Blitz Build Days 10, 11, and 12

Hey Folks,

Here are photos from the last days of our Blitz Build. 

Thursday Day 10

Getting the tie plates nailed to our walls top
plates and to each other to secure all our walls

All our walls and tie plates are up. Now it's just a
matter of waiting for our roof trusses to be delivered

Mike, our Construction Mgr, is
demonstrating how we'll need to stop traffic
on Maple St so the truck with our trusses can make it onto site

Here they are!

The driver is nice enough to use his crane to get some of
the other materials we need up onto the second floor  for us

I told you they'd fly :)

Right where it needs to be

Here come our trusses

This view gave me just a moment's pause

Resting on our inner & outer walls

Gable with sheathing already nailed to it

 Friday Day 11

Getting house wrap and trim boards
onto our gable before it gets stood up

Lifting the gable into place

Getting it nailed to the second floor 

Preparing the Thrivent house's gable

One of our super volunteers caulking house 5 

Saturday Day 12-Final Day!

The trusses are up & in place

This time we got the attic firewall
sheetrocked before the roof went on. A lot easier
when your not banging your head on the roof sheathing

The shorter boards between the trusses are
what we call bird blocks. They indeed keep the birds
 out of the attics and the screened ones provide ventilation

Box to provide attic access

The start of roof sheathing

The sheathing needs to reach the mid-point of truss

My project, to lay 1/2 plywood in the furnace room in
house 8. As one of the site supervisors put it kindly, there
 was a learning curve on my part. More like a boomerang :-P

Saw hole bit to drill holes through the plywood

Here's where we started two weeks ago

The fruits of two weeks of hard work!

Sunset at the end of day

Though there have blitz builds done by home builders like Mountainwood Homes, this was the first one done by WWHH and it's volunteers. I have to say (as modestly as possible) we did a great job! Now it's on to Women Build!

Time to head back to work tomorrow and earn my keep, but I'll be back on site with some volunteers from Vernier on Wednesday afternoon.

Until next time, live your best life however big or small it may be!

Nanette

Blitz Build Days 7, 8, & 9

Decking on the 2nd floor on both houses

One of the center fire walls
going up on Thrivent side

Monday 04/15

It's up. But it makes me kind of sad we
can't see our fellow volunteers on the other side. :(

WB outer side wall
framed & ready for sheathing

Getting everyone on the same
page before we lift this wall

It's up!

Each bay (the space between each
stud) is nailed to the 2nd floor decking

Nailing the sheathing
from both the 1st & 2nd floors to
the rim board that's between the two floors

When we need to nail the sheathing from
 the outside of the wall we sometimes miss
 the stud creating what we call an 'air ball'.
We have to hammer it back out from inside
the house and climb the ladder to try again.
I'd like to say I never do this but...

By end of day WB 
has an outer side wall up

Thrivent house has their center
 fire wall up & just need to sheath
their side outer wall before it goes up

A lovely sunny day to work outside!

More Spring!

Tuesday 04/16

Nailing insulation to sheetrock 
on the first of two WB house firewalls

Thrivent house side wall. Raising an outer wall goes like this.
Once the framing and sheathing is complete, we lay a thick line of
wood glue where the wall will sit. Then you gather an enthusiastic
(or maybe just kind of nutty) group of people. On the count of three, lift the
wall half way & push it towards the chalk line indicating it's permanent position.

Lift it into place

Keep a hold on it until the braces are in place. And voila! You have a wall! :)

An insulation outline is nailed to our second firewall

Up it goes!

This crazy tree has
 both pink & white blossoms

Bill, Mike & Ri Len are either strategizing our next step
on the build or just shooting the breeze in the sunshine. Hmmm...

Time for the back wall

End of day WB

End of day Thrivent

Thrivent house

                                                        Wednesday 04/17

Interior walls need to get up as Mike is having our
roof trusses show up on Thursday, a day early. Yikes!

I spent the afternoon nailing some pieces of outer wall
sheathing on the front & back of the houses that couldn't
 be attached when those walls went up because the sheathing
extended beyond the walls on the sides of the houses.
Keep in mind when you see how far I am from the ground that
 I walked onto site a year & a half ago with a major
fear of heights. I'd say I've made some progress. :)

End of day WB

End of day Thrivent

Honestly, we won't leave these
out on the sidewalk. Tomorrow they'll fly :)