The journey of building our new home!: 10.27.2015

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

10.27.2015

Jim got to the land a little later than he wanted to this morning...he got the quote back from the roofing people and it was quite a bit more than we were expecting. Of course, now they include all the special pieces, like hip and valley pieces, that cost more. The roofing place is still insisting that we use copper flashing because of some galvanic issue with the rubber. I had already asked the company rep about that and he said it wasn't true. So Jim put the question to the company on their website and someone called back. It ended up being a good conversation and Jim learned quite a bit about the product - and this guy insists that you don't have to use copper, although the roofing material lasts so long that you have to make sure everything else you use does too. So more pondering on roof issues is in store for us when we thought we were pretty much done with that decision. While the conversation with the roof rep was good, it took up some valuable working time.

But Jim got busy and spent another morning making rafters...

After lunch, we got up on the deck and started installing. First up was the clip angle...

Putting the next rafter in place...

Fastening it down...

Measuring for the next clip angles...

Another rafter in place...

Bringing up the next piece...

Getting the location marked on top...

Then we got it in place and Jim is fastening it down...

The last main rafter on the back side was a tough one. This piece has a 2" flange which makes it much heavier to handle. Then you can see how tight the fit is - while poor Jim is holding up the top, I have to fit it in between the clip angle, the stud and underneath the sheathing. Whew.

Four rafters up and in place! While the pictures make it look fairly easy, there is so much prep work to each of these rafters. A lot of it is work that Jim has to do moving the scaffolding around for each piece. The platforms have to be in a certain position so that he can prop the top end of the rafter in between the platform and the frame while I hold the bottom and he scrambles up the scaffolding. Then he has to move the platform again so that he can reach the top to put the rafter into place. And he is up and down the scaffolding tower countless times for each rafter - making sure everything is in place both top and bottom and then fastening it down both places. Usually the scaffolding has to be moved to a different position and then it starts all over again. Jim's muscles get really fatigued between carrying and holding the rafters, moving all the scaffolding, and then using full force to get all the screws in. Especially now when the driver is working at about 50% efficiency.

But we pressed on. The next rafter is a dormer rafter which gets attached to the end of the wall, so Jim had to put up a temporary brace to hold it. This rafter also gets attached to the big main rafter we just installed, so its fit is a little different.