Horse Before House Part 6Measure twice, cut once

The ridge beam led to rafters, and soon the walls were closed in. Once the rafters were in place and plywooded over, the roofers took all of two days, which was both amazing and frightening in equal measure. Inside knowledge: on the steeper parts of the roof, the roofers knelt on what turned out to be the foam pads from sofa cushions, which they referred to as their "cadillacs".  😆😆😆

The windows went in next - not without a few issues. I had hoped to incorporate an antique half moon window I'd been saving for years, but sadly at the last minute my builder decided he couldn't make it work. Another lesson in being flexible and picking your battles. I decided to use the window decoratively inside the house instead.

Also - it's important to consider things like window height. Over and over I ran into specs in the plans that didn't make sense in the real world. There is a fire code that dictates size and height of bedroom windows, with regard to escaping, but where the porch roof meets the walls, i.e. where the bottom of the windows can start also has to be taken into consideration.  

When I checked out the window holes in my bedroom wall for the first time, I found that I would barely be able to see over the sills, much less reach the catch to open and close, or clean, without a ladder. I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't been living on the property, looking at the progress on a daily basis...

We ended up lowering the pitch of the porch roof from 6/12 to 4/12, (for every foot across the roof angles up so many inches), allowing the space for lowering the windows. I would have liked to do even a 3/12, but apparently in areas that get torrential rain like we do, you can't go lower than a 4/12 without risking leaking. Lowering the pitch would come in handy when it came time to paint too.

Above is one example of where I participated in modifying the plans to customize my home. Another change was the laundry facilities. In the plans, there was a pipsqueak of a closet with an apartment-sized stacked washer-dryer combo. Now - I had spent the last eight years carrying laundry to my dad's house every week, and therefore felt very deserving of a dedicated space for laundry. I suggested we convert a 10x10 block off of the porch, which runs around three sides of the house. This resulted in a spacious laundry + mudroom (!), with the added benefit of blocking the harshest summer afternoon sun, as well as much of the wind from the most used section of the porch.

Next post we'll tackle the painting. Enjoy yet more construction p*rn...

When the half moon window was happening...

Plywooding the roof + fireplace bump out

Tar papering

Roofers were here

Soon there will be rails and steps

Steps!

Siding crew has been busy prepping...