Barrel vaults

I've long been inspired by the barrel vaults of ancient buildings. When two arches are constructed to intersect it is even better. In our new house we won't be buidling our ceiling vaults of brick or stone like in the old days. Ours are framed in wood with lath stapled on. Over this we'll trowel on a coat of fiberglass-reinforced concrete and then paint it with acrylic paints. 

The bridge ceiling arch is at right angles to the big dining and living room arch. Framing the two arches so they perfectly intersect requires lots of thought and plenty of fiddling to get it right. It is also done one board at a time and isn't done in a hurry. I did the preliminary work, designing and installing most of the arches but while I am tied to my desk doing design work for customer's projects Matthew has done the bulk of the labor to finish things off. Today he worked on the walkway arch, figuring out the many angles and cuts. The magic of the intersecting arches really came together this afternoon. It will take another day or two to finish putting up all the pieces but it sure is starting to look good! The picture shows how the bridge and doorway into Phoebe's 'secret' room is cut into the ceiling.

We are making good progress on the inside of the house and each day it becomes a little more magical.

-grampa dan

Hangups

As we put up the strapping and lathwork for the plaster in all the upper ceilings we have to make sure we've taken care of all the details underneath. It gets a lot harder and in some places almost impossible after we are done. We've run extra conduits and wiring everywhere we could think it might be needed at some future point. Today's job was to weld up and fasten in place the heavy duty bracket for the dining room fixture. The fixture we dream of won't be the typical lightweight, storebought type of thing. The current plan calls for a swarm of butterflies to be swirling down from the ceiling in some type of fashon. Magical to be sure. To hold it securely in place we needed a heavy duty bracket. I welded up one that was plenty strong in a hurry and we made it fit perfectly on our second try. It was bolted in four places to the roof trusses with eight strong bolts. I suspect we could lift a good sized car with it and have no worries. Matt hoisted it to the top of the scaffold and fastened it into place. It is one of those many things in the house that will never show but will give us plenty of peace of mind. Tomorrow the strapping and lath will be put into place around it. 

After the plaster is in place we'll design and fabricate a wonderful medallion around the base, totally hiding the work we did today.

-grampa dan

Lights are on but nobody is home. (yet)

Today we were busy in the shop working on customer's projects but the Brad, the electrician from C & S Electric was busy in the house working his magic. The result of today's efforts was something we have long awaited.... LIGHTS through the top floor! With the shorter days and dark, stormy skies we've had to use work lights - until now. I'd much rather work with proper lighting any day! Tonight after we had done our work in the shop I went into the house. I didn't need my flashlight. Instead I walked from room to room flicking on the lights and enjoyed the warm glow.

Best of all the stairway to the upstairs was now bright and cheerful and easy to navigate - a far cry from how it was before.

Now we can work any hours we like.

-grampa dan