August 28 – Subfloor installation

We woke up to an absolutely perfect weather day in Sullivan.  It was cool in the morning, with a blue sky and no humidity.    As we always do, we started the day with a devotional prayer and a safety talk.   Bob did give us our ‘punch list’, but for everyone on the team, it was a continuation of the work that we had started yesterday.  The goal of the flooring team was to have the subflooring complete, while the goal of the wall team was to have all of the interior walls assembled and brought over to the build site.   It was a big task, so we all jumped right into working.

Joe and I jumped right into the ‘pit’ to complete the pre-wiring of the crawl space.  We knew we had to run the wire quickly in areas where the subflooring was being assembled.    Joe’s electrical experience (from his Dad) came in very helpful as we ran wires for additional two lights and power for the sump pump.  Bob sketched out the wiring diagram on a piece of lumber.

It was quite the challenge negotiating all of the floor joists to run the wire.  But, it was certainly better than trying to do the wiring in a 3 foot tall crawl space with flooring installed above your head.          

After we were done, Bob said the wiring looked like we were wiring for the space shuttle.  Yeah, Joe’s dad would be proud!

After we completed the wiring, we helped with hand nailing of the subflooring.  Bob prefers hand nailing over using a nail gun because you can get immediate feedback if you miss a subfloor joist.    When you are hand nailing, you definitely know if you ‘miss’.     We hammered nails every 4″ on the seams, and every 8″ for the other joists.   Yeah, there was a ton of hammerin’ goin’ on today.

The entire team worked really hard to get the decking finished today, and at 2:45 (15 minutes before quitting time) we were done!    Then, amazingly enough, the wall team pulls up with their trailer with all of the interior walls completed.    Wow, now that’s when a plan comes together!

After work, we had our traditional happy hour.   For dinner tonight, the Faith Lutheran church purchased burgers and sausages for us to cook on their grill.   Joe was elected to be the grill master, and did a great job!

      

It was a good day.   We accomplished a lot.   As we said at the groundbreaking ceremony:  “O God, let us rise up (tomorrow) and build!”  🙂