Main Floor Walls!

Lunch Time Progress:

In the shot above, I am standing on the side porch looking through where the french doors will be, straight down the hallway.  Jeffrey is standing on the stairs that come up from the basement.  Below, Jeff and Ken are working on the ledger board that will support the floor joists for the upstairs.

Above:  Josh puts up the top plate between the office and the master bedroom.
Below:  Ground shot looking into the garage.  The openings in the wall will be where the 6' windows (actually 2 three foot double windows) will be installed.

The shot above is taken from the driveway looking straight onto the front of the house.

Framing Week 2 - Stairs

Lunch time progress: Stairs!

The stair stringers are in with temporary treads, so the last of the basement framing (one last wall) and the last of the subfloor for this level is being installed.  No more ladders to get upstairs from the basement!

Ken hard at work cutting the last piece of the subfloor and then they were going to call it a day!

SUB FLOOR IS IN!

Day 5 still proved to be another scorcher!  However, I came prepared today ;)  They all laughed and joked at my rolling garden buddy and umbrella, but it wasn't long before they were all underneath it with me, trying to get a break from the sun!

We worked till about 2:30 or so and after SEVERAL water breaks, the subfloor was nailed down and it was time to go home for a bit!

Framing - Day 4

I took off work for the next two days to help out with the subfloor since Jeff's crew was short staffed.  The heat today was over 100 I'm sure, and it was very uncomfortable to work in. We spent most of today putting the outside 2x10 in place.  When the guys knocked off work about 1:30 because of the heat, Jeffrey and I kept on working, and starting the back filling process.  The cold sand on my feet helped with the heat, but that swim in the pond at the end of the day sure did feel great!

FRAMING - Day 3

Lunch time progress from atop the ladder....

And by the afternoon, everything was done but the outside 2x10 wrap.

FRAMING - Day 2

Today the GLU-Lam beams were put in place this morning. At over 20' a piece, it took a little bit of time and effort to hoist them all in place and nail them into 4 large beams. The garage beams are made of three GLU-Lams beams a piece and the family room has two a piece. The 2"x10" floor joists will then be attached to the beams and they will all be a part of the flooring system. 

This afternoon, they guys got about half of the 2x10's in over the garage.  After they went home, Jeffrey and I cut the boards for today's work and then worked on waterproofing the outside of the basement wall.  First we sealed all the seams with a generous coating of black boy tar, and then we installed a sheet of plastic around the two sides that will be back filled.  We even started the back filling process on the porch end of the house, but I forgot to bring my camera, so I didn't get any pictures. :|

And the FRAMING begins!

What a wonderful way to start a Monday morning! By lunch, all of the base plates were nailed/screwed into the concrete, and all of the top plates were cut and laid off.  At least at this point I was getting a better idea of how big/small each area was going to be.

The first delivery of the sub floor came in while I was there at lunch.

By afternoon we had walls!  Now you can really get an idea of the size of each room.  We only had to make minor adjustments so far in the basement because of some issues with plumbing pipes and a pocket door.  Other than that, I think things are coming along nicely :)

In the shot below, I am standing up on the porch, looking down into the basement.  The room across the front (between the porch I'm standing on and the first wall) is a family room.  The first framed room on the left side is the mechanical room and the stairs.  The first framed room on the right side is a full bath, and behind that is the laundry room.  Everything in the back of the picture is garage.

I'm so happy and grateful that this is actually happening!  Jeffrey put it in perspective when informed me that if we just put a roof on what we have so far, it would already be twice the size of what we are living in right now....

Sill Plate

Finishing up the sill plate. A task that I thought would be as simple as anything, but it took a couple of days and over an hour to even get started and figure out the best way to do it. The superior walls already had pre-drilled holes every two feet along the walls without windows.  Those sections were easy.  The walls with windows and doors have a special casting for a lug type screw made into the top of the wall. Lining everything up drilling the holes (in the right place) and then tightening it all down proved to be just a tad more difficult than it should have been, but we finally got it finished!

For the pre-drilled holes, we just put the board in place and clamped it down if it needed it.  Jeffrey drilled the hole through from underneath and I drove the bolts through from the topside.  After we got a washer and nut on all of the bolts, we hand tightened and then came back with a air wrench to pull them all tight.  In between the sill plate and the top of the wall we put a "sill seal"  with was nothing more than a continuous strip of styrofoam that will help air and moisture from coming through the cracks.  That too was a chore with the wind blowing 30mph!

Concrete

Last Saturday was our original planned day to pour the concrete floor to the basement.  Due to the bad weather we received  that Thursday and Friday, and more threatening for Saturday, the pour was postponed until today.  In the week of preparing, the rocks were tamped, the vapor barrier was put in place and taped, lines were marked around the perimeter, the rebar was put in place and everything had to be inspected prior to the pour. 

The weather for today was perfect.  Sunny, hot, breezy.  Almost 90 degrees and then some in the sun!  The crew got started around quarter till seven this morning and I stayed home with Josie.  When I got a call from Jeffrey around 8:00, letting me know they were already done with two trucks, then I knew I needed to hurry up and get out there if I wanted to get any action shots!  First thing I saw when I pulled up - two CRMP trucks.

By the time I arrived, both of the smaller rooms in the basement had already been poured, and floated and they were almost half way across the larger section of the basement already floating part of that.

I set up the ladder up and climbed up on the porch to try to take some shots down on the floor.  I was really impressed with how fast this crowd worked and how well everything was going!  Because of the walls, the truck was not able to use the chute to get the concrete everywhere it needed to go, that's why you see the motorized cart in the corner in the next picture.  That thing sure does beat a wheelbarrow!

Finishing up the third full truck here in this picture.  By this time they were able to just use the truck chute to get the concrete in place. 

They had to order about a yard more to finish the floor, so while they waited for truck number four to show up, Larry was able to start the finishing process.

 And after several hours of this, and some tedious hand and knee trowel action we have a perfectly smooth concrete floor! 

Thanks for all the hard work today guys!