I expected working with Johnny on the interior roof sheathing and furring strips, but Nick asked Ty and I to begin on the shelving structure. That project has changed quite a bit even since the two of us worked on it in late July; the posts are now sized at 6×6 (rather than 4×4), the alignment has moved, and we’ll be using joined 2x6s from Ty’s granary instead on 2x12s.

That last change will roughly triple the amount of work to be done. We’ll have to saw twice as many boards, bring them to a cabinet shop, join them, then bring them back before we can even start assembly. But even though it will be a huge undertaking, I think it will be worth it. It’ll cost us in terms of labor, but we won’t have to buy new 2x12s. The reclaimed lumber, on the other hand, has a great deal of character but has had no use thus far except as scrap.

I spent the day taking measurements inside the cabin and then cutting boards outside. We can take the boards to the cabinet shop on Monday to begin joining them. We worked a three-quarter day and then went to a BBQ at Tom DeAngelo’s house.

Luke and I spent the day finishing the sheathing on the north side of the gables. We knew we had to add blocking on the building’s edge, but there was no obvious way of doing so. We ended up cutting a 2×12 to match the joists and then hoisting it into place. Since the 2×12 wasn’t as deep as the joists, we had to add some scrap to the top edge in order to bring them in line. Then we completed the plywood sheathing up the east side. We did the same on the west side but with OSB in the afternoon. Johnny and I finished the day by adding furring strips to the west side.

It felt like we took a very long time to get moving today, but we still made a fair amount of progress. The loft now has flooring, the roof has been sheathed (on the top, anyway), and siding has begun on the south side. I think our pace is slowing, however, and I suspect Sunday’s day-off will be important for recharging and staying on schedule.

I spent the entire day working on the roof. Ty and I started by getting a measurement for the front fascia board. The we cut the fascia and had it jacked into place where Johnny and I attached it. Then Mikey and Pauly joined us to set the first joists in place. Chris Aldrich was a huge help figuring out how to set the joists; we used hangers on the fascia and a bracket to hold them on the beam.

We seemed to make a lot of mistakes today, I hope they don’t come back to haunt us. Once we set the fascia, for instance, we realized that the furring strips on the south side would have to be trimmed. The loft, which was built outside and lifted into place, was apparently the wrong size meaning the posts in the cabin will no longer be aligned.

The morning was pretty slow and frustrating. I worked with Johnny, Nick, and Chris to finish the upper interior sheathing. It was pretty tedious; the pair on the scaffold would measure while the pair on the ground waited, then those on the scaffold would wait while the cut was made. We really struggled after lunch attempting to sheath the upper exterior on the west side. We cut and placed two pieces only to re-cut them later.

Later in the afternoon, Luke and I tilted up the microlam columns and braced them. Then the two of us and Ty double-checked our measurements for the building’s main beam. We cut the LVL beams and connected them in a tongue-and-groove pattern. After some supper, Ty and I got on the scaffold while the Nicks used a manlift to raise the beams. They slid the beams through the slots in the gables until Ty and I could place and fasten them to the columns. We clamped and fastened the final piece of the beam in place and called it a day around 9pm. Tomorrow the roof.

The gables are in place! I had been really eager to see them installed, so I was a bit disappointed after Dusty and I spent the first part of the morning pulling nails from boards. The boards needed a once over to make sure they were free of metal before being resurfaced in the planer. The boards were ‘de-nailed’ but still had quite a few brads hidden within. Dusty counted 126 of the little devils by the time we were through.

After break, Ty and I put on the harnesses and began placing the gables. The east side went in brilliantly – the fit was totally perfect. The west side wasn’t so great and we had to do a lot more strong-arming. It took quite a while but we eventually got them in place. The last thing we did was add a 2×12 top-plate to the northern slope of the gables. Peter and Nick were debating how to assemble the south slope and roof.

I can’t say that I’m a fan of the harnesses. Perhaps it is safer, but without a proper place to tie them they become a huge liability. Ty and I had to tie onto the same window headers we were building on top of. We were barely mobile to the point of standing on our knees while installing the nearest truss. At one point, the whole truss nearly fell off the scaffold as Ty was shifting positions. I couldn’t move to stop it and Ty, as strong as he is, was just able to catch it before it tumbled off entirely.  I expected the harnesses to provide some piece of mind, but I think they caused us both more anxiety than they were worth.

