Roofing While the Sun Shines -- Or at Least Before It Starts Pouring

Given that it is an El Nino year, we are expecting some weather delays to our project. This coming week is a good example. If everything goes as predicted, we should get 8 inches of rain between Sunday and Friday, so next week's blog might be a little thin. This past week was a little rainy as well, but we had good weather on Thursday and Friday and the roofers made a good start on the garage. They finished the membrane roof on the main roof and got started on the porch roof. The porch roof will have red clay tile in the mission style, and will match the roof that will extend off of the back of the house over part of the patio.

I took this picture when Jake and I walked over to check out the progress. While there, we covered all the lumber sitting by the side of the garage with a blue tarp. Hopefully it won't get too water logged over the next week.

Wrap Around Porch

To prevent the garage/casita from simply looking like a box in the backyard, our architect designed a nice covered porch that wraps around two sides of the building. It will provide much needed protection from the western sun as well as a sheltered spot in which to sit and enjoy the backyard. You can see from the pictures that the 6x6 posts and 6x10 beams make a very solid and attractive roof. The views through the posts and along the northern wall are very nice as well.

In this picture you can really see both sides of the porch. I was standing on a handy pile of dirt to take this.



Here are some nice views of the northern wall and the view through the corner of the porch:

Framing = Instant Gratification

Framing definitely provides the most instant gratification of any part of the construction process. You start with nothing and by the end of the day you at least have walls! The framers came on Monday morning and by Thursday they had completed the framing for the garage -- everything but the porch roof, that is. They needed to get the sheathing inspected before they could keep working on the porch roof. Without that delay, they probably would have finished the entire garage in one week.

The framers were pretty careful with the work. The amazing thing is how much they used hammers. They only really broke out the compressor and nail gun for the sheathing, and even then a few of them were using hammers. For a four man crew they were really fast. I get the feeling that the boss has been doing it for a long time. He's got his youngest son working with him, who looks like he is just out of high school.

After this, they need to finish the porch roof and put the angled stringers on the roof for the roofers, so that the roof has the approved slope down to the drains.

Even with the parapets the walls of the garage are pretty low, and it really doesn't dominate the backyard the way I was afraid it would when I saw how far forward on the lot it was. It will be more visually massive with the porch roof, but even so I think it will make a nice addition to the back yard rather than be an over-large intruder taking up too much space.

Here are the pictures at the end of each day this week:

Monday:


Tuesday:


Wednesday:


Thursday:

Really Awesome Construction Timbers -- If you like that kind of thing!

For all of our friends and family out there who are into carpentry, I wanted to show you where most of our framing money went for the garage/casita. In these pictures, you can see the big pieces of solid Douglas Fir that the framers are using to build the roof of the porch around the front room. With 6x6 posts and 6x10 beams, this must be the safest covered area in the Willows in an earthquake! It might be a little over engineered, but the big timbers will look really cool when the roof is finished. I think this is definitely a measure three or four times before cutting once situation, since I wouldn't want to mess up that 17 foot 6x10 beam!

We Get Bye With A Little Help From Our Friends (and Family)!

This past weekend our friends helped us move our extremely heavy furniture and random other detritus from our house in preparation for starting the actual house remodel. It was really great of everyone to pitch in and help us move. Although the move was just around the corner to our old house, we still needed to rent a truck to move the big stuff. My wonderful mother delayed her trip home and helped me spend the previous week moving and unpacking all the bookshelves, the music and the kitchen, so all the guys needed to do was move the really heavy stuff -- no problem! They even moved the piano. It was pretty amazing to watch the four of them pick up the piano and put it on the cart to wheel around the corner.



You can see them wheeling the piano down the sidewalk here.



Here's a great shot of the intrepid movers taking a brief break. We definitely owe them all a nice bottle of wine!