An Apology To My Crew/ Aviation Grade Spruce

First off, I'll apologize to my crew: I'm sorry I haven't taken any pictures the last two work days, I will publicly say that they have not been slacking! Since the last post, they framed the rest of the sitting room, cut the shingles where the valleys for the gable will go, put in the ridge beam, and finished the roof rafters and valleys. They worked on the lookouts for the decorative boxes, figured the bird's mouth cut for the barge board over those boxes, and picked out sheathing that will replicate the look of beadboard in the overhang.

We recycled the 2x6 rafters that were cut from the old roof when we opened up for the gable. I had cleaned all those pieces on Friday. We used them to fill the bottom of the roof rafters at the ceiling height. The pieces we removed were just over 12 feet long and we needed just under 10. John noticed as we were making diagonal cuts to fit them into place that the 4 of the 5 boards were knot free with straight grain that deviated less than one inch over the 12 foot length, meaning that they would be considered "aviation grade" acceptable for use in building planes. Since both he and Pete are licensed pilots, it was a shame to throw these back into the roof, but we agreed it was keeping in spirit of over engineered building that is constant throughout the house.

Today we will sheath and "button up" the gable and get ready for the roofers to come on Thursday. Thursday will be somewhat like D-Day as the following are also going to show up that day:

• Drillers for the geothermal pipes
  
• Electrician to put in new 200 amp service
  
• Plumber to talk about new 2nd floor bathroom
  

The F&L Crew have decided to make themselves scarce starting Thursday for a while, since every one of them has a long list of spousal requests to be completed. Pete is going to Texas with his family for an annual trip to visit friends. My builders have certainly earned some time off.