Although it’s a long way from completion, the gables fill out the shape of the cabin. It really does look like the thing that our section designed and modeled so many months ago. And although that much is pretty exciting, I can’t shake the feeling that we are working on a final, full scale model of our design; it’s a real shame that its relocation fell through.

Brittany, Luke, and myself started the morning by placing a top plate across the north wall. That piece helped tie all three walls together as well as allowed us to get measurements for the longer gables.

While the other groups began work on the sheathing, the three of us along with Paul began to build the rest of the gables. In order to maintain a consistent slope, we began with the shorter triangular pieces we built yesterday. We added blocking and guides to help with our measurements. Luke and I spent nearly the entire day sizing the pieces and then finessing them into place.

The design required us to build the shape four times – twice atop two walls – so it was a relief to get it done. I’m still nervous, however, because we don’t know for sure if the pieces will fit as they should. We built them entirely on the ground and, with the exception of the bottommost chord, haven’t seen them in place. Tomorrow morning we’ll get another harness and scaffolding and see what they look like on top of the walls (*fingers crossed).

oday started a bit sluggishly. Everyone worked so hard yesterday that we paid for it today. Even so, we accomplished a lot. Mikey, Luke, and myself worked on framing the shorter gable and added the last cripples to the main columns. By the time that was done, the others had laid out and assembled the entire north wall. Everyone worked together to lift the remaining section of the east wall into place and fasten it to the column. Then we lifted the entire north wall and lifted that into place as well (after turning it around).

We packed up early; everyone was aware that placement of the north wall wasn’t scheduled until Friday. Having the afternoon free was much appreciated. A number of us spent the evening relaxing at Pauly D’s taking maximum advantage of the backyard pool.

Fantastic work today. We built-up and placed the remaining headers only to find that the rough openings were askew. So we took everything down and adopted a new strategy: start from the southwest corner and work out. This was far more effective and we soon had everything square and plumb. We then added the upper cripples including some nice work by Brittany, Luke, and myself above the southwest corner.

The most exciting part of the late afternoon was building the enormous header across the south side. We lifted half the member into place and used a temporary ‘hinge’ and clamps to align the whole piece. We did this twice so that we had two, two-ply headers over twenty feet long.

We continued working well past quitting time. We added the double-stud frames needed to complete the south and west as well as half of the east side. The other half was assembled on the ground and will be tipped into place tomorrow morning. We made a lot of progress today – everyone worked extremely hard. All said, the day ended twelve and a half hours after it began!

It took us a while to get rolling this morning. We had to determine the best way of adding the extra blocking to the south and west sides of the diaphragm which will directly support the windows. Once we got the hang of it, though, we made good time. We also began assembling the huge built-up columns that will frame the windows. By noon, we had two of these columns in place.

We moved quickly in the afternoon, building and placing all but one of the columns. The other six were braced so that they could be plumbed and tied together with headers. We worked late and placed to of the headers by day’s end.

A new motto for the Architecture student:  Achievement or embarrassment, always document.

A cool shower never felt so good – especially considering how much has been accomplished in the last two days. We got settled at Christine Bleyhl’s house yesterday evening and were swinging hammers by this morning.

The ‘group’ system seemed to break down pretty early this morning, but it wasn’t a problem at all. Everyone seemed to find a comfortable place to work. Luke, Dusty, and I built the construction table before joining Lyle, Melissa, and Johnny to build shelving in the shipping container.  All of the material from the truck was loaded into the container shortly after lunch. We re-assembled the corner detail and framed the future west-side platforms.

The adventure began when Mike and I returned the truck to Budget. Pauly D followed in Mike’s pickup in order to drive us all back to the Fairgrounds. But the pickup’s transmission went out and he just managed to limp to the rental store.  In the meantime, Mike and I called a tow truck and arranged for a ride from Johnny. We all made it back to the Fairgrounds about two and a half hours after we left. But thank goodness for cell phones – it would have been a complete disaster without them!