Week 14: Walled in

The framers have started doing their thing now, and it's really amazing how quickly they can turn a couple of concrete walls into two floors that actually are starting to feel like rooms. It's still a bit of a challenge getting around the site. As you can see there's an awful lot of lumber in the nice flat section, but access is still easy for mountain goats via the steep slopes that lead down.

Here you can see the two houses. The main floors are basically done here as far as the framing itself. There is still sheathing to come, which you can see a few pieces of (the green stuff) and a bit more on the lower floor. The floor trusses for the top floor are sitting on the top, so that should be sprouting up early next week. There are a few minor issues we ran into with window openings being a foot or two off from where we were expecting in a couple of places, but Melanie should be able to go over those with the framers and get them resolved, and on the whole it's shaping up nicely.


Here's the main wing a little closer up. You can see one of the precarious beams/walkways that they use to move around and get at the walls from the outside.


This is the guest wing as seen from the main wing. Right now you can see both floors in all their glory as well as another scary little catwalk. There are no stairs built yet in either section, so if you want to visit the basement your options are pretty much limited to picking a window and climbing through it. Unfortunately, due to the way the ground slopes most of the windows are several feet off the ground so you have to walk over a plank of wood or something like that to get to. It's a bit easier to get into the basement level of the main wing at the moment than the guest wing. So, when I was trying to get around to take a look at both lower levels, I thought it might be easier to go across than walk all the way around to the other side. I managed about 3 or 4 steps before I decided it would be better to go the long way around. I probably would have been fine with the narrowness alone, but every time I took a step, it bounced and flexed a bit too much for my liking.


Finally, here is the same view we showed you last week, that will be visible from the guest wing's breakfast nook. You can also see some of the braces in the corner of this picture. These go from the floors diagonally up to the top of the walls to hold them in place until the sheathing is in place, which will keep them steady more permanently. They make getting around the rooms a little involved, as you're constantly having to duck under, climb over, or just go around in circles because there's no easy way through.