pictures as of January 15. The first affords a lovely view of the vapor barrier and the roof trusses on the south side of the building. Not the prettiest part of the construction process, but crucial from a structural point of view if you want to keep humid air out and the roof up. The roof trusses were custom built in Abercorn and are made of 2''x2'' studs with 1'' thick x 11'' wide plywood in between them. The rock wool batts go in between.

The second picture is much nicer showing the tongue and groove planks on the finished half of the ceiling. You can also see the wall trusses all ready to go under the plastic.

Roof progress

This was progress on January 11, 2010, a good days work putting up scaffolding, trimming ceiling planks, and nailing them to the rafters. Lots of snow on the hill, and the cold has kept the crew away until now. Ceiling looks great, though.

Hint of a roof

By lunchtime today, the builders had gotten about 1/3 of a way up the south side of the roof, which you can see in this picture if you look carefully. The tongue and groove ceiling planks were by and large straight, despite their 16-ft length, and fit together well. There were some slightly warped planks, which Joey and Gord cut into 8' halves.

Although the hemlock was very dry, there was minimal splitting when they nailed them down to the rafters. The planks are actually reddish in hue, contrasting with the timbers which appear to be more yellow/green, depending on the light. I didn't get a final picture because it was too dark, but if you click on the image you might get an idea of what the ceiling will look like.

Digging out

The builders were back today, so Lisa and I started digging out after a month of a quiet worksite. Here I am digging out the bedroom. It was cold today (-9 C) and a little windy on the roof, but the guys showed up and started laying down the ceiling planks.

We had a lot of snow over the Christmas break.
It was quite a dig.