Roofworks – tarpaper coming into play

All roof boards are now attached. Tar paper is making an appearance making Villa Linnea waterproof from above. A welcome sight considering that more snow and rain is expected in the coming days.

Also boards under the roof are being installed making Villa Linnea looking even better. While the assembly crew did not exactly show much patience for beautiful works until now, the finishing details of these boards is actually rather nice.

Traffic on the ice on the lake from random visitors is also increasing these days. Seems like that the word about the existance of Villa Linnea has spread to the locals and more and more ice fishers and snowmobiles make an appearance “coincidentally” in front of our beach. Even some cross country skiing tracks make an appearance in the snow around the building site.

Based on the current speed I expect that Villa Linnea will be protected from the wet elements by the end of this week. Naturally, piles of snow are still flying in through the wide open holes for the windows and the doors. But that’s something to be taken care off in the weeks to come.

 

Roofworks continued

13 working days into the assembly of Villa Linnea and still not all roof boards are attached. Well, it’s not that we wanted to built a French castle with 150 little towers but two towers make for a good character, right? The fact that the builders only once or twice a year get to work on such a complex roof structure (even if it relatively small) is somehow surprising. Do most log homes just have two large roof surfaces and one covered porch? The builders spent most of day 13 on finalizing the roof beams of the towers and I wouldn’t be surprised if the towers finally get their roof boards on the next building day.

Waiting for me there was the usual cleaning after building crew. 5 meters around Villa it looks like somebody would have blown up a pile of roof boards. Roof boards in all sizes are lying around. I cut half cubic meter of firewood but there is much more to come. I also spent some 4 hours hammering more pegs into the logs that tie them together. The building crew seems to take a rather liberal interpretation of how many wooden pegs are to be used. I added some 30 pegs on top of the logs for good taste. It can’t harm and keeps the towers hopefully from flying away when the wind blows from the lake.

But on a sunny day what could be more rewarding then enjoying the view from Villa Linnea to the lake? The sunset in the summer is going to be fantastic.

Day 10 – Roof boards appearing

We should be now at day 10 of the assembly according to my counting. Roof construction is moving ahead. Another day went into attaching roof beams and the builders started to attach the roof boards.  It takes two folks one day to attach one side of roof boards of the center section of Villa Linnea. I have to admit that the roof structure of Villa Linnea is kind of complex and the building crew ain’t particular excited about that. Yet they admit it looks really good.

Again, Villa Linnea gets more three dimensional feel to it once the rood boards are attached. Looking at the current speed I estimate that all the rood beams and boards are attached within 5 working days. The assembly crew also started to attach the boards i that will hold the windows while the log frame is settling down. Also more massive pillars have been attached giving the covered terrace more character.

 

 

 

Topping-Out Ceremony – Harjannostajaiset – Richtfest

Three days work on the roof beams and we could celebrate the so-called topping-out (according to my dictionary). Now the roof takes really shape and shows the complexity of the structure which then again makes Villa Linnea special. So it was time to celebrate. With a glass of sparkling wine (and sparkling juice for the junior), a short blessing of the building in German, and the breaking of a glass for good luck, the ceremony was conducted with the family.

After that we were back to our low pay jobs of cleaning up after the construction crew. An impressive amount of 12 garbage bags purely with packaging material for the logs, two bags with metal strings holding the logs together, and another bag with random crap is the outcome of the log assembly. Not to mention 1 m3 of firewood used for transportation of the logs.

Also some of the inside pillars were installed in the last three days in order to hold up the roof structure. Things look a bit weird inside the center section of Villa Linnea now, but most of these beams will disappear either under the ceiling boards or in the intermediate floor structure.

Unfortunately, the other pillars around the covered terraces have not been installed yet and therefore the picture is not complete yet. But the assembly crew installed also the metal bars to tighten the logs together.

Frame assembly – day 4, the final day

Another cold day in Finland, but not cold enough not to continue the log assembly. The assembly crew actually showed up already on Monday without the mobile crane and did some preparation work. But things really moved forward on day 4 of the log frame assembly. Starting in -18 degrees Celsius at 10.00, the crew of 4 men worked until 19.00 in the evening. But the progress was impressive. The two guys from the assembly crew that were balancing on top of the logs hammering each of them in place seem to have no fear and another job as flying stuntmen in the circus (without a net).

In the early afternoon, the silhouette of the second floor of Villa Linnea appeared on the horizon. The two towers and the high living room section opening towards the lake make an beautiful appearance.

But the assembly crew worked already one day on putting together the frame structures for the two towers. It is clearly easier to assemble these complex structures on the ground the on top of the towers.

Before it was getting dark, the log frame was pretty much assembled with the exception of some half logs that finish off each wall. And it was time to let the roof frames fly over the towers. Again, an amazing sight for somebody like me. Gracefully landing on top of the logs of the tower and giving Villa Linnea again more of its own character.

