The metal roof is essentially done!



Just in the nick of time, too. The forcast is rain, rain, rain for about 10 days. It has felt like a bit of a sprint these last weeks, trying to get the roof up. I am *so* happy that it is finally up.

Compared to just about everything else regarding the roof (vapor barrier, frame, insulation, plywood, tar paper), putting the metal up was surprisingly easy and only took a little more than a full day of work.

I think it turned out pretty well. Now on to temporary walls and siding...

I've been making some good progress on the roof today.

I actually finished almost all of the roof frame and even got some insulation and plywood up today! I would have gotten farther, but both of my drill batteries died. I've been using screws in many places...I've found that it helps to use 9x3 outdoor wood screws to make tight joints with blocking on warped 2x6 rafters, for example. I think tommorrow I will bring out the generator just in case.

I made a miscalculation on the gable overhang distance on the East side of the cabin, so my plywood sheathing isn't lining up well with the rafter spacing. I'm going to have to do some custom plywood cutting on the gable ends of the roof to get everything lined up. Its stuff like this that makes things go slower than I'd like. I'd like to get at least all the insulation and plywood up tomorrow, and hopefully the felt and the metal roof on top of that.

Once I get the initial piece of plywood cut and lined up, I think sheathing the roof will go fast.

For the first time in my life, I'm afraid of rain.


As I am only working on the roof on the weekends, I am at the mercy of the weather. My greatest fear is for a downpour before I get at least the plywood sheathing and felt paper up. Right now, I've got the 6mil plastic protecting the pine ceiling, but of course it has some holes in it here and there. It would be somewhat catastrophic for the ceiling to sustain heavy water damage (mainly warping).

Needless to say, I've been a slave to weather.com and wunderground.com like never before.

So far I've been lucky. If the luck holds for one or two more weeks, I should be in the clear.

:-)

(not actual buck)

Today, when I was working on the roof of the cabin, I glanced down the jeep trail leading to the cabin site. Standing there at 50 yards and staring at me was a large 5x5 whitetail buck. We stared at each other for about 5 minutes before he finally sauntered away, unafraid.

It was cool, immensely cool and I wished that I had my camera. :-)

The roof is going on. Its a slow process, but my friend Jason graciously volunteered to give me a hand this weekend. That was great, because the roof is far further along as a result.

The first order of business was to finish aspects of the ceiling which would be hard or impossible to do once the roof was up. That ended up taking all of Saturday afternoon, but the ceiling looks absolutely fantastic now. No gaps whatsoever in the tongue and groove pine ceiling.

For this work, I bought a rock climbing harness, a belay device, and some climbing rope from Hyperspud in Moscow. Jason is a rock climber, so he brought his gear as well. Being clipped into the rope and harness made this work relatively safe.

Next came the vapor barrier, which I used black 6mil polyethylene that came in a 12x100 sheet. Jason climbed to the peak of the roof and we stapled the polyethylene sheet into place, overlapping some at the peak.

Next came the rafters. We pre-assembled the 2x6 rafter pairs on the ground and hoisted them up via rope. But we did this only after crafting a moveable work platform/roof ladder (Jason's excellent idea).





The rafter overhangs the top plate by about 3 1/2 feet.






The next steps will be to add 2x6 ventilated blocking pieces between the rafter pairs and then add the cantilevered supports to allow for the 2' gable overhang. There is probably at least a full day of roof framing work involved before I can start laying out insulation and plywood sheathing on the top. Then comes the metal roofing above that. This roof is taking about 5 times longer than I expected, but I want to get it mostly right...and its going to look great when its done!

The ceiling is essentially in. I think it turned out wonderfully!



I used 1x6 tongue & groove pine with an interior finish of water-based poly urethane. The light colored pine against the red oiled fir rafters and purlins is exquisite. The dark oiled tamarack looks great too.

I used Land Ark oil for the timbers. It is a mixture of Linseed oil, tung oil, beeswax, pine rosin, and citrus extract. It smells like oranges! It really brings out the color and grain in the wood, especially the darker woods.






The ridge seam is imperfect, but that is by design. I'm going to put a dark 2x2 moulding piece across the ridge.





The picture below doesn't do the sight justice, but when the sun starts to set, the rich colors on the ceiling are amazing. I need to make sure my western wall has big windows!



A view from the outside. The tarps are to keep the sun out as much as possible until I can the cabin enclosed. Looks pretty ghetto right now from the outside. :-)