Last weekend, I spent half a day working on the south wall--fastening the bottom plate and the window framing. I told myself I had to move slowly enough that I wouldn't start coughing. I had a great day, and I learned that slowing down is not necessarily a bad thing. I used more clamps and braces to hold things and, consequently, ended up re-doing things less. In the end, I think I got as much done as I would have moving "faster," and I had a lot more fun doing it.
The long board laying across the middle of the wall in the above photo is the yet-to-be-fastened top plate.
The beginning of this week was all about rain. I bailed and dried things up to four times a day!
Yesterday, I built the header for the entryway...
...and I figured out how to prop the wall far enough out over the edge of the trailer that I could fasten the top plate.
I spent this morning crawling around under the trailer, tweaking the leveling of it. I want it absolutely level before this large section of south wall gets raised.
The west end of the south wall was relatively easy to square up, so I glued and screwed plywood sheathing to it.
Guess who I found sleeping on the job! (Bear raised his head when he heard the camera shutter, then went right back to sleep.)
This other section of the south wall was very difficult to square up. In the end, I used a rope running underneath on the diagonal to pull it into square, then attached a 1 x 4 on the other diagonal (but out of the way of where the next sheet of plywood needed to go), and then attached sheathing.
This is as much sheathing as I can apply before the wall gets raised. When we raise the wall (and I sure hope we can lift it!), two headers need to be installed and the top plate scarfed together before the final bit of sheathing can be applied.
As I started to cover things and put things away for the day at 6:00, it started to rain. Good timing! All in all, a good day.
Also see:
South Wall 1
South Wall 2
South Wall 4
South Wall 5
Oh Gosh. That sure looks like a big heavy collection of wood there. I hope your helpers don't end up hating you come raising time.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see the progress you've been making!
I know; doesn't it look really heavy? Even after I mentioned a few times to my helpers that this wall might get too heavy to lift with the sheathing on it, they insisted that I do it this way. (The way I figure it, they'll just have to hate themselves! :-) It's not only the weight that concerns me. Normally, we would tip the wall up on the sill. With the wall hanging over the wheel-well header this way, that whole tipping-up thing looks impossible to me--especially with the extra weight. This one will be interesting, for sure. Stay tuned.
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