A bad day.

Yesterday was a rough day. After the exhiliration of getting several walls up in a row, a day where nothing seemed to go right (and many things went wrong) was kinda hard on morale. Everyone worked really hard, but for a bunch of reasons it didn't feel to them like much progress was being made.

For one thing, it was discovered that the headers of the windows had to be done with a different size lumber than what had been used, so the headers that Nathan had meticulously nailed in (with, oh, about 50 nails apiece) had to be removed...





... and replaced.



Additionally, although everyone on the site felt like it was overkill, the plans called for the headers and footers to be extended to either side of each window and the door. That required not only a trip to Dixieline to exchange some curvy beams for some straight ones, but also a lot of cutting and nailing...





There were some satisfying moments, too. Such as lifting into place another wall...







... and having it settle perfectly on the bolts,



... and having the notches that Dan had made for the washers work perfectly.



Then we had what will be the new doorway from the garage to backyard.



Dan also built the little wall for the corner.



But before that could go up, he had to remove more stucco from the side of the house...







And remove a piece of the roof...



... and then that piece of wall could go up- but by that time it was too dark to take pictures!

Sam had to disconnect our gas again. (So we had mexican for dinner last night!) You can see the disconnected pipes at the top of this picture. Hopefully it'll be reconnected today!



On a day like yesterday, it was good to find little joys where you could. Sam thought this piece of wood was pretty cool looking...



... and the sunset was pretty...



... but neither of those things helped him too much, as well into dark he and Dan wondered where the 'missing four inches' had gone: it seems that the outside wall of the garage may be four inches too short, but for the life of them they can't figure out how, or where. That conundrum ended up getting shelved until today.



Luckily, tomorrow (Wednesday) is garbage day, since we're accumulating quite a bit of debris.



So. It was a day of much learning (and probably a fair amount of cursing.) When I get home, I'll see what kind of day today was. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it was a more satisfying day!

More walls go up!

Oh my, how quickly things happen these days! Let me try to get you up to speed. We got a delivery of hardware from Dixieline...



... and at the beginning of the day the job site is set up with everything your enterprising young house-builder might need: sunblock, framing boooks, nails, hammers, earmuffs, etc., all resting on a bunch of Simpson strongwall elements...



Once the preparation is complete, the work starts! Each wall going up is an exciting event. On Friday, the second wall went up at the back of the garage, giving us a real sense of how gargantuan the garage (and by extension, the house) will be when this is all done!





Then, they started framing the third wall...



... which involves cutting many lengths of wood to size- Sam is very happy with his saw and his back-saving-saw-holding-table!



Sam and Dan conferred about a plan of action...



... and Sam marked out where each stud should go...



... while Dan got some nice from Sioux!



There is a standard notation system for framing, with different markings indicating the location of different kinds of studs- king, cripple, etc. Having these marked out provides a 'road-map' for the assembly of the wall.





While there is quite a lot of hard physical work involved, there is also a lot of brain-work necessary. Planning and calculations take up a fair amount of time, too:



But soon, the third wall was taking shape nicely:



This wall was particularly exciting (and challenging) because it was the first one to incorporate windows, which have special framing requirements.



But soon that wall was up, along with another miniwall, right at the corner, which was challenging because the window spanned the break.



(in case you're wondering why there had to be a break, as I did... well, it's because that wall is longer than the longest lumber, so it had to be made in two parts.)

But then we had a very impressive third wall up, and we started to really get a sense of 'enclosure':









On Sunday, Sam tackled the next wall by himself! He got some of the across-the-street neighbors to help him get it up: this wall is the one that contains the door out to the side, where the garbage cans will be.





Sam likes his garage so far!



When we returned from the Del Mar races, after admiring everything Sam had accomplished, Michelle had to play with the nail gun:





And the cats patiently waited for dinner time!



I'm excited to see what is getting done today!! Soon, we'll be needing another delivery of lumber from Dixieline, because we're going through the first delivery at a rapid pace! Stay tuned...

The first wall goes up!

When I get home these days, I never know what I'll find... or more aptly what I won't find... such as a kitchen window!



That was my first shock, yesterday. The next shock was seeing that Sam and Dan had finished putting plywood on the side of the house, and had framed an entire wall!:



They both had splinters to show for it. Dan managed to get his out with Sam's knife and my needle...



... but one of Sam's was in there good. That, and the fact that this particular splinter of his was a shard of pressure treated lumber (which deters termites, because it is treated with arsenic!), made me call Kaiser this morning to get Sam an appointment so that a doctor could fish it out with a local anaesthetic. Which luckily he did.

ANYway, once I got home, I watched while Sam removed the rest of the kitchen window, which is where the new door to the garage will be:







Dan drilled holes into the bottom plate of the next wall to go up...



... and then had to re-drill them because calculations had been a bit off and the sill didn't sit where it should. Before, not on line:



And after, on line:





Sam put up the framing for the new door. Notice the gap (with spacers). The new wood (the lighter stuff) is level and plumb. The old one, obviously, was not.



So then we had two "doors" leading into the kitchen!



Michelle came over to see what was up, and she and I ran to Home-Depot to get some expansion foam that we needed to put under the new wall before it could be lifted into place. She also got recruited into helping us lift it!



Sam and Dan made notches in the end of some beams for us to use to push the wall upright:





... and after getting instructions from Sam, who was (rightly) concerned that everything go smoothly and that the 400 lb. wall not fall on anyone, the four of us lifted the wall into place!



(That picture is slightly blurry, but it's the only one I have. Sam was saying, as I took it, "Kim, this probably isn't the best time to be taking pictures!") :) Once the wall was up, they adjusted it so that it settled on the bolts coming out of the concrete stem wall...



... and then whacked it down a bit on one side, nudged it out a bit on top, and adjusted it so that it was perfectly plumb, straight, and level. It was getting dark by this time- it was almost 8pm!- as Sam climbed up on the roof and nailed in some pieces of wood to hold it in place.



After I fed the cats, the four of us went out to get some frozen yougurt as a reward for a wall well lifted!



Today, Sam tells me, they got a second wall up. Check back soon for pictures of that!