Offgridburbia

Leading up to raising day the following questions had been dogging me:

• Will the weather hold up?
• Will enough people show up?
• Will all these pieces go together in real life like they do in my head and on the computer?

I’ve gleaned from several frame raising accounts that these concerns are pretty common.

Regarding the first point, the threat thunderstorms for Saturday hung on all week gradually diminishing into nothing by Saturday morning.

Regarding the second point, at 10 am we had 15 people on hand. Yay!

And regarding the third, assembling the bents earlier in the week had provided me with a modicum of confidence. Apart from some adjustment to the mortise housings for the braces the bents went together fairly easily and to plan. My biggest fear was getting the four 400 lb plate beams into position roughly 18 feet above the ground and having a problem with them fitting.

Here’s the time lapse of raising day:

Here are some still photos with more details:

John gives the morning safety briefing. He started Jean and me on this timber framing path and his help on raising day was invaluable.

Horacio, Cody, Cassandra, me and Tristi looking very apprehensive as we get into position to raise the first bent of the day. Must of have been a tough safety briefing.

Raising the first bent of the day.

And it’s up. We’re walking it over to that backstop located by my feet.

Tying off ropes to the bent. James and my Dad held the ends of these rope on standby to stable the bent if it started to get away from us.

Walking the second bent of the day into position

Lifting the first floor drop in floor joist into position

Michael, Cody, and David add some temporary flooring to the east side of cabin. Max and Paul build scaffolding on the west side. This will provide an elevated work surface for us to install the plate beams and rafters.

Trimming up an interfering tree branch

Installing some safety bracing that will also provide support getting the plate beams into position

Moving the first plate beam up to the second level using an inclined plane with PVC pipe rollers.

John saved the day performing some field surgery on the tenon so the plate beam would fit

Lifting a plate beam into place

The safety bracing worked well but I would have better pictures if it was mounted a little lower.

The last plate slides into face and Aaron breathes a huge sigh of relief.

Frame Raised!