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Although
it's not common practice to lay the flooring before installing
the roof, we did so because it made the job of raising
the trusses easier. That way, we could work safely from
the second floor. In our ignorance, we pried and prodded
12'-long 2"x6" tongue-and-groove boards into
place by hand over the 4' joist spans. As you can imagine,
this was an onerous task.
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At
the time, I didn't own an air compressor, so we nailed
and countersunk each nail by hand. What we were thinking,
I am not sure. After the first eight hours of work, we
had only laid three rows of floor. At the end of the
week-long
chore, neither Dad nor I would have crouched down to pick
up a $100 bill, but we did stand to admire the view from
the temporary
500-square-foot log balcony.
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Finally,
it was time to raise the roof. Once again,
I summoned the group of friends who had helped
me dismantle the building originally. The
roof structure consisted of a main girder
with half trusses, which formed the roofline
on either side. The day before my crew arrived,
I erected two columns at the centers of the
ends of the building.
As a group, our first undertaking of the morning
was to lift and sandwich the |
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The author's friends come through for
her again by helping to raise the roof. |
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main girder between the end columns.
Once this was accomplished, the remaining
roof was assembled in half trusses with
one end of the truss hanging from the
girder and the other end resting on
the sill plate. By the end of the day,
we had the roof sheathed with only the
dormers left to install. |
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As the summer drew to a close, paid employment beckoned
and the glorious time with my logs, my father and my cherished
boom truck ended. I was proud to have a shell of a workshop
in place, but even more satisfied with the memories that
my father and I had built together. I was still a long
way from being finished, so the story isn't over yet…
Karen McBride
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