House Framing is Underway

We managed to get about half of the first floor framing done before the bad weather set in. It has been about -25˚ here with about -600˚ wind chill for the past week. We were really lucky up until the second week of December – the weather was gorgeous. You can see the front and the space where the garage is going to be on the right. I was all high fives about our progress but now I'm all Debbie Downer that I remember we haven't touched the Garage yet. It should be interesting trying to get that all level. 

At the front here you can see the office window. It's actually a bit bigger than it looks but I have to cut the sheathing back on the bottom edge. There will be a covered porch with 8x8" fir columns across the front of the house. We're trying to sheath the
 frames while they are laying flat as much as we can. In some cases it just doesn't work but that's what ladders are for. On the left side here you can see where we framed in the stairwell landing for the upper floor. Everything feels really solid, which is encouraging to say the least!
 
If you look waaay to the back right side, you can see the two 7'x6' windows. That's right, I said 7x6. There is a lot of glass in this house – $10,000 worth... and we're using the cheap vinyl framed windows. I couldn't justify the extra $10,000 for wood. Maybe some day when they start going, we'll get wood ones in select areas. 

There is a view from every window in this house. Absolutely stunning. Andrew commented that he things this is "one of the best residential lots in the Pass".

The garage goes in front here but we' haven't made it that far yet. I'm sort of scratching my head about how to get it level. If we don't get it right the first time, the whole second floor will be a ramp. Critical stuff! 

Now we just need some warmer weather. I was out today for a few hours at -15˚ and it was tolerable but there was no wind either. When it started to snow and the temperature dropped, I packed up. I think this is going to be our reality for the next few months. C'mon chinook!

PS. We had winds up to 120km/hr here over the two weeks previous! It was actually scary sitting in bed at night hearing this train rolling over the house. I was sure we were going to lose the roof but this house has been standing for about 70 years so it has probably seen worse.

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