At the end of January the kids saw me working alot in the house. They wanted to help out.

Workin’ Kids

The picture had slipped through the cracks (pun intended), so I am glad it didn’t get lost permanently.

Weekend of 23/24 March 2007 Greg and Buddy came over on Friday and we worked on getting the paralams up on top of the walls to form the floor of the loft. On one of the beams, an 8 foot long 4×12, we got one end up on to the top of the wall. Then Pop controlled that end and Buddy and Mark worked to lift up the other end. I was holding Buddy’s ladder because it was a little bit wiggly. The beam end got away from Pop and pulled him off the ladder from about the 3rd step. The ladder fell over and the beam end fell onto Pop. Pop’s end of the beam hit the ladder and also hit him in the back. Because Pop’s end had fallen, Mark and Buddy lost their end, and it crashed onto the floor. When it hit, it broke the 3/4 inch plywood subfloor where it landed. Because the beam the hit the ladder first, it didn’t land with it’s full weight on Pop. But it’s full weight crushed the ladder and bent the hinges of the ladder. God was watching over us. A couple of minutes later, we got the beam in place. We put up 8 beams and that took most of the day. After Greg left, Mark and Pop and I humped a truck full of wood up to the new construction so that we were ready for Greg on Saturday. We finished about 7 pm. Saturday, John came up with Greg and Buddy. Greg’s goal for the short day (he needed to leave about 2p) was to get the TJIs (floor beams of the loft) in place and the loft sub floor sheeted with the 3/4 inch plywood and to get the second part of the stairs up to the loft. We got the basics done of the sub floor before lunch, and after lunch, Greg and Buddy got the stairs finished. Since I was to be gone for the next week, and rain was predicted, it was very important that the tarps got put back into place. John graciously agreed to stay a couple extra hours and help with the tarps. Everyone worked like demons to get the tarps back up before we had to stop work at 4p. Thanks to John for staying late.

Don’t drop that beam

John and Greg working on the loft subfloor

TJIs

The Loft

Weekend of 16/17 March 2007 Earlier, I wrote that we had finished the exterior wall. Mark worked really hard this weekend to finish nailing the shear wall to specs. One of the running jokes that the inspector has been making is that we have so many nails in the shear walls. Jeff came out on Friday to do the inspection on the first floor shear walls. The very first thing he marked as ‘incomplete’ was the plate nailing. He drew a line on the plywood and said that we needed to have shear nailing at the plate line: more nails! So we worked furiously for about an hour and a half, putting in about 1500 nails. Jeff came back and signed us off for the first floor shear nailing. Below you can see some pictures of me working on the second floor walls. For perspective, the fence in the foreground is 6′ high.

Shear Wall Work

Shear Wall Work

On Saturday Greg and John came up and Greg cut in the first half of the stairs and the landing up to the loft. Greg really worked our crew. At one point, I was 3rd in line (behind Pop and Mark) to cut wood on the chop saw for Greg. We also built the ‘sound wall’ that separates the master bedroom from the guest suite. This is a wide 2×6 wall that uses staggered 2x4s as the studs. The insulation in the wall will wind in between the studs. The studs do not touch and so any noises will not travel as easily through the wall. Apparently, this is how the shared walls for townhouses are built. This wall was very hard to build becaase we didn’t have enough room to build the wall on the floor and so the wall had to be built standing up.

Weekend of 11/12 March 2007 As Pop and Greg are working on planning the loft and roof, they have realized there are problems (yet again) with the plans as drafted and engineered. The plans are drawn with the building height measured from the first story finished floor, instead of the grade. This means that the overall height of our house will be 14 inches higher than what was approved by the city. Those who have been following our saga will remember that the building height was a touchy subject during the approvals process. Bill talked to the city, and Nick, the City’s planner came out to visit the site. He and Pop talked about ways to remedy our situation. Nick didn’t give us a decision, but the city eventually gave us permission to make the change that Pop had proposed. He basically flattened out the shed roof of the loft and reduced the height of the building by the needed 14 inches. Yay, Pop! The shear wall continued to get fully nailed in. I purchased a new 4000 count box of nails for the nail gun. We also worked on attaching the walls to the paralams with 18 inch bolts and PHD6 connectors. We also put up a bunch of straps to connect the first floor to the second floor. Each of the 6 foot long straps is attached to the walls with 56 nails. Sheesh.

Everyone knows the definition of Sweat Equity (and if you don’t, click here). Looking back on the past 6 weeks, I have come up with a new term for what is going on at my house : Stress Equity. This past week has been wonderful because there is no forecast for rain or wind and the weather has been exceedingly calm. This great weather further contrasts the past 6 weeks’ misery. Looking at the past 6 weeks from a believer’s standpoint brings to mind yet another term : Mercy Equity with mercy being defined as “Not getting what I deserve”* . What fool would pull the roof off before the rainy season and still live in the house? God has been merciful to my family in these past months by a relatively dry and calm winter, and when it did rain / blow, damage was temporary and family and friends were quick to help. * I had originally thought to use the term ‘Grace Equity’ but from our pastor at Reality Carpinteria, I heard the following definitions : Grace = ‘Getting what I don’t deserve’ and Mercy = ‘Not getting what I do deserve’.