day 7…back on track

Having recovered from the previous day’s setback, our Battle Creek crew was back in action early Wednesday morning.  We hadn’t stayed long enough Tuesday to see the three newly replaced beams running the length of the first floor ceiling, so were thrilled to see how awesome they looked.  The two 12″ x 6″ beams on either end that will be supporting the second floor bedrooms are lamibeams, while the middle beam is solid timber.

With the first floor framing complete and the temporary flooring back down on the second floor, with the help of one of the other crew members, Andy was able to begin running the electrical wire to the two floors.  As they are working with log walls that will remain exposed, the wires need to be run down door frames and across the top of the heavy timbers.  Channels need to be cut into the wood before the tongue and groove ceiling and the flooring goes down…the wire will then run along the channels and be hidden.

Outside several of the crew members were going to town on the front porch…

while others continued framing the roof and dormers along the front of the cabin.

Around back we had yet another group working on framing the roof over the great room. A slight dilemma occurred when the heavy timber peak was put in place and it wasn’t level. After a brief discussion, the solution was offered by Andy, our electrician- Lift the A-frame and place two 2″ x 8″ s on top of the log wall to bring in up to level.  Yep, definitely thinking Andy knows a little more about building log homes than just running the wire! I think I forgot to mention in the last post that it was Andy who discovered the lamibeam/timber mixup the previous day.

After talking to Andy a bit, he told me that he has built log homes before and knows how to do a bit of everything that goes into building a house.  However, as much as he loves running wire and building, he only does it on the side.  His real life occupation is owner of a Sears store in Alabama.  When I mentioned this to Dave, he replied, “hmmm, Mr. Lipham has a son who owns a Sears store.  You don’t suppose…..”  So it turns out that Andy is actually Mr. Lipham’s son and has been building log homes with him for 10 years.  That explains alot!  And what a great team they make…we are fortunate to have them both on our team.

By the time we pulled out, the cabin had taken on quite a transformation from the previous day and once again, we were completely amazed and thoroughly impressed be everyone involved in making it so.