This is a bit of a belated status report. We were out in Lake Riverside last weekend, and saw good progress on the observatory, but I haven’t written up the progress until today. We’ll be in town this weekend, so no picture updates for another week.

As of last weekend, we had the rough framing inspection completed, the roof sheathed, and now the windows in the building. You can begin to get a feeling for how the building will look. The doors on the far right are to the pump equipment room. The entrance to the warm room and observatory in the middle of the photo. The main door is not in place because the step in front is just a little too close and will need to be cut back.

Looking to the east, you can see the curve of the roof.

There is another shot in the gallery of the newly installed step between the warm room and the observatory.

We met with the electrician on Saturday and laid out plans for wiring and lighting. I plan to have red rope lights in both the observatory and warm room, with both on dimmers. There will be regular lights in both rooms, and plenty of sockets in the walls.

Saturday night and Sunday were very windy, with a steady wind of 20 mph and gusts up to 45 mph. As far as I could tell, the roof wasn’t budging. It is being held down by four very sturdy straps, but there was no evidence of movement even in large gusts. That is reassuring.

There has been quite a bit of progress since last weekend. On Monday, the roofers came and put the initial covering on the roof. The steel fabricators came out and welded the hold-down “L” set up on the beams and the roof itself. This set-up will prevent the roof from being blown off in any position, so we don’t have to rely on a tie down. I wrote about my concerns in an earlier post. The rough electrical went in on Wednesday, and, with the roof now water tight and passing inspection on Thursday, the insulation on Friday. The water tight aspect is fortuitous, as it has rained a quarter inch this evening (April 10).

The coming week could bring the soffits from the roofing company, drywall inside, and the beginning of the work on the exterior stucco. Lots of progress! There will be pictures next week.