On the Rise… Going Vertical

For well over a year, the only real representation of our house was the two-dimensional drawings that our draftsman created from the ideas we presented to him way back in April 2020. Now that long wait has been rewarded, and we are seeing some fairly dramatic daily changes as the physical structure of the walls and roof are being erected.

It has been interesting to see the various construction phases that I’ve documented in this series of stories, starting with creating access to the property, prepping the homesite, and finally constructing the foundation. These phases were essential, but still not enough to properly visualize how the space would feel by walking through the various framed rooms, and having the three-dimensional perspective to better imagine how the multitude of interior selections we’ve been making over the past several months would actually fit together into the picture we imagine in our minds.

The indications that something big was about to happen began to appear about two weeks ago with a massive delivery of lumber, to include pallets of OSB (Oriented Strand Board), 2×4 and 2×6 framing boards, and pre-fabricated floor joists. Then a few days later, all of the pre-fabricated roof trusses were delivered to the array of materials already pre-positioned at the site. So, now all that was needed was the crew to put our “de-constructed” house together.

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The process to assemble started with the framing of structural walls in the basement that would also serve to partially support the floor joists for the main living area. This was followed by installation of the OSB panels for the sub-floor. The work was completed in two days and created the platform for the interior and exterior walls that would be constructed in the next two days. So as the interior layout of the house began to take shape, we were able to “walk-thru” our future front door into the interior “rooms” and “hallways” while imagining the views from the various windows that were framed out.

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The final part of this framing process, still in progress but nearing completion, is the placement of the roof trusses and installation of the OSB sheathing to enclose the roof. All in all, the framing phase takes about 7 days total and remarkable progress has occurred in just the 5 days since we began. I suspect that over the next several weeks we will begin to see some more materials arrive on site. I anticipate that the “skin” of the house (which includes asphalt roof shingles and house wrap to create the all important weather-resistant barrier) will be installed next, followed by windows and exterior doors. Stay tuned for the next page in this story….