We’ve reached another construction milestone. Rough framing is complete, including the sheathing on the roof, and we have passed the rough framing inspection with only a few open items.

This shot shows the progress on the roof very well. You can see the curve and how the beam will carry the moving roof. One of the issues our contractor dealt with was getting the plywood to curve on the roof. The plans call for 1/2 inch plywood, but that cracked as it was bent over the steel struts that are on 24 inch centers. We used 3/8 inch plywood, certified for 24″ OC sheathing and that worked. This change, however, led the inspector to require updated engineering. (Clicking on a picture will take you to the photo gallery.)

This view looks at the entrance to the building, looking south. The well equipment will go inside the small room on the far right side of the building. The warm room is inside the door in the center of the picture. Entry to the observatory will be from the warm room.

This view looks from the warm room into the observatory. The window on the left will look into the observatory, and the door on the right will open into the observatory. In the back, you can see the wall framed up to conform to the inside of the curve of the roof. One advantage of this design is that it leaves as much clearance as possible inside the observatory. This means that scopes may not need to be fully parked to clear the roof. This image is two images stitched together in Photoshop; there are some artifacts where the two images didn’t quite line up. A view looking the other way is in the gallery.

The detail on the roof framing is shown in this picture. Each strut is attached to the 6″ curved tube steel rafters. The wall is framed up underneath. There will be weather stripping at the top of the wall to keep out rain and dust.

We needed to get access to power from the house. Our original plan to use the existing power feed to the pump failed because it was in too small a conduit to handle the additional wires required. Since we’ve got the ground opened, I’m going to add two 2″ conduits for network and whatever else I might need. I do have an open question as to whether I should use fiber to avoid interference with the power and to prevent ground loops.

Finally, this view from up the hill shows the roof very well. The area next to the observatory will look much nicer once the well equipment is moved inside. Part of the roof of the house and garage are visible in the background.

A full set of pictures is in the Construction Gallery.

A major milestone has been reached! The roll-off roof actually rolls off. Over the last week the wheels were installed and the supporting angle irons straightened so that the roof moves cleanly. In addition, the full shear wall has been put in place over the framing.

Of course, the pictures. Here is the observatory with the roof in the closed position. Clicking on an image will take you to the gallery for full-sized and other pictures.

And now, the roof open.

Here is a close in shot of one of the four wheels that support the roof. It is welded onto the 6″ tube steel rafter.

We are working on a solution to prevent the roof from sailing off in a high wind. We may use interlocking angle irons to keep the roof in place. I am worried about the curved roof now (a bit late!) as it will form a nice wing to create lift. The roof may weight 1,000 pounds, but the wind up here can be very strong.

Our contractor, Greg Staten, had the Pettibone out at the site this past week to put the large steel rafters up on the frame. They have been secured in place, allowing the steel struts that run between the rafters to be put in place. This process was well under way by the weekend.

Here is a shot looking east, showing the shorter and narrower part of the building in in the foreground. This will house the warm room and the pump equipment. The beam over the lower roof supports the larger roof as it rolls off to the west.

Clicking on an image will bring you to the gallery where you can see more pictures and bring up full sized images.

This shot was taken from inside the observatory looking west. You can see the detail of the steel struts on the roof. Wheels will be attached to the inside of the large steel rafters to allow the roof to move. With all the steel up there the name Steelhenge keeps looking better and better. The wall will be framed up to go under the curve of the steel rafter, with weather stripping between the wall and the roof to keep water and dust out.

Click through to see the details, it’s hard to see reduced to this size.

This view looks down the driveway to the observatory. It does look nice in that position on the property.

This shot looks at the front door of the observatory looking to the south. You can see the beam and post in the foreground that supports the roll-off roof. The pump equipment room is on the right, with the warm room between there and the observatory room. The observatory is 4 feet wider than the warm room and equipment rooms. That smaller footprint makes having the roof roll over easier.

Finally, here is a view taken from Lakeshore Boulevard, looking down the hill to the east. I have zoomed in with the camera to show more details on the building. The building is about 350 feet away in this shot.

Things may move more slowly this week. The final struts need to go into place and I believe the wheels will be fixed to the roof rafters. Roof sheeting might be on this week. We’ll see!

Framing has started on the new observatory. The walls of the observatory are in place and the floor has been laid in both the observatory. The pathway from the driveway, both lower and upper, has been completed and Luis did a wonderful job. Now for some pictures.

This first shot is the artistic one. Looking up the hill to the observatory last Saturday night, February 28th. The crescent Moon and Venus were bright while the glowing sky framed the observatory on the hill. Clicking the picture will take you to the gallery with even more pictures.

