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Click TOOLS OF THE TRADE to see some of the tools and equipment we used. Click CREDITS to see the major companies and suppliers we've worked with. |
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4-18-09Before we can get to the roof, we need to finish the floor so we have a working platform. It was Jeff and Bob again today, working on the center floor joists. It was also nice to see Jillena able to come out for a few hours while Gramma played babysitter. |
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4-19-09Today was very exciting, as Matt came out with all his gear, on a windy day, to take down the two east lifting poles. With the log shell finished, we don't need to leave all four lifting poles up. We plan to use the two west lifting poles to pick up the ridge pole and set it on the west wall, and use two new lifting poles on the outside of the north and south walls to lift the ridge pole up onto the four RPSLs. |
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4-24-09This was a long day. Jeff and Bob worked from about 9:00a.m. until 8:30p.m. The task today was finishing the floor framing, including creating the stairwell openings. |
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4-25-09Jeff worked on the stairwell framing today, installing the shorter floor joists between the rear girder and double header for the lower stair section. He also installed all of the hangar brackets. |
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4-26-09Jeff and Jillena worked on their house together today, installing the cross bracing between the joists recently laid down the center third of the floor. |
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5-1-09Jeff and Bob were back at it again today, trying to finish off the joists on the west end of the house. Some notching and knot trimming were necessary to get the joists as level as possible. |
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5-2-09We finally started laying the sub-floor panels today. The first row was very time-consuming because of the custom trimming we had to do to get the panels to fit against the knotty log wall. By the end of the day, we had one full row plus about 2/3 of the second row laid. |
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5-4-09Jeff went out after work to build a new "work bench". The stuff that's been covering the stack of OSB panels needed to get moved so we could get at the pile. |
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5-8-09Bob and Jeff laid more sub-floor today, completing the rear third of the floor and the west side of the stairwell. A lot more custom trimming was necessary on the edges at the walls using a scribe and jigsaw. |
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5-10-09Jeff spent the afternoon scribing and dry-fitting a couple of panels around GSLs. |
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5-11-09Jeff has this week off and it looks like Bob will be able to join him every day. Today the guys glued and screwed the panels Jeff scribed yesterday, and continued securing more panels around the stairwell and middle of the floor. Because the joists were exposed to the elements for months, it appears that some of them have swelled or warped, so some of the extreme areas had to be planed. |
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5-12-09More work on the floor today. The guys finished installing every panel and partial panel they could. The rest will be completed when the center RPSLs are permanently set. They also covered the remaining areas of the floor by temporarily screwing down panels and building a movable floor section for the RPSL work area. |
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5-13-09Today Jeff and Bob were ready to attempt to plumb the front and rear RPSLs and finish bolting them to the walls, which would give us a center line to measure out to the side walls from, but the wind was raising havoc with the plumb bobs, so they decided to work backwards. A string line was laid out around the top of the walls, making sure opposite walls were parallel, then the centers of the north and south walls were determined and the RPSLs adjusted for centering. This will give us a very close position for our ridge pole center line. |
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5-14-09John did some grading of the back walkout area, knocking down the hill we had built up to add to the excavator's reach months ago. The outer RPSLs got the rest of their bolts installed, as Jeff was high up on the extension ladder on another very windy day. He stayed on the outside while Bob cut the rod and secured the nuts and washers from the inside. |
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5-15-09It was a day of variety today. We decided in the morning that we'd take out one of the cross-bracing poles lying on the basement floor that helped prevent the butt end of the NE lifting pole from kicking out. Since the pole was now gone, we really didn't need the cross-bracing pole. But we wanted to take it out in one piece, so out the window it went! Next, we decided we'd use that pole for our rear ridge pole lifting pole that will need to be secured to the outside of the rear wall. Finally, we got to work on setting the first inner RPSL. On top of all that, Paul was back for the first time this year! |
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5-16-09We set the second inner RPSL and then started in on the notches that have to be made at the intersection of these RPSLs and the 2nd floor girders. These notches are the same as the ones we made for the two GSLs (girder support logs) and 2nd floor girders. The inner RPSLs will not only support the ridge pole, but where they pass the 2nd floor girders, they'll double as GSLs. |
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5-22-09The big accomplishment of the day was standing up the second lifting pole that we'll use to set the ridge pole. It was good to see Matt come out and help again today. |
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5-23-09It's time to start working on getting the tops of the cap logs level in preparation for setting the rafters. After re-measuring all eight reference points on top of the walls (four corners and four mid-spans), our plan is to level them to a plane 216" above the top of the foundation. This means some spots will get planed down, while others will get shimmed up. To make it practical to work on top of the walls, we built our own suspended scaffolding out of 2" straps and rough-cut planks. |
