Saturday afternoon Tony and I drove back to the pad where we are building even though it was raining and there was a chance the Suburban would get stuck on the pad because of the rain. Tony bought a very nice wench for the Suburban a few years ago and he was excited about trying it out. Bad thing was the wench gave out after we were halfway back up the hill and he had to wait until Monday evening to rescue the Suburban when the ground had dried. Tony made me wait an hour in the Suburban with him while he tried to get back up the hill before he finally gave up. I'm so glad I keep a knitting project or book in my purse just for situations like this.
Sunday morning Tony and I went back to the pad and decided to start running mason line so we could mark each of the posts where they were level so we could cut them in order to start work on the floor support. Tony wanted the posts a minimum of 6 in off the ground and we didn't realize that there was such a large slope on the pad, so one corner of the pad was off by several inches. In this photo you can see on the left hand side the posts that are too short.
We were feeling frustrated by this and decided to go to lunch and talk about the options for rectifying the situation. Rather than pulling the posts and redoing them, Tony got the idea to build a large square out of 2"x6"x8' boards, two boards thick, that he can lay along those six posts, raising it up the six inches they are short and helping spread the load across the posts. He will be building that box next weekend.
Taking the same idea of spreading the load across the posts instead of having one post take more of a load than another (like the corner of the living room where the TV will be), he is planning to lay 2"x6" boards flat across the posts, run some more boards perpendicular then build the floor joists on the support system.
About the best shot I could get of all the posts, the Suburban was stuck in the perfect place for me to stand and get a full view. Having all the posts in place I'm now able to visualize everything. The far right corner is the bedroom, near right corner is the living room which will be open to the kitchen to the left of it. The near left corner is going to be the utility room/pantry (the room I'm most excited about), and the far left corner will be a closet with the bathroom between it and the kitchen.
Stringing the line so we could level the tops of the posts:
Tony sawing the posts:
Laying the boards:
An idea of what they will look like when they are all done:
Finally a shot of twilight as I'm driving down the mountain Monday morning on my way back to Fort Smith to meet a friend:
5 comments:
I'm fighting with the spacing on the photos. It's making me batty, so I'm going to let myself be okay with it not being perfect.
Hmmm...not sure what you mean about the photos but this is amazing. I'm seriously excited to see you blog through all of this. I've always been fascinated by how a house is built. It just seems so amazing to me, that it's done. I know that sounds odd, but if you have never built anything, the idea of building your own house is like some kind of fantastic voodoo magic! lol. ;)
HAHAHAHA, I'm super anal perfectionist and the spacing between the text and photos is making me crazy. I'm also not happy with how CVS processed the photos. The coloring is off, but oh well. The job was accomplished and that is what matters.
Part of me is like it's not big deal since I've done stuff like this since I was a kid, plus Tony is doing a bulk of the work, and another part of me is fascinated as well and all giddy at the process. I'm really excited to see each little bit of progress. Baby steps!!!
Wow. This is incredible. I'm not sure I can do half of what you guys just did without breaking down and crying.
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Haha. It's exhausting work but surprisingly easier than I imagined and I thought I'd hate it, but it turns out I've loved everything we've done so far. It's one of the best feelings in the world seeing each task completed. I'm hoping when it's all done I'll appreciate the house more than I have the two we've bought and taken for granted.
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