And on the seventh day ...

they rested ....

at least a little.














The crew atop Mt Constitution



Brian at the lookout tower


















Whew! What a lot of work.













Sadly for us, the crew departed on the red eye on Sunday, having arrived late the previous Saturday. They have another 16 hour drive ahead of them, while we will be contemplating just how much was accomplished in one week (and how much remains .....).

The fifth wall

Most rectangular buildings only have four walls, but to keep things interesting we added a fifth -- running down the center, it supports much of the roof, and will allow us to have clearstory windows in the middle of the house.















The center wall is essentially a 24" x 6" plywood box beam, supported by 4 6x6 posts.



















The top of the wall is exposed on one side, so we've insulated it.













Russ and Bart fit plywood to the box beam.











Russ inspects the post.

The walls are up

Great progress!



















I need another set of hands ...

















Looking good Bart ....














Gee, I wonder what happens if I let go?

A wall a day ....

Here we are fitting a wall section. The long walls are 42' long, and we're building and raising them in pieces about 12-16' long. So far we've raised two full 42' walls in two days. The j-bolts protrude through the bottom plate into the wals, which makes for a very strong connection, but it means the walls must be lifted over the bolts and down onto the bolts. Here the wall is up on blocks being aligned over the bolts.





A view from the reverse side. Brian prys the walls up and removes blocks while we makes sure it doesn't topple off the floor.











Brian with one of the 3 nail guns. No shortage of nailing power!

















Bart: How were you planning to build this detail?

Me: Not sure.

Bart: Well you drew it!

Me: But you're the engineer ...

Bart and Russ are both maniacal (usually written as mechanical) engineers are great at coming up with creative solutions on the fly.




Th crew: Bart, Mark, Russ, Brian and Keith.

Floored

With the aid of Bart's new nail gun the floor almost installs itself, although the plywood does need a little assistance to get up on the floor from the lumber pile.








The floor will be below the top of the walls in the bedroom and bath, due to the slope. The solid blocking between joists will support the 6x6 posts that in turn keep the roof from falling down.







The 6x6s -- the long ones (14') will support the center of the roof.

Joists and floor insulation

The insulation -- R-30 fiberglass batts (10.5") is almost all in. I feel warm already.














Joists (2x10) overlap the centerline girder (3 treated 2x8s), which are supported by 10" concrete posts 6' on center. "Nothing too strong ever broke."











The joists hang from the treated sills on joist hangers; the j bolts will go through the plyood subfloor and into the walls, so the walls will be bolted directly to the foundation.

Girder and sills

The girder (3-2x8s) is cut and dry fitted, will have to do a bit of shimming here and there.

















Sills (2x8s) are all cut and drilled for the j-bolts.














The predator-in-chief on the job --- no mice in this lumber stack.

Pouring the wall

The pour (actually more of a spatter, with cement going all over) took all of 30 minutes using the pump truck.