A House In A Field
The story of a house. In a field. And how it gets there.
“Rube Goldberg Goes To A ‘Saw’ Movie” – Roofing on Dash Landing
Busy week.
Plumbers, electricians, ductwork, exterior trim — you name it. But one of the biggest developments was the arrival of the C.O. Beck roofers and their crazy metal bending machine.
You have to see this thing to believe it. Fifteen feet of Rube Goldberg meets “Saw.” Tin boxes, old pencil sharpeners, giant blades, buttons, whirring motors — you name it. All bolted together and run with remarkable precision by our new friend, Lars.
The process starts with a 1000′ roll of metal. (At 2 lb. per foot, we’re talking an even ton.) Lars will take a measurement off the roof, make a few snips with a pair of monster scissors, push it into the machine, hit a button and — shazam! — it comes out as a perfectly formed section of roofing at the other end.
That sheet is then brought up to the roof and clipped to the deck. The next panel overlaps on the seam and another crazy machine crawls up the roof and crimps both together.
And despite all the contraptions, it’s been the level of detail that has amazed us. Crisp bends. Thoughtful rain diverters. Meticulous flashing that borders on elegant.
We’ve had a metal roof on the plan since the beginning. And after watching these guys for a few days — it might go down as one our better decisions.
Raw metal. Each linear foot of this material is about two pounds.
Dew beading up. Officially, this is called “Pewter.” We like to think of it as “beer can.”
A pipe sleeve. One piece is welded into the roof and this sleeve fits over the top.
Business end of the bending machine.
Roof clip. This gets covered by the next panel.
Lars making a cut.
This is the machine that crimps the two panels together along the seam.
Almost finished roof at the back of the house. They’ll crimp the very top of the sheets with the panels on the other side to create the ridge.
Rube Goldberg meets Saw
Because you never know when you might need a pencil sharpened.
Haven’t seen the guys use the mechanical shears once. Everything that we’ve watched has been cut by hand.
Cupolas not taken. (With sincere apologies to Robert Frost)
We’ve come to understand* that building a house is a series of tradeoffs.
For our Medford project, our choice was “You can hire professional painters, but you’ll be eating ramen for a few months.” So the Bates crew pitched in to help paint our new place.
The decisions on Flying Point Road got a little bigger. Our contractor did a great job at managing a tight budget, but after a particularly tough month, he told us “porch or fireplace.” (It wasn’t a question.) We went with porch and the fireplace came a few years later.
Dash Landing has been different still. We went into the project with a few specifics, but the requests were typically more functional more than aesthetic –relatively small footprint, master bedroom on the first floor, geothermal, a brighter kitchen, etc.
But along the way, we agreed that we’d revisit the “fun stuff” down the road. And after we had bid out the core project, Rob tackled a few ideas that had bounced around during the design process.
This is one of those ideas :
It’s a cupola that would sit on top of the garage/barn thingy. Glass on all sides. A cool hinged ladder that would be raised & lowered by a rope. And enough room inside to sit, set up a camera, etc.
Absolutely awesome and now that the garage/barn thingy is all framed out, we can really see how spectacular it would have looked, especially from the main road. A few lights up there on a dark night, sitting high up in the field, framed by the trees — beautiful.
But we decided not to build it.
Yes, the expense was part of the decision. The cupola had just a bit of a “world’s most expensive go-pro housing” feeling. But it was more “timing” than “absolute amount.” We needed to make this decision weeks ago — before kitchens, cabinets, lighting, etc. And an impractical luxury at the end of a process is far wiser than one at the beginning.
No regrets, but if anyone has a spare $20k or so lying around and would like to help make an artistic statement — well, you know where we live. And we need it by Tuesday.
* All our posts should start with that sentence….
Little things. Coming together.
In what can be an incredibly frustrating, pull your hair out by the roots, “Are you kidding me?” process — and that’s on a good day — it’s nice to see little things start to come together.
Kyle’s crew has been finishing up the soffits and porch ceiling this week. And it looks awesome.
Soffit turning the corner on a newly roofed section.
Porch ceiling. Those posts will get wrapped into boxes that’ll have a very gentle taper.
“People everywhere love Windows” – Bill Gates
Among better contractors and framers, there’s an old saying that “The day windows are delivered is the day that they’re installed.” Apparently free range windows can disappear from a work site — a habit slowed considerably by a series of nails and air sealing tape.
So at 9:00 this morning, the lumber truck pulled up and by 12:00, nearly every one was securely in place. The only exceptions were three windows on the 2nd floor. If you look carefully at the plans, you’ll notice that the roof comes up tight on the bedrooms and reading nook windows. Because of that design feature, the roofers will need to “pan” the opening as a way of ensuring that the house remains water tight.
And if you’re wondering “why the bronze color?” — check out this post from earlier this winter. We’ll have cedar shakes instead of clapboards, but the look will be very much the same…
Dining room windows
Note the openings on the 2nd floor. Those are two of the three windows that need to be panned by the roofers.
Bedroom windows
Bathroom window
Exterior view of bathroom window
“Foam All Roofs + Gables on Oz”
We have no idea what this means.
Could be one of the smartest examples of micro-marketing in history for what was one of the worst films in history — “Oz The Great and Powerful.” (“…a dispiriting, infuriating jumble of big money, small ideas and ugly visuals.” – The New York Times)
Could also be the beginning of a Sarah Palin word-salad speech, but it’s missing “mavericks.”
In either case, it’s going to make an awesome commemorative t-shirt.
Plumbers, Electricians and Duct Workers – Oh, my!
Full house here on the field this week. Not only did our steel finally find its way to the building site, but the place was buzzing with activity.
And next week only gets busier. We’ve got windows arriving on Monday for installation and the roofers are also showing up with our “Oh so shiny” aluminum.
Washer hookups
1st floor rafters over the MBR.
Mike hauling up sheets of Zipboard for the garage gables
Supply and return for the 2nd floor bedrooms.
Heating return grate for the 2nd floor
Big wave from Eddie as the back gable on the garage gets lifted into place.
Pete working on the two “corner windows” details on the outside of the barn.
Speaker bracket for the screened porch
Starting to see some shape on the garage. They’ll tackle the walkway connecting the two buildings once the garaged is sheathed.
A House In A Field 