Week 11 - Framing 2

So this is the way that the house looked at the end of last week when I wasn't happy with the office roofline and stopped the framing to re-evaluate.

After a virtual conference with Hal (contractor), Bob (architect) and Mike (framer), which means that everybody talked to everybody although we were never actually all in one place at one time, I decided to change the office roof to a gable in the front. I left the hip in the back, which looks a little odd from some angles, but only when the tree is bare.

It went up very quickly and I like the look much better. It's important to note that, the change made no structural difference and since I stopped the work early, it wasn't TOO expensive a change. If that had not been the case I might have had to live with it or pay a lot for this change.

Hal also convinced me that, at least under the eaves, the plywood should be changed over to the T111 that was originally specified. After seeing it, I'd have to say that it looks pretty good this way and does indeed look a lot like the original tongue and groove boards of the period.

However, inside the porch, I decided to simply have the rafters faced with T111. It won't be the same, but I think it will be a very clean look.

Now that the space is finally enclosed, this is the week that they broke through the front wall of my house and start framing in the pocket doors.

Before that could happen, I needed to finish the demolition which meant taking off the shingles, many of which I was able to salvage for my neighbor Gordon, who has the same style of shingle on his house. He will use them for any repair or patch work that he might need to do in future. He also took the attic window for use in another project.

Under the shingles was a lapped siding that wasn't salvageable.

And then I was down to the studs.

The living room, before and after.

I would have to say that, in spite of the amount of dirt I've been tracking in over the past several weeks, I was not prepared for the amount of dust, dirt and general crap which is making it's way into my house now that the wall is down.

The bedroom window is now gone, although the destruction here is not as much as I expected, since Mike was able to remove a couple of studs and leave the lath and plaster attached to them in place. The space is completely enclosed and safe, but I still feel oddly exposed with this big hole in the wall.

This week the concrete guys also came back out and put the forms up to repour my front retaining wall. In the process they obliterated all the gravel I had been laying down. It was a calculated risk on my part, since I know they'd have to work in the area to place the forms, I just didn't think they'd throw everything they dug on top of my work. Sigh.

On Friday the roofers also came out. They are only doing the new section, which will be dove-tailed into the existing roof. The old roof will be replaced when I get the back end of the house done.

Although the roofers didn't finish the roof, they did get enough done to make it more or less weather tight, a good thing since it rained heavily over the weekend (no apparent leaks anywhere.

Week 12 - Electrical