They've been putting up the porch posts and rafters. It's a little labor intensive. The porch posts, I discovered, are not the length that I specified.  They were however, cheaper than the longer ones I had drawn. I had changed the size from 4x4"s to 6x4's to give them more heft. The length they used seems to work nicely. Tomorrow they'll continue over the carport on the left side and then cover the porch on the right, then the back. I sent an email to the window folks. I need to know if they will be coming in this week. When the porch is finished they will want to install the windows. When they finish the porch I'll get the roof folks over here. It's been quite stressful.

 

Everybody disappeared half a day on Thursday, the whole day Friday, and part of Monday.  When I called the crew boss I asked him if they had gone on strike.  He laughed and said that they were waiting for a cement truck to come in on Monday to pour cement in the piers they had dug.  It had been difficult scheduling the truck to drive all the way out to the ranch.  If the windows had arrived they would have installed them Thursday, Friday, and Monday.  I'm still waiting for them to come in from Georgia. 
Today they were back at it.  They are almost finished framing the porch joists.  They will level them tomorrow and start the decking.  I am in awe with the size of the porch.  This is what Janice really wanted, a porch going around the house.  IT'S HUGE!!  I'm almost wondering if I should have designed it going around the house but only 6 feet wide.  Designing it eight feet wide makes it almost as big as the entire house but oh is it going to look nice.  It's a very Republic of Texas design.



The porch in front. 

 

The porch in back.

We received a bid for the roof.  It's in line with the other bids we've received.  We haven't heard from the window contractor yet.  Hopefull he'll call next week.  The crew has been working on the porch.  Half the crew has been preparing the piers while the other half built square joists for the decking.  They will be pouring the concrete tomorrow to form the piers.  Once they set, the pre-made joists will be installed.  Then they'll build the porch roof.

Porch in front.

Modular joists for the porch.

 

Porch in back.

I received the bid for the windows and it was a pretty good one.  I went ahead and ordered them.  We selected aluminium windows in bronze color with energy efficient glass and tilt out lower section for easy cleaning.  They'll take about a week to a week and a half to get here. 

It rained pretty good today.  The guys arrived this morning just before the rain and tar papered the roof.  They left soon after. 

We thought that the piers for the porch would have been poured today but I think they focused on the roof because it may rain.  I think they will cover the roof with tar paper tomorrow.

Trusses are almost done.  Tomorrow they'll cover them with OSB.  After that they'll start the porch.  I have to watch the porch closely.  It needs to look a certain way.