Farmhouse Addition - Week 11 & 12 Updates

Another week of great weather in MN!  Although not a lot of huge visual progress over the past 2 weeks, a huge milestone was attained - the roof is complete on the addition!  No more water dripping and getting everything wet inside.

This weekend we also got the first row of Tyvek installed.  

 No huge changes from this view - however, you can see the Tyvek installed on the first floor.

View from the front - although hard to see, the roof is complete including the ridge shingles.  Also, notice the lower wood sheathing - perhaps a bit overboard, but my dad and I taped all the joints in the sheathing to reduce air infiltration.  It took a while, but the house will be tight!

I have always wondered why you see Tyvek installed upside down - why would anyone ever do that?  Well, today I finally solved the puzzle...WIND!  It is much easier to have the wind blowing against the roll as you are unrolling it vs. trying to get behind it causing it to try and take off like a sail.  Mystery solved.  But, yes, this upside down thing does still bother my lovely wife!

The west side of the roof - knocked this out by mid afternoon on Saturday.  I left the slide guards up as we will probably be back on this roof to tie-in the existing house roof.

Well, almost made it to the end of the first floor before the roll ran out!  At least the writing is the right direction!

 Here you can see the tie-in for the new roof.  I ran the shingles long on the lower portion - when the trusses are installed, we will flip the shingles back, install the trusses and sheathing, and then continue on with the shingles.

Being this roof is 3 stories tall at the peak, safety is important.  I installed a permanent tie-off system in the middle of the roof for future maintenance.  It is basically a stainless steel strap with two D rings - one coming out each side.  It sits under the ridge vent/cap shingles and is fastened to a truss with 10 - 3" nails.  You can't even pick it out from on the ground.  

My lovely wife picked up a cool addition for the shop - now I will always know where my keys are!

And, by popular request, here's the Shop Kitty picture of the week - hanging out on a random board right in the middle of the action.

Stay tuned for week 13.  Windows are scheduled to show up this week!

Farmhouse Addition - Week 10 Updates

Happy belated 4th of July!  My 4th of July consisted of 4 solid days of construction work.  Luckily, the weather was very cooperative and we got a lot accomplished!  This weekend we were also blessed with a special helper, my grandpa from Illinois.  Don't let his age fool you - he will outwork most anyone on any day!  

 Sheathing is now completed on both sides of the roof!  Yay!  You can also see the partial ladder truss on the right peak. When the existing portion of the house roof is removed, a new truss will peak at where this ladder truss (overhang) ends.  You can also see shingles are about 2/3 done on the east side.

Great view of the east elevation.  I worked on shingles in the mornings before the roof got too warm.  The first day I started, I worked until around lunch time and the shingles got so hot they were burning my knees while laying them!  Thus, I transitioned to working on them only in the first part of mornings.

The shingles really make it start to look like a house.  Also, notice we removed all the scaffolding from the left side of the house and moved it around back.

A great sight - the final peak is completed.  Just a few sheets to trim off on the opposite side.

After a long day's work on Sunday, we finished sheathing the west side.  Boy, did it get warm in the afternoon.  All that is left is to trim off the OSB and then it is ready for shingles after the other side is finished.

View from the front of the house.

For comparison, this is what our preliminary rendering looks like - it is starting to come together now!

The addition still seems to dwarf the house, but it will tie together nicely once the existing house roof is renovated to become a little taller.

Here's a nice group picture on Sunday afternoon after finishing work.  The crew enjoying a cold brew after a successful day of work!

Here's my grandpa driving the tractor moving shingles around to the back side of the house.

Here's my grandpa cutting some spacers for between the gable end truss and next one over.

And of course, we can't forget the newest member of our family - Shop Kitty - guarding the lift.  This is actually one of her favorite places to nap now.

And as the saying goes, "Knee high by 4th of July" - the farmer who farms the field around my should be very happy this year.

That's it for this weekend.  Next weekend we will try and complete all shingling and have a weather tight roof!