Monday, April 27, 2015

(Post 9) Apr. 27-Pride


Looking out the kitchen window is very rewarding!

After a few weeks of slow progress, this Sunday marked a very exciting day!  As you can see in the picture above, the loft is completely framed out (minus the sheathing on the end and far walls) and the peak in the front of the house is framed and standing.  Note the ridge beam that runs along the length of the center of the house--now THAT was some heavy lifting!

I'll take you through the steps to get here.  In order to start framing out the dormer, we had to complete the floor of the loft (ceiling of the downstairs bedroom/bathroom).  That entailed a trip to the hardware store, and choosing the finishes we wanted on the bottom of the tongue and groove boards (ceiling of the first floor) and the top of the boards (floor of the loft).

I was stunned.  We'd been working on framing the house for so long that I never thought I'd have to make decisions about the interior!  I don't know what exactly I thought would happen, but...

Anyways, as you can see from the pictures below, we chose to stain the rafters and floor a natural color to expose the young pine and paint the ceiling a timeless white (no, seriously, that's the name of the paint we chose).  It was surprising to me how quickly we moved from exterior to interior work and it struck me that there really is not all that much that separates us from the great outdoors.  Somehow it seems like we humans work extremely hard to create divisions where they do not exist and focus on them when they are tenuous at best.  But I digress.

Once we had the loft floors done, it was time to get to framing!
The back of the dormer and the peak at the front of the house framed and on top of the flooring.

 A shot of the floor of the loft.  The hole is where the staircase meets the loft.

The ridge beam is up!  If you're new to ridge beams, they are extremely heavy! 

Not bad for a couple of kids from Denver, eh?!

The dormer walls framed out.

A shot from the backside of the dormer walls.  Take a look at how perfectly the angles all match up--way to go, Kacey!

A close-up on the framing for the loft.

A close-up of the peak at the front of the house.  If you're in a math class, the angle on top is a right angle, and we used Pythagorean's Theorem to figure out how long the hypotenuse had to be!

A view of the inside.  Now you can see the rafters and the white tongue and groove boards.

Layers upon layers.  


We are so so proud.  It's hard to believe that we did that.  It's hard to believe that it started out as a trailer and a dream.  We are so proud!



1 comment:

  1. Oh, WOW! You all got a LOT done last weekend! We can imagine looking from the kitchen window and smiling! XXOO

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