Gettin' away for a bit

Quick entry as we're in prep mode to get outa town for a bit over a week.  It's hard for me to leave when I'm in this push push push mode,  but it's a good time for a much needed break.  

The weather has continued to serve us well,  with only a little nip in the mornings and temps in the 40s and often as high as low 50s in the day.  This whole week we've had no rain,  only the everpresent mist and fog that breaks for perhaps an hour of sunshine each afternoon. 

The roof work is coming along.  I'm only about two days ahead of the work right now, in terms of getting things figured out on the computer ahead of daytime needs.  Oh Well.  

These two pics show as much as is visible about this week's roof progress.  THere's a lot of work in there that you can't see .   The North "wing" now has its insulation sandwich and is covered in tar paper that's repelling the mist "as we speak" (which we don't, in the era of the blog,  and sometimes that's hard because whoever you are, you hear a lot more from me than I do from you!).  

Last thing on Friday we got the dreaded (by me) ridge beam up into the air.  See it up there at the tippy top?  If the weather permits when I return we can get moving on second floor's roof.  It will be the hardest as it runs at twice the pitch of the north and south wings.  On the other hand,  the beams that go on the South wing -- in the foreground here -- will all remain exposed on the interior,  so when we get there I'l l be saying that's the hardest.... and so it goes! 

Have a good coupla weeks.  Back in a flash! 

As planned,  we poured the concrete into the last remaining walls -- the East and West gables-- last week.  This was a pretty mellow pour, as they go.  There was the issue of getting up high,  but otherwise it was a small amount  and relatively easy configuration.  Thus I was able to take a photo when things were wrapping up.  In this shot Sebastian is doing my job -- holding the hose.  It's actually remarkably heavy and bruising... though not when it's only for an hour with little need to move around much.  

 

It's hard to convey the feel and texture of the whole pour thing.  It's stressful and messy.  I have loved what working with these blocks has made possible for me,  but I am very happy to be moving on,  and for the moment, up.  Happy enough to show my lighter side..... well maybe not literally.. while Jennifer was snapping some pictures during Saturday inspection: 

There were some good workdays last week,  in that it stayed warm.  The mist fell,  but the wet is not such a problem when your fingers aren't also getting very cold.   So,  we got a start on the roof rafters on the North side:

Let's be frank. Now I'm in entirely over my head =; -)  

This next phase involves doing all new things that I have much less guidance on than the whole block business....  Just the books...   So,  I started on this side because I thought it the least obvious place to make my mistakes....  

Do you see any yet?

Have I mentioned that it's endlessly beautiful here?

I think I have.  Cousin Irene wrote and asked me to document the nature more.   So much of it is about light and views that I'm just no good at capturing.  Some of the photographers in the family need to come and work on that!  

So I'll use poor photos and my words:  One thing is that there is this light green moss that covers almost all the decidous trees.  Thus the oaks look like this, when they are without leaves:  

Yesterday afternoon the sky turned streaky pink at sunset -- with the moon rising just over the mountain.  I tried to take some photos of that too,  with very limited success: 

Starting a new year -- getting to the point(s)

Notwithstanding all my efforts to reach the peak last year,  it took until the first of the new year to get to the points at the gable ends of the house.

 

  (That's the moon at the top of this pic,  not a smudge)

We had an open house (apt title, we thought, for our topless house) on Jan 1 and enjoyed visits from a number of our local friends.  The weather and the endless mud and wet has been a bit demoralizing, so it  was a great boost for us to get so much positive reinforcement.   It rained the whole time.... thus no inclination to take pictures, but yesterday was nice weather so we snapped quite a few. 

By that day we had poured concrete (term of art for this is "grout") into the second floor walls up to the point where the gables start.  So, as you can see in this pic,  the walls up to the level just above the windows are solid now -- thus I am able to stand on them as here: Upon reflection, my original plan of pouring the whole second floow at once seemed too risky -- too high to go and too difficult to pour the tall gables end walls full from the sloped tops.  

 It is really quite high.  (14' 4" to be exact) It took stacking our scaffolding one atop the other to do the work at the end. 

The climb may not seem so bad -- in fact it can even be fun-- but remember that every block you see in these pictures was carried up the stairs and then up onto a scaffold (or two)  before it could be placed in its spot.  

Doesn't she just cry out for some roof?  I hope not to spend a lot of time admiring the view from the peak of the gable on the east,  but it was worth documenting: