EJM, INC.: July 2007

Fresh Pics

Here are some pics of the weekend an Monday progress.

Never tell a lab "up." He just might listen.

Here's a little anecdote from Sunday. Eric and I were both on the 2nd floor and Kodi was looking up at us so sweetly from the ladder rung. So I tried to take a picture. As you can see, I could not get a good picture. He'd stick his tongue out, look away or kept hopping down. So Eric said "Kodi up!" to get him on to put his front paws up again. Well Kodi decided "up" meant climb the ladder and proceeded to get his front paws 4 rungs up and his back paws one rung up before he fell off the side. Doh! It was a heartfelt effort with all the gusto from him...but not exactly what we were going for. At least he didn't get any higher. As it was, he did nick his nose slightly. Is this the same dog I had to shove across 16 inch wide by 6 foot long plank a few months ago?

Kodi at the start of the big climb.

Kodi after deciding climbing ladders wasn't his forte.

Update #19

Okay It's been awhile, but we have made some progress. I just don't have the most updated pics yet. Last weekend my brother was up and helped finish set the 2nd floor joists. Then we took a little siesta to visit family and do the fun baby shower stuff! This week Eric and his dad worked on sheathing and some odds and ends. This past weekend, July 28 and 29th, we did pretty well. (You all know "We" doesn't really include me so why I say it I do not know. I think I like to feel like I'm participating.) One of the neighbor's framing crew stopped by and asked if we could use him. Of course we can! Clarence and Eric made some really good progress this weekend. They raised all the west walls, the house front wall, the east side garage/house wall, the elevated part of the back wall and some interior 2x4 walls too.

The horse farmer by the Cheddar Haus let us borrow this crazy forklift machine the other week. We used it to lift full pallets of 2x6 studs, 2x4 studs and sheathing to the 2nd floor deck.

This is the front wall.

Progress update No. ?

We are rolling along. Most all the 1st floor walls are up and over half the 2nd floor has floor joists and sheathing. I have a lot more shade. Yeah!

Here is the view from about the master bath above the garage. The second floor steps up over the family room, hence the kneewall.

This is looking from the breakfast/kitchen into the family room. Those are the windows when I saw framed for the first time I exclaimed "Holy @#&$ those are huge windows." Of course all the windows in the house I picked out, so I really should know the size... The windows here are double hungs with transoms on top.

This is the view from the front door. You should be able to see the whole crazy 4 panel slider with transoms we are putting in the family room. The header on the left is the entrance to the study and the wall on the right is the dining room. The 2 foot wall left of the dining room wall is a closet which will have a 45 degree wall coming back to the dining room wall with a little built in niche eventually...

Today, Monday, we are exchanging our 18 inch culvert to a 16 inch one so it matches what we already have. Eric will install it this evening, so we can get the hole out of the middle of the driveway. Tomorrow, we get our 12 inch microlams we were short on so we can finish the 2nd floor joists and sheathing. So hopefully Thurs.(weather permitting) we should be on to 2nd floor walls. Yea!

Random pics and best practice headers...

Here are some random pics from the week of the 4th from my mom's camera.

It's too hot out here for pictures.

Suzi working hard.

Fixing the headers...Smack your headers together and put them flush with the outside wall. This is the best way to do it, apparently. If they are microlams nail 3 rows 12 inches apart depending on size and nails. You can also line the top and bottom with 2x's so the drywallers have a nice screwing surface if the header is not wall depth.

And here is actually a picture of Eric and me without something in the way. (That was totally unplanned in the previous pics with me which is why I had to post them.) Yup, I really am cooking something up.

Good Day Sunshine

Saturday was a good day with plenty of sunshine. Actually, a couple more clouds might have been nicer. It was toasty. All along, Eric and I had been planning on paying a real framer to help us out framing. We aren't totally nuts. It just hadn't worked out until Saturday. Saturday Steve, a foreman with the builder up the road came and worked 7-12 for us. In addition to him, we had Eric, my parents, Randy, Paul, Eric Wags, Amanda and Emil. We cranked out over half the first floor walls, hung the large truss girder over the garage, and placed the long TJIs for the 2nd floor over the garage and breakfast room. Sunday, Eric, Skip, Randy and Paul finished shoring up the TJIs and sheeted over them. Now I have a nice shady spot to hang out in the garage like a real Hoosier. Only, I'm missing all the NASCAR paraphernalia and beer. Sunday afternoon Eric and his dad finished rebuilding the rest of the conventional headers on the first floor. Here are some highlights.

"Looks plumb from my house."

Hooking the girder on the neighbor's lift.

Randy, the site's head safety officer...

I was told I needed more pics of me. Here's one.

Ooh Here's another one.

Placing the girder.

Pflump.

Ah. There's nothing like the sound of the electric company burying your power line. They came out and buried about 350 feet of wire in a about an hour on Thursday. Unfortunately, the crew that hooks it up won't be out until Monday due to the holiday and vacations. Still pretty quick service. I am not complaining. The bummer is, Friday, the generator quit quickly with something between a pop and a thump. "That didn't sound good." It blew a rod. Doh! Estimated time of death is 4:40pm. Eric ran to the True Value and rented the yellow one. The nice part is the yellow one, like many newer generators, ramps up when there is a load and then goes back to a quieter idle when there is no load. At least this weekend, we won't have as much generator noise. Note the nice hole in the metal casing in the green one. You can even see a part of the crankshaft in the debris field. The silver lining of this is that while Eric was renting the generator, we reviewed the 2nd floor truss plan one more time and realized that the plan calls for a drop beam right though the middle of the foyer. Why did we not notice this before? Doh! Doh! So that has to get refigured by the floor truss guys on Monday. At least we spotted it before we started hanging them this weekend thanks to the generator. And now that I am caught up on my posts, I really need to get myself out there with some cold beverages and snacks. It has been hot out there!

"Back to the Framing"

Wednesday the 4th though Friday, my parents came up to give us a hand framing. We finished all the 1st floor 2x6 walls and a little bit of rebuilding. (See my post on how to frame a header coming up soon.)

The Joy of Paying

Monday, July 1st, the septic guys called and said they were up the road and wondered if we wanted to be next. "Sure." Monday evening they dropped off their equipment. We showed up Tuesday at 5pm and it was all done. The joy of doing a freakish amount of things on your own is, when you do hire people, it is awesome. They get stuff done ASAP and we don't have to lift a finger. Also, our friendly farmer friend mowed and baled the lawn.

Porch Pour

Monday, July 2nd, Eric and Skip poured the porch foundation. After removing and lugging forms Tuesday until it stormed and then half of Wednesday, Eric and I decided if we ever did this again, we would use all quadlock on the whole project. Then just one cement pour with the pump truck.