The Quarky Engineer

The roof trusses were delivered today. We were able to use a much smaller crane by moving the truck around to a couple of different places so that it could reach everywhere.

Everything is in place ready for build-out. I suspect it is about a week or week and a half to get everything setup for sheathing. The roof pitch is very flat (3 in 12) because of the building height restrictions being in the city of Portland.

It was perfect weather today for this kind of work. Clear blue skies and 67 degrees. Days like today are so incredible here… The green makes me happy.

The main room fire place box is almost complete, as well as some framing to get ready for the roof trusses. Nice view of Mt. St. Helens from our bedroom window today. Trusses will be delivered next Monday. The crane that would normally be used to lift them up won’t fit on the side of the house, and from the very front it is over 175 feet which it can’t do with that kind of load, so we are looking at some other options. I suppose a helicopter would work!

The addition of those rear walls makes all the difference. Now we need a roof and 81 windows installed!

The waterproof stain being applied to the rear deck is just to protect the wood between now and when the membrane and hard surface gets installed.

A little blue sky is nice. Rear dance floor is complete minus the spinning ball, so framing of the tall walls is underway.

The deck covers the entrance to the shop, and I’m planning on adding infrared heaters under the deck along with hot/cold water so I can wash cars in the winter.

The rear deck is starting to take form! I suspect on Monday they will finish the deck joists and move those large glulams for the roof over the deck into place. The deck is a bit over 1000sq ft, so certainly large enough for a BBQ. There are two shots below showing what looking towards and away from Portland look like. Looking towards Portland the bridge you can see is the St. Johns Railroad bridge (actually called Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1).

Small update – Most of the interior walls are finished with the exception of the large two story back walls around the great room. The decking beams will be installed next, as well as floor sheathing for the deck, which will then make building the two remaining tall walls a bit easier. I would guess we are 2-3 weeks from starting roof construction.