April 27 2007 —The Guest Cottage Roof Trusses Arrive

As I turned onto the road today, I could see a big truck going up the hill. I caught up to it, and with one hand on the wheel and one on the camera, took this picture just as it went around the 90 degree turn. The truck is carrying the roof trusses for the guest cottage.

You can’t see it in the picture, but it had a wide load flag on it and it was a wide load, sticking out over either side of our little road.

It pulled up in the driveway between the barn and guest cottage. The driver set down the crane’s braces and extended the crane.

Before the trusses were unloaded, they crane would lift a glue-lam beam for the barn.

This beam replaces the one I saw being put into place on Wednesday. The contractor has gone so fast on this project, that the working drawings have not been completed. The detail for this beam, which supports the shed roof (the lifted section) had not been done, which led the framers to make a mistake. It is hard to see in this photo, but there is a slot for the beam in the frame next to the window. Once it is in place, the bucket on top will fit perfectly.

They slide the beam into its spot and it fits exactly!

The guest cottage has had siding put on it. When Jim came home last night, he was worried that it didn’t have any windows. I explained that they put siding up over the entire frame and cut the windows out later.

The framers climb up onto the plate to catch the trusses as they are raised to the roof. The trusses are in two bunches, labeled A1 and A2. A1 is for the living room side and A2 is for the bedroom/bathroom side.

The trusses are a little bit fancy, because there will be a cool little attic in the guest cottage accessed by a pull-down stair. There is a hole in the middle of some of the trusses to accommodate the attic, so they had to be designed with an extra brace.

Here come the first set.
The framers catch them and swing them around so they are facing the right direction.
They are lowered to the top of the plate where the framers will brace them temporarily with a long board.
   
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