Two months, $250, two people, and then sides
(Page 3 of 4)
July/August 1975
By Ellen Kesinger Tietjen
While I started to lay the floor by cutting the tongue and groove boards from our abandoned house to fit the tee: triangles formed by the joists, John worked on the new building's frame. His first step was to make a sole plate on top of the outermost floorboards by nailing 2 X 4's around the circumference of the house. He next placed 20 seven and a 4 X 4 uprights one at each of the 10 "corners" and one halfway between each pati rinds were connected by a plate made of 2 X 4's.
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Since the top plate has the important job of holding up to the rafters, John strengthened it in the following manner: Across each of the 10 angles he attached a board one inch thick to form a triangle. Then 1 X 4's were nailed over the original plate and another layer of 2 X 4's hammered down on top of that. The result was a framework securely tied together at the top with sturdy 4 X 5 crosspieces to take the weight of the rot Window and door framing followed and, with boards added to close in the walls, the house began to resemble a small roller rink or ballroom.
The elm trunk we used for a center pole is approximately 7-1/2' tall and 1-1/2' in diameter, and its installation required the help of a few friends. Four men carried the tree inside with lagging tongs and set it upright in the center of the house, where the floor joists help hold its base in position.
John nailed a circle of scrap plywood to the top of the trunk and made another horizontal wagon-wheel frameworkthis time from 2 X 4's for the upstairs floor. One end of each upper floor/ceiling joist was set on the central disc, and the other placed beside one of the 20 vertical wall supports. On top of the hub formed by the joists we laid another circular piece of plywood and on top of that was set another, taller elm trunk to extend the center pole high enough for a peaked roof which would allow upstairs headroom. Again, the help of a few friends was mandatory.
Since the upstairs flooring wasn't laid until later, after the rest of the house had been finished, we had to stand on old doors put across the framework while we worked on the rafters. The placing of those straight tree trunks, each 18' long and 6" to 10" in diameter, was the most difficult part of the project.
The first step was to notch the spots that would rest on the wall framework. We measured from the top of the center pole to each of the house's corners, and made the necessary cuts with a chain saw (leaving enough of the log's end so that the roof would overhang the wall by about a foot). Then came the sheer muscle and sweat of hoisting each rafter into place and trailing it with 8" spikes (pegs are a possible alternative). The two of us managed to set all the trunks but one which called, again, for the help of a friend.
After the rafters were up, John built dormer window frames in three separate roof triangles to give light and more headroom upstairs. The resulting roof skeleton was a coneshaped cap with three small visors.
