Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyards – DAYS 127-130: citadels and doors, bulldozer cookie delivery, passing of the keys

For just over half a year now we have built Pippin Hill–and yesterday with the spectacular (and intense) hanging of the grand entry doors, the finishing of the main venue floor and the entry of an army of cleaning and kitchen staff, interior decorators, final inspections and removal of our wood stock and tools from [...]

Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyard – DAY 73: wind and mud, adversity and adventure, tasting room roofed

Today was a hard but exceptional day–with strong winds and incessant mud creating adverse conditions for roofing–including panels blowing off the rack and getting both the boom forklift and basket lift stuck….not to mention late UPS deliveries for much needed materials critical to roofing…it was enough to send me over the edge a couple of [...]

Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyard – DAY 72: storms and splendor

Today the weather pretty much controlled our work–driving most of the smart ones under roof to stay out of the incessant storms with a few of us not so smart wild men out on the roof system bolting the king trusses to the beam and blocking the rafters in preparation for roofing (hopefully) tomorrow.  It [...]

Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyard – DAY 71: from the mountain into the valley

After yesterday’s zenith kind of a day–perhaps it was normative to head into a more subdued valley today.  The crews did great getting the purlins on, roofing the shed roof over the tasting room bar, flashing the rest of the porches, and making great strides on the v-groove venue vaulted ceiling–close to half done now–as [...]

Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards – DAY 70: “TASTING” HEAVEN

Today was one of those days that is filled with more grace than we could even absorb–perfect weather, a flawless crane operator who threaded the needle with half ton trusses, a team of guys who all pulled together and made it happen, clients who both galvanize and appreciate both the myriad details and panoramic view [...]

Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards – DAYS 68-69: victory in the valley, ready to fly trusses, night crews cranking up….

Today we spent time further weathertighting the building for insulation coming to other end–with extensive flashing and ice and water shield along the roof to wall connections….Ben and his crew got the veranda connector overbuild and valley down right…for them a good day’s work whereas for me a week of trial and error…mostly error…:-\ Most [...]

Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards – DAY 67: working at weathertighting….

Today was spent diagonal framing, fabricating king truss # 2, “purlinizing” the connector roof and most of all–getting the 2/3 of the building weathertight for insulating this weekend…a major milestone.  We had two crews up top flashing and wrapping and siding the cupolas–which in a building of this scale are essentially Geomicrobarns in their own [...]

Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards – gettin’ our kicks: on DAY 66

We were blessed with another productive day today with many tangential treats as well…including the arrival of the “venue v-groove” with an exquisite cream color whitewash, the expedited shipping of 300′ of additional flashing needed for the roof, a very amiable and enthusiastic building inspector who asked if he could bring the whole Albemarle County [...]

Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards – DAY 65: makin’ hay while the sun shines…

Today we had more crew on site than ever and were fortunately able to accomplish a commensurate amount of work with the numbers and skill we had….flashing the cupolas, starting the “King trusses”, diagonally framing another wall of the tasting room, siding the alcoves, putting up half the rafters in the connector…and generally having a [...]

Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards – Day 64 – We were blessed with a gorgeous day today….

We were blessed with a gorgeous day today….the weather could not have been more perfect.  We got he layout done for the tasting room rafters–including the big king trusses–and some guys were up in the basket all day flashing the cupolas while others sided the main entry alcoves and even ran some of our signature [...]