Wall Raising and Ridgebeam

This was a good week for visual progress.  I got some help and raised up the walls onto the trailer, drilled the holes for the carriage bolts and hand tightened them to the trailer.  The walls aren't exactly square yet but closer than I thought they would be.  Discussions led me to decide against sheathing the walls while on ground.  The weight issue was not the deciding factor this time but the fact that sheathed walls are harder to square and I didn't have enough confidence that they were ready.  I'm glad I didn't.



Once all for walls were up I could get a better sense of dimension and visualize where everything would go.  Next I tackled the roof framing.  Tackle is the most appropriate description as there was no elegance to the way I approached this process.  My first problem was probably attempting math.  I knew the total legal limit the house was allowed to be: 13feet 6inches.  So I measured from the ground to the top of the walls and subtracted for the additional height the loft/roof would be.  Makes sense right?  Then knowing my ridgebeam was a 2x8 I subtracted 8 inches from the extension height so I knew how high to build the guide the ridgebeam would rest on.  Still felt like I was on the right track.  I built my tuning fork shaped brace on each of the short walls and one propped up on a crossbeam in the middle, slid the 10 foot 2x8 beams into place and thought "done".  Then to be sure I measured the total height again.  Not...Even...Close.  I wasn't really all that surprised but how could I be more than a foot off.  This house is definitely going to fall down and kill me.  I climbed back up and put two 2x6 scraps in the brace under the ridgebeam and measured again.  Close enough.

Next weekend with more help I'm hoping to get a start on the rafters.  Also here is a picture of the big ass circus tent tarp I got.  It is a handful to work with but I'm hoping will work better than several smaller tarps that might leak.