Wally World

Another week has quickly flown by. It's Monday morning Nov. 30th. The days are becoming very short and much cooler. Paul arrives ready to help frame the first floor walls with John. Rachel and Fred also help out during the week.

After a tutorial from John, Paul frames one of the walls:


Nice work! (yes, it's a different wall, but you get the idea...)




Sidenote: Paul also builds stone walls. Here's the one he built at his home down the street.



Fred arrived the next day to offer his skills:



And John used his wrassling skills to put this wall where it belonged:


By friday, the first floor walls were sheathed and ready for the second floor beams and joists.

John makes some last minute notes on his PDA for the next workday:

It was bound to happen -- a few inches of snow fell on Saturday night. Sunday morning, Krzy and Eileen shovel the floor decking:

John brushes snow off the top:

We nail MicroLam boards together and create two twelve foot carrying beams. Then Krzy and Eileen nail joist hangers into this very hard wood. We're experts by the time they're all nailed on, and still have all our fingers (we think....it's pretty cold).

Krzy and John then lay the two beams end to end across two thirds of the length. (The last third is a structural wall.) The beams are extremely heavy. These guys ace it:

Later on, Eileen cuts joists for John to put in place. It was a productive day.

Deja-Vu??? No, its footings for the barn. Once the barn foundation is in, trenching for electric power can begin.