Wow! It is so nice to see these two walls standing! We got up before 5 am this morning to meet the guys helping us lift the walls by 6:30 and the walls were standing by 7:07 am. What an experience. I can't really explain in words how nauseating it was for the both of us on the first wall. The wall was SO heavy (though lifting it between the 5 of us, it was really very manageable) but worst of all was the sense of unknowing that came with lifting it and then balancing it into place. You can't see around the edges of the wall, and you can't see the other side of the wall to judge how close it is to the edge of the wall. You have to trust to your measurements (we built the wall along a chalk line, so that we always remained the right distance from the edge of the wall, and we toenailed the bottom plates of the wall into place so it would catch the wall before falling over the edge!) It can still, at times, be very difficult to trust to the work you've put in, and it's amazing how when you are under a very long, very heavy wall, that your confidence level can be low! :-) The second wall was much easier! The wall is exactly the same as the other wall, but Roy kept telling me that it was going to seem much lighter, and the funny thing is, that it DID! It was much easier to lift, and that is probably due to at least having a wee bit of familiarity with the process. My job, due to bad location in the lifting process, and least necessity in holding the unbraced wall, sigh!, was to hold the level and push the wall either in or out while the other guy (Ricky, who is Roy's son) nailed the main brace in place. It is really something challenging to be told "Push that wall out till it's level" when all of your intuition (which is mixed up at this point) is telling you, "Don't push that wall or it will fall over!" But the second time around on that was better too. Still and all, it took both of us about half an hour after the guys left to settle our stomachs! The youngest helper was Roy's nephew, Lyle, who appeared about 22 or maybe only in his teens. He was nice and found our anxiety about the wall raising pretty amusing. :-) He's probably been raising those giant stretches of walls since he was a kid, everyone but Shawn and I were completely nonchalant. I guess we would be too, if we'd done it as many times, though you never know! :-) Two more walls to raise for the exterior and then our framing job for the exterior is over. Then we just tackle the rest of it! :-) More news and updates later, as for now, it's off for a nap and then to enjoy the first two days off in a row we've had in two months, we are going to the MOFGA fair both days are are REALLY REALLY EXCITED! MMMMMM! Bye!
Wow! It is so nice to see these two walls standing! We got up before 5 am this morning to meet the guys helping us lift the walls by 6:30 and the walls were standing by 7:07 am. What an experience. I can't really explain in words how nauseating it was for the both of us on the first wall. The wall was SO heavy (though lifting it between the 5 of us, it was really very manageable) but worst of all was the sense of unknowing that came with lifting it and then balancing it into place. You can't see around the edges of the wall, and you can't see the other side of the wall to judge how close it is to the edge of the wall. You have to trust to your measurements (we built the wall along a chalk line, so that we always remained the right distance from the edge of the wall, and we toenailed the bottom plates of the wall into place so it would catch the wall before falling over the edge!) It can still, at times, be very difficult to trust to the work you've put in, and it's amazing how when you are under a very long, very heavy wall, that your confidence level can be low! :-) The second wall was much easier! The wall is exactly the same as the other wall, but Roy kept telling me that it was going to seem much lighter, and the funny thing is, that it DID! It was much easier to lift, and that is probably due to at least having a wee bit of familiarity with the process. My job, due to bad location in the lifting process, and least necessity in holding the unbraced wall, sigh!, was to hold the level and push the wall either in or out while the other guy (Ricky, who is Roy's son) nailed the main brace in place. It is really something challenging to be told "Push that wall out till it's level" when all of your intuition (which is mixed up at this point) is telling you, "Don't push that wall or it will fall over!" But the second time around on that was better too. Still and all, it took both of us about half an hour after the guys left to settle our stomachs! The youngest helper was Roy's nephew, Lyle, who appeared about 22 or maybe only in his teens. He was nice and found our anxiety about the wall raising pretty amusing. :-) He's probably been raising those giant stretches of walls since he was a kid, everyone but Shawn and I were completely nonchalant. I guess we would be too, if we'd done it as many times, though you never know! :-) Two more walls to raise for the exterior and then our framing job for the exterior is over. Then we just tackle the rest of it! :-) More news and updates later, as for now, it's off for a nap and then to enjoy the first two days off in a row we've had in two months, we are going to the MOFGA fair both days are are REALLY REALLY EXCITED! MMMMMM! Bye!
No comments:
Post a Comment