It took about 9 months to get all the posts and beams notched and set into place. Every single one was different, and a few I’d like to forget. Several times during the construction I wish I had gotten the timbers planed to a consistent size, but like I said in an earlier post, the sawmill owners had lost all their planing equipment in a terrible fire so I chose to get the rough sawn timbers.
My “building inspector” had loaned me an awesome 1/2″ drill that was about a foot and a half long and if you let it get away from you it could break an arm, a jaw, a tooth, whatever. 12″ and 18″ screws were used to screw the timbers together and sometimes it took both Kim and I pushing on the drill to get them in place….I’m glad no one was watching….lol. If the house is ever taken apart there will be interesting little notes scribbled in permanent marker on some of them 🙂
The original design for the house incorporated shorter timbers for the roof system that I thought I could handle by myself. Mr. Building Inspector thought that it would be better if I used longer timbers that were taller and narrower than what I had designed (and bought) originally. There were several pine trees down on his farm so he and I logged them out and a fellow with a portable sawmill came over and sawed out the roof beams:
The proper notches were calculated and cut into the rafters, then I took a router and rounded the edges, sanded them to get the “fuzz” off, and applied a finish to them. All this took place in a corner of the house where I draped tarps and put a construction heater to keep me warm during the snow and frigid temps! Fabricating the roof beams took place during the winter….brrrr! I still had the timbers for the roof but they were utilized in the porch roof instead.
Mostly how I did the construction was to move the posts to the sawhorses in the work area, sand them down, notch them, then use the tractor with jig to set them on the scaffolding set up on the floor, then set the beams from the scaffolding. A few of them were a little tricky, but I just took my time and prayed a lot 🙂 I still pray a lot–I need all the help I can get.
Once the posts and beams were up then the roof system was erected. This was what you would call an old time “barn raising”. There were about a half dozen folks from Crab Orchard that helped with getting the beams up and screwed into place. I was in awe at the teamwork that went on. It took quite a bit of beer to get the rafters up, but it happened!
There doesn’t seem to be any photos of the roof beams in progress, but it was pretty cut-and-dried. The timbers were about 14″ tall, 4″ wide, and 20-3″ long. They were place on 4′ centers and a collar tie was placed on each one with metal plates and lag screws.
You can see in the picture that the porches have been added. I used 2×10 oak boards for the joists and poplar boards for the decking. A friend gave me the cedar posts for the porch posts. I did build the footers you see in this picture but I’m not really good at block work so my building inspector (seated in this photo) built the ones on the front and back of the house. They were much taller than these short ones I tackled.
next roofing and more……
Wild Things Farm 