I wish I could have spent a second full day in a row watching the action at our build. By the time I got there today it was cloudy, the sun was tired, and everyone had packed up. The result: I was jaw-droppingly wowed by the outcome of another productive day, but the light was not the best for photos.

Fortunately, Patrick got the incredible shot above of Kevin removing the straps used to raise a great room purlin (see yesterday’s post for an explanation of purlins and other fancy timber framing lingo).

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Not only does timber framing have a distinct look, it has a unique language.

The bent was installed today, and I am proud to tell you I now know that word – the bent is the main supporting structure of our house and it defines our great room. (Click here for a real lesson on the bent and how it got its name). Many stunning northeastern white pine trees gave their lives to hold up our home, and John and Patrick estimate that together they weigh about 3000 pounds.

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It seems there’s some competition for leader of the crew.

Day 4 brought the critical eyes of not just our seven-year-old pup Molly, but also those of two bald eagles who watched the day’s progress for hours from a nearby tree.

While their help is appreciated, we’ve decided to stick with Patrick. We might consider their applications if they had a little more experience and we didn’t like our current foreman so much.

Molly was more than a little excited to be lifted onto the deck for her first time. She instantly ran around the space in circles, then checked out the views she’ll have. We haven’t yet broken it to her that there’s a door going where she rests in this photo.

The eagles were there for about three hours – I’ll take that as a good omen.

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Our crew is doing such a fine job! Today was another smooth day of assembling and raising walls, including the front section of our great room – which I’ve only seen in these pictures:

For the third day in a row, John came home beaming. He can’t say enough about how efficiently our crew is working, and how happy he is with the quality of everyone’s workmanship. Alfie, he says, fusses over 1/16 of an inch. He gets the perfectionist’s stamp of approval for certain.

“My only worry,” John told me, “is whether Safeway will run out of Frank’s Red Hot.” Patrick puts it on everything.

We are not so naïve to think we won’t have (more than) a few more bad days before this project is complete, particularly now that I’ve made a point of saying how well things are going. But we sure appreciate every good one.

So far, so great!

In a mere two days of work by John, Patrick, and a crew of three hardworking guys from Don Hager Contracting (Kevin, Larry, and Alfie), walls are popping up and our house is appearing before our eyes. Patrick says things are moving along faster than he expected.

By the end of today, we were able to see what our views will look like from the dining room and our bedroom. All I can say is it’s a good thing our ensuite window has a lot of trees in front of it… (more…)

(I wrote this Sunday, but since then there have been technical difficulties related to posting I may never understand…).

It may be the first day of spring, but it’s been feeling a lot like Christmas around here.

John and I have looked forward to tomorrow, the official Day 1 of our build, with an anticipation I have not felt since I was a kid waiting for the holiday season.

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