Back to work!

With the holidays behind us, we're back to work. Having the wood stove and electricity makes the work a bit more enjoyable. Over the holidays we focused on the round headers. After making the jig, and trying to bend a few different materials we determined we needed good clear pine, and it needed to be no thicker than 3/16" thick to make the 5' diameter bend without stressing the material. After the first few layers we got the hang of it, all in all, it was a great learning experience, much more difficult, and time consuming than I anticipated, but well worth the time and effort. The first header is finished and installed, the second (loft header) is in the works right now.

Loft beams have been ordered, and should be ready some time next week, I'm looking forward to seeing this part of the project come together. Here are some pictures to bring us up to date.

dad and I strapping / clamping a layer onto the header

the form

finished header (7-1/2" tall x 3" thick, 5' diameter)

temp posts for positioning the main floor header

header w/first four joist in place.

view from above (braced to keep everything aligned)

great view looking in from the back yard

2x12 floor joists getting notched for radiant tubing (easier to do now, rather than later)

Home sweet home :) "It was a one dog night" (as Gary said)

Finally standing on the main floor !!

We were able to use the cut off scrap from the full sheets to fill in the remaining "pie pieces."

Thats how Dan and I left it on Friday, Looking forward to getting back and