Laying It Out

Saturday brought a happy mix of Anthony, my parents, and our friend Kevin over to the house to work. They managed to get pretty far, but there was still plenty to be done on Sunday between church and Easter dinner.

Talking through the rest of the installation. With most of the wood strips down, the details of filling in the holes become important...

and Carol takes a little lie down. (She later reported she wasn't lying down- she just couldn't get up.)

"The Perfect Board" scrawled on one that easily lay nice and flat.

We still used all the others of course, twisting the morning's reading and convincing ourselves that the board the builder cast aside could become the subfloor of our radiant floor warmth.

Don't come near me...I've got power tools!

Zippy also got to experience the doorbell for the first time.

Notice how he's ready for it before it even rings:

Poor guy.

- A & J

What Two Can Do

The mom and dad crew continued to slave away yesterday on their own. They managed to complete all three bedrooms. So what if they can no longer stand up straight? At least they know that this winter they can come back and lie down on an all-house-heating-pad-of-a-floor.

My parents pressing and screwing aluminum panels into the plywood tracks.

Yes, we're putting even more metal into this house!

Anthony returned home in the late evening, and then sometime in the middle of the night got worried that it would rain on our plywood. He entered into a crazy can't-find-the-tarps-solution-seeking fiasco that eventually involved him single-handedly moving all the plywood and then covering it with shower curtains. He was quite disappointed when he woke up this morning and it wasn't raining yet. But then you could just hear his inner voice squeaking "I knew it" in delight when the rain started up mid-morning.

- J

Another Day, Another Delivery

It's cold out...it's snow-rained (much worse than snow, I'd argue) two days this week...the basement 'floor' is a skating rink...but framing continues. Our 'just in time' wood supplier, the Falmouth Lumber Yard, seems to be able crane in the supplies right to where they need it.

I think this is one reason they can move so quickly.

Craning it in...curiously, Zippy doesn't seem to mind the lumber truck any more, after announcing its presence of course. Now if we could just get him to do that with this arch-nemesis, the postman.

For the decking in our house, a band of 2" OSB (oriented strand board) sits on the exterior of the deck, and the joists (20 to 24' engineered I-shaped beams) span across the walls and support the subfloor (also OSB). Some dislike OSB and engineered products because it contains glue, but would you rather cut down a big old tree to source the 20' spans we'd need? I think that 'green' is in the eye of the beholder.

Framing in the 2nd floor decking in action.

Anyways, we ended the week with a snow/rain storm on our 2 story wooden box.

- A

If It Wasn't My House, I Might Be Mad

Jody, Natalie and I had been planning to catch up on some sleep this morning, being a holiday and all.   So, when were we were woken up at 7am by the sounds of beeping trucks and banging hammers - as well as Zippy announcing their presence - we were not very amused. After a quick glance out the bathroom window, we realized that we couldn't really be mad since it was our house they were working on.

The joist on the 1st floor level. The hole is where the stairs will go.

While I have no concept of 'building time' and will fully admit this is a small house, these guys were making quick work of the framing, likely because it was 19 degrees this morning.

The rest of the basement rear exterior framing and all of the first floor joists and decking were on by 2pm, soon enough to still get another load in from the lumberyard.

I still think cranes attached to trucks are the coolest thing ever! Zippy agrees.

8 hours later, they were done and ready for the next day. For the first time, the structure is visible from the street.

View from the street...

... and from inside the basement (still no slab) looking towards the pond.

Hopefully the neighbors are as excited about 7am holiday racket as we are.

- A

We've Got Lumber!

...and snow in the basement. We were going to do radiant floor heating, but snow is apparently all the rage these days. It's like your feet will be so cold they'll *feel* hot...

Zippy finally got inside of the house for his own personal inspection.

I think he's wondering where his room's going to be.

The framers arrived Friday and quickly began getting things ready for the first floor to go on next week. Lots of measuring and DD coffee. Good thing they brought the 'Bouse House' with them.

They even took delivery of the joists and decking today (Saturday). As you can imagine, Zippy quite enjoyed the lumber truck and its giant crane. I think he thought at least the weekends would be peaceful.

-A