I haven't had nearly as much time to build out there as I was hoping I would this summer. Life just seems to keep getting in the way. That's OK, the kids are about to go back to school and I'll have 3-hour chunks of time to work my tail off while they're in school most days. I did squeeze in some solo time out there on the weekends. Just this past weekend, I had three full days to work and I hit it hard.
Among other property tasks, I framed the 1st floor ceiling/2nd floor joists one weekend. That wasn't too tough ... slow going, but not technically all that difficult. Then, because the 7/8 t&g plywood I like for the sub-floor is super heavy, I recruited hubs to help me deliver a stack out to the property a couple of weeks ago. We set two in place on the 2nd floor, parked one unsecured one on the 2nd floor, and left the other two on the 1st floor knowing I'd need to measure those and cut them smaller before installing them. We also took some sheathing out and secured a couple panels in place to begin the process of stabilizing the framing a bit more. Boy does that stuff ever make a HUGE difference in how tight the structure feels.
That brings us to this past weekend. I spend 3 days out there working my tail off. I'm still sore 3 days later! I finished installing the sub-floor which included adding some joists to frame out the hole for the stairs. I also framed out the 2nd floor. I had cut the pieces at home but found out that my calculations had been incorrect so I had a lot of reconfiguring to do on the spot. I was NOT at all happy about that but I pushed through the frustration. Here's a time-lapse video from Monday, August 27 as I battled my way through the bad calculations.
In the end, while it looks super messy because I have giant window openings blocked by scrap wood and a blue tarp stretched over the top to minimize water damage from predicted rains, I got a ton done. We delivered some more sheathing to the property yesterday so I'll secure those panels up as soon as I can get out there again. Once those are in place, I'll start putting on the roof. Woot!!
Hubs was nice enough to take some pictures yesterday so, for what it's worth, you get some rare still shots of me working. I like to call myself "The Awkward Carpenter" because I often have to dangle over the top of walls or twist out windows to get my work done.
So, here's the structure from "the gulch side":
And for perspective, Mr BSR took pictures of me with the 2 boys from the big window on the 1st floor (just above the "B" in the watermark here)
as well as the window above it on the 2nd floor.
Then he went down into the gulch and took a picture of me standing under the structure.
Here's a view of the parking spot end as well as the trail side. There's a window hiding under the sheathing but I haven't taken a chance to cut it out just yet.
The 2nd floor wall is only about 2 feet tall at this side but the gulch side is about 5 feet tall. At the peak of the roof, the interior will be about 7 feet tall on the 2nd floor. I designed it this way based on our heights, making sure we could stand up as we reached the top of the stairs, and an attempt to make putting the roof on a tiny bit easier than if it was out of reach like the 1st floor ceiling was.
And now some action shots:
And here it is, a cabin-in-the-making.
Boy do I hope I can get a roof on this thing and get it wrapped in a waterproof membrane before our rains set in. Gah! The pressure!!
Thank you for reading,
Julie
No comments:
Post a Comment