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5-24-09After raising the last two sections of hanging scaffolding and installing safety cable rails above the scaffolding on both walls, Paul and Jeff started the next task of leveling the tops of the cap logs. |
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5-25-09It was more work on the west cap log today. This log requires the most work because it's shape takes it almost 2 inches higher than our final reference height over most of the log. Today we started some of the finer planing. |
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5-29-09A busy day today, with Jeff, Paul and Bob finishing planing the west cap log and scaffolding arriving which got unloaded, lifted to the 1st floor, and set up. This will be very useful for working on the RPSLs and ridge pole, as well as securing the rafters. |
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5-30-09The rough-cut 2" sill plate was installed today on the west wall. After that, little prep work was done on the east wall. Jeff bought a planer that made quick work of the knots on the east cap log. |
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5-31-09Jeff and Paul got right to work laying the sill seal and two sill boards on the east wall this afternoon. It was so windy that they had to quit early. |
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6-5-09A lot got accomplished today, as Jeff and Paul finished installing the sill boards on the east wall, then cut the outer RPSLs down to within a couple of inches from their final height. All the while, Bob was on the ground working on the ridge pole. |
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6-6-09Another milestone today: the RIDGE POLE went up! Jeff and Paul worked on cutting the inner RPSLs down to a manageable height while Bob finished his work on the ridge pole. That afternoon, we set the ridge pole on the two outer RPSLs. No more log lifting! |
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6-7-09Our Alaskan friend, Steve, came down to visit for a few days. He had been following our progress on this website and couldn't wait to help with some serious log home construction. He even moved a few poles for us! OK, maybe not. |
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6-8-09Jeff, Bob and Steve spent the day together - Jeff and Bob up in the air, and Steve on the ground running his new "toy". Jeff and Bob got both outer RPSLs leveled and a safety cable strung above the ridge pole while Steve ran the excavator and cleared some concrete blocks for the 2nd half of our water line. The last accomplishment of the day was getting the north end of the ridge pole pinned to the north RPSL. The other three will get pinned after the two center RPSLs are leveled. |
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6-9-09Steve was able to help through the morning before heading out. Jeff was up on the scaffolding again fine-tuning the tops of the inner RPSLs. |
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6-13-09Today's goal was to complete the second half of the inner RPSL notches so we can finally bolt them in place. Getting the notch right on the first RPSL took much of the entire day. We hope to complete the other one tomorrow. |
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6-14-09Work on the notch in the second inner RPSL took another full day but both RPSLs are now bolted in place. The last thing to do now in this phase is to pin the rest of the ridge pole. |
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6-19-09The milestone we've all been working toward for a year and a half came to pass today. The ridge pole is now pinned! That's the last of the log work. We're planning on starting the roof the weekend of July 4th and continuing straight through the following week. After the ridge pole was pinned, Jeff and Bob went to work on more of the sub-floor. |
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6-26-09Bob and Jeff worked a bit more on the sub-floor today, completing more of the area around the stairwell. |
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6-27-09Jeff and Jillena took the day to work together on the back hedgerow, clearing out vines, brush, and small trees. Later in the day, Jeff used the excavator to rip out the leftover stumps. |
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7-3-09Today was the start of a long stretch of work days. Jillena's family came up and camped out on the property for an entire week, so we had lots of help and accomplished much. Issac and Nathaniel worked with Jeff and Paul to lay a few more sub-floor panels before we quit for the day to help set up camp. |
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7-4-09LouElla and Lydia got their hands dirty helping the guys today. They were able to finish the rest of the sub-floor, except for the two corner panels that need to lay where the remaining lifting poles are. With time left in the day, the crew got to work taking one of the two poles down. |
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7-5-09Our friend, Paul, surprised us with a visit and Matt came out to take down the last lifting pole. With both poles out of the floor, we were able to finish laying the rest of the sub-floor panels. |
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7-6-09Finally, we can start the roof! Bob and Matt added to the crew today, which allowed us to get more done than we hoped. We uncovered our I-joist rafters for the first time since they arrived last fall and started hauling them into the house. Both ends got mitered before being lifted and set. After we got a lifting system worked out, the process sped right along. We wanted a rafter set to be over each gable wall for added strength to those walls, so we chose the south gable as our starting point and worked inward. |
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7-7-09A few more rafter sets went up toward the inside of the house before we switched gears and set two of the three sets out on the south overhang. Because these I-joists are fairly light, we were able to lift them straight up from the ground. Helping Paul, Jeff, and the family were Jeff's cousin, Jeannie, and her friend Brendon. |
