StoneCoal Tackle

Well folks, as I said in my last post we had a busy week on the house. Even though we were rained or snowed out a couple times we made some pretty good progress. Monday was a dreary but happy day . A fellow contractor brought his crane truck and set our beams for us............... above is the small one (28 footer). Below is a pic of the master bedroom area with it's three 42 foot beams as seen on tuesday prepping for rafters in the snow........... Tuesday morning started out quite snowy..................... ......could hardly keep the snow off long enough to mark or cut a board! However by afternoon the sky was clear and we were setting rafters:yeah: End of the day brings the full moon rising over newly set rafters........... Wednesday wasn't as productive with the view of the mountains being "canceled" about 10:30AM and us giving up at lunch time:mad:........ It did clear up wednesday night in time to see the total lunar eclipse and on the drive to the mountain top thursday morning this setting moon was pretty cool looking................pic is a little fuzzy but it's the best I could do in the dark.... while driving.......and drinking coffee......and eating a Little Debbie cake . Thursday was better and the weather held good for the day. We got the rest of our main rafters up and it's starting to look like a house. Still have a long way to go before sheathing, with trimming tails, installing face boards and overhangs, framing skylight openings etc. but we're gaining! We'll see what next week brings:) Later, Daymon

Nice work, especially the last one like Pete said. You are way ahead of me on the fins!

Hey Dave, you had asked about an artist rendering of the finished product. Well this isn't great but here's a scan of a computer image of the super market.......'er I mean house:lol:. Dan, we have all the nailers etc. but mostly use them on large areas of sheathing and we use Paslode gas gun finish nailers for our trim work. All our rough framing is still nailed by hand for better control and precision. I always tell the guys that "rough framing" is just a figure of speech and not to be taken literally, LOL. I say "rough framing makes for rough finishing" so "start neat and keep it neat". Those wood I-Joists actually do have some crown in them but the nice thing about them is they are pretty consistent and a 40' I-Joist is probably not a heavy as a 20' 2X12 timber. Bruce, those are the same glasses you mentioned and I know what you mean about wearing them over prescription glasses . Pete, the exterior walls are framed out of 2X6's (actual size 1-1/2" X 5-1/2") and the interior walls are of 2X4's (1-1/2" X 3-1/2"). The headers are made from LVL Microlam beams and the I-Joist floor system rests on treated wood sill plates with OSB (oriented strand board) rim boards. The sub floor is 3/4" tounge and groove "Advantech" which will withstand an amazing ammount of weather without swelling or delaminating. The green wall sheathing is "Zip System" wall sheathing which has a proctective coating that along with taped seams eliminates the need for conventional house wrap. The sub flooring and wall sheathing are both Huber products, check them out at huberwood.com Well it's been a busy week for us with good progress considering the weather. I'll try to load some pics and post later this weekend. Thank you guys for your interest in this thread, hope you're still enjoying it. Daymon

Dano, I think wall jacks are still around but we've never owned any , might invest in some though if we build any wall sections this big again. Anyways we have the walls pretty much framed up the ceiling joists in place in the areas that will have flat ceilings. In the pic above, the large area between the gables in the upper part of the pic is the master bedroom and master bath with the bath having a flat ceiling and the bedroom will be open cathedral with exposed beams. There will be a study area in one corner and a fireplace in another. The master bedroom and bath will total 1500 square feet! Not too bad, mine at home is 1700 sq. ft..................my whole house that is . Have any of you been having strange weather lately? .......................actually I snapped this pic through the spotting glasses for the lazer level while doing final plumbing and bracing of walls. Talk about driving you batty:drool:, try looking through these for awhile. Anyway, here's one of the beams being delivered and no this truck didn't drive on the highway with that 22 feet of beam hanging out the back. The road onto the mountain was too narrow and twisty for the other truck so they were loaded onto this one to make the last mile and a half of the trip. The crane is supposed to be here on monday!

Dave, That's a fine looking pile of beagles you got there! Love the video too, nothing like some "beagle music", always a happy bunch them beagle hounds.

