August 31, 2023 – exterior walls going up!

Following a big bright super moon last night, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise this morning.  The weather today was perfect – with highs getting into the low 80’s and a nice breeze. 

After our morning prayer with a local pastor and some freshly baked donuts from the hometown bakery, we went right to work.  It was ‘all hands on deck’ (literally).   While everyone was gathering on the deck, Joe helped to place some glue below the first exterior wall.

Then everyone got behind the wall for our first wall lifting.   Woo hoo!  The first wall is up!

Becky (the future homeowner) was part of our crew this morning.   We put her right to work hammering the top OSB plate on an exterior wall.

After two walls were positioned and secured, Joe and I started working on the gable ends.  The two gable ends are prepared on the ground so we don’t have to stand on ladders to complete the job after they are on the roof.   The first step was to cut and nail OSB board across the gable .

We even gave Becky a lesson on using a nail gun.

The next step was to cover the gable with house wrap.   It was a bit of a challenge with the wind, but many hands were able to keep it under control.

As the walls were ready for lifting, we joined the whole team to make the job easier.   There was one wall that we lifted before the windows were routed … so guess who got the fun job of routing on a ladder.

After a delicious lunch at a local church, it was ‘all hands’ called to the pavilion behind the church campground where all the interior walls were completed and stacked.   As a team, we carefully loaded the walls onto a trailer to bring them over to the job site.

After we got back to the church, we started back to work on the gable end assembly.  We first attached evenly spaced pieces of wood, and covered them with long pieces of 2×4 with a double 2×6 layer on top. 

By the end of the day, we had all but one of the exterior walls lifted and braced.   We have to leave one side open so that we can move in the interior walls and bathtubs tomorrow.   It’s exciting to see everything start to come together.

After a very successful day, the team decided to go out to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner.   Yum!!

I just got the Team 1 picture from a few days ago.   Here’s our crew of generous, hardworking dedicated people.  It’s an honor to have the opportunity to work with such a great team.

We are thankful for another productive and safe day.  God is good!