Farmhouse Addition - Week 9 Updates

Although this weekend wasn't completely a washout, the sustained high winds turned out to really slow things down.  Ultimately, we still made good progress though.

We were able to set all the truss tops and get them sheathed.  Mike had the brilliant idea to sheath them before we tipped them up, which turned out to be a real time-saver.  You can also see the ladder trusses in place to create the 16" overhang.

Here you can see the ladder trusses at both ends.  We were also able to patch in 3 rows of sheathing on the left side.  About 12 sheets to finish this side!

Lots going on in this picture

Looking up at the overhang on the south side.  Trimming the excess roof sheathing will be the last step before shingles.

Overhang on the north side.

For working up on the truss toppers, I built some custom scaffolding for better access.  It made it a lot easier/safer to work at the top.

Up in the top truss pieces.  Lotsa wood here!  Even with all the bracing, the wind this weekend was still causing the whole structure to shake a little bit.  Once all the roof sheathing is on, it will really stiffen it up.

It's a long way down to the 2nd floor, not to mention the ground!  

The addition is officially higher than the oak tree...but for how long?  Not a bad view from up here either!

Looking over the edge.  Keep in mind the scaffolding is 5 frames high and still doesn't reach the peak!  Also note the dual purpose bird feeder/TV antenna combo!

View from the top is sure nice! 

 Inside the main trusses.  You can see the auxiliary scaffold platforms setup to work on the peak.

 Here's a good picture showing the connection between the main and top trusses.  

Picture of the front overhang.

Picture standing on the 2nd floor looking up.

As if the new construction project wasn't enough, I started demoing in the bedroom which needs to receive new roof trusses.  The demo needs to occur to confirm the framing details - and all of this needs to occur before the two roofs can be tied in. 

Quite the selection of colors the previous owners chose!  You can also see previous water damage.  Of course, the owners had grabbed some nice paneling and covered all this up.

It's cool to open up walls and see how things were built.  No square nails in this lumber, so it isn't super old.  Now I just need to clean this mess up!  Also, I have to give Mike credit for the blower in the window. This thing really moves some air - there was practically no dust during demo - it just all got sucked out.

That's it for this week.  Stay tuned next week - should see shingles make an appearance on the roof!

Farmhouse Addition - Week 8 Updates

Lots of progress this weekend - it is looking more and more like a house!

The gable ends were sheathed this weekend.  Not pictured is the scaffolding set up on this side of the house for access.  The truss toppers still need to be set on top of the trusses.  Notice also the roof sheathing is installed on most of the east elevation.

Looking at the roof surface.  The sheathing is left out at the south side where the overhang still needs to be installed.

Invaluable tool from my father--in-law, Mike.  This 12v winch from Harbor Freight hauled up all the sheathing and lowered down all the scaffolding used to set the trusses.  It really saves a lot of physical labor.  The best part is that it has a wireless remote, so you can operate it from the ground or on the 2nd floor.

Looking up into the roof trusses at the completed sheathing.

Looking to the south - the gable end is 3/4 sheathed!

Looking to the north - this gable end is complete, with the exception of the gable end trusses.

Photo of the south gable end sheathed.

South elevation scaffold - 5 frames high - it took most of the day just to set this up, but it was worth it for safety!

It's a long way up there.  We will take the far tower and move it to this end to complete the remaining sheathing.

Looking north - the oak tree still conceals the whole addition quite well!

Starting to look more like a house now!  Lots of wood!

Here you can see the ladder truss we pre-fabricated in 8' sections.  The overhang will be trimmed once all sheathing is installed.

Looks like a house!

The addition kind of dwarfs the house, but it will all work out in the end.  Our awesome architects Nicole and Teresa at The Urban Studio planned out all the details to make everything look cohesive!

That completes week 8 - next week we hope to finish the roof sheathing and overhangs and start installing shingles!  Stay tuned!

Farmhouse Addition - Week 5 - 7 Updates

Well, I broke the cardinal rule of being a good blogger - being that 3 weekends have now gone by since the last update.  My apologies followers!

Anyway, weekend 5 consisted of completing framing and tipping up the majority of the 2nd floor walls.  Here are some pictures to follow along below:

Looking to the NW - This long 34' wall was built in 3 sections.  It still took everything 3 adult men had to tip up the sections.  The OSB sheathing was pre-attached, which added more weight.  The advantage to doing it this way is that you don't have to try and lift/nail sheets up from the outside up 2 stories!

Looking to the NE - The house looks very boxy now, but with the windows cut out and some different siding textures, it will break up the box-yness.  In this picture you can also see that although the addition looks very tall, it lines up perfectly with the floor levels in the existing house when you compare to the 2nd floor windows in the house.

Up on the addition looking SW - The corner room you see framed is the future office.  Notice that the roof overhang on the existing house will conflict with the walls on this side and will need to be cut back.

Up on the addition looking NW - It's a shame this nice new roof on this side of the house that we re-did when we moved in will end up being removed in order to tie in the roof.

Between weekends 6 and 7 we hoisted up all the roof trusses and got them tipped up and set into place/braced.  Needless to say, it was a lot of work!

Looking SW - All the main trusses are up.  The heavist truss was about 420 lbs.  My father in-law Mike really bulked up his good arm cranking up each and one of these trusses from the ground up - all in one day!  The 3mm (about 1/2 the thickness of a wood pencil) braided steel cable from Harbor Freight really held up well - although we did not get close to the max load rating of 1460 lbs! The flat part on the top of the trusses will receive another small triangle truss to get to the peak.  The trusses have to be shipped broken up like this because otherwise they would be too big to navigate the roads.

Looking NW:  The structure is almost taller than the oak tree!

Looking to the NE - It's a long way up to the top!

Master Bedroom - We decided to go with inverted trusses to create a tray ceiling in the master bedroom.  It is a cheap add to the truss order and will give a grand look to the master bedroom, and try to get the ceiling fan up higher so that when I get dressed in the morning and put on my shirt, I'm not always getting my arms whacked by the blades!  The perimeter of the room will have a 2' wide band of ceiling at 8' high - then it will jump up to 9' in the middle ceiling area.

Looking against the old house - Under the steel siding we discovered the original wood siding.  It actually looks to be in pretty good shape given how old it probably is.  You can also see in this picture we cut the overhang off.

Here you can see how we cut off the overhang.  It actually went pretty quickly - just put an old blade in the circular saw and cut through everything.  By the end of cutting about 20' of shingles, nails, etc the blade was definitely toast!  The worst part was all the nasty old dust that came out!

Neat picture looking between the new and older houses.  Not much room to spare!

Up inside the trusses - it is 11' from the bottom to the top of these trusses.  I can stand up and walk around in them no problem!  For a size reference, the sheets of OSB on the floor are 4' wide x 8' long.

Looking on-top of the trusses.  In total there will be 6ea  2x4 boards running parallel with each other to brace the bottom trusses and support the top portions.  Even I get a little shaky when up this high!  The ground is about 35' down!

Looking down at the shop - looks small from up here!  You can also see the truss tops sitting on the ground.

 The rainy weather this weekend produced a fairly spectacular double rainbow - it was probably the brightest I have ever seen!

Stay tuned for the upcoming weeks.  Lots more hard work to get all these shingles installed once the sheathing is up.  Having the shingles on will be a huge milestone for this project!

And of course through the whole project, our cat that showed up this year affectionately known as "Shop Kitty" has provided supervision and after hours security.  Here she is napping on my work bench keeping tabs on the shop.  

Thanks for reading.  Say tuned for week 8 of the farmhouse build - lots of excitement yet to come!