Sept. - Oct. 2011 The end is near?????? Or John's Brick oven - The never ending story!

September 2011 (continued)

Mid-September 2011, brings a chill to the air and a sense of urgency to the project. I will only have so many days to work on the project and now that the dome is completed and insulated, it needs to be protected from the snow and winter rains! So here I go learning to use steel studs and tin snipes, metal cutting tools and a million screws. (or so it seemed)!
But first I need to rewind to a bit earlier in the build and look at the 2" thick marble shelf we got onto the side of the oven.

Yes that is a wooden rolling pin we used to get the 30" by 60" by 2" thick piece of marble off the truck and onto the stand! I am sure someone could figure out the weight of the marble, but I know it is  - HEAVY! The truck was thankful it was off, and onto the stand.

Here is Nick and son Dean, without their help I would still be scratching my head and asking how the heck is this going to get from the truck to the stand! Thanks guys!

ok, ok , lets see...where the heck was I? oh yeah, my wife's' favorite part- working with steel studs! (She was so disappointed when she found out I wasn't having a bunch of guys over to pick up the oven, but instead it was the metal framing I was talking about, not a couple of studs resembling steel!

I pre-fab the walls first and put them up one side at a time. These were relatively easy to work with. Gloves are a MUST for this work!,

Now I need to pre-fab the roof trusses and set them on top of the walls and I will be well on my way to getting a roof on! I also have to continue the chimney block and start chimney brick work as well.  Have a fire warming up the oven for some Pizza Tonight!

Roof trusses are up and things are going well for a change. Unfortunately that usually means I am doing something wrong! I made the oven roof pitch the same as the roof on the main house. Figured it would match and handle the snow as well as the house has for the past years.

   I am standing on the steel wall and it is passing the snow load test! Finishing up the cross braces and supports for the sheathing. I am using durock for sheathing as I am not comfortable using anything flamable over an oven that can get to temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees F Ok I admit I am chicken!

Now it looks like he knows what he is doing, but we all know that ain't so! 

Starting to do the chimney brickwork, I wish I knew a mason!