Roof is Package Nearly Complete

December 21, 2014

The Trusses were all set before Thanksgiving. In the 2 weeks after the crew placed all the plywood and built out the hand framed sections of the roof. Now we are onto applying the roofing material.   Last week on Wednesday, the roofing crew started.  First thing they did was bring the roofing material out and set it on the roof.  Doug and I have been working on the windows to get the rough in completed around the concrete.  This includes the dividers between the windows.  This is where all the close measuring during the building is paying off. The window holes are very square and just the right size for the windows.  Of the 9 windows  in the maim level Doug completed 5.  Below are the current pictures of the house.

Roof Trusses and Exterior Posts, Kitchen Wall

 November 23, 2014 Sunday

We found a framing contractor to work with us to put up the roof trusses and do the exterior and interior framing.  For the exterior framing there are 3 areas that need to be built out before the trusses can be installed. This included the Car port to the North, the Back Door entrance to the South and the Patio to the West. The Posts and Beams in these areas are load bearing and part of the look that we wanted for the house.  The posts and beams are 10"x 10" Douglas Fir.  Each beam is attached to the house with a metal plate that was custom made for the location.  Doug had these made here in Hillsboro.  He painted them a brown to protect them from rusting.

Inside the house the shear wall that will support the stairs and be the kitchen wall  was installed by the framing crew. They also installed the upstairs floor joists and built the stairs.  Pictures below.

Then the Roof Trusses were delivered on 11/21/2014.  Over the next two days the trusses for the main portion of the house were installed.  When I drove home Friday (11/21/14) morning I could see the carport trusses from the highway. That was very exciting. Setting the Roof Trusses took the better part of 2 days.  The Clear stories that we have on the top of the roof were a driving factor. The Clear stories have supporting box around them to support the weight of the Clear story and the weight of partial trusses supported by the box. On either side of the Clear story is  girder truss to carry and transfer the roof load. The distance between the girder trusses  had to be precise as the connecting girder truss was premade. Day one all of the Carport trusses were set and all of the large girder trusses were set.  On the morning of the second day we checked the positions of the larger girder trusses in the main living area. The crew had measured to the outside of the girder instead to the inside, this made everything off by  6 inches. These trusses needed to be moved. By end of the second day with a second crane truck we had  both of Clear stories boxed in and most of the main house trusses up.   

Chimney Rock and Sub Floor

 

November 22, 2014

We have been working on the chimney rock and sub floor. 

After the block chimney was constructed we selected the decorative rock for the outside.  This required several decisions to be made. First we need to select the rock. Then the color of the mortar and next the width of the gap between the rocks and the depth of mortar. We drove around several neighborhoods looking at rock and mortar.  We selected the rock pretty quickly. For mortar the mason made several samples for us. He applied some rock at the base of the chimney so we could make our final decsion. Then he started to apply the rock to the top of the chimney where he needed the tall scaffolding to reach.  We wanted to get this rock work completed so we could remove the scaffolding and start working on the roof.

Pictures of the Chimney are attached below.

At the same  time we were installing the sub floor. The plywood for the sub floor is 1 and 1/8 inches thick.  Marty and Doug placed all the plywood expect for two sheets. This hole will allow us to get under the floor to do all the work for plumbing, air ducts and electrical.

Pictures of the sub floor are attached below.

Floor and Sill Plate

9/21/2014    just installed the floor and joist in the last few weeks  then the inch 1/8 th plywood.    we left a couple of sheets off to help with the crawl space access.   the stone mason installed some samples of mortar color and depth and will start shortly with the chimney decorative rock.    we are now installing the 2x12 around the top of the rastra wall to give the truss work a place to attach.   we have moved more dirt up to the house to make it easier to work on.   

before the floor joist  were installed we built two pony walls the length of the house to help support the concrete floor that will be poured later this winter with the radiant floor tubing in it.  the pony walls have three crawl space openings in each so we can have access to all the underfloor areas.   we attached simpson brackets to the floor ledger that was hung last year, we had to coordinate the bracket with the 3/4 inch anchor bolts that were imbedded into the rastra wall . all the vertical 2x6 pony wall supports had to line up with the floor joist for support.   the floor joist came full width of the house to make installing them easier , just trim to length and slide down into the bracket .  alot of wood blocking and nailing finished the job.

with the plywood down we marked out the walls on the interior of the house so plumping will be easier and after rough plumping will come the heat duct work.   then  we will attach the last sheet of plywood and use the crawl space opening . 

pictures below

Back Fill and Floor Trusses

September 3, 2014 Wednesday

 With the piping inspected we filled the trenches around the house.  Then we continued to back fill around the house.  The carport was filled with gravel that was compacted in lifts.  The dirt line shows in the photos below. 

