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January 1, 2000 First, let me say, WELCOME TO THE NEW MILLENIUM! And take a gander
ate my Y2K Poem if you haven't already. In coming in here to update my pages, I discovered I never uploaded the August newsletter! Silly silly me! Well, I claim house-building induced fatigue. Well, there it is in the archives over to the left there. In the meantime I'll try to fill you in and bring you up to date. The framing for the E end extension (an 8x18 extension on the first floor) is all up, and as of a couple of days ago most of the the 2nd floor joists are up as well. Hope to finish that job today. I have one built up beam and 2 posts to build, and then we can hang the joists around the rough opening for the stairs. This is the trickiest bit I've done so far. Last month we put up half the 2x12 headers (these will support the upper
That 16 footer was tough. We got it up by me crawling up the girts there on the NW corner of the building and then leaning that 16' 2x12 up against the top girt so I could grab one end. Then Mike grabbed the other end and walked it on over to where the truck was parked pulled up alongside the post where the other end needed to go. He laid the end of it up on the tailgate while he climbed into the truckbed then picked it up and carried it up the ladder we had resting in the back of the truck (to get us higher up off the ground. It was a near thing - I still had to lift my end up over my head, with me perched on the top girt like that. Another half inch and I don't think I could have got it. I had put pieces of 2x4 sticking out perpendicular from the poles to rest the header on and once we got it up on those things it was simply a matter of levelling (using shims) and tacking it up there. But for the other 2x12 16' for the other side of the building - there was no way I was going to be able to help with that one. There are no girts to perch on on that side, and both ends were going to have to be carried up simultaneously, and I had to buy a 16' extension ladder and borrow another to do it. Fortunately a guy at work agreed to come out here and help with that, and he brought his 16 foot extension ladder with him. He and Mike carried it up there, we levelled it, they tacked it in place, and we were good to go with the remaining 3 headers (all 8 to 9'). I managed those with Mike's help. I've been painting all wood (well, almost all, we've missed a section
of the end wall) with a water repellant as we go along. So now it
can rain up a storm - and has - and the water just beads up on the surface
of my construction Mike built me a box for my pressure tank and I put a little space heater
in there. It's been working great. And the bulldozer guy finally
came out to fill in my trench and dig my road. I was really glad
to see him, I'd been terrified that my pipes would freeze and break one
of these days before he could get out here.
Sams here in Springfield had the 18v DeWalt sets on sale - they've laid
in a whole bunch of nice, nifty toolsets for Xmas, I guess. And Sunday
when I was in Lowes I noticed they had DeWalt TWENTY-FOUR volt tools on
display. OOOOH OOOH OOOOH! MORE POWER! I got the door for the 2x6 stud wall downstairs - it only cost me about
$20 extra to get one for 2x6 stud walls instead of 2x4s. So that
wasn't too bad.
One good thing, it was about $20 cheaper to get it WITHOUT the stupid
fake window panes on it, so hurrah hurrah I got the plain glass.
So I've combined a door in the E end AND a window. Nothing like saving
on framing . . . Stay tuned!
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Updated: January 1, 2000 These
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