The crew completed the day by lifting already some more roof beams on top of the roof waiting for the assembly in the coming days.

Building stop – record temperatures

Last summer we had record temperatures allowing us to hang around in the lake in front of Villa Linnea for hours. This winter does not shy away of records either. temperatures north of minus 25 degree Celsius keep even the toughest builders away from the construction site.

We will take a week time out and hope for slightly warmer weather next week. But that’s no harm to the overall schedule as we started the building one week ahead of schedule.

 

Frame assembly – day 3

After day 3 (another really cold day) things progressed to a stage that the shape of the towers becomes recognizable. Although I expected a bit more progress on day 3 things are shaping up nicely. The assembly crew must have left early because when our architect inspected the site at 14.00 there was nobody to be seen anymore. Not surprising as the crew most has to drive home to their families after staying for a week at a rental log cabin.

Villa Linnea is slowly becoming its signature face i.e. the high triangular shaped living room wall in the center of the building. How the assembly crew is building this without decent scaffolding around the house is a mystery to me, but I probably don’t want to know.

I used the Saturday to clean up after the assembly crew. Already the first (out of many more to come) garbage collection resulted in 5 garbage bags purely of plastic foil and one with metal bands that held the log packages together.

I also started drilling the horizontal holes for the electricity cables below the floor and the power outlets as it is the easiest when there is no floor installed yet standing up straight. Here I noticed that the builders had unfortunately congested one the electricity holes with a wooden peg used to connect two logs to each other. The builders tried to avoid closing off the electricity holes with these wooden pegs by marking them with nails below the floor level. But in order this to be successful you need to put naturally the nails to the right place. In one place in the bedroom they managed to be off by 40cm with the nail and they hammered one of pegs into the unmarked electricity hole. Luckily this was only for an power outlet on the floor level. With a creative drilling effort I managed to bypass the wooden peg.

While the assembly crew estimated three days to put up the log frame I don’t think they will be quite done on day 4 either yet. But things are moving forward and I’m in no hurry before spring comes.

Frame assembly – Day 2

Day 2 got off to a slow start. The weather was clear and sunny, but it was a bit on a cold side of things: -19 degrees Celsius, which is 4 degrees lower than Finnish building folks typically agree to work at. But our assembly crew wants the job done and they showed up anyhow. Also showing up during the night were the replacements logs that got damaged in the truck accident. Now, with all logs available, the assembly went full speed ahead (as much the temperatures allow).

By lunch time almost 10 rows were assembled. More and more movable scaffolding appear as the walls grow higher. And most of the time, at least two men are walking on top of the logs.

Villa Linnea grows slowly it’s own character. The space for the living room windows gives already a hint of how things will look like.The view from the living room is what we have dreamed off. I guess the sunset in summer over the lake will be something replacing the need for a TV.

At the end of the day 2 about 15 rows were assembled. Also the covered terrace starts appearing in the picture and the first massive pillars take a stand for decades to come.

Frame Assembly – Day 1

The assembly crew finally got started today. On Monday, the log delivery was so late because the truck drove into the ditch. On Tuesday, a little snowstorm was too much to start. Today, even that an arctic storm blew over the area at -12 degrees, the 6 man strong assembly crew from Mammuttihirsi started to put the frame together.

After laying a layer of tar-paper and and a layer of insulation material, they assembled the first row. After the first row was adjusted and hammered into place things start to move ahead a bit faster.

After a days of work Villa Linnea comes to life. Already now the rooms don’t look so small anymore.

The roof beams and floor beams were delivered also today. And just before midnight, the replacement logs should be delivered. Supposedly even by the poor guy that threw his truck into ditch last Monday. Surprising fast turnaround from Mammutihirsi. Only yesterday at 11.00 we told them which 8 logs need to replaced. They had to be manufactured and shipped in less than 24 hours. Impressive.

D-Day or 500m logs in the ditch

The day of the main delivery was yesterday. A long truck drove 500km from Northern Finland to our cottage lot with some 500m of 20cm wide logs, the main pillars, and some of the other materials needed to put up the log frame of Villa Linnea. I estimate it must have been 30 tons of goods. But things didn’t work out quite the way they are supposed to. Instead of watching the unloading at 7.00 AM, we found this in the village to which our cottage belongs to.

The truck including the trailer had driven off the road just less than 2km from the building site. thanks to an old and now inhabited little house the truck did not tip over all the way.

It took 5 hours, a tractor, a digger, a truck with a crane to unload the logs temporarily on the field and a truck tow truck to get our materials out of the ditch.

The reloading and unloading took another 7 hours until our logs where delivered where they belong. Some of packages got some damages and the log home vendor might have to replace some 4 to 6 lo Overall, personal damage was avoided, the truck could be fixed, and all parts can be replaced.