Okay, the upstairs floor is now sheeted and ready for wall framing. If you sight across the floor you see it almost as high as the next mountains......... ....maybe the roof will pass'em up. Here we see one of the four large gable walls has been erected. These end walls are rather large at 36 feet wide and the seven on twelve roof pitch brings them to almost 20 feet tall. The plan was to frame them on the floor, sheet them and then have the crane to set them up............ .......However, various problems which included bad roads that prohibited the crane from reaching the jobsite and over confidence on our part convinced us that we could set them by hand........................... ........which we did by bolting on legs (or braces) and attatching a series of cleats to the floor to catch the braces as we ratcheted it up by lifting our guts out . Then you know how the story goes, "if we can do one surely we can do another" and next thing you know we've put all four of them up the hard way! So, with the gable ends up it's full steam ahead with framing the rest of the second floor walls and setting scaffold to facilitate setting beams to hold roof system, at 7 inches wide by 33 inches tall and 42 feet long we'll definitely have to have the crane for those bad boys......... .........more to come daymon

Here's a couple pics of the upstairs floor framing. ......this is a beam built up of several LVL's to hold the hearth of the second floor fireplace. The joists that run into it are set in metal hangers, we were waiting for angled ones when the picture was taken. ........this pic was shot while standing on the beam/hearth looking to the northwest corner of the house. The bonus room above the garage has most of the floor sheeted. The last pic shows where there will be a cantilevered balcony off the master bedroom. Next time.... some second floor walls. daymon

Jerry, glad you like the thread. These hills do have a way of sticking with ya don't they. As for the snow, you can come get it any time you want and haul it ALL to Florida LOL, I've had enough of it. I haven't been to Boone county for a few years but next time I'm there I'll tell "Jesco" you said Hey!. Hey Mike, I think most of the floors are going to be carpet and ceramic tile but bring your pole and we'll hit "Hog Hollow" for some Stonewall crappie! Well, I know I haven't caught you up in pictures yet but we are about to the point of setting some beams on second floor and start framing the roof. We have the walls framed including four large gables that are 36 feet wide by 19 feet tall but nothing to tie everything together yet except for temporary bracing. We weren't on the job for two days this week because of bad weather which included heavy rains and high winds. So while driving into work yesterday wondering if we had any damage we were greeted by the following sights............. .......This demolished metal barn in the valley about two miles from the jobsite wasn't even finished yet! The concrete pad it was on can be seen in the right hand corner of the photo.......... .....as we turned onto the dirt road leading up the hill we were greeted by this tree that had fallen across the road, luckily someone had already cut it out enough to pass................. Then as we start to climp the hill we find bunches of gullies washed out in the road.............. .....so the ol' heart races a bit and you hurry on the top, kick the headlights on high beam as you head up the last little bank and there you see ...count'em.........................one, two, three.............four gables! Alright! we won that one. Wish we had the roof on this thing man. More to come, daymon

Snax, that is one good looking painted eye man!

Here's some pics from Jan. 16, at this point we were ready to set three steel beams to help support the upstairs floor joists. We had a crane truck scheduled but the mile and a half climb to the top of our hill was pretty icy (it faces mostly north and only gets an hour or two of sun a day this time of year) and the driver didn't want to try it . We also had a load of lumber scheduled for delivery and we really needed the beams in place in order to continue , so when the lumber came we met the driver at the foot of the hill, helped him put his tire chains on and then proceded to talk him into lifting our beams into place for us . Not all of the trucks a have a boom but sometimes things just work out. Won't be long now till we,ll be walking around a floor higher. Will post some upstairs floor framing pics next time. daymon

Bruce, the red things are a bundle of "LVL" Microlam beams. These particular ones are 1-3/4" thick by 12" wide and 32 feet long, in other words HEAVY! We are using them for headers above windows and doors and to header off openings and transitions in the floor system. Here's one as seen against a perfect blue sky........... .......we've been having some funky back and forth weather too. Here's what the sky looked like the next morning......... .....and two days later it was GONE We finally gave up early this day, couldn't keep it swept up fast enough to build anything! And to boot that on Feb. 2, "French Creek Freddie" (our local version of "Pauxatauny Phil") saw his shadow! So that's six more weeks of winter for us! Not to worry though, better days ahead:yeah:.

Hey everyone, I've been having some PC and internet problems and have had very limited access for the past few days, so I haven't been able to update the thread. Thank you all for your interest in this thread and your replies. Hope it continues to be fun for'ya. So, speaking of problems, here's a pic of "How NOT to dump a load of lumber" ........a little icy that day and it went faster and further than anticipated:eek:. That's one of the downfalls of a hilltop lot, gravity only goes one way, DOWN! Took down a small tree in the process! The view is still nice though! Outdoor, I know what you mean about working in a plant. I had some health problems a few years ago and was "sentenced" to 2-3 years operating a concrete plant. I've been out of there for 5 years now and when I close my eyes I can still picture my little triangle of sky with a steel brace runing through it. I was glad to have the job when I needed it but don't care if I ever do it again. Well, hopefully my PC, etc. continues to work and I can get caught up to where we are now on the house. Later, daymon