Pictures

Building one with good view of the tarp we laid down to help protect the floor until we get the roof up.
Here's a view of the back of building one. Interesting sun effect.
Here's a view of the back of building two from where the garden stands.
A shot of most of the house. That's the trusses under plastic in the foreground.

Here is the kitchen garden. Filled with onions, spinach, shallots and many other goodies.

Tedium

Spent the last couple days doing boring clearing and raking work. Have to clear the path and area we are moving the shed to. Yes, you heard it right; we are moving the shed. Yeehaw! Had issues with the chainsaw today. Did some cleaning on it. Gonna have to do some more Friday while I'm burning. Tons to burn. Will probably spend all day Friday doing that.

We Have A Pole Barn!!!

The crew was hard at work building the pole barn when I should up just after 0800. They were done by 1300. Now we have some place to put our stuff! I'll finally be able to have my computer back!!!

I cut and put in place the second to outer row of decking today. Not all that productive, but one less thing to do. It was a lazy day. Dea and I spent some time lounging in the sun. Felt good. We "justified" being lazy by looking at a catalogue of flowers. Deciding what we want to plant and where. Hey, it had to be done some time! :P

Another Day

Yesterday I bought more deck screws. They didn't carry the same ones we used before. These new screws turned out to be lethal! Between John and I, we destroyed 5 drill bits in a matter or 2 hours. The worst part about that is, some of the screws just strip right out. But, we finished screwing down the remainder of the deckboards that were in place. I still have to cut and lay out the last to boards all the way around. They have to be cut to fit around the outer support posts.

I also cut the windows and doors out of the sheating for building one. Of course after doing so I happen to think the sheating may weather better if I didn't. So I left building two uncut. I had a heck of a time cutting straight with the sawzall.

Thanks again for your help John!

More Sheating

Finished most of four of eight walls. I've got pieces to cut to finish them completely. I did some cutting but we don't have the best setup for ripping 8' sheets of board. We are leaving the other four walls without for now. Until we get the trusses up. I also did some more screw down deckboards. Almost done, but need more screws.

Headers Done!

Yesterday: Spent the morning buying lumber and putting up the last of the headers. Took a bit longer than expected because the lumber was a bit warped. Had to use some clamps to get them positioned right. After went to work sheating the back and outside walls. Turns out the building had a slight lean to it and had to get a "come along" to straighten it out. Was an interesting adventure. But by the end of the day Dea and I had the building plumb and 6 sheets up. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I took the opportunity to work on my tan a bit. Sonny had called from Hawaii and said he was with us in spirit. I forgot to mention to him his "spirit" doesn't lift very much.

Oh, almost forgot. We'd have pictures except we are having technical difficulties. Or one rather. And that is Windows "let's not support anything and make everything as hard as possible, with as many steps as possible and two confirmations for each step" Vista.

More Miscellany

I finished putting up all the headers I had wood for. Going to have to buy some more to finish the last three windows. I didn't continue working on screwing down the rest of the deck as it was raining off and on. Something about power tools and water... I cut some more scrub oak down and cut up poles for a fence Dea is making. I also moved and cemented in the mail box. We are forecasted for thunder storms tomorrow, so I don't know if I'll make it out there.

Miscellany

With Sonny and Ken off to Hawaii for hotel work; it's left to me do do some odds and ends jobs. I got all the hurricane straps nailed in today. It wasn't much fun crawling around the sand under the decking. At least it was a nice day and I didn't freeze. I also put some plastic protection for protruding flooring, screwed down more decking and put up some headers. Holding six foot of 2"x10" above your head while "persuading" them into place; can be challenging. But, with a little help from a four pound mallet; I got some of them. Hopefully I can finish up the headers tomorrow before the forcasted rain rolls in.

Catch Up

I've missed a couple days, but we haven't done a whole lot. It's been cccoooolllldddd and cloudy! Which has given Sonny and I motivation issues. But we have managed to get some lumber that isn't going to be used in the immediate future moved out of the way for new shipments and some additional clean up. Also we've screwed in most...well half of the decking. It's screwed down now, but just enough to keep it from moving. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, so hopefully we will be a bit more productive.

It's The Small Stuff

Measured the walls and made sure they were in the correct place and nailed them down. Also did some more area clean up.

