Goodbye Floor One

The rim joists are on, at last. That took a couple of days, along with some other things. Yesterday we laid/hung the joists for the other side of the stairwell, and put blocking in to all the joists, and then hoisted up all the rim joists, which we agreed was the most difficult part of the job so far. I really do think that there's a good deal of value in realizing by doing that you can do things you are uncomfortable or flat out afraid of, but it's still hard work, and while I'm glad to know that I can balance high on a ladder with my half (or third, sorry Shawn) of a two by twelve by sixteen, I'm still delighted to know that that work is behind us. The last most difficult thing will be the roof rafters, but at least I will be standing on solid ground at that point, and we are done with 2 by 12's. So the work was very challenging but is now complete, and I feel much more comfortable on a ladder. It takes a while to trust that it isn't going to fall through a wall. :-) Today's work is plywood work - we left the joists off of the mudroom so we can hoist plywood up through there and onto the joists. Then we'll make a path across the subfloor with that and walk our boards over. Tomorrow Roy is coming over to help us frame and construct the stairs for the first floor, and we'll also have his help to scribe and measure properly for the basement stairs. He is a great guy. He'll let us do most of the work, but give us all the tips and share his knowledge, which is immense and greatly appreciated. He also is going to show us how to safely raise walls on the second floor. There's a trick that's used commonly where you toenail the bottom plate of the wall into the subfloor as you are building (after snapping chalk lines). Then you raise the constructed wall into place, and the lifting process pulls all the toenailed nails out, but keeps the wall from tipping out of position (and hence down onto the ground below) while you are doing it. Added security. Nice.

We were considering yesterday that we are about 50% done with the work now. We've done the basement and first floor, and have the second floor and the roof to do. But we won't get any closer than that if I don't get off the computer and get up to work. Bye!