With the roof metal delivered last Thursday afternoon and Friday being the last day of the timber framing class at The Port Townsend School of Woodworking, it was a bit of a mad dash to get everything squared away for travel.

Although we didn’t quite finish some final details on the roof, we set down our tools to prepare the houses for their transit.

A huge thanks goes out to Josh Bell, who we wrangled into moving the tiny timber frame to its new home. Josh showed his skills and experience as he effortlessly manuvered the seemingly behemoth structure to its very specifically chosen and orientated landing ground.

All said and done the move took less than an hour, not including the time it took to do some temporary leveling and wrap the whole house up in a tarp to keep it dry for the weekend.

Sunday was spent getting the tires off and settling the house on a slightly longer term foundation. We are trying to avoid the hassle of pouring a permanent foundation, but still take the load off the tires and increase stability while we finishing building. After some research and strategizing, we ended up building some wooden footings that we placed on 4 separate 4 inch think pavers.

Although it was very nerve racking, we managed to lift each side high enough to pull the tires off, then it was simply a matter of adding more cribbing until the structure was level. Since Sunday, we have definitely noticed the ground settling under the pavers and so we plan on adding two more support points and better leveling the existing pads.

Moving into this week, one of our biggest priorities is getting all of the framing finished up so we can start sheathing. We had a little extra length on our skids and trailer that we decided to turn into a sort of utility shed. It will house a propane tank, tankless hot water heater, and there are some future plans for a charge controller and battery bank. We have also come up with some floor plan revisions adding a back door, and therefore a header, that will lead to an adjacent shower and composting toilet (more to come on this).

Between all that and finishing up some metal roofing details, we have been keeping busy. A part of it has been developing a workflow for our new job site. Locating all the right tools, setting up cutting stations, and learning when we should just break for lunch. Its all part of the adventure.