Post, Beams, and Vigas

Posts, Corbels, and one 22 foot 10x12 beam are in place ready for vigas.


John guides a viga into place while giving signals to the crane operator. Griffin positions the other end.


Griffin steadies a viga while it swings into position


Another viga swings into position over what will be the kitchen.


All vigas are in place and ready for leveling in the guest bedroom portion of the house. You can start to get a feel for the space with them in place.


This is a view through the dining and living areas toward the master bedroom, taken from the kitchen area. You can see the posts with corbels holding up the big beams. On Wednesday morning a light cover of snow reminded us that winter is fast approaching.


The Roof Structure Starts to Take Shape

On Tuesday, October 28th, we began working on posts for the interior of the house. I built a jig for cutting the ends of the post square to their axis and then fabricated metal plates for anchoring the post to the floor. They consist of a plate that is lag bolted to the bottom of the post having four sections of angle iron welded to it and another flat plate that is bolted to the floor or, in a couple locations, welded to a piece of rebar protruding from the concrete. John and Griffin cut the posts to length and then attached corbels to their tops. The posts were then positioned and the metal base plates were welded solid. The 10" x 12" beams were prepped and Mark Jenkins lifted them into place with the big excavator. His help made a back-breaking task almost effortless. We ran lag bolts through the beams and down into the corbels to anchor everything together. We were then ready to lift vigas into place.


Jenny and I worked on staining the 2x6 tongue-and-groove fir for the ceiling. We used a product called "Lifetime" http://www.valhalco.com/when.htm which is not really a stain but a chemical/mineral compound that is added to water and causes rough cut wood to turn barn wood gray. We did not get this result with the T&G due to the finished surface. Our wood darkened a slight silver color from its original blond and turned a slight salmon red color. We are happy with the look and also like the idea that "Lifetime" is non-toxic.


Monday November 3rd, we finished up the beam installation and began measuring the ends of the vigas and planning their positions in the rooms. I hired a crane to help us place the vigas on Tuesday. John, Griffin and I placed 33 vigas in 3 hours.

November 4th, election day: a great day for America and the world!


Wednesday morning, November 5th, we awoke to snow. I called John to tell him it was snowing at our house and maybe we should wait out the weather. He replied "Yeah...it's snowing up here on the bond beam as well!" So much for taking a day off for bad weather. I quite my whining and headed to the site. The day was spent leveling the vigas and attaching the metal anchor straps in the guest bedroom section of the house.