Ridge Pole is Up!

We are right on schedule getting things done, it's been another great week. Thank God for the cooler weather this week. We were going to work no matter what, but rather than 100 degrees, it was only 93 with an occasional nice breeze. That definately makes a difference! We got all three RPSL's up this week. That was interesting because they stand upright. But we figured it out pretty quick. We also put up the Ridge Pole! It is a beautiful tree, and this is certainly a landmark in history for us, to be through putting up all the logs for our 1st ever log cabin. We have a few more little GSL logs to put up when we start putting in the floor, but that will come later. Even though it's our garage, it's a pretty stinkin' awesome log garage! There have been many requests of who is going to live in it once our house is built.


(Putting in the middle RPSL, a.k.a. Rachel's favorite log)











Lifting the huge ridge Pole up to the highest point on the house was extremely exciting and exhilarating. Stewart did an awesome job of shaping the tops of the RPSL's to fit the Ridge Pole. Thanks to a neat little contouring contraption. Really cool.....









(Stewart pounding rebar into the Ridge Pole)

(Another shot looking up at the Ridge Pole. It's up there!)

Once the Ridge Pole was in place, we spent the next couple of days sanding any rough spots on the logs, and pressure washing them. Pressure washing also took any gray weathered spots right off the logs.

(The walls getting pressure washed. Being wet really brings out the natural color of the wood.)

Today, our rafters, floor joists, and tongue & groove for the ceiling and floor were delivered! We are very excited! We are moving into the next phase of the building process. We went with 4x12 rough-cut pine beams for our rafters, and pine tongue & groove for the floor and ceiling. They look really good. We got 12 different stain samples to test out on the beams, and finally decided which one to use. I think it's going to look really good.

After we spot stained a beam with all the different stains, we got the guys to carry the beam over to the logs so we could look at it next to the wall. Those things are heavy! It took all 5 and they were moaning all the way there and back. But, we were able to decide better on which stain we will use, so thanks guys! I was thinking we should just get rid of the forklift and let the guys carry each beam up the wall for our rafters. They disagreed...