Category: The house

Today’s work was pretty dramatic. At last some of the rafters are in, and the height of the house is visible. First, some framing went up for the front and side dormers.

Viewed from the front, here are the rafters for the right wing.

The right wing viewed from up the hill

Installing part of the ridge for the left wing. Seen from up close, the height of this house is pretty imposing. But if you get back a hundred feet or so, it shrinks to cottage size and snuggles into its setting between the hillside and the woods. By the way, the rafters are sitting on what the contractors called a knee wall. The knee wall rises about two feet above the level of the second floor’s floor, and the ends of the rafters are notched into the knee wall. Come to think of it, that may be the complete ridge for the left wing, since it’s a hip roof. I’m terrible at working with three dimensions in my head.

Another view of the left-wing ridge going in

The right wing seen from the back of the house

The front and right side of the house seen from up the hill a bit. This picture was taken before all the right-wing rafters were in.

The house sits up against the woods, as is fittin’ for a cottage.

A lot got done today, though today’s work is not very easy to photograph. A truck arrived with more materials just as the materials piles were getting low. The rafter materials arrived today. Those things are long!

At the end of the day

The side porch roof starts to emerge.

The front porch roof starts to emerge.

The stairs up to the landing

From the landing to the second floor

Looking over the balcony from what I call the radio room down to the living room fireplace

Looking from the second floor down the stairs

These two doors are at the end of the living room opposite the fireplace. The door on the left leads to a bedroom; the door on the right leads to a bathroom. The architect loves angles and nooks and crannies.

The framers were able to work a part day on Tuesday. It rained all day on Wednesday. There was a little more than 3 inches of rain here from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay.

Behind the Tyvek you can see the door and windows to the porch that faces uphill toward the garden. Most of the joists are in place for the second floor. The hole in the joists at the back is for the living room, which has a ceiling over 20 feet high.

The kitchen sink will be at an angle in a corner facing two windows. The windows have a great view of the woods.

For reference, here’s the façade again. The framing so far has reached about a third of its full altitude. The height of the house from the downstairs floor to the tip of the roof is about 33 feet. The height from the basement floor to the tip of the roof is — gulp — over 40 feet.

The framers weren’t able to work very long today before the rain became too heavy to deal with. The weather today was unusually cool and unusually wet, owing, no doubt, to Tropical Storm Fay. The framing for the bay window went up, and a couple of the first floor walls are ready to raise. More photos when the weather clears. The forecast for Wednesday is for more rain, so work may not resume until Thursday or so…

As you can see, a lot got done today. The weather is looking iffy for the rest of the week, what with Tropical Storm Fay and some other fronts kicking around. I’m afraid there will be some days of lost work this week.

The framers started work at 8 o’clock Monday morning. Things should start to look interesting soon…

Here’s the left wing of the foundation, finished and parged. The parge material dries more slowly over the cement between the blocks, so I’m expecting the block pattern to disappear once the parge is completely dry.

Here’s the finished foundation. Now you can see the bump for the bay window and the inset for the front porch.

Framing materials were delivered this afternoon. The framers will start Monday morning. There also will be an inspection Monday morning after the framers have bolted the sill plates to the foundation.

Here are the façade and first-floor floorplan again for reference.

The left wing — the downhill side of the foundation — was finished today. It’s now at its full height. The opening is for the basement door, which will be a double door five and a half feet wide. That’s my travel trailer up the hill at the top right corner.

The right wing — the uphill side of the foundation — is not quite done. The front part, where the bay window bumps out, has not been laid. Also tomorrow the masons will apply the “parge,” which is a stucco-like coating on the exterior of the block wall.

For reference, here’s the first-floor floorplan again…

… and here’s the façade.

The masons had to finish their previous job and worked only part of the day today. The part of the foundation shown above is the left wing of the house on the downhill side and is about half of the house’s total footprint. This downhill side is where the foundation is highest, and it’s where my half basement will be. No blocks have been laid yet on the right-wing uphill side of the foundation. The uphill side will require only five courses or so of blocks. The wall above has not yet reached its full height — 7 feet 8 inches.

The part of the foundation in the photo is for the kitchen, nook, entry way, and stairs…

… which I’m calling the left wing of the house.

Today (Tuesday) the blocks, sand, and cement for the foundation were delivered. The masons will start work tomorrow.

I had not planned on having a basement. It was too much for my budget. However, the lower half of the house turned out to be an easy dig for a basement. So I’ll have a half basement. That’s quite a nice bonus, because I gain storage space and even a storm shelter.