Made in the Shade

I'm sure you are wondering how our building project is progressing!  ;-)  After all, I haven't posted any construction updates since October.  A lot of progress; in fact so much that I am going to split it into 2 posts.  As usual, things move slowly but steadily.

This is how things stood at the beginning of January after we had taken a break for most of November and all of December.

Two separate buildings connected by an uncovered breezeway.

The biggest conceptual challenge was to figure out the roof line to cover the breezeway.  We tried several layouts using long slats of wood.  We decided to continue the roof on the old cabana and have it butt up against the wall of the new addition.  But the eave of the new cabana roof prevented us from just taking it straight across.  After dealing with various structural constraints, this is layout we settled on:

We extended the ridgeline of the older roof so that it angled to the front.  That way we could keep the ridgeline horizontal yet get it tucked up under the eave of the roof on the new addition.

 The finished breezeway roof from underneath looks kind of cool.

It was important that we get this roof to shed water to the front and to the back and not streaming against the side wall of the addition.

Once that was completed, the crew worked on a little room just off the breezway.  This will be the inverter room, conveniently located near the batteries which will be on the breezeway.

Putting the shed roof on the inverter room.  

 Next up was getting the veranda roof up.  The veranda wraps around the entire addition and will be covered except for the rear section.

The ledger boards for the veranda roof and for the little balcony are in place and the crew is just starting to set the support posts in place.

This portion of the veranda will be screened in.

Rafters going up.

The finished roof is very nice and keeps the inside of the addition much cooler.

Joists in place for the flooring to come.

 The addition is an irregular hexagon, so each corner is different.

We used lots of fasteners to secure the lap boards to the the rafters, the rafters to the sill, the sill to the posts.  We can't ignore the possibility of hurricanes, and are building to withstand a direct hit from a category 3.

 Max is responsible for the daily inspection and approval to proceed.  After all, this is her veranda!

Max, checking out the progress from the temporary decking.

 Before the roofing went up, the crew put up the frame for the little balcony.  The posts rest on the rafters of the veranda roof.

The little balcony is taking shape.

Installing 2x6 decking on the balcony.  Don't panic - railing will be next!

View of the balcony from the breezeway roof.

Adjusting the flashing on the roof.

By the end of the first quarter of 2015, the breezeway roof and veranda roof were complete, the inverter room was finished, and the balcony platform was in place.  We are really pleased with the quality of the work.  Max is too, and we know that is the most important thing.