Yet another Big Truck

Lopez Ready Mix (Bob) is getting good at backing their cement trucks down our driveway and around the corner to the house.

 Huck, thank you!!

As he was driving the truck away, Bob asked:  "What is that room anyway?"
We love that question!  The front entry is a response to our site and this (I've lived here long enough now to be annoyed by our 'temperate') climate.

It's a wind break.  There is an exterior door opening to the south and french doors opening to the inside of the house.
The new concrete floor will be thermal mass (for collecting heat and releasing it at night).
The skylights and the windows (all with clear glazing, not low-E, because this is "unheated space"!  ...brilliant...) will bring in heat, which we can move into the house by opening the inner french doors. 
And, not to be ignored, this is where Neal's citrus plants will live...he's a lemonhead...did you know?

And as a foil to all the trucks and cement, here's a shot of Uma in the orchard.  Note the shadows! Must be sun coming through the clouds.

Ms. LULL stops by

Mitrebox sent over the Lull to help out today

Tom squeaked her in past the studio

And held our second floor sheetrock outside our bedroom window.  Then Neal, Bruce, David and I brought it through the window and stacked it inside.  No, we're not ready for hanging sheetrock.  But we want to install the upstairs windows, and it would be a trick to bring all that rock up the stairway.

What a monster machine - and what a break for our backs!

August was for playing

But now he's back. Quick, get it dried in before the rain starts!

 First window, installed and trimmed out

 Uma's room, all three windows in, with reverse board and batten done on the first floor.

Quiet on the site

Walked in after work to find two chipmunks layed out -  one in the living room, one in the bathroom.
Deenah is protesting being left behind.

Where is he?

Where am I?

Go ahead and rain...

...we don't care anymore!  Neal, Kenny and Stephen snuck in between rain clouds and put on the big roof on Saturday the 23rd.  Sunday morning we woke to drops on the roof, and sighed in relief.  You won't have to listen to us complaining about how often our house is getting wet anymore.

While they did the roof, I was off-island picking up our Bertazzoni. It will be in the Cabin until the house is ready. Neal's first dinner on it:  Indian curry with fresh paneer for the two of us, Uma and Ashi.  Yum.

Over the past two days, Neal has been working on the front edges. 

Angle of Repose

Then it started to rain again.  We've been having crazy storms, with thunder and lighting - odd for here.

In between, they got on the roof again, spending the day at a 8/12 pitch:

What a relief, to have some of the building protected. They finished the upper roof right before another mass of rain came through.

Fast Forward

We left Neal just gaining access to the second floor...here he is on June 18, putting down the first sheets of ply

By July 4th, he had framed the second floor.  We watched the fireworks from our bedroom, sitting on the floor, each between a set of studs.

At 7 am on July 5th, we woke to the sound of a big truck backing up.  BEEP BEEP BEEP
The trusses!  Frontier didn't confirm the day or time of delivery.  Neal said they often take the first boat...and so they did, even the day after the 4th. 

We ran down to help, and had a focused and amazing hour, as the operator maneuvered the huge rig back toward the building, then feathered the trusses through the air to the frame.

That day when I came home from work, this is what I found:

Incredible, really, how quickly they went up. And it's sunny, how odd.

I was SO glad to see Kenny pull up in his truck, tool belt in hand.  I was on the second floor, helping to scoot the trusses down to the other end.  Not my thing.  Kenny, thank you!