Paul & Victoria's Future Skypark Home
No work on the house or hangar this week (Feb 28 - March 3). I verified the house trusses won't be ready until March 23 so no framing will start until around March 9th :-( Bell Steel didn't have a foreman this week either, though they did say they will have TWO crews here on Monday... The only good news for the week is that the hangar insulation arrived Thursday with many thanks to John & Annmarie for letting us store it in their hangar :-)
Week #7:
Monday, March 6, Bell steel was out there (under threat of rain), and here is the day's progress.
I arrived to the lot Tuesday to find Alberto, John, Rudy and a nice pile of wood on the back patio. It turns out the trusses' completion date was moved up a bit so there they were, ready to begin framing (with Alberto already cutting wood :-)
Wednesday's progress shows the walls they're building along with some of the roof trusses that unexpectedly showed up (I thought I wouldn't see trusses for two more weeks);
The hangar is also moving along, and you can see on the south wall, the 7' wide by 45' long mezzanine to be used for storage;
WE HAVE WALLS!!!! Mind you, the wood arrived on Tuesday, and here we have walls on Thursday and Friday :-) This is TOO exciting!
Friday's progress was cut short by cold air and snow in the afternoon though most all the exterior walls are up before the light snowfall began. The first picture is looking from the front to the back of the house followed by the front door entry (and the entry closet; the first interior wall).
No work on the weekend as we had more cold weather and a bit of SNOW! Here are 'before and after' snowfall pictures.
Week #8:
Monday, March 13, was a memorable day as John & Jeremy Forrest, Alberto, Bryan and Rudy built and 'stood' most all the interior walls. John hopes to start putting roof trusses up on Wednesday. That's Bryan giving the 'heave-ho' command :-)
Bryan does a bit of everything, and eventually he'll put on his 'tileman' hat for our home :-)
This is Jeremy Forrest, John's son and our draftsman who drew up our house, thank you very much! I was able to give him an airplane ride around the valley today.
I'm unable to get out to the house the rest of the week (I'm subbing) but John Manduca was able to get some pictures for me on Tuesday. This steel I-beam is 22' long, and weighs 120 lbs/ft (yikes!). It will carry loads from the observation tower but also holds up the end of the trusses which should start going up tomorrow.
I drove up Wednesday afternoon to find the trusses being lifted up onto the house :-) A big THANK YOU to Scott & Dave at Precision Welding for getting the 2640 pound I-beam placed yesterday (so the trusses could lay on it today!)
All the interior walls are up, and I was able to 'walk-thru' the entire house for the very first time :-) The first two pictures are side-by-side are before & after, looking thru 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1 master closet.
The last of the 'red steel' was also going up on the hangar today so we hope to see some insulation and walls going up soon...
Victoria was out on Thursday to watch the trusses start to go up, and I was able to get out for a short time after school but before going to work (Lockheed). Forrest Construction is really moving along!!!
Here's a composite picture of the Great Room (34'x30') from the north, patio wall. The 14'x18' kitchen is on the left.
Victoria was out on Friday and took this picture. The crew closed up shop early due to cold, rainy weather. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Week #9:
We arrived home Monday morning, March 20, from an overnight to Las Vegas to find more of our roof taking shape :-)
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday saw more of the house roof going up and LOTS of hangar walls too!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's a view you haven't seen yet: From Rosamond Blvd looking north :-) Mojave airport is behind the hills.
Friday (March 24) was another big day for the hangar crew completed about 90% of the roof including 3 (of 4) skylights and 1 (of 2) vents.
Here's a picture of the 45' long by 7' deep mezzanine that we can use for storage.
John and Rudy were in Missouri but Alberto and Bryan worked the house facia and roof respectively.
Week #10:
Monday, March 27 had Alberto, John, Rudy out for the day but Bryan was there still pounding away on the roof. The hangar crew finished up the last skylight and vent then tried to get the hangar door installed but kept running into problems. They finally gave up and set the bifold door back on the ground :-(
The bifold hangar door (by Schweiss) is 55'x14'. With a 55' door, I can have 4 RVs in the hangar (2 in front, 2 in back) and only need to pull out 1 RV to get to the other RV behind it.
Tuesday: No progress (or hangar door) due to RAIN.
Wednesday, no hangar crew but Bryan was busy with installing gas pipe. Alberto, John and Rudy finished up the patio (roof) trusses and are trying to get the house covered in plywood before the rainy weather expected this weekend.
We have a plywood ROOF Thursday! Forrest Construction kept on the roof yesterday, and completed all they could today. They hope to have a roof inspection tomorrow then wrap the roof with the black tar-paper before the weekend rains arrive. They will finish the rest of the (corner) garage roof after the steel tower, built by Dave Jones of Precision Welding, is completed. Inside the house, Bryan completed all the gas runs :-)
Friday: Still no hangar crew (or hangar door). With most all the house structure up, changes to the house are not so obvious...Lots of detail work completed inside the house today. John tells us that he's ready to wrap/stack the roof then start on the electrical wiring next week. I'm planning on running Cat5e & RG-6 in support of structured wiring to a central location in the utility room
Here's Bryan building the enclosure that will hold our Bed & Breakfast gas fireplace and the chimney box that will 'capture' both the Great Room's wood stove and the outside patio's fireplace;
Back to February or continue to April.
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