Here is a view looking to the south.

This shot is looking east. You can see the entrance to the observatory area from the warm room, 12 inches up from the floor of the warm room. There is a window between the warm room and the observatory. There are two two-inch conduits in the wall of the warm room. Each one goes to a mount location in the observatory.

There is fine detail on the stairs going down to the house.

Finally, here are three of the four steel roof rafters. The longer one is for the moving roof of the observatory. The larger roof will roll over the smaller roof of the warm and equipment rooms. All of these are six-inch tube steel and are very heavy. I feel I am ready to have a helicopter land on the roof with all this steel. This curved roof design was a great feature that Tom Jungbluth, our architect, developed, and it really adds character to the building.

Comments and suggestions welcomed!

In my last post, we left the situation with the steel dropped off and the excitement about to begin. While didn’t witness it, we saw the results. Those big steel columns are set on the footings and the floor joists have been placed.

When we came it on Friday night in the dark, it was hard to see the progress. Coming out on Saturday morning, my wife had the perfect name. Steelhenge.

That’s how it looks against a dark, cloudy sky.

This shot gives a better look at progress. The steel frame is in place. The long beams at the top will carry the roll-off roof. Contrary to my earlier post, they are 30′ long, with a foot on either end to accommodate the overhang beyond the 28′ of the building. The beams are also 6″ square, and not 4″ as I said previously. Big, heavy, steel. So the name may stick. I’m not sure if Steelhenge will be right name, or if it will be appropriate once the building is complete.

The pier footings were expanded to provide more strength for the bolts. Additional reinforcing and connections to the existing concrete were added before more concrete was poured. The sonotube covering will be removed to leave 3/4 inch of clearance. The far divider brace on the joists in this picture hasn’t been permanently set, so there is room for adjustment. There will be no contact between the pier and the joists or the floor.

It was interesting to see that when you jump up and down on 2x12s on a 12′ spread they just don’t bounce noticeably. We are also adding access to the building. The stairs and sidewalk under construction are visble in the background.

I took the standard panorama shot too. Clicking on the other shots will take you to the photo gallery.

Comments always welcome.

Things have been quiet on the construction front. We’ve been waiting on the metal fabricating company, Talley Metal Fabrication, to complete their work and come out and install the steel. This has taken longer than expected. It is a complicated job, and they have done excellent due diligence in figuring out how to implement the design.

The big news is that the steel arrived today. It would have been installed, but today was quite a rainy day. They’ll be back tomorrow to do the install, then Greg will start the framing on Wednesday. Unfortunately, our plan to see the work in progress was foiled by the rain.

Here is the steel, sitting where delivered this morning. The two long pieces in the background are the 28 foot supports for the roll-off roof. The other parts are the six supports and a piece to connect the south-east end together. All together, they will form a 28 foot by 12 foot “U” shaped support structure for the roof.

The steel pieces are four-inch tube steel with the fittings welded on. Here is a close shot of the two long pieces that will support the roof.

This next shot is a close-up of the angle iron the wheels on which the moving roof will roll. You can see how the angle iron is cut away and descends to a bead of steel. This will allow the roof to sit lower in the closed position, providing a tighter seal against the elements.

If things stay on schedule, there should be a lot of progress in the next week. We’ll be out at the site next weekend. I hope to have many more pictures. Once framing starts, things move very quickly.

We had a chance to visit the job site this weekend. I was hoping to see the steel being set, but that has been delayed as some engineering details get worked out. Things are moving forward well.

Here is the full foundation, looking to the southwest. The pier footings are in the foreground. The floor of the observatory will be about at the top of the piers, sitting on a 2x12s on a 4×6 bottom plate.

Clicking on an image will take you to the photo gallery.

The completed pier footings. The approach of building it with blocks worked very well. This is a very heavy, very solid foundation.

This view is looking east. The slab in the foreground is for the pump equipment room.

Our local inspector checked out the pier and found it met standards.

Another milestone in construction of the observatory has been reached. We’ve poured concrete and set the first course of block for the footings. The work was done on Friday, January 9th 2009. The day dawned bright and clear. Not too cold or too warm, in the mid 50s with a good breeze.

The steel for the foundation had already been set. (Click on any picture to go to the gallery. It won’t open a new window this time.)

There is a solid set of steel in the pier footing.

The cement truck arrived with 5.5 yards of concrete, about 21,500 lbs worth. We needed a cement pump to get it into the footings. Here the crew fills the pier footing with cement.

