Lessons learned on the mountain

Another cold, snowy day on the mountain and I've learned a few lessons.

Lesson #1    Never, never, ever leave your truck window down 1" overnight. Why you ask? Because, after a long night of blowing snow you'll end up with a driver's seat, dashboard, interior door, steering wheel, etc. covered in snow. Can you imagine anybody doing that?

Lesson #2    Never leave your roof off before s snow storm. Why you ask? Because, after a long night of snow, you'll have enough snow in your living room to make a snowman or start a ski resort.

When the cabin is completed, I'm going to make sure I take a photo from the same vantage point and make a print of each, framed in a double frame. I don't want to ever forget.


Wait a minute...I hear blowing snow!

Gotta go.

More coming,
z

Rough on the mountain

View at 4pm from by digs

There's not much to tell today except we got snow and could only work until 1pm.

Dagnabit!

More coming,
z

Back on the mountain

After a few days off for Thanksgiving, I'm back on the mountain. Lots of fog, rain, wet, etc. The guys have been moving forward until the weather came in and have sheathed half of the roof. I stopped by on the way in and took this photo of the garage side of the cabin.

As you can see or maybe not because of the fog, the dormer is framed and the sheathing (plywood) is installed on the roof.

We're expecting rain thru Wednesday. I spoke with Tim and he's on alert if the weather breaks ahead of schedule to get back on the roof.

The windows were to be delivered tomorrow but I'm going to see if we can take delivery Thursday instead. It will be dry but cold. Better than wet!

A quick note about Thanksgiving...it was wonderful to take a few days off and share great time with my family. We missed Marlene and Don but otherwise all of us met at Kyle and Olesea's retreat in West Virginia. The turkey and all the fixings were excellent. Can't wait to see everyone (Amy will be in Albania and will be missed) in Miami for Christmas...Santa will be in shorts I'm sure!

More coming,
z

Happy Bird from West Virginia

Spending the Thanksgiving holiday with my family!

Hope everyone has a great one too.

More to come,
z

Biscuits, rafters and Thanksgiving

Tim and James are back at it today setting rafters. These rafters are 20' & 24' long and a bear to move around but they make it look easy.

Lots of heavy lifting for the today and tomorrow.

You're looking at the garage side of the cabin on the photo above where 4 rafters are in place. The small box shape mid way along the upper wall will morph into a dormer once the rafters are completed.

The photo to the left is from the opposite side. This is the part of the roof that will have skylights to help bring in light from above into the living room.

I stopped by the local Hardee's for a biscuit this morning and happened upon this scene. What are the chances that two women would be wearing the same pants and be at the same place at the same time? Somebody needs to take my iPhone away from me before I hurt myself.

Happy Thanksgiving. I'm heading home tomorrow to be with my family and I can't wait!

More coming,

z

Looking more like a cabin

Saturday was another busy day on the mountain. The last of the SIPs panels were installed and now the shape of the cabin is starting to show itself.

The next step is to install the roof rafters. Each rafter is cut specifically to fit from 20' and 24' long 2"x12"  lumber. Once that's completed then the roof decking is installed and we go to shingles. Almost dry at last.

The decking is in the lower center of the photo

The guys decided to take Sunday off. It's supposed to be a day of rest but I decided to build the doors for the workshop before I head out for Thanksgiving. They're made of 2"x10" pine. They weigh a ton but provide added security.

Speaking of Thanksgiving...I'm not one to get overtly excited about stuff but I am about Thanksgiving. I've been here since August 18th and I'm really looking forward to seeing my family for what I consider a great holiday. I like Thanksgiving because nobody exchanges gifts...we just spend great time together, laugh, eat, drink and be merry. I have a wonderful family that sure makes me proud. Our sons are terrific but the women in their lives and mine are the best!!!

What's could be better than that?

More coming,
z

p.s. speaking of Sunday being a day of rest...I'm going to start looking for a church after Thanksgiving. I miss being in God's house!

Back on a dry track

Worked started early this morning with the arrival of the 'boom' truck and our roof package. The roof package consists of rafter 20' and 24' long and Zip-panels for the roof decking. All of this is heavy stuff not to mention awkward to move around and the boom truck made it easy. We had to go from the ground level to the second floor level so you can see why this was a big deal.

While the boom truck was at the job site we had the operator move all of the second floor SIPs from the garage to the second floor. Again, this saved us a lot of difficulty and time. It took about 2 hours to complete the task but it was sure worth it.

Many thanks to Blevins Building Supply for helping us out on the material placement.

We started setting the second floor SIPs about 11am and by 3pm most of the second floor was in place. What you're seeing is the front of the cabin (view side) with most of the SIPs in place. If it looks odd it's because their is another layer that will be placed on to to form the gable end ^ of the cabin and complete the right front wall. It'll make more sense after my next post.

The guys are working tomorrow and Sunday in hopes of having the roof system in place and the decking on before Thanksgiving.

More coming,
z