Tim-bers! Day 1 Eve

Written by Kelly

(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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This is pretty close to what our site looks like now. In about three weeks, it’s going to look a lot different. The photo below is the view from my snowshoes on the frozen river about a month ago.

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The presents started arriving Wednesday, when Patrick from Timberbuilt drove into town – through a snowstorm no less – to get ready to lead the assembly of our home.

The next day brought the first tractor trailer load of panels – many pieces of pre-cut foam sandwiched between sheets of OSB. Memories of this delivery may one day bring us a laugh, but like real Christmas dramas, it was quite intense at the time. The short story: the truck got stuck on a very icy hill, blocking Anderson Road for about an hour. We offer our sincere apologies to our patient neighbours who had to take the long way around that morning.

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John and Patrick unload the first truckload of structural insulated panels (SIPs), which will form our exterior walls. A load of roof panels came yesterday. When I suggested these bits and pieces – which are labeled but need to be sorted – are like a giant puzzle, Patrick said, “Yeah, it’s a man puzzle. With large 3-D pieces.”

Seeing the SIPs was exciting, but the arrival a few hours later of our beautiful, hand cut timbers nearly brought me to tears. For years we have dreamed about this build and admired the timbers in the Timberbuilt homes we have visited, but these ones are ours. These timbers are our home.

Oh, Timberbuilt. Thank you for your hard work and artistry. We know you put in many extra hours to ensure we could stay as close to our schedule as possible and also to give us our amazing Spanish Olive.

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Thanks to Adam L. for this photo of our timbers in progress in Timberbuilt’s temporary shop.
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Our timbers upon arrival at our lot. The cedar timbers (left), which smell like the best sauna ever, are for the exterior accents. The pine (right) is for our actual frame. I am in awe of their size, their beauty, and the intricacy of how they’ve been cut. None of the pictures we have so far really do them justice, and this blog doesn’t have a scratch and sniff option.

Meanwhile, our site is ready to go. The tarps that were keeping the deck (main floor) dry all winter came off Friday. Yesterday, chalk lines were snapped and the bottom plates that will receive the SIPs were glued and nailed to the floor deck. Tomorrow, our local crew will join John and Patrick to begin putting the pieces together.

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Patrick taking measurements before placing the plates. He’s in the space that will be our main entrance.

There’s so much to look forward to, I’m not sure when that Christmas feeling will go away. Given this adventure ends with us living amongst those timbers, maybe it won’t.

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This is John and me in December at the edge of our great room. I’m already planning this year’s Christmas/housewarming party. Everything should be done by then, right?

 

2 thoughts on “Tim-bers! Day 1 Eve”

  2. Thanks for commenting, Brian! We appreciate your contribution to our home. I’m happy to tell you the building official here in Kenora was very impressed by the detailed and thorough work that was submitted by both you and by Timberbuilt. That made us feel even more confident in our decision to build our Spanish Olive. Despite the stress that goes with this process, we are definitely enjoying it!

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