We carried on through the month of August. We fixed any mistakes we found, and kept on working through the heat, and the rain. A friend of ours came over (Dave) who I can say without his help and equipment we wouldn't have gotten the house done in time, or maybe not at all. He usually came over with 2 of his boys (Wyatt and Keith). They helped set the last few walls on the third floor install stiff backs in the ceilings, the barge rafters, and start one of the gable ends.
Through the week the kids and I got the rest of the ceiling joists and ceiling rafters in, bridged the walls in the living room and master bed room, get our beams and bracing finished, and just generally finish up some loose ends we needed to get done so we could get the roof on. We were finally ready to start the rafters. Dave helped me get an idea of the pitch we needed and we setup the framing square for rafters. I cut one, and set it in place. It fit exactly like it was supposed to.
Keith worked on top, and I worked on the bottom
On august 30th we started the roof. Those first few rafters were a great feeling. We would soon have a weather proof structure. I had a bunch of work to do with the saw but we could now frame the rest of the house up. The rafters were two sections. A lower section and an upper section. The lower section set on a rafter plate (not the wall) at the outer wall, and the upper end of that rafter set on a rafter plate at the interior wall.The second section set on the interior rafter plate, and the upper end attached to a ridge beam.
I cut so many rafters. Between the ceiling rafters and the roof rafters there were about 300 to cut. I set most of the lower halves with the help of a guy from work (Tom), and Derek. The next day (Monday) I took off work, and set upper rafters on the west side going east. By the time the kids were home from school, I was half way across. Surprisingly the kids never came out of the shop to help me. I did a few at a time through the week. By Saturday we were at the east end, and had the rafters done. We spent the day Saturday putting in the rafters for the dormer. We added the gable studs, and Bracing to the main roof. By the next Friday we were ready to put the sheathing on the roof.
House was ready.
Dave would be over the next morning with his oldest boy Dan, along with Keith and probably Wyatt. I did not know that several other guys would show up with them. When they showed up, I started cutting osb, and that didn't stop for a long time. Not only were all of them fast, they were all really good at what they did. I didn't get to watch much because I was busy, but in maybe 2 hours, possibly 3, they were done!
Samantha, Brad, Keith, Joe, Link, Randy, and a few others I didn't know.
This was much different than the last time people came to help. Things got done, they were done right, and we didn't have any issues. well except my compressor went out about 30 minutes into it. Then Dan's compressor went out. They hand nailed some of it just to attach it. We went back later and nailed it good.
All that was left now was to close up the gable ends, house wrap it, and install all the windows and doors. We would have the roof on, and the exterior ready for winter before October 1st! We could have not made it this far without Dave and his family. We would have made it there eventually, but it would have taken another month probably.
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