Here the first course of blocks is set on the pier footing. All the footings, including the pier footing, will get another course of blocks. The pier will be filled with additional steel, then filled with concrete. To sonotubes of concrete will bring the footing to the level of the observatory floor.

Work is done for the day. Here is a panorama of the completed first set of blocks for the footings.

A view looking east.

There are more pictures in the Construction Gallery. Check them out!

On Monday of this week, December 29, 2008, we finally broke ground on the new observatory. Having survived regulatory challenges, pump failures, and weather delays, we were able to break ground. Finally, the Tom Jungbluth’s vision for the observatory is taking shape.

A quick word on the well work. The new pump, a 3 horsepower, 20 gallon-per-minute, Berkeley submersible pump, is working just great. We learned that we have a 360 foot deep well, good water since only 2 sections of pipe needed replacing after 9 years, and a static water depth of 65 feet. Eric Haley of Heritage Well Service did a great job. I credit myself a bit for turning the water off at the house. I was more or less just planning for cold weather, but it turns out the water in the shower was on, so it was very good not to have water running for the better part of a week.

Back to construction.

Our contractor for the project is Greg Staten of Staten Construction Company. We met up on Monday morning and awaited Terry Phillips of Anza Valley Backhoe. Terry did the work on our driveway earlier this year and it was excellent work. He showed his skill again with the days work on the observatory. Here is Terry making one of the first cuts on the grade. We have begun! (Clicking on any picture will open the gallery in another window.)

The pad was quickly graded. We rotated the building slightly to minimize the need to set on fill and reduce the amount of grading. Here is the pad fully graded. There are two levels to it. The well equipment room and warm room are at one level, and the observatory is six inches higher.

Watching Terry at work is a joy. He moves that backhoe with great precision. He can eyeball the grade and get it just right. I swear he could pick up an egg with the shovel and not break it. Here he is digging out the footings.

Here is the site at the end of the first day of work. We are looking to the west, with the observatory in the foreground. The hole in the center of the near footings is for the pier base, 16″ thick and 4′ by 7′. I think that will hold two scopes quite well. The warm room is just back from the observatory, and the well equipment on the far end. The hole at the back on the right is for the pillar that will hold the back end of the roll-off roof rail.

We ended up with very little cut required and no fill at all. The ground is all decomposed granite and quite hard. I’ll post some photos of the cleaned up trenching soon. The steel for the foundation is supposed to arrive this weekend. I hope to get back out and check out the progress frequently, but I know work is going to be crazy, so there will be gaps in my overview of the project.

Here is a before shot, taken on Sunday, December 28.

And here is a similar view the next day.

With permits issued and the contractor hired, we are poised to start construction on the new observatory in Lake Riverside. Events, however, have been working against us.

Two weeks ago, I went out to do some basic maintenance, shut down the irrigation, and just make sure things were all right (no gophers!) after being away for several weeks. I was happy to find no new gopher holes. But after mowing the grass, I went in to wash my hands and there was no water pressure at the tap. I checked the water shut-off (it was on), power to the well (it was on), and my heart sank.

Getting three references for well service from Dennis McQueary, a plumber who has done excellent work for us, I reached Eric Haley of Heritage Well Service who was able to come over and look at the problem. He replaced the control box and we were up and running. Whew. He did note that the pump was drawing more amperage than it should. That meant it is getting old and may fail soon, in two weeks or two years, no way to tell.

We learned last night that it was two weeks.

At about 8:30 pm, I saw my wife at the sink and saw the water running slower and slower. Out to the pump, I checked the points that trip when the pressure gets low, they were fine. There was power, but resetting the control box did not do anything. Eric was good enough to take my call on a Friday night and came out this morning. The diagnosis was quick — the pump is dead, probably with worn out bearings. He’ll pull it on Monday, and I’ll get a bid on the fix at that time. The plan is to replace the pump on Wednesday, just in time for Christmas.

So how does this relate to the observatory? Well, I’ll tell you. Rain kept the excavation from starting on Monday 12/15. Then it snowed on Wednesday, dropping 8 inches on Anza. They were going to start on Friday, but Terry Phillips of Anza Valley Backhoe could not get his equipment out of the ice and snow.

The next target date was Monday, 12/22, but now that’s the day the well is set to be pulled. They can’t really work in the same area. The observatory will be next to the well, and will house the well equipment that is above ground now. This picture shows the proposed location outlined in green.

Clearly not safe to be pulling the well pump and digging a foundation right next to the work. I hope that construction will begin on 12/29.