Getting in a Groove

It’s been fun watching the porch progress.  It was the last thing to be framed, because we had to get the steel and the welder down here for the steel moment frame.  We needed the moment frame to add strength and stability, because of all the arched openings below.

At Christmas, they had the basic frame of it done with floor joists and ceiling joists, but we had a change of heart.  The plan was to have a flat ceiling and an attic  above, but we thought better of it and decided to have the ceiling go all the way up to the roof.

At that time, there was some discussion about leaving the gable end open, but we decided that it we kind of liked keeping it as it was for strength, shade and looks.  We even liked keeping the window in the gable.  Won’t that be fun to have a window on a screen porch?!

The view from the  Family Room and Kitchen is going to be awesome. There will be a fireplace in the middle opening and French doors on either side leading out to the porch.

This extra little bit of porch just outside of the French door is where we will have our hanging bed.  I can’t wait!

It was exciting to see the roof framing going up. We could start to see the vision of the porch over the party pavilion coming into being.

 

Here’s a peek at the porch from  the upstairs stairwell window.

 

From the inside, things were looking pretty cluttered with all the ceiling joists still there, but we had a plan.

To make the structure nice and strong, the structural engineer suggested doubling the roof rafters every 5 and a half feet - or where there was going to be a column.  At this point there would be a rafter tie at the ceiling joist level, but the rest of the  ceiling joists could go away.

More like this!  You can probably tell here that Builder Gary saw the structural engineer’s doubled rafter and raised it a rafter tie.  He decided to have a rafter tie on either side of the doubled rafters and box it out to look like a beam.

Here’s a closer look, and here you see today’s development: a roof.

Doesn’t it look great?

And here’s a view showing the view, the boxed in beams and the window opening.

The roof decking material is working out really well.  Builder Gary came up with a wonderful solution to getting a v-groove ceiling economically. 

He got this 2x6 tongue and groove pine.  We’re using the v-groove down for the roof decking/porch ceiling and then flat side up for the painted t&g porch flooring.  That ought to make a sturdy floor!  And as a bonus the party pavilion that we’re going to park cars in will have  some v-groove action going on it its ceiling.

Isn’t that groovy?