Piece by piece

Some days progress on the house appears to be swift. Jobs like nailing on trusses or sheeting in the flatter roofs covers a lot of territory in a hurry and looks impressive. Other tasks like stick framing the eyebrows requires every piece be carefully measured, marked and cut to fit. Curved assemblies are often exponentially trickier and necessarily slower. Each step. cutting, and assembling the framing, sheeting, and eventually roofing of a project like this will take more care, time and effort. But the results are worth the extra work without a doubt. The eyebrow roofs are just such a task.

Out front on the porch the same type of endeavor is taking place. We've now cut and welded well over a mile and a half of steel rods in place (with another mile of steel to go) to form the trees and porch walls. We've cut more than fifty sheets of 3/4 plywood to all kinds of shapes for the understructure of the beams and eyebrows. Another eighty sheets or so of 1/2" and 3/8" plywood were cut and shaped to form the window bucks and backing for the trim. Hundreds of sheets of expanded lath will be painstakingly hand tied in place in preparation for the fiberglass reinforced concrete to follow.While there are certainly faster and easier ways to build a typical house this is what it takes to build a house full of imagination and whimsy.

Tomorrow we are hoping to do our work in the sunshine. That makes any task just a little more fun!

-grampa dan

The magic continues

Today was exciting for a whole bunch of things were started that prove progress on our new house. Harold's Construction crew were busy tidying up details on the trusses so they could begin nailing up facia board. On our house we are doing many things quite different than the norm in order to achieve the look we are after. One such thing is to put the facia board on at right angles to the roof instead of perpendicular to the ground. Harold reminded me that this is not the easiest or fastest way to do facial boards but he agreed it looked pretty cool!

While a couple of the crew worked on the facia, the others started putting the sheeting on the roof on the front of the living room.

My crew also finished assembling the many pieces we routed last week They formed the curved headers and eyebrows we would need to finish building the roofs. After a lot of discussion, plenty of measuring and some head scratching we came up with a final plan for the upper windows and the eyebrows over them. Harold reminded me that the way we were doing things was not the easiest, but he also admitted with a smile that they would look very cool if we did them as we planned. The guys got a good start on the first of the dormer windows and at the end of the day I couldn't help but enjoy the view back towards our shop. It will be even more spectacular when the old house is demolished.

Out front we were busy too. I got a few more of the arched beams up on the porch and carport. They give weight and substance to the roof and define the edges in a dramatic fashion. They continue the theme of arches which is mirrored in the windows and doors.

Peter welded up the porch sides and they clearly outlined what is to come with the sculpted concrete. What we saw brought a big smile to our faces!

Tomorrow, Peter begins welding more trees around the steel posts in the porch area. This too is not the easiest or fastest way to do things but like all the other areas of the house our goal is to not merely go fast, or just get the job done. Our goal instead is to produce pure magic when the job is complete.

-grampa dan

Grand tour

Phoebe has been interested in the new house since we first laid it out with spray paint on the lawn. One of the upstairs rooms is 'her secret room'. To get to it she will go over the bridge that spans the living/dining room areas. The stair case to the upstairs will be 'hidden' in a large tree. It is pretty exciting stuff for a seven year old and grampa too!

Last week I coaxed Phoebe up an extremely tall ladder to grab a peek at her space but Phoebe's trepidation of heights was her main concern. I've asked her to come see a couple of times since but she has declined until the temporary railings and a staircase were in place. Today she was ready at last to explore. The staircase was a little scary for her without walls or a handrail but she put on her brave face for the adventure and gripped my hand very tight. The bridge didn't shake as she walked over it and she was much more confident although she stayed dead center, away from the edges. She had a little trouble imagining how the rafters, open to the sky was her secret room but she loved the view from her high perch. She asked that we paint her room blue and then declared it time to go back down to terra firma. She paused just long enough for me to take her picture.

It was a wonderful adventure.

-grampa dan