beginning to take shape

After long ponderings and lots of figuring, Martin has started to build the stairs.  The stairs are complicated by making sure there is enough head room both starting at the bottom and ending at the top.  This means that we need to have winders where we originally were going to have a landing a couple of steps up.  The landing now needs to be winders.  Another complication is that the corner where the stairs are is not square nor is the south wall plumb.  Martin needed to make adjustments to the stairs to compensate for the not square corner. Plus he had to leave a gap between the stairs and the outside wall so that when the roof comes off, he can pull the top of the south wall in to make it plumb.

Martin originally thought he would put in the joists for the second floor. Then stand up and install the remaining outside walls, but with the uncertainty of the weather (bitter cold, lots of wind, snow, sleet, freezing rain), he decided to do more work inside before tackling the last bit of wall and starting the second floor.

First interior wall

The first interior wall is a load-bearing wall.  The joists for the second floor will be supported by it.  We were able to incorporate one of the original 6x6 sills to span the opening between the living room and the kitchen/dining room.

Since it is structurally a very sturdy wall it took a bit longer to build.  Also Martin was working in very cold temperatures, which makes for slow going.

walls built, waiting to be installed

 The north wall and the end of the east wall are framed.

 The sections of north wall are sheathed and ready to be installed. 

 The north end of the east wall is framed in.  Martin will sheath it after it is installed.

Martin is in the process of building the load bearing interior walls. Then he will be installing the joists for the second floor at the same time the rest of the exterior walls get installed.

almost a first floor

Martin has extended the roof to cover the footprint of the house. The north wall still needs to be built, but all of the materials are cut and ready for assembly

most of the west wall

The 31 foot west wall is almost complete. Martin framed in and sheathed 23 feet of it.  Only 8 feet left to go.

first floor done (well sort of)

Except for the stair opening (below), Martin has all of the joists in and underlayment down on the entire first floor.  It feels good to be able to say, "One more thing done."

a bit more underlayment down

 Martin was able to put in a few more sheets of underlayment.  

tarps

Martin's next step is to remove part of the east wall.  Then he will be able to put in the remaining joists and flooring. With this in mind, we needed to make some tarp adjustments.

Let the sun shine in

Martin put a couple of old storm windows in the bay window.  Without electricity, he needs as much daylight into an tigin to be able to work.

Let it snow, Let it snow

Martin and I spent another day dealing with snow at an tigin.  Not only do we have to shovel out the driveway, shovel around the house, shovel off the floor of the north side of the house; we then  need to roof rake the snow off the roof and then shovel the subsequent piles from around the house.

Today was the first day that it was warm enough to do any work at an tigin for several days.  If we've been lucky, we've had a high of 0 degrees Fahrenheit.  The lows have been in the negatives.  Yesterday the high was a whopping 10 degrees F. Today it got up into the low 20s. Toasty.

As you can see, the snow banks are taller than I am and it is only the beginning of January. In Maine the snowy months are often January and February or February and March.

After I shoveled the path (to the right of the picture), I shoveled off the floor.  Then I had the pleasure of finishing the roof raking.  I try very hard to not move snow more than once, but it is challenging to shovel the snow off of the floor and get it all into the snowbank on the far side of the path. The snow on the roof, I get to move three times. Once off of the roof, twice off of the floor, and the third time out of the path and into the snowbank.