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7-8-09Jeff's Aunt Jill came across the street to visit and stayed to help lift the outside rafter pair on the south overhang. Jeannie also stopped out to help for a while again today. Besides the outer rafter set, we installed more pitch brackets on the cap sill plates and set more rafters toward the middle of the house. Matt also came out to finish cutting off the overdangles, then helped out with more rafter work. |
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7-9-09Bob and Matt were both back today as we installed more spacer blocks in the rafter bays. One gets placed above each eave wall, and another gets placed over the ridge pole. So for each rafter bay, we need three blocks. This adds a lot of strength to the roof and keeps the rafters upright. With all the family working with us today, we were also able to finish running the remaining 270 feet of water line into the house. |
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7-10-09Everyone was helping again today, setting more rafters. Paul also filled in the rest of our water line ditch, except for a few feet where the coupler needed to be left exposed until it could be checked for leaks when the Water Authority comes to turn our water service on. |
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7-11-09We finished setting the rest of the rafters today, with the exception of one pair. We had a damaged one that needed replacing, so we're waiting for that one to be delivered. It's exciting to see the house actually taking shape now. |
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7-17-09The Water Authority arrived this morning to install our new meter and turn on our service. We also got more supplies delivered, including our replacement rafter. Our weekend crew, Paul and Aaron, arrived not long after. |
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7-18-09We made great progress today, framing the entire north gable wall. That involved planing the top log enough to accept a 2x6 sill plate. |
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7-19-09Today we framed in the south gable end. Each end took a full day. Next, we plan to sheet the gable walls and start nailing up the fascia boards around the roof. |
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7-24-09The forecast for the weekend was rain, rain, and more rain, so Jeff decided it was a good time to pressure-wash the inside of the house. Bob came out for a while and cut more v-notch vents in the rafter spacers, and cut all of our cleats that will attach to the ends of the rafters to give us a wider nailing surface for our fascia material.
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7-25-09Jillena and Jeff shared in the pressure-washing today but had to quit early due to an area tornado warning. It's a rare occurrence to have a tornado warning in our area, much less to actually see one, but a small one did indeed touch down in the village, less than 2 miles from our site. Jeff captured the funnel cloud remnant on video. |
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7-31-09Jeff and Bob started the preliminary work on the fascia installation today. This involved attaching the cleats that Bob cut last weekend to the ends of the rafters. This will give us a larger nailing surface for our fascia material. Because the ends of the rafters are not in exact alignment, we adjusted the position of the cleats against a 2x4 to create a straighter alignment on the rafter ends. |
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8-1-09Paul brought his neighbor, Dennis, with him this weekend. This was Dennis' first visit to our site, and the extra manpower was very helpful in getting our ladder jacks set up and some fascia material installed. This is the time of year for dusting corn, and a cropdusting plane was in our area and buzzed our house a few times. |
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8-2-09No additional pictures for today. We worked on more of the fascia boards, nailing the top backer board (3/4" OSB) and the lower finished piece of Smart Trim (also 3/4"). The Smart Trim will eventually be painted. Sometime after the roof sheathing is laid down, we'll nail on the outside finished Smart Trim which will fit tight up under the sheathing. |
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8-7-09Dennis came back with Paul and Issac for weekend #2 to join Jeff, Bob and Matt. We got the use of a telescoping forklift from a neighbor to help us with the roofing project. That was put to use right away as we began installing the gable sheathing. For this we're using 7/16" OSB. After both gables were finished, we got right to work on setting the first row of panels on the roof. |
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8-8-09We got some extra help today from our friends, Bob and Bonnie, and Jon and his son, Caleb. With the forklift and two nail guns, the roof work went very smoothly and quickly. We were able to finish almost an entire side. |
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8-9-09Our only goal today was to finish the west side of the roof sheathing, and we did it. Bob came out again and took his turn at operating the forklift. After a long weekend, we were all very tired and sore. Gotta rest up for next weekend when we hope to finish the east side. |
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8-14-09After last weekend's workout, Dennis assured us it would be a few weeks before we saw him again. Surprise! He was back for more, and eager to help us finish laying the roof sheathing. Bob's help today made a significant impact on our progress as well. |
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8-15-09This side of the roof went a little faster than the other side. We got the entire east side finished today! We're now ready for the steel roofing package to be delivered. Our crew is very dedicated, and that came out this weekend with the temperatures climbing into the upper 80s with little to no breeze. |
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8-21-09The steel roofing arrived yesterday! After fixing the forklift, Bob, Jeff, and Paul got right to work installing more of the fascia material in preparation for starting to lay the steel sheets tomorrow. We also brought the steel inside and pre-drilled some of the panels that we'll start with tomorrow. Before quitting for the day, we also put up the drip edge on the west eave. |
