Today was the best day yet! Matt and Todd spent the morning putting all the plywood down for the main floor. I took them about two hours to do the entire thing. I was in charge of gluing. Yes I am so important. The plywood has a groove on one side so the pieces all fit together perfectly. Todd explained this to me as the "female" side, and the other side was the "male" side. This is why women don't normally build houses. Men are crazy! After finishing the floor, the boys snapped all the lines for the interior and exterior walls for the main floor. It was so fun walking around and saying, "I'm standing in the master closet right now," or "You're in my mudroom right now." I couldn't really help snap lines, so I went to the Sinclair for doughnuts and drinks.
After lunch, we starting building the exterior walls. We started with the back wall and started laying out the front walls. Matt and Todd were like house-building robots. They both just got to work. You can tell they work together every day because they didn't even need to talk to each other or explain anything, they just got to it. At this point, Matt trusted me enough to use the nail gun! And no, I didn't nail my finger, or any other body parts, to anything! Champion! I nailed the headers together (the big pieces that go over doors and windows and make them structurally sound). After this, I also was responsible for carrying like 40 2x6s to the front of the house so I could lay them out for the front exterior walls. I was dripping sweat. It was like 12 degrees outside. I harass Matt for not wearing a coat while he works, but I understand why. My other very important job today was to go to Todd's trailer and get a tool that they forgot. I didn't know what the tool was so Todd drew me a picture. I wish I had taken a picture because it was hilarious.
When I got back, I got to use the router to cut out the windows on the back wall so it would be ready to stand up. This is a very cool tool, but I think I am fired from ever using it again. I was cutting out a doorway, but didn't realize that it was a doorway until I was like an inch from the bottom of the wall and started freaking out that I had done something wrong. This wasn't so good, because I was balanced right on the edge of the wall and totally FELL OFF the house! Good thing it was only like a two foot drop, and double good thing that I did not fall in the window well, which was only inches away from where I landed. Matt, Todd, and Tim were laughing hysterically, and I actually still smile when I think about it. Where is a video camera when you need one!? We could have won a million bucks on America's Funniest Home Videos!
After the fall, we were able to finish the back wall and finish the wall between the garage and the house. This one is not an exterior wall, so it didn't need plywood before we stood it up, and was not very heavy. You can actually see how big my mudroom/laundry room will be from this picture. The door is in the middle of the room and it stretches from the flat 2x6 on the right to the next flat 2x6 on the left. The room is about 12 feet long and 6 feet wide.
Then we had to wait for some help to lift the back wall. It was 55 feet long and even with 7 people (okay I only count as a half person, so 6 and a half) lifting, we barely got it up! It was freaking heavy! But doesn't it look great? The little window is above the sink in the kitchen, and you can also see the door to the backyard and the two windows in the living room and even a little bit of the window in our bedroom.
The front walls that we will finish tomorrow... all laid out and ready!
View from the east!
The front view finally has changed! I love it! The two windows all the way to the right are in the master bedroom.
The garage. You can see where the door into the mudroom is, so Matt's future truck will go on the right side and my car will go on the left side because the stairs into the house will be on the left side.
Randy and Jenny had us watch the kids while they went down to Salt Lake for a Jazz game and dinner. We weren't quite done working on the house, so they put Brad and Claire in their snow clothes and dropped them off with their sleds. They were sledding in the field behind our house for a while, then needed a project. I told them that we'd pay them a penny for every piece of garbage and wood they picked up around the house, and they were so excited. That reminds me that I need to find $1.46 for Brad and $0.78 for Claire. After picking up all the scraps, they decided to build some houses for themselves!
Can't wait to finish the exterior walls tomorrow and start framing interior walls or the garage!
1 comment:
Who needs Christmas when you are building a house! It's so exciting seeing the walls go up!
Post a Comment