Yet Again With The Missed Post

Yesterday: Well, I'm going to claim really freaking tired on this one. But, we have all eight walls standing! And the 19' LVL headers that span the breezeway. Those suckers are heavy! We also cut and laid most of the remaining deckboards.

One item Ken deemed worth mentioning; the front of the breezeway is 5/8" larger than the rear. Pretty good for starting with string and stakes in sand.

Today: Sonny and I screwed down most of the deck, while Ken attached the last top plates on the walls. We can now traverse the entire thing without worrying about falling through. But talk about lifeless effort. All three of use were zombie-like and completely without vigor. And Ken left for his home today. He will be back in three weeks when work will continue with putting up the trusses.

More Pictures! They worked hard today!

Pictures!

Lessons Learned Part 1

I've been meaning to do this since we passed our first inspection. I believe that was a good opportunity to share some lessons learned. However, I'm lazy and am just no getting to it. So, here goes...

1. Nails and screws work best pointy end first
2. Hammer to thumb can be quite painful
3. Treated wood is almost twice as heavy as untreated
4. Treated wood has arsenic...not good to burn
5. Perfect planning doesn't necessarily lead to perfect results
6. Perfect measurements doesn't necessarily lead to perfect results
7. Lots of torque on a hammer drill...hold your tool with a firm grip
8. Many light boards nailed together can become quite heavy
9. Living in a hurricane zone sucks for house building
10. Power tools are your friend
11. Beer makes most things better...most especially waning spirits
12. The ground may be farther than it appears
13. Power tools rock!
14. When cutting many boards the same length...nail down your chop saw and a "backboard"
15. Food good
16. Measure, measure, measure
17. Chop saws are cool!
18. A 20 amp circuit is not enough for building construction
19. Not all nails are created equally
20. Utility companies use everything they can think of to seperate you from your money
21. When lumber companies deliver; they just dump the lumber onto the ground
22. Sand makes for easy digging...tree roots don't
23. Beer good
24. Not all ice chests are water tight
25. 4'x8' sheets of 3/4" tongue and groove plywood can be both light and heavy
26. Factory cuts aren't necessarily square
27. Most 8' long boards aren't 8' long
28. Dulling the pointy end of a nail reduces wood splitting
29. The Air Force physical training program doesn't prepare you for a hard days work
30. Beer still good
31. Nail guns!
32. Florida's state motto is a load of crap
33. Don't go by someone else's measurement
34. Always measure from the same point
35. NEVER, EVER assume...except that beer is good
36. Fire wood doesn't burn on cold days...but the beer is cold

An Absolutely Beautiful Day!!!

I believe we broke into the 60s with clear skies and gorgeous sun ALL day! We assembled and raised the two most difficult walls today. They were heavy! I say most difficult because they are the walls with the majority of plumbing. So they had to be lifted up and over the protruding pipes. Those walls were heavy! We also laid out two end walls. They won't be as heavy as the walls we lifted today. No where near it. I did mention that the walls we raised today were heavy; right? Anyway, aside from a couple minor hiccups, our progress matched the weather. Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it...Those two walls we raised today. Yeah, they were heavy!

YEA!! WALLS!

A few more pictures I took today. Some from the front porch looking toward the driveway.

Missed Yet Again

Yesterday: Well, we didn't get all the subflooring done. We ran out of plywood. We did get several studs cut to the proper length as well as the soul plate and headers. And then laid out the first wall.

Today: Floor is done! Yea!!! No more glue! For now...

Nailed together the and stood up two walls! WooHoo!!! Laid out a third. It's coming along; but I still say painfully slow!

C-c-c-cold Day

We suffered through upper 30s, low 40s and overcast all day. And if you're from farther north and think that's nothing, get over it and move south! Anyway, we got about halfway done with the subfloor today. Fit, glue, nail. Three cheers for nail guns!

More Decking...

We spent all day on the decking. We are roughly two-thirds done. We worked right up until we couldn't see any more.

Oh, yeah. We planted the herb garden in the ground. So it's ready for dirt and seeds/plants.

Phase two... coming along...

Except for a few days of rain... of course. However, Sonny and I finalized our window and door choices and drove to Bonefay to look at pole barn kits. Productive at least.

Pictures from the other day...

Dat's one big deck! ... Ida betya it's the biggest deck for miles and miles and miles.... lol (ha! ha! foxworthy!)