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8-22-09Our focus today was to get the roofing underlayment stapled down. Mike came out and brought his safety gear so we could have three people on the roof. We were able to get the west half of the roof done before the rains came. After that, Jeff and Paul moved inside to pressure-wash more logs. |
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8-23-09We spent most of the afternoon brainstorming and testing different methods of raising the first 18-foot steel panel safely and easily. Although the panels are fairly light, we need to make sure they don't kink, scratch, or get caught by a breeze. We finally came up with a very effective method late in the day, so we only got the first panel up to the roof and screwed down. |
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8-28-09Bob came out for the morning to pilot drill the rest of the panels for the west half of the roof. After lunch, Jeff pressure-washed more of the inside of the house while Jillena worked on clearing more brush out of our rear hedgerow. It's really starting to look nicer back there. |
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8-29-09More steel went up today, one sheet at a time. Jillena operated the forklift while Lydia helped her load the panels on the forklift rack. Jeff and Paul were the aerial crew once again. We're now almost half-way across the west side of the roof. |
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9-4-09Our friend, Aaron, helped us this weekend. Today, he was up on the roof with Paul installing more steel panels. LouElla came up with Paul for the weekend and worked on removing stone from the basement floor. |
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9-5-09We switched things up a bit today. With the west half finished, we turned our attention to getting the rest of the panels drilled and installing all of the underlayment for the east side. By day's end, we had the drilled panels stacked outside and our square edge set on the roof. |
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9-6-09Today, LouElla wanted to work up on the roof with her dad. We got about half of the east side done today, with only half to go tomorrow. |
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9-7-09We started out this Labor Day with Jillena up on the roof with her dad and LouElla working more on the stone in the basement with Aaron. Once our friends, Fred and Keith arrived with another surprise volunteer, Tim, we switched things around again. Tim and LouElla replaced Jillena on the roof so she could drive the forklift and Jeff could run the excavator and work on fixing our sump drainage. |
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9-11-09Jeff and Paul (and Stephen) worked on the drainage problem under the driveway today, cleaning out the ditch Jeff dug last weekend and laying drain tile pipe. We also built a rolling scaffold tower on a hay wagon for pressure-washing the outside of the house. |
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9-12-09When Tom shows up, you know it's going to be one crazy day. Jillena kept him busy, though. Our goal was to get the ridge cap on, and we did, except for the end pieces over the roof overhangs which will go on after the gable end caps. John came over and extended our driveway trench to help drain the water further toward the pond. |
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9-13-09The driveway ditch is filled in and the water is draining well through the new pipe so far. Jeff finished the last bit of pressure-washing on the main floor and Jillena got a new corrugated pipe set in our sump pit. |
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9-18-09Bob and Jeff were the crew for today. We got the forklift back for this weekend so they concentrated on the south gable fascia work. They finished the entire west slope, including the gable roof trim. |
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9-19-09Bob came out again today. He and Jeff finished the south gable trim and moved around to the north side. By sunset, they had about half of that side completed. |
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9-20-09Jeff was by himself today, so he worked on a couple of solo projects. The logs need to be pressure-washed to get their color back after being exposed to the sun for so long. After all the logs are cleaned, we'll apply a stain with a UV inhibitor, which should prevent the logs from graying again. After the sun set, Jeff went inside to start laying out string lines to level the stone floor. |
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9-25-09Bob and Jeff finished the Smart Trim on the north rake. All Smart Trim is now finished! They also closed up the top of the north gable wall. |
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9-26-09Jillena's best friend, Allison, and her parents came up for the weekend. Lee drove the forklift for Paul, who installed more steel rake trim. Jeff focused his efforts on more pressure-washing. The women were inside working on leveling stone. |
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9-27-09Jeff was still pressure-washing today while Paul and Lee finished off the steel rake trim and the women finished just about all of the floor leveling. After our out-of-town volunteers headed home, Jeff stuck around and set up more shelving in the basement to get everything off the floor. |
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10-2-09It was a rainy day, but Jeff got more of the east wall washed, and picked up the insulation we'll need for the basement floor. |
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10-3-09Paul brought a plate tamper up with him this weekend. The goal was to get the entire floor tamped before he had to take it back with him Sunday night. We got a lot of the floor tamping done today, as well as the last of the ridge cap. The roof is officially complete! Jeff was also hard at work pressure-washing more of the east wall. |
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10-4-09Jeff and Paul spent most of the today finishing up the tamping of the basement floor, which took them well into the evening. |
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