The chimney is completed with cinder block. Waiting for the decorative  rock to be installed. Doug, Ruth and Helen drove around town to look at rock on houses to pick the color for the chimney.

The floor trusses are going in.  Before setting the trusses Doug built two pony walls the length the house. The trusses will sit on the walls. The trusses span the full width of the house.  The bedroom trusses are shown in the photo below.

Drawing of the HOUSE- Viewed from NORTH

This is the view of the House from the North.

Walls are done on ward with the Chimney

July 28, 2014 Monday

Since the last posting Doug and Family have been very busy around the house and with life. 

After the last concrete pour in the walls the forms were removed.  The forms were then dismantled and stacked to be used later if needed.

Our crawl space is conditioned and will be used as the return for the air handling system.  The footings need to be insulated and protected for fire.  This was completed by covering the footing edge with rigid insulation. Then  covering the entire footing with concrete.  Doug lifted the concrete mixer into the center of the house and completed this task.  Pictures are below. This required more form work.

Next we added dimple fabric to the outside wall as  an additional protection against water infiltration.   This required all hands on deck to get the material rolled out and nailed to the wall.  Pictures are below.

Then the Rain Drains and  Grey Water lines:

While we were digging trenches and putting in piping we installed the Electrical, Clean water and Cable for the satellite tv.   Lots of holes in the ground.  We also reconnected the main line for the farm irrigation back to the Pump.  Pictures below:

 With the piping and water supply installed and inspected the next step is to move on to back fill and chimney.  The Chimney will be 32' tall and roof attaches to it.  Bill is building the Chimney

Back filling

may 9 remove all the form and beam work and guess what so far the concrete beam are still standing.  alot of clean up to be done and then doug will start doing some finish up insulation on the footings .

final pour of concrete in walls

april 30,  we did our final pour .   we had alot of help from friends and that saved the day.  dick and ann meeuwsen,  and their son ben.  marvin vandyke,  brent hunter,  and the flemmers concrete crew.   only had one bad blow out that we fixed and got on with.   roughly 12 to 13 yards of concrete plus  mikes concrete pumping truck.    on this last pour we were spanning the window openings so we had to hold up the wet concrete with wood beams and plywood  we cut the center of the rastra block out and built wood forms around the top of the wall to hold the rastra during the pour .    there also is four 5/8 rebar continuous around this header beam.  this last portion took several months to prep for with all the forms to build and install.  we had to stage anchor bolts in the window and door openings so they would be embedded in the concrete.  also had to make sure anchor bolts got install in the top round of this header beam to hold down the trusses.  The walls without the floor inside the house are roughly 13 foot tall so we had a crew of four pushing scaffolding around during the pour.  we also had several people up ladders and some of the concrete folks were walking the wall .  It is the most exhausting two hours from start to finish , glad i don't do it for a living.   Masonary fireplace will be our next big project with the suspended floor going in before the trusswork will be installed.

March 9, 2014


We  are working toward the last pour.  All the whole blocks of  Rastra have been placed. The final round at the top will be a concrete beam that runs around the entire house. Bridging over the window and door openings.  The beam will have 4 pieces of 5/8" rebar in it.  Looking at a cross- section of the beam -there would be 3" of  Rastra, 6" of concrete, and another 3" of  Rastra.  To get this structure the cells are cut out of the Rastra block and a panel remain. The rastra panels are held in place by the wood forms that are banded to the wall.  In order to keep the panels from falling in during the final pour all-thread is run across the panels.  nuts with washers  keep the proper spacing between the panels and will be left in the wall after the pour. in the pictures you will see anchor bolts for the windows in the form, this end the bolt will be embedded in the concrete after the final pour.