We had a nice Thanksgiving, our friends Jenifer and Doug and his parents Louise and Phil came over to our house. Then on Friday morning we headed up to Maine. This weekend was even colder that the last one. We didn't do any outside work on Friday, we had some errands to run. But on Saturday, I don't think it got above 20 degrees - BRRR!!
But we got a lot done. We finished the sill and box. Rick did the blocking on the gable ends of the house. We put in the difficult floor joists, the ones to frame the stairwell. The weather didn't cooperate and Jack didn't the floor of the basement poured, so we had to leave some openings so he could get the cement chute in.
I don't know much about construction, but I really like the way Tim Wood told us to install the floor joists. The boards are 2x10x16 and instead of cutting them and hanging them from the main beam, you place them on top and set them side by side.
This was the first weekend we had to do some outside work. It was cold! On Saturday I don't think it got above 30 degrees and Sunday was even colder.
Jack put in a pocket for the main support beam, but it wasn't wide enough. So Rick had to enlarge it. I ran to the local hardware store to buy a cutting blade for his circular saw. After a while, he was having trouble completing the cut. He realized he had worn off all but 1" of the blade, so back to Trumbull's Hardware for me.
Because of the way the main support beam was installed, we had to cut about 8" off the lolly columns. That's me in my coveralls and two pair of long johns! Once we got working we warmed up and unzipped our coveralls.
Here are the fruits of our weekend labor! We got 1/2 of the sill and box installed and the main support beam. It doesn't seem like much, but putting in that beam was a pain! We built it along the foundation by the 3-season room. It is made of several 2x12 boards sandwiched together 3 wide. Then we pulled it along the side foundations. It was kind of scary, there was only 4 or 5 inches on each end overlapping the foundations and if it had dropped into the basement, we probably couldn't have gotten it back out. Once we got it next to the beam pockets, we had to stand it upright. The first time we tried, it started wobbling along the whole length and kept going to land on it's other side, right on my wrist! It wasn't that heavy, but I couldn't lift it with just one hand. As you can see from these picture, we succeeded and installed enough floor joists to hold it stable.
That is our garage in the background. Rick and I built it about 6 years ago.
If the weather is okay, Jack is going to pour the floor of the basement this week.
Here are pictures of the footings and the foundation.
This is looking at the front of the house, this picture was taken November 3. That is Rick and Keith, he works for Jack and was there to remove the framing around the footings.
This is looking at the back door. Jack poured the foundation on October 29.
I don't know much about construction, but I really like the way Tim Wood told us to install the floor joists. The boards are 2x10x16 and instead of cutting them and hanging them from the main beam, you place them on top and set them side by side.
