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And, for your viewing pleasure, here are photos of Bear strategizing how to climb, climb, climb...
Building my own shelter on the banks of the Kennebec River.
Step One: Building the JayBee.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Saturday, November 10, 2012
East End Roof 3
Back to roof work today...
After I opened up the tarps on the east end of the JayBee and climbed up into the loft, I admired the view from the loft window.
I attached hurricane ties to each of the east end roof rafters. Here's a view of some of them from above; I was hanging out the loft window.
Here's a view of them from inside the JayBee.
Here's the inside of the JayBee from the east end loft. It's quite crowded now that I've moved everything inside for the winter. It's hard to maneuver around things, and I've filled it with sawdust by sawing boards inside.
Given the mistakes I've made with angle cuts lately, I decided to create a cardboard template of the roof sheathing before sawing any plywood. Good thing. See the different angles below? The left line was my first thought, and would have been my first cut. The angled line on the right is the correct line.
After I opened up the tarps on the east end of the JayBee and climbed up into the loft, I admired the view from the loft window.
I attached hurricane ties to each of the east end roof rafters. Here's a view of some of them from above; I was hanging out the loft window.
Here's a view of them from inside the JayBee.
Here's the inside of the JayBee from the east end loft. It's quite crowded now that I've moved everything inside for the winter. It's hard to maneuver around things, and I've filled it with sawdust by sawing boards inside.
Given the mistakes I've made with angle cuts lately, I decided to create a cardboard template of the roof sheathing before sawing any plywood. Good thing. See the different angles below? The left line was my first thought, and would have been my first cut. The angled line on the right is the correct line.
After 2:00 today, frigid air swooped in. I lasted until 4:30 outside; that's all I could take. Back at it tomorrow.
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Thursday, November 8, 2012
Snow!
I know I live in Maine--where we have real winters with snow. I know those north of here who have had a few snowstorms already will think I'm a wimpy southerner. And I know this snow doesn't break any records...
But really?! Snow this early can make the winter very long indeed. I prefer four real seasons--not six months of winter, and the other seasons all crammed into the rest of the year.
I happened to snap this shot just as some of the snow on the JayBee broke loose and slid off the tarps.
It's pouring rain right now. I hear it might reach 60 degrees by the beginning of next week. Sounds like maybe we'll get a bit of reprieve from winter this weekend so I can work on the JayBee.
But really?! Snow this early can make the winter very long indeed. I prefer four real seasons--not six months of winter, and the other seasons all crammed into the rest of the year.
I happened to snap this shot just as some of the snow on the JayBee broke loose and slid off the tarps.
It's pouring rain right now. I hear it might reach 60 degrees by the beginning of next week. Sounds like maybe we'll get a bit of reprieve from winter this weekend so I can work on the JayBee.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
East End Roof 2
Beautiful here this weekend, even if a bit breezy and cool.
I had decided to work on the roof of the east end bumpout because I thought it would be a morale boost. I thought it would reassure me of my roof-framing skills so I would feel less intimidated about working on the big roof again. (As it is, I can't believe I'm going to have the JayBee go through another winter without a roof!)
Working on this small roof has had the opposite of the intended effect. I made more mistakes and struggled so much with these tiny rafters! I made mistakes I don't usually make (cutting from the wrong side of a cut that wasn't supposed to go all the way across a board; forgetting to measure twice, cut once) and I miscalculated and mis-imagined and mis-cut more angle cuts than I care to admit! I thought I would never finish.
I spent all Saturday afternoon cutting and re-cutting the rafters that run on the diagonal corners of the roof. Unbelievable how many ways I could screw them up! Finally, today, I had them both done and I installed them. Looking at this one corner rafter (picture below), here are all the elements of it that I managed to mess up more than once.
1) Running from top/upper end to lower end, this rafter slopes down at a 68-degree angle. For some idiotic reason, I'd initially assumed that the angle would be the same as the other rafters (60 degrees) but, of course, if it runs longer but has to end up in the same place at the same height as the other rafters, the angle would have to be different.
2) The top/upper end of this rafter is cut at a 45-degree angle so it can lay flat against the rafter on the right.
3) The top edge of the rafter slopes down to either side at 68-degree angles from the middle.
4) The part of the rafter that hangs out over/beyond the walls is longer than the other rafters--because it projects on the diagonal but has to end at the same distance from both walls as the other rafters.
5) The lower end of the rafter is cut at 45-degree angles from the middle, so the trim boards will fit perfectly against all the rafter ends.
6) The underside edge of the rafter has a large bird's mouth cut out of it--at just the right angle so that the bottom will sit flat on the wall top plates, and the tail end of the rafter will fit right up against the outside walls.
At long last, I had the rafters done.
Next, it was a race against the fading daylight to cut and install all the blocks between the rafters. The angle cuts were more simple, but that didn't keep me from making mistakes and having to recut several of them!
There was not any daylight left to cut and install roof sheathing. Next time!
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