Tarred but not Feathered

photos (clockwise from top) : front of house; interior view of the main room; the white pines, milled; back of house.
The framing is finally getting somewhere. They've been working for several weeks but with a small crew. This week there were more guys at work, and the progress was visible. The roof is completely framed and tar-papered. They starting framing in the walls Friday so this week we expect to really see the house footprint. It's been a long process, though by California standards I guess it still is pretty fast. We looked at preliminary drawings back in March.

The roofing will also start soon. We decided on the metal roof for a number of reasons:

1. Durability. From everything we've read, the metal roof should last practically forever. Technically it is a 40-year roof. But we could get 50 years or more. Given that we are already in our 40's -- we should be pretty well set.

2. Purity. We are investing in a system to capture rain water. A giant cistern will be installed below our front patio and rain water will flow from the roof into the cistern. It seems a little funny to be collecting rainwater. Our site hasn't been dry since we bought it. But North Carolina is coming off several years of drought and there is no good reason not to collect the rain water. Using a metal roof reduces dirt and contamination from shingles.

3. Efficiency. The coating on the metal roof will reflect rather than absorb heat. Though we will not go so far as a pure white roof we will come close to matching the environmental benefits. Some studies have suggested that a white or reflective roof can reduce air conditioning use by 20 - 30 percent. Our WNC summers are definitely cooler than SoCal, but we still get hot. Given that we're using radiant floor heating with solar hot water, heating the house a little more will use less energy and produce less waste than cooling it would.

4. Ability to recycle. When and if we do need to replace our roof the whole thing can be recycled. A shingle roof generally ends up as landfill.

5. Aesthetics. I don't see the need to trade "green" for attractive. I want a house that looks nice. Metal roofs offer a very clean look particularly (in my opinion) when you avoid the green, red and blue options you most often see on commercial buildings. We're using gray - we haven't agreed on the final shade.

On a different note, our pine trees were run through the mill, quite literally. They were returned in lovely boards ready for installation as beams and interior trim. I was initially hesitant to use the pine as I have a serious aversion to the log cabin look for anything other than a ski get-away. But we had to take down three lovely and very tall white pines to site the house, and it just made sense to use the wood. Luckily the boards milled very smooth with few knots and a nice color.

I think the next steps are framing all the interior walls, installing the roofing, and installing all exterior windows and doors. I confess to a bit of impatience. I hope September brings much progress.