Sill Plates

Greetings,

We spent Saturday burying our little Felix and trying to get started on the sill plates, which ended up not happening. We were tired and shocked, and there was another thunder storm brooding and grumbling in the background. When it started to rain and we got a few big claps, we decided it would be best to head home. At least we were able to find a nice spot for Felix, and we were able to order our materials and get them ready to go.

Sunday we came back to the site to wonderful weather! The big storms of the weekend pushed in slightly cooler weather, but it's still warm and pleasant. There was a good strong breeze, clear skies all day, and the sun felt great. We trekked out toward the truck in the morning and could feel just the slightest beginnings of a change in the weather, maybe the beginning of the beginning of the cooling down toward autumn. It was a gorgeous day. We got all of the sill plates installed, which unfortunately has no camera charisma. Essentially, we had to roll out a blue styrofoam (sporting the highly imaginative title "SILL SEAL") all along the top of the cement and then drill holes into the sill plates to slide them into place over the pins that were placed in the concrete for us. Once the wood was on, we tightened the plates on with washers and bolts, and now they are sound and snug. It wasn't as easy a job as it technically should have (or even could have!) been, as some of the pins were slightly higher or lower than the others, so it took some work to get everything properly put on there, but now they are. We also had to use an unusual (for us) tool called a "powder actuated" fatstener. This tool is sort of a hammer, and is used in conjunction with one. It's used to push nails into concrete, and is "powder actuated" in that the force to actuate the fastener is gunpowder - you use tiny shells loaded into a muzzle, and then load the nail at the end of the device. Then you use a hammer to punch the plunger or some sort of thing, into the muzzle, thus discharging the shell casing and launching the nail into the concrete. A very clever device actually, and it makes a pretty loud pop when it discharges. Not as awful a sound as we feared initially. And that's today's discourse done.