It's been a busy couple of weeks on our building site, and I've been fearfully remiss about blogging. I will now right that wrong.

After weeks and weeks of downright biblical rain, we had great weather on October 5 and 6 for the crane. It was no ordinary crane -- due to a last-minute switcheroo from the equipment company we wound up with a 165-ton crane, practically the largest in New England. This was a fortunate switcheroo, because our building site is awkwardly shaped and the pre-constructed walls would have been hard to lift and place with an ordinary little crane.

Here's what our site looked like at the beginning of the day:

The north wall is raised:

Behold our lovely 24" framing:

They braced it from behind:

The west wall:

Nothing warms a homeowner's heart like seeing a crew member wield a level.

A woolly bear caterpillar turned up, prompting a conversation with Milt the crane operator about what kind of winter its coloring foretells (answer: no clue).

Speaking of the crane operator, here's the ginormous crane:

The following day they used the crane to place the 24"-deep roof joists, shown here from the second floor.

They also placed the timber-frame awning, which will hold up the solar panels. It was definitely two dramatically productive days!

Eli's crew has been busy on-site ever since then, but the time for Ted's and my DIY phase had arrived. Last weekend Ted used a laser level to start laying out the interior walls (note autumn foliage in the background).

But our DIY plans hit a major obstacle the next day when Ted had a bicycle accident and broke his collarbone :-(

He's scheduled for surgery in a few days, and he'll be unable to swing a hammer for a solid six weeks.

But work continued, culminating yesterday with the arrival of our windows. Eli and I worked all day Tuesday preparing the rough openings with Vycor, flex-wrap, and flashing tape.

Eli overhead Patrik and Tomas from European Architectural Supply say that we had the best-prepared rough openings they'd ever seen. They even took photos, presumably to shame their other clients.

It was a marathon, but the EAS team and Eli's crew managed to fully install the windows and the front door in a single day. The first one (on the north wall) peeks out into some lovely woods:

So at last we have a weathered-in house! No insulation yet, but it's already warmer and more comfortable than our drafty apartment.