Preassembly begins ...

... as the sun comes out in the afternoon. The snow actually stayed on two hours longer than predicted, mocking my weather forecast. Embarrassing ... how do you explain subgrid-scale orographic effects, a turbulent boundary layer, and the limitations of deterministic forecasts to a public wary of weathermen ...

All smiles now as Willy discovers to his pleasure that everything fits together. All measurements are punctuated by a "Perfect!" ... Willy says you never say "good enough" in front of a customer :-).

The saw is for cutting off the pegs that fasten the mortises to the tenons. That's timber framing jargon. The tenons are the parts that jut out at the end of a beam and the motises the holes in the beam that receive the tenons ... or is that the other way around?

The temporary power supply makes for a nice quiet worksite and easy access to power tools. Glad I did this ... don't need a diesel generator. The saw and drill actually inaugurated the power supply.

Viewers should click on all these photos to see how beautiful the timbers are. The sides of the timbers with marker on them will face towards the wall.

The timbers arrive ...

... along with the December snow. We had about 4 inches of the stuff that morning.

It doesn't look like there is enough here for a house frame but there is! It includes in 17 foot 8''x8'' post and a few large 8''x10'' beams. They were stacked in two stacks.

The unloading was eventful. Willy the framer joked to me that my cameea was there to record it in case they fell. Well, the second stack did fall. These are not construction grade 2x4's, but hand sanded, hand oiled, and hand finished timbers, so Willy was quite upset at this. Only one small rafter was slightly cracked, fortunately, and a few beams had a little mud on them. It's hemlock anyways, so it will check and crack as it dries.

Frayed nerves were soothed by the fact that the pieces all fit together and lines up with the foundation walls perfectly.

Order for roofing

References: VicWest Roofing, SuperVic (Data sheet, Installation Guide), Galvalume

Main roof

We ordered metal roofing for our house because it's guaranteed for 50 years. While shingle roofs will fly like kites with the first strong breeze comes through, and leak after 15 years, the metal will stay put.

VicWest is metal roofing made in Victoriaville. Ordering galvanized steel as opposed to a painted roof saves considerable money that we put into a thicker guage of metal (26 as opposed to 28; low numbers mean thicker steel, for some reason). The local code requires to use a galvanized metal called galvalume, which is steel with a zinc and aluminum coating. Only agricultural buildings are allowed to use regular galvanized steel roofs. I will have to bring this up at the next town meeting before some poor guy has to rip off his roof.

Ordered it form Cowansville RONA, a really great place. I've never been disappointed with the service there.


- VicWest Super Vic
--19' l x 30'' w; gauge 26
--30 sheets x $63.27/sheet = $1898

- Ridge cap (Fr: faitiere)
--10'2'' length x 15'' w; gauge 24
--8 sheets x $24.11/sheet = $192.88

-Eave trim S-122 (Fr: bordure de toit)
-- 10' length; 90 degree angle; 7/8'' on fascia; 2 7/8'' on overhang; gauge 28
-- 8 pieces x $11.89/piece = $95.12

-Foam closure, above profile, under ridge cap (Fr. lisiere fermeture)
-- 4'2'' length
-- 18 pieces x $2.38/piece= $42.84

- Foam closure, below profile, above eave trim
-- 4'2'' l
-- 18 pieces x $1.88 = $33.84- Screws
- 1 1/2 ''
- 1200 x $0.05 = $60.00

Filling in the foundation

This is Eric with the big loader filling in the foundation, covering the drainage pipes with 1/2'' clear stone. Fortunately, Normand is working a larger project very nearby and these machines just have to rumble over for these little jobs as they come up.

I was careful to remove the wooden supports gingerly and shovel the crushed stone around the drains manually so that they stayed at the level that the plumber installed. The ones seen here are actually the drains for the kichen and the adjacent walk-in pantry.

Finished foundation

Here are a couple of pictures of the insulated foundation. It gives a good idea of how we did it. It's about $2000 of stryrofoam SM, but it will pay for itself over our lifetimes in heat savings. The aluminum coating on the interior is very visible, held in place by tape. This may be overkill, of course, but the stuff is cheap. It's also effective. Lisa said it really heated up on the inside as she was finishing the job.

In the first picture, Kitty inspects her new catwalk. It will not be one for long.

The second picture shows the sunset over Spruce Hill, with the access for the septic tank in the foreground.

Roof Dimensions

Time to order the roofing. The roof dimensions are shown in the image at right.

• Length: 37'
• Width: 19'
• Depth: 13 1/4''
• Horizontal overhang (gables and eaves): 18''
• Support height: 11' 6''
• Fascia: Raked, 13 1/4''
  
• Soffits: Raked, 13 1/4''

We are going with SuperVic metal roofing from VicWest ordered from Rona in Cowansville, (manufactured in Victoriaville, Qc.) with a Galvalume finishing, a metallic finish similar to zinc galvanized steel, but with some extra aluminum in it. It has a slightly less shiny look.

For some reason, the local Frelighsburg code allows a Galvalume finish, and not a regular galvanized finish (that's only allowed on "agricultural" buildings). It's the same price, so it's not a big deal, but on principle I will bring this up at the next town meeting as a somewhat obscure code item.

References: VicWest Roofing, SuperVic (Data sheet, Installation Guide), Galvalume

Foundation insulation continues

Lisa points with pride to the fine job she's done insulating the foundation (not to the post anchor). In this photo, the outside is finished and the inside is in progress. She has since finished the inside.

Today, she insulates the pilasters and I line the inside with aluminum foil vapor barrier. Aluminum foil vapour barrier reflects the heat radiation emitted by the crushed stone into the space between the crushed stone.

Did I mention that she's very handy with a knife?