Since the torrential rains and water damage, we have had a number of 1 workday weekends. It has also rained during some of the weekends (tarps are doing their job, so not much water in the house), so for various reasons, we have not a lot of visible work to report. Some of the work that we have completed:
- All posts for the paralams are in place with hold down devices securely embedded in the concrete pads under the house.
- All paralams are in place in the second floor.
- All floor joists are in place on the second floor.
- All subfloor plywood is in place on the second floor.
This past holiday weekend was a split weekend of Friday and Monday work. Friday We had a full crew : Greg, Mark, John, Pop and me. We pulled off the tarps, moved the trusses and cleared a big workspace to begin building the walls. Greg called for 75 2×6’s to be brought up and I thought that was way too many for one day. How wrong I was. Our lumber piles are slowly steadily being depleted. We got the long walls built and ready to stand up.
Are we square?
Are you really, really sure we are square?
John working near the saw
My Name Is Earl Matt
The weather forecast called for sunny and clear days for Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Since Pop was coming back on Monday, I decided that we didn’t need to spend any time putting the tarps back on. We would make sure they were in place after Monday’s work day. Look at the pictures. It was crystal clear. Sunday Sunday? I thought this weekend was work on Friday and work on Monday? Sunday afternoon the forecast changed. 30% chance of rain Sunday night / Monday morning. At about 3:30p I got up on the roof and began clearing off the tools and such that were under a temporary tarp. Pop had seen the forecast as well and arrived at about 5:15p to begin the normally 3-4 person job of placing the trusses and moving the heavy tarps into position. At 7:30p while we were still on the roof, the deluge began. It only lasted about 10 minutes, but that was more than enough for Toby to let us know that water was coming in over the dining room table (again). We kept working. We went in the house at 10:30p. Monday At 1:15a I awoke to the hellish sound of rain hitting big fat drops on the tarps. Ugh! At 1:30a, I realized that in adjusting a section of tarp that I had not re-fastened it down. I got out the yellow slicker and hiked around the back and tied off that tarp. There was very little pooling, so no harm no foul. As I was getting back in the house, Toby told me that there was water coming into the living room (again). I went up on the roof, under the tarps and low-crawled over to the section that I could see had a huge pool of water. I was able to clear the water over the edge of the house and to adjust the tarp so that the water would shed instead of pooling. No more leaking. At 2:30a, cold and wet, I flopped back into bed for an hour and a half of tossing and turning while rain continued to pour. At 7a, I got up and checked the tarps. Other than the one section (which I had fixed) they performed quite well. Pop had slept through all my tromping and banging up on the roof! When Mark arrived, he said in a questioning voice ‘How did you get the tarps in place?’ like he couldn’t believe that the two of us had done it by ourselves. For Monday’s work, we opened up the tarps and built some more walls. In the afternoon, we closed up the tarps and buttoned everything down (hopefully). It was a long 2 days. Max told me that he would read me a story that night, and I fell asleep around 8p to Max reading about Lightning McQueen and his adventures in Radiator Springs. UPDATE: Weather Underground reports that we had almost 3/4 inch of rain overnight (Saturday – Sunday).
