2nd Floor SIPs and snow

After the first floor SIPs were up, it looked like things were really starting to come together. The interior walls on the first floor were framed out so we started to get a sense of how the floor plan was going to feel. After that, the second floor was framed and completed, giving us a chance to walk around upstairs.

Upstairs (Click image for more photos.)

Once the second floor was done, it was time to install the second floor SIPs walls.  After watching the first floor walls go up, I was curious how they were going to do the second floor walls.  They used a "bucket truck" with a winch/crane attachment to lift the panels and gently lower them onto the second floor where people were waiting to set them into place.  They had to be quite careful because there was no one to stabilize the wall on the outside, but other than that, the process went exactly as you might expect.

Second floor panel (Click image for more photos.)

While they had the bucket truck up and running, Terry offered to give me an aerial view of the house.  What a thrill!  As long as you are holding on, it's not too scary.  Things look quite different from sixty feet up.

Aerial view (Click image for more photos.)

Of course, then there was the snow.  Before they finished getting all the second floor SIPs in place, the snow began to fall.  And fall it did.  When all was said and done, we had just about two feet of snow in Carlisle.  It was everywhere, including inside the house.  What a mess.  It took Robin, Terry, and me a good 3-4 hours to clear out most of the snow.  Definitely slowed things down a bit.

Once the snow was out of the house and the sun came out, everything dried out very quickly.  Looks like the passive solar is going to work out great!  Unfortunately, another snowstorm is forecast to hit in a couple of days.  Time to get back to work and finish up the second floor SIPs and put on the SIPs roof.  It was a bit of a race, but it was finished in the nick of time.  If you look carefully, you can actually see the snow starting to fall in this picture.  We spent a good bit of time trying to weatherproof things as much as possible and by the time we were done, the snow was falling hard.  They're predicting another foot.  Sigh...

Finished in the nick of time (Click image for more photos.)