Rafters - day 3

 I put up 4 more rafters today for a total of 11.  I'm now out of rafters and will take a break until Sunday when I can pick up more 2x18s to cut more.

Rafters - day 2

 Today I managed to get the first 7 rafters in place.  It was a tough job working alone.  First, I had to raise the very heavy ridge beam up about 7 feet above the top of the walls.  It was too heavy and awkward to lift up alone so what I did is I strapped an extension ladder to the east end wall.  I tied a nylon strap around the beam and ran it up over the top rung of the ladder and down to where I hooked it to my electric hoist.  Then I used the hoist to raise the ridge beam above the necessary height.  Leaving it there I could climb the step ladder and screw on a horizontal support and then lower to beam to that support.

Raising the Ridge Beam

Winch to lift Roof Beam

Once I got the east end of the beam lifted the west end was relatively easy since I could work standing on the loft floor and only had to lift it about 6'.  Once the beam lifted and adjusted into position I started raising the rafters.

Rafters on the west end were much easier than on the east, again, because I could work from the loft floor. On the west end I only had to climb a ladder about twice for each rafter.  On the east end it was much more difficult, trying to raise and support both ends of the rafter while standing on a ladder. For one rafter I counted 10 times up and down the ladder.

But, I managed to get the first 7 rafters up, 4 on the west end and 3 on the east end.

East end rafters

Rafters seen from the south

Rafters seen from the north

Rafters - day 1

 Today I laid out my rafters and cut two of them out for test fitting.  I put up some vertical supports that will hold my ridge beam in place when I'm ready to install rafters and then I clamped the two rafters in place to make sure of the fit.

Ridge Beam Supports

Rafter Test Fit

Ridge Beam

 Today I finished installing the loft floor and constructed the ridge beam.  It is really heavy and I'm not sure yet how I'm going to lift it into place.

Loft Floor

 Installed some block supports in the loft joists and got about 3/4 of the plywood decking installed today.

Loft floor framing

 Today's project was putting in the floor joists for the loft.

Septic

 Yesterday afternoon I got a call from the septic folks and they had a break in their schedule and wanted to install the septic system today.  So they got started this morning, should have it done by end of day and they plan to be back early next week to do the final fill and grading.

Top plates & interior walls

 Today I got the top plates installed...

Top Plates

And the interior walls built.

Exterior walls done - for now

 This morning I got the west wall sheathed, so, I now have a house with four walls.

 

 

 

 

South Wall with front entrance

East Wall with slider onto future deck

North Wall with Kitchen & Bathroom windows

West Wall - future car port

I also needed to build myself a ramp to the front door so that I have reasonable access to the interior. 

Temporary Ramp