September 6, 2021 – all walls up!

Happy Labor Day everyone!   We certainly had fun ‘laboring’ today …. I hear our pay will be doubled on a holiday 😉

We had someone take pictures of the team standing up the first wall (from last week).   I thought the progression of the pictures was fun, so I thought you’d enjoy them.

Many hands really does make light work!    Well … not so light … but amazing we can get that done as a team!

OK – now let me catch you up on the weekend.    It rained almost all day Saturday, which was actually a good thing.  We got to sleep in, run some errands, went to a local church service and visited a new restaurant for dinner.   We knew we were running a bit behind on the build schedule last week, so we volunteered to help on Sunday.   Six of us showed up on Sunday, and got right to work.    Bob really wanted to get those last two exterior walls done.  

Bob, Joe and I worked on building one wall, while the rest of the team worked on the other wall.  We had to install the studs, create the window frame with King/Jack studs, a header, and some cripples (….cool, I’m finally figuring out some of the lingo! …) 

It was my first time using a nail gun!   It’s a crazy powerful tool … but fun once you get the hang of it :-).

Once the wall was assembled, we had to square the wall.   Geometry comes in handy … you can make sure it’s square by making the diagonal measurement the same from both corners.   After it’s done, it’s time to stand it up.

….. but, don’t forget to get the tub inside before we get that last wall up!

Once they are in position, the walls need to be squared and leveled.

After a full day on Sunday, we had the last two exterior walls  up!  

Now, let me catch you up on today, Labor Day.  Joe and I worked with Roger to assemble the porch beams.   We built special end pieces on the ends of the walls adjoining the porch.  The ends were three studs wide, and had a pocket for the porch beam. 

 

I got to install the longest screw’s I’ve ever seen.  These were to tie in the three 2×4’s together at the top of the beam.   Joe and Roger did the heavy work to get those beams installed and leveled.

Gary, one of the Sullivan Habitat Board of Directors, often uses his tractor to help with some of the heavy tasks.   I got talking to him about how complicated all of those levers are, and how hard it must be to drive that huge tractor.   He comes over to me today, and tells me to drive it … and he would not take no for an answer!   So, here I am driving a tractor.   It was sooooo much fun!

While we were working on the porch beams, the rest of the crew were installing the interior walls that we had built last week.   This is the day where the house really starts to feel like it’s coming together.

By the end of the day, we had all of the interior walls set and the porch beams set.   We started to double plate all of the walls.  Our goal is to start lifting the roof trusses tomorrow.

The future homeowner, Tammy, was able to join us at the build site today.  What a great day it was for her … to see all the walls being assembled.   She’s the one in the window in this team picture.   

After a productive day today, the entire team was invited to a local ministers home for a Labor Day barbecue.    Yeah …. this is what Labor Day is all about!