A GARAGE AND ROOFS EMERGE
With the garage pad poured it was time to start the framing process. So while half of Tom's crew was working on getting the roof joists up on the house (more on that later in this blog), Tom and Jeff focused on the garage. The first wall to get framed out was the eastern wall that will have the garage door in it. Due to the 20 foot span for the garage door we needed to use a gluelam beam, which if you remember back to the lumber delivery blog post came from Washougal, WA. These gluelam beams are very heavy. When it came time to stand the wall up it we needed everyone's help and even then it was an effort!
Will and Tom put the final touches on the east wall
All hands on deck for the lift
(Spencer, Luis, Jacob, Lucas, Will and Jeff)
First wall is up!
Each wall is built on the ground and then lifted into place. Jeff and Tom had a pretty good system down. Tom would call out the lengths and types (2' x 4' or 2' x 6') of lumber he needed and Jeff would either pull it off the stacks or dig through the scrap pile to find the shorter pieces to be used for blocking. Blocking is the use of short pieces of wood that are nailed in between the studs (long vertical pieces of lumber) and required to be at specific heights per the building code. Believe it or not, Tom even let Jeff use the circular saw to cut the blocking!
North wall studs getting laid out
Progress video of the framing and joist hanging
North wall blocking getting nailed in
The garage walls are framed!
So while Tom and Jeff were framing the garage, the rest of the crew was hard at work on getting the roof joists on the house. The first step in the process was just getting the joists up on the walls. Then they had to get them spaced correctly.
A view of the joists from above looking west
While all this was going on the concrete guys snuck back in and started putting in the forms for the patio.
The installation of the house roof joists is almost complete!
After the roof joists are installed it is time to attach the fascia boards on the house and begin sheathing / sheeting the roof.
Getting the plywood sheets up on the roof is no easy task and it is not for the weak! First step was getting the plywood balanced on two saw-horses and leaning against the fascia. Then the guy on the ground would lift up a sheet off the saw-horses so a guy on the roof could grab it and swing it up onto the roof. Needless to say Jeff didn't do any of the swinging!
Luis lifting and Spencer (the young guy) doing the swinging!
Once the first course of plywood gets nailed down the rest of the sheets go on pretty quick.
Progress video
The last step on the garage framing was to get the walls sheathed.
Will finishing up the garage sheathing
We made a trip out to the build site on the weekend to check on the process and took the opportunity to climb up on the roof and get the aerial view.
Nancy getting a different "point" of view
We also got to check out the planks that were recently delivered. In keeping with our goal of getting the material from local sources and keeping them as sustainable as possible, they are Ponderosa Pine and came from AP Sawmill in Flagstaff, AZ. They harvest the wood from about a 50 mile radius of Flagstaff. Usually from road widening or land clearing projects. We will use them as ceiling planks in the house & casita and as exterior siding under and over many of our windows. For the exterior siding we will be using the ancient Japanese technique of sho shou sugi ban which preserves the wood by charring it with fire.
