Friday Mark and John and Poppa and I got the last of the floor joists in and were ready to sheet the last of the second floor. We cut up the blocking and got it installed. I hope I did it right this time. I cut each one to 14 3/8 inches.

Roof work

We will be ready to put the sheeting down on Saturday. Toby said that rain was expected at noon tomorrow. She insisted that we put the tarp on. I thought that it would be a waste of time, but I decided that at worst it would be a good barrier to the dew. Poppa brought over the fireplace that we will be installing (Model BDV300) to be used in a temporary place in the house. Uncle Mark did a great job hooking up the vent through the ceiling/roof. After dinner, we worked on hooking up the blower, the ignitor, the gas, etc. The instructions were not very clear. We started at 8:30p and finished up at 11:30p. I turned the fireplace on low so that the room would be toasty in the morning. Petey loved it.

Petey loves the new fireplace

This week was a flashback to the type of work we were doing last year at this time. We dug footings, tied rebar, poured cement, etc. We are preparing for our last 4 paralams on the second floor. We have 4 posts to put in to support these paralams, and the pads 2 of them sit on were pads that straddled the existing foundation. We had already done the half of the pad that was under the house, and so we completed the front half of the pads. Uncle Mark worked tirelessly demo’ing the roof to make room for the last of the second floor. If things go amazingly well next weekend we might have all the sub floor covered on the 2nd floor at the end of the weekend. Most below pictures are compliments of Maximilian W. Theule

Digging the pad

prepping for the rebar

Mark and the roof debris

Roof tarps

Roof destruction

Trying the white tarp again

We cranked away at the floor joists of the second floor and were able to lay down about 3/4 of the floor sheeting. Greg reminded me that layout was all important when he had to rip out about a dozen pieces of blocking that I had put in that didn’t hold the joists to spacing of 14.5″. Mark and I also started the sheeting in the wrong direction, so Pop, Mark and I got back up there at 8:30p and ripped up the 3 sheets we had already laid down so that the glue could be scraped off before drying. The floor looks huge without any walls to break it up.

Sweeping up

Are we putting in a dance floor?

More flooring

Taking a break, but just a small one

Inside the house – We have some serious holes in the inside walls. We put in a number of posts that support the paralams. Lucy has been absent from most of the constuction so far, but she wanted in on this bit. Her ears are sensitive, so she is wearing some earmuffs.

Working inside

Sensitive ears on the girl

After tearing up the kids room carpet, we began working on more roof removal and upper level floor joists. We rolled back the green tarps and got to work.

More floor joists

After adding more floor joists it was time to put up the trusses again and button up the house.

Back to the trusses

This time we put 2 layers of tarp down. First the green and then a gigantic white 50′ x 50′ tarp. Hopefully that will keep the rain out. I’ll have photos of our ‘tented’ house soon.