
- Sleepers are heavy and they look heavy. A lot of windows and glass are welcome so that you don’t feel on a wood prison.
- In a lake house, one of the reasons for building it a the lakeshore is having nice views of the lake, so a lot of windows make sense (Plus the weather in Chile is not too extreme so you can have houses that provide wide open views).
- We are running out of sleepers. This is not a joke, we have discovered that a house of this size uses roughly about 100 sleepers between pillars, walls and beams above the windows, and that’s what we had after discounting the 20 damaged sleepers of my lot (tower).
So we are doing two things: adding more fixed windows towards the lake and getting 10 more sleepers or so to finish some fully wooded walls that were on the original project and that I’m not willing to forget about.
I’ll keep full sleeper walls in the back of the kids room, so it’s more cozy and warm, in the bath room for privacy reasons and because I tend to daydream when I’m taking a bathtub, and I want a nice thick sleeper wall to look at, and in the living room as a focal point of the roughness and solidness of the house, and I intend to put either a bar or a LCD TV on that wall.
On the other hand I’ll have to build 3 interior walls using other hard wood, but not as thick as sleepers, but equally rustic and nice on the eyes. This in turn will save some space – a sleeper wall take up 20 cm - and being interior wall it won’t sacrifice insulation.
The last row of sleepers

To fasten the top row of sleeper beams to the sleeper pillar you will need very long screws, even the 10 inch (25 cm) Timberlocks won’t show even more than one inch at the other side of most sleepers, so it’s better to pre-drill a 2 inch recess for the screw and socket to fit in, so that you have the full 2 inches of thread on the timberlock doing it’s intended work.
Remember that sleepers are irregular in width, but you don’t want your house to be irregular (it tends to show on doors, windows and rooftops). So take the time to measure the widths of each room, and level the heights (using a carpenter level a laser level or the old transparent garden hose with water level). Cut any bits that help you get a perfect level on every room.
The final row of sleepers is your final chance to achieve right angles, and horizontal surfaces where you’ll start building the roof structure, which is already complex when things are square and parallel, you don’t need any synthetic complexity in it.
Building the Roof


Assembling the structure on the floor demands placing the beams up on their intended position, marking the cuts and then lowering everything in order to cut, drill and bolt together. It is more work but the results are better and is less dangerous than trying to assemble everything on the spot.

Then we just have to add the roof boards, these are about 1 cm thick and 5 inches wide in case you were wondering. I’m sure that’s as relevant to you all as the year of the Carmenere wine that’s fueling this writing.
Here are some pictures of the roof of the bedrooms with the roof boards installed. And some more of the rook structures of living room and kitchen.
What’s next ?

Then to finish the house, I have to wire the other electric circuits, install some other glass panes including a large bow window… close the very tall front and back of the living room roof, and add all the floor boards, add walls and window and door to the bathroom, install all the bathroom appliances.

In the kitchen we have to add the floor boards after the plumbing and electrical piping is done, add a couple of doors a small (2 ft tall) separation from the living room and then the center table, which will have a marble top thanks to my sister Pamela. Then we have to add all the kitchen appliances.
And let’s not forget the septic tank or will be up to … well you know what happens.
Still a long way to go, but I believe we can have the whole house closed before the end of the summer (in late march). By Early May we should add a couple of chimneys and a wood furnace in the kitchen…
Future Stages


It’s a looong plan and a fun one, we are at the first half of Stage 1 of the project. Meanwhile the water level in the lake is up again so we have sailing and kayaking between work hours.
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