Working without a lynch pin

This was the first weekend of construction I have attempted solo.  Doug is off at an art opening in Chi town and Lynch has departed on his sojourn of walking the Appalachian trail.  I didn't expect to move as quickly as the last few weeks, but still had expected to do more than ended up getting done.  It seems to be the case though that one can tell how the work will go prior to commencement.  I had planned on getting some things in place on Friday after work, however purchasing materials took about an hour or so longer than expected since apparently Home Depot decided to stock everything except effective helpful employees and the lumber that I needed.  It didn't help either (the progress or my mentality) that Michigan decided to dish out an "beautiful" misting and windy forty degree day.  I can hands down say that working by myself is ok, but not anywhere near as fulfilling as working with the man I work to emulate and a very good friend.  There were really no arguments, or shared successes, just lonely construction and indeed construction continued.  One side of the house is now equipped with window sealed and framed.  The nicest part about this is now work can continue inside without floodlights during the day or the removal of the temporary ply over openings.  Ah well, I guess after the prior progress that there were a few slow days in line to even things out.

I like to call it "The Ladder, Scaffolding, Ladder System"

Well There have been quite a few pictures with no explanation of progress of late and what could be better than typing up an explanation of the "Ladder, Scaffolding, Ladder, System".  Not only is it probably safe it also kind of works and will most likely hold together while I get the last 4-5 pieces of plywood facing on. Though for the past few weeks Lynch, Doug and myself have been trying to get the work requiring multiple people done before he (Lynch) went south to hike the Appalachian Trail for the summer.  So from the pictures it is evident that all in all we got the mission accomplished.  There is very little sheathing to be done and what is left can be done with one or two people.  With that said it marks almost a milestone in the project, the completion of framing should be done in the next few weeks.  All that remains for the "Framing" part of project is a few pieces of exterior plywood, a few rows of floor cross ties and a new set of 10' 2x6's under the floor on what used to be the three seasons porch.  Home Depot will have to figure out another way of getting their pound of flesh once my paycheck isn't put into lumber, but I hear that, doors, windows, plumbing, trim, flooring etc are more than willing to step up the war against my savings account.  However, when framing ends it is in deed a milestone because the permanent parts of house are done and I can hire an electrician to drill and saw through all my carefully placed columns.  Thanks to the tax credits the electrification should be covered by my uncle Sam and the house will have a safer source of electricity than a jack-knifed extension cord shoved into a 20A breaker switch.

An eventful weekend!

Onward and Upward

 

 

 

 

 

Breakneck speeds with out the implied injury

Today ended up being a construction day where everything just worked.  The measurements were all right, tools were where you remembered leaving them, or still in you belt, and most of all it was sunny and warm!  The morning started out with a phonecall from the Menards delivery man who had 15 sheets of treated plywood to drop off.  Generally I pick up my own materials instead of having them delivered (because it is free that way, and im super cheap), but the sheathing weighs about 120-130 lbs per sheet and it would have taken four trips cross town to get, so I figured that a saved back and not running errands for half the day was worth 39.99 extra.  I helped the man unload the plywood and bought him a cup of coffee in the interum between when the order arived and when Lynch was supposed to get there.  The first order of the day was to get the remainder of the windows installed on the old porch-face.  Supprisingly 4 out of the 5 of them went in without any problems (frames not being square, spaces too small, etc), and all the 5th one needed a little shaving off the edges.  With the windows sealed with foam and locked into place with temporary pieces of trim we broke for lunch.
Generally the day winds down after lunch, we pick up the mess, gather tools and either shut the project down entirely or prep a bit for the next day.  However today it did any thing but slow down.  Refuled and rehydrated we removed all the siding and "weatherboard" (truly an awful construction material) from one of the sides on the second story and started putting in new columns.  We ended about seven with a beer and will be back at it again tomorrow morning bright and early for hopefully another day that goes as well.

Progress?

Progress?

Well it saturday never seemed to get into a rhythm from the outset. I ended up getting up later than indended, then the trip to home depot for treated wood and some 2x6's killed another hour or so.  Really the "working day"  didn't get started untill around noon which is three to four hours later than a productive day starts.  The lagging trend continued throughout the day synergiseing with the weather that was less than inspiring.  The plan on the outset was to get the windows in on the ground floor porch, caulked and sealed.  In order to do that the remaining sheathing had to be put in place as well as the header boards for the window frames themselves.  This didn't seem like it was going to be an involved project and to no end of frustration took hours.  Somehow it was 4pm before we were even ready to put the wrap on the outside.  Once wrapped we were finally ready for window installation.  In the end we managed to get one installed sort of instead of the panned six entirely.  It has been foamed around the edges with "Great Stuff", but not caulked, and the trim work need to be redone and cut with an actual miter saw (yes we thought we could cut perfect 45's with a hand saw...lesson learned).  All in all though one good working day should lend itself to having all the windows put in, so next weekend onward and upward.  Hopfully then the weather will be nicer and the questionmark can be removed from Progress.