Productive week! Days 5 & 6

Hey Folks,

The framing for the first floor is complete in both houses, so it's on to the second floor! Left a bit early on Saturday to nurse a cold I've come down with, so I only have photos up until mid-day.

These first 3 photos are from Monday when we were setting the center walls between the two houses. Hal, one of Habitat's Site Supervisors, showed me how to use a bolt hole drill to secure our center walls. 

It's my understanding that we bolt these center walls and not the outer walls because the outer walls are secured by putting the rim board (see 04/11 post for a photo) in place on top of the first floor wall, having the sheathing from the second floor walls hang down to cover the rim board, then the second floor wall sheathing is nailed to the rim board making these outer walls secure. The center walls don't have that kind of connection, thus the bolts.

 It takes a bit of work to get the bolt hole drilled, as you need to drill through the bottom plate of the center wall, the decking, the sill plate, then into the concrete foundation wall. We got it done & I learned something new. :)

Friday was the day we set all the TJIs (Truss Joist I-beam). My apologies for having been distracted and not getting pictures. As I mentioned in the last post, it's important they are positioned correctly, not only so we know where we should to nail the decking, but also we need to have the correct space between them for the plumbing to run up to the second floor. Marshall is checking to make sure they are set in the right places, Looks like it's A-Ok.

Cliff is putting in what we call backer boards in the WB house. A bathroom cabinet will eventually be nailed to the ones he is working on. That's what I was dong for part of Friday, except mine were for the kitchen cabinets. The positioning is important as they will be covered by drywall and the cabinet hangers will depend on the drawing to know where these boards will be.

Safety rails are set so no one takes an unexpected trip to the ground.

Setting the first sheet of decking takes a bit of extra time as it has to be square and the right distance from the outer walls. It's correct position makes the rest of the decking go on a bit faster.

By end of the day on Friday we got that first piece of decking set & brought up some full sheets so they'll be ready to go on Saturday.

Once again we had some great folks to help from the Thrivent group and a group from Buckeye for the WB help out on Saturday. Decking moved along well. I spent the morning cutting partial sheets that fit along the outer edges of the decking. They were almost done with the decking on both by the time I headed home and I believe they will have gotten a good start on framing the second floor walls by end of day.

Down below Ri Len is teaching some folks to make window boxes for the second floor walls. It's much easier to get these built ahead of time. Then you just slide them into the rest of the wall.

Here's Mollie, taking a picture of the picture taker. Silly :)

That's all for now.

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

Nanette

Blitz Build deux

Hey Folks,

Here are some pictures from Wednesday & Thursday. 

Wednesday 04/19

Here's house 3 at the start of the day. We had two
hardworking groups from Nike helping out. It rained on us all morning. :(

The Thrivent house continues to
have a jump on us with their super volunteers.

Siding gets started on houses 5 & 6.

Ri Len & a Nike volunteer get doors painted.

Says forklift driver, "Hey when you guys figure
 out where you want this sheathing, just let me know." ;)

Howdy neighbor!

The afternoon Nike crew remembered to bring
the sunshine. It ended up being a beautiful Spring day!

Looks like they finally
decided on a place for the sheathing.

WB house at day's end.

Thrivent house at day's end. They're still kicking our behinds. :-P

Baseboard trim being added in house 7.

More cherry blossoms! I can't
help it, I love flowers & Springtime!

Thursday 04/11

Getting ready in the WB house to add the
deck for the stairs landing and get the stairs built.

The frame for the landing is put in place
 and checked for correct height and is leveled.

A 2X4 the length of the stair stringers is mounted
 to this stairway wall as well as the center firewall.

The first stringer is adjusted, and
checked for level then nailed to one of the 2X4s.

The 3 stringers make up the base of our stairs.

We start from the bottom by adding the first kick
 plate. A tread is glued, with screws
 used to attach it to the stringers so the stair won't
creak when someone goes up them. Then it's kick
plate, then tread all the way to the top.

And there you have it! Stairs leading up to the second
floor landing that someone added  3/4 inch decking to.
WB house at day's end.

The lighter colored wood that sticks up above the sheathing around the  outside of the house is called rim board. When we've framed the outer walls for the second floor, the sheathing on those walls will hang enough below the framed wall to meet up with the top of the first floor sheathing with just a bit of space between them. We will then nail that overhanging second floor sheathing to the rim board (which is and inch and a half thick) around the outside of the whole house. This is one of ways we connect the first & second floors together.

Marking the top & ties plates for the correct
 positioning for the TJIs which the second floor
subfloor decking will be attached to. Another way we'll
connect the floors.

Here's a few of the TJIs in place. The spacing
 of these is very important not only taking into
consideration where the plumbing will need to go up the wall but also so we can determine where to nail the subfloor so the nail will go through the TJI.

Thrivent house at day's end.

Nanette

Blitz Build begins!

Hey Folks,

As I said last Sunday, during the Blitz Build weeks I'm just going to post some pictures of our progress with very little chatting on my part. Here we go...

Monday 04/08

The start of Day 1

Great volunteers from the Thrivent group

Getting those center walls up first

Insulation around the outline of the
 wall keep cold air from creeping into the homes

Center walls up!

One way to keep our
homes energy efficient

North wall almost
ready to go up on house 3

Up it goes!

The magnolia tree in bloom :)

End of day for both houses

End of day for house 4,
 officially named the Women Build house

Cherry blossoms!

Tuesday 04/09

Morning of Day 2

Another super Thrivent group
working on house 3, the Thrivent house

Front & back walls for house 3 getting built

Brandee, the recipient of the 2012
Women Build home, took a day off work to come help out

Bill, the fellow who does our house  drawings,
schooling me on how to cut a notch with a skill saw 

Up goes the front wall on H3

Almost ready on H4

We had the great pleasure to work with a
Women Build group, Trail Mix (the 3 on the right)

Back wall up for H4

Front wall up for H4

End of Day 2

The Thrivent folks got a lot done!

Women Build has a little catching up to do :)

The walls (connected) Brandee & I built! :)
It always looks easier than it was, especially getting the holes right on the bottom plate drilled for the plumbing. First attempt by me was a major fail. Had to redo, but it was right on the second time. It was so wonderful spending the day working with Brandee! She's inspiring & encouraging.

Nanette