What a week to remember

Our frame is up and things could not have gone better.

First off, I will say that up until this past week I had lost all hope that there was anybody left that truly cared about craftsmanship and really showed and had a love for their trade. I can honestly say that I saw this all week long with Alan and his crew of timber framers from Windriver Timberframes What a great crew and what great attention to detail and craftsmanship!

The trucks had been loaded Friday and Saturday at Alan's shop in Colorado and they showed up early Monday morning. I had gotten to our place Sunday morning to finish up a few things prior to Alan's arrival so I met the trucks early Monday morning and started to unload.

When Alan and his crew arrived I had about half of the second truck left to unload so they took over from there and started frame assembly almost immediately. I will also say that I was lucky enough to have Alan's permission to help out as much as possible. This made the whole week even better.




By the end of the day on Monday we had two bents assembled on the pad. Most of Alan's crew camped out on site. Low's at night were in the low 20's but that did not seem to faze them one bit. They had a campsite that looked just like home and seemed to be very comfortable for them.

Tuesday was a full day of assembly. All of the main bents of the house were assembled on the pad and stacked on top of one another, in the order in which they would be raised up by the crane. The detail of the joinery, drawings, and cataloging of each piece made assembly go smoothly and quickly.














Wednesday 8:00 AM the crane showed up. Like clock work Alan and his crew had things set up and ready for the first bent to be be raised.
















By the end of the day on Wednesday the six main bents of the house were raised as well as the majority of the beams that formed the second floor deck. Also, the shed dormer on the west side of the house was well underway. All but the last ridge beam was in place tying bent 5 and 6 together.

By mid morning on Thursday the main frame was completed and work on the East dormers were underway. These, just like everything else, went together smooth as could be.
Thursday afternoon after the 2 East dormers were complete bents 7 and 8, which are hammer beams, were being prepared to be flown in. Hammer beam 7 was put in place first.
By mid afternoon after bent 7 was completed, the last bent hammer beam 8 was flown in. It was getting to be late afternoon and the air was cooling down fast.
Being up on the frame in between beams being flown in by the crane it was starting to get chilly, but you could feel the momentum of everybody that we would be placing the ceremonial pine bough on top of the frame by days end.
At 5:00 PM on Thursday afternoon I was appointed to place the pine bough on the topped out frame. What a great feeling!!!!
Here are a couple of pictures of Alan and his crew just after the topping out of the frame. That is me on the left. Thursday night we celebrated one of the crew members 40th birthday in Williams where Alan treated all of us to a great meal!!

Friday was pretty much finishing up small details on the frame and Alan and his crew breaking down camp. It was a great experience working with people who really care about their work. We had many visitors during the raising, most of whom are perspective home owners who are looking at building a timber frame home, or are already in the process of a near future raising.

Thanks to you Alan and your great crew. You have made this stage of our Timber frame home project, from start to finish of the frame, an enjoyable one. I have included some random pictures as well. We started on the SIPs on Saturday, I will go into that on a separate post so as to get this one posted yet today.