29 July 2014

Big crew today: Sean, Ian, Fred, Perry, and I… plus perfect working weather means good progress made.  Perry, with some chainsaw help from Ian (this is not fine furniture we’re building… obviously), cut the rafters on the east side of the house to length, made the horizontal undercuts (where the soffit will attach), then put on the sub-fascia 2x6. Sean, with considerable help from Ian, installed permanent braces under the southwest hip rafter, then cut a large chunk out of the middle of the hip where the woodstove chimney will penetrate the roof.  That done, they put in the purlins missing from that part of the roof structure.  After a couple of go-rounds, Sean and I figured out the design for two steel braces that he will have custom built to secure the cut ends of the hip rafter to the chimney… while preserving the required 2″ air-gap separation between the wooden hip and the chimney masonry.  Fred and I spent the day installing exterior wall sheathing, finishing the north and south walls and coming within one piece of finishing the east wall before the beer alarm went off.  After everyone had departed, and just as I was headed down to the lake for a bit of aquatic exercise, the Goodro Lumber truck showed up with a load of 2x8’s that will be used for rafter tails between the bottommost purlin and the sub-fascia.