2017

1-14-17

Got Snow?

Sure do.

Pictures sent from our neighbor Bruce.

Dan finished the last two long posts and was out of wood to work in the shop.

So we went to our storage unit and brought the rest of the unfinished timbers home. The shop is pretty full but this is the last of the timbers for the exterior frames on the dome.

He planed all the 4 x 6 for the braces and cut them into blanks for easier handling.

Then he planed all the 6 x 6 for the struts.

1-16-17
Now he is working on planing the 4 x 10 material for the secondary rafters.

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1-22-17
The rain finally stopped long enough to haul timbers to the storage unit. We untarped the long posts and Robbie and Jake loaded them on the trailer.

2-11-17
Dan finished all 12 of the secondary rafters.

The long posts for the deck timber frame, the posts for the master bedroom frame, and the secondary rafters for all three frames are stored in the storage unit.

Tax season is here. With Dan's CFO job in town and tax prep business from his home office, shop time should be over for now. But Dan wants to squeeze in a little timber framing when he can.

2-26-17
Dan finished the tenons on one end of all the struts. The tenons are different angles on each end of the struts, so it is less set up to do one end of all the struts first.

2-28-17
Four struts with tenons on both ends.

Once again the time is here
Time for projects, time for beer
We've been patient (ok not really), but we can't lie
We just wanted tax season to hurry by
Oh, we do love our beautiful home
But 'tis the season to be at the Dome!

4-28-17
Remember all those timbers with 218 mortises, well some of the those pieces did have tenons. But a lot of the tenons are in the struts (36 tenons) and in the braces (84 tenons). A couple of nights of sanding and round overs and the struts will be finished, with braces left to go.

Click on the picture to the right for the making of a tenon.

4-30-17
Pressure washed the basement floor. It had grown some moss and slime. Now it is ready to build on.

Hauled up the first load of lumber for the basement walls.

5-6-17
We started the day moving the hot tub out of the shop and into the basement. It doesn't fit through the door so it goes in before we build the floor deck. Bruce brought over his truck and made short work of it.

Next we began unloading the last load of steel joists. Brad marked each piece to match our plan.

We moved the joists down to the deck area and set them on Bruce's tractor bucket.

Bruce lifted the joists up to Kyle and Robbie. They placed them on the beams.

Spacing them out as they moved along the deck.

Dan and Mike kept the pieces coming.

100 joists. One at a time.

By the end of the day all of joists were placed on the beams!

5-7-17
We started the layout and the cutting of the plates for the basement walls.

5-14-17
Dan has worked all week and most of this weekend making 12 braces.

Sunday we hauled all the struts and the 12 finished braces to the dome.

We also had the trailer loaded with 2x12 for the floor deck that we hauled up and unloaded.

5-20-17
We finished laying out and cutting all the bottom and top plates for the basement walls. Then we numbered them and stacked them out of the way.

Bryce and Marty came up to help with some timber frame pre-fitting. They helped move some triangles out of the shop to make room to work. Then unloaded all the timbers for frame #1 out of the storage container.

They helped move around and fit the timber pieces.

When all the pieces for one bent was fitted and strapped together, Dan drilled the holes in the tenons.

5-27-17
The deck isn't quite a deck yet. So we plan to install the riser walls using the Genie lift from inside the basement. Bruce lowers all the riser walls with his tractor.

5-28-17
With Dan and Mike working from the top and Mark cranking the Genie lift the first panel is lifted.

Ya! It fits!

With Christine applying sill seal and Joyce helping move lumber piles, me grinding bumps of concrete off the top, and the guys lifting and placing panels we got all but three up on the wall.

The beginning of the dome cabin.

5-29-17
The six bedroom posts and the 12 secondary rafters had to be unloaded outside due to lack of working room inside. I will tarp them and hope for the best.

Brad continues welding down the 100 deck joists.

In between helping Brad place joists correctly, Dan and Mike started framing basement walls.

Progress is slow with two things going on at the same time. Plus it's really hot in the basement hole this weekend.

We officially put our Northwoods cabin up for sale this weekend. Dan built it in 1977. Lots of fun times, but we are ready to move on.

6-4-17
More wall building. The concrete slab is not perfectly level, but we want a level floor deck. Dan stretched a string from one side of the basement to the other. Their was a slight dip in the string so he built a support to hold it level.

Then a measurement from the string to the wall plate was recorded for each stud.

Mike cut the varying lengths of studs.

Bruce and Dan assembled the walls.

Then raised them into position.

24 walls, one wall at a time.

Good progress this weekend.

Meanwhile, I started painting the steal deck beams and joists.

6-11-17
Adjusting riser walls.

The pressure treated plates at the bottom of the riser walls has shrunk a bit (wet and green when the walls were built). The riser wall holes fit on the bolts but not with enough room to make adjustments.

Marty and Dan took up each riser wall and enlarged the holes. Now the riser walls are where they need to be.

Marty's family joined us for the day. Lucy and James are the first kids to play in the rec room!

6-17-17 We hauled up the second load of plywood for the floor deck. We used some of it for temporary decking.

Brian, Bruce, Dan, & Mike put up the last three riser walls. They fit perfectly after making the adjustments last weekend. Then they plumbed and secured the basement walls. Sunday Dan & I finished some framing details and got almost finished with putting up the final top plates.

The original plan was to have four posts in the basement which would carry the weight of the frame from the first floor. But we decided to add a couple of arch ways to carry the timber frame elements into the basement.

Dan made the pieces and prefit the frames at home. Then I put some finish on them and we hauled them to the dome.

6-23-17 Dan assembled the frames and Bruce helped raise them.

Dan estimated this would add about 30 hours of timber framing to the project. He completed them in 52 hours. Not bad. That's not even double the projected time.

6-24-17
Time to start the floor deck. A center joist was installed first and 16 inch centers were measured from that in both directions.

The end of each joist is mitered to fit the angle of riser wall.

Then handed up. Measured. The other end cut. Nailed in place.

Blocking is added.

Plywood is started.

6-30-17
Josh and Dan framed around the stair opening.They installed temporary joists to be removed when the stair opening is cut in the plywood.

7-2-17 Every day we've worked on joists it's been really hot. We thought today looked cloudy and cool. But we drove up through the clouds into the sunshine.

7-2-17
The rim joists are installed and squared before continuing on with the floor joists. The measurements have to be right as this is where the bedroom timber frame goes.

The joists are completed except for the blocking.