7.30.2015

I had to run into Saratoga to pick up fire school flyers this morning.  Jim started working on attaching the ledgers to the building.  He had to project the line we marked when we used the laser level around to the side and back of the studs.  Then Jim made a jig that we clamped to that line and marked on the pour stop so that he could get an accurate placement.

Unfortunately, by the time I got to the land and we ate lunch...dark clouds started rolling in.  And then one of those pop-up storms that happen in the heat came rushing through.  We came home to wait it out.  Jim ended up going to Lowe's to pick up a few things - by the time he was done, our bright blue sky and sunshine were back.

He got more ledger put up...

...and stand-offs made and rebar in place for the auto lift pad.

 

So even with a shower, Jim managed to get lots done - even some grass trimming at the end of the day.

 

High 85/Low 65



7.29.2015

Jim got two early morning phone calls about his plywood order - one from the driver asking for the address and another from his rep saying that something got messed up and the order is a few sheets shy of what it was supposed to be.  All of that meant that Jim had to be at the site extra early for the delivery.  It should work out in our favor - his rep promised that she would give him a better price on the extra sheets and deliver them too.

Even with the Lowe's distraction and calls from the insurance agent that Jim had to deal with this morning, by lunchtime he had both sides of the ties welded down and was working on the middle.  The middle tie is doubled for extra strength - that way he can prop things against that truss if he needs to.  The picture below is half of the doubled tie - its mate was already up on the truss.

Plus it was another soul-sucking hot day - though not quite as humid as yesterday.  We don't get a lot of humid days here but they seem to come when we are doing especially nasty jobs!  Jim kept a bucket of cold water nearby that he could rinse his face with periodically and of course drinks a ton of water.

Here he's using the grinder before welding.

Time for welding - just the gear to wear in 90 degree temps - black face mask and gloves!

Welding the pieces together...

Jim wanted to just press on after lunch - we had talked about doing some other things in the afternoon but it's tough to switch focus all the time.  So I went back late in the afternoon and he had gotten all but one of the custom ties made and welded into place! 

He had first thought he would screw the tie down to the track but the steel is too thin for the screw to really bite.  So then he went to welding - but again, since the steel is thin he had to do a series of little spot welds.  It came out really nice as you can see from this painted finished one.

Welding the last tie into place.  The only thing that is left to be welded is the tie to the actual tie on the truss.  Jim wants to wait until the deck is on to do that so that there is some play there if need be.

He stayed after I left and did some more painting on the welded areas.  Another day where he was really glad to be home!

 

And of course the work doesn't end once he gets home - his latest project is final tweaks on the order for steel doors - 2 sets of double doors and 1 door going into the apartment.  There are so many specifications for each door so he's been working on this for awhile.  He expected a call from his rep today which didn't happen, but he will hopefully wrap up the order tomorrow.  Exciting!

 

High 89/Low 66

 

 

7.28.2015

I spent most of the morning doing errands - picking up flyers for fire school and then getting some supplies for Jim.  He needed spray paint for the areas where he is grinding and welding on the ties as well as some more grinding discs.

It's really warm today and I felt so bad for Jim when I got to the land at lunch - welding in 90 degree temps is not fun.  Plus, it's warm enough that you want sleeveless shirts but that's not good with sparks flying from welding.  He looked very happy to see all the water I brought.

But the welds and ties are looking really good.

After lunch, we went to work in the ground floor to  give Jim a break from the heat of the day.  Of course, since all of this work involves shoveling and moving rocks around, it wasn't quite a break!

 

Leveling out the gravel...

Jim had to get more fine gravel and since we have the plywood up over the openings, he had to dump it over them!

Compacting the area...

With a little more hand shoveling for good measure!

But by the time we quit this job, we have more than half done and it looks amazing!

 

I went home a little before the concrete contractor was expected to arrive so that Jim could talk business with him.  He seems to really like him and thinks it will be a great fit.  They talked over everything in detail - from what Jim was displeased about with the deck slab to what he needs for this one.  He's supposed to drop off a quote in a couple days so we'll see how his pricing is.  Since he has a day job doing concrete, our job will have to be on Saturday which means more expensive concrete, but that's okay if all goes well.

 

After the contractor left, Jim went back to welding and got quite a bit done - I'll be anxious to see it tomorrow.  But he's glad to be home - even though there's no air conditioning in our upstairs apartment, it's always good to be home after a long, hot day!

 

High 85/Low 62



7.27.2015

Jim started the day off by going to the storage unit and picking up the painting supplies and the rebar bender.

He got the rebar all bent for the auto lift pad.

 

Then I painted all the sides of the ledger strips for the sheathing.

Jim was busy the rest of the morning cutting and bending the rest of the angles he will use to connect the steel tie to the end walls.



He also brought his air compressor up onto the deck from the shed - now he can use that for certain tools to make life easier.

During the heat of the afternoon, we switched gears and went back to work on the HydroFoam on the ground floor.  Back to compacting...

And always lots of shoveling and leveling the gravel...

But it's really taking shape!

 

After I left for home, Jim was able to get started on some of the welding of the steel ties.  Unfortunately, the spool gun still doesn't work but since the welder is on the deck, he can use his other gun.

 

Jim was getting pretty disgusted with the concrete guy.  He was supposed to call and stop out and Jim never heard from him.  He called again today - he finally called back late afternoon.  He's supposed to stop by tomorrow so hopefully it will still work out.  Meanwhile, Jim put in a call to the crane operator because he had mentioned a name and Jim wanted to get it just in case.

 

Also, Jim's Lowe's rep called and they will be delivering a new stack of plywood on Wednesday to replace our moldy stack.  They are actually selling the moldy pieces cheap to someone who will just use it for concrete forms so it won't matter.

 

High 85/Low 61

 

7.26.2015

Well...our garage door opening blockade was well timed.  Jim found evidence of the dog visitor again.  At least he can't get inside and do any damage to our foam.

Jim worked on coming up with a design for the angle pieces that will be needed to connect the steel ties to the end wall.  He'll need to make 6 of these pieces eventually.

He also got the rebar cut for the auto lift pad.  Unfortunately, the rebar bender is in storage since our road trip so he'll have to go get that to finish this job.

My job today was to paint the ledger pieces with primer.  I got them all set up and then we realized that the roller that we need is also in the storage unit.  This is one of the frustrating things about having tools spread out all over.  I know Jim can't wait to have everything in one place again.

So then we changed gears and went back to work on getting the foam pieces down.  It's hard trying to level gravel enough so that the foam is perfectly level - sometimes one or two bigger pieces stick up and cause issues.

The compactor works great to get everything level - however, after compacting if it still isn't quite flat, the compactor has to come back out again to flatten down all the disturbed gravel.

Jim had to cut the corner on this piece to go around a stack.

Fitting the puzzle piece around the stack.

Moving over to the other side...

 

High 79/Low 63

7.25.2015

Jim got the blocking all done this morning!  He was figuring out that he used up 10 studs to make up the little vertical pieces in the blocking + about 280' feet of track.  That's a lot of cutting.

Plus, look at some of the miniscule cuts he made to make things so precise - these are paper thin!

 

After the blocking was done, Jim screwed 2x4s over the top of the trusses down the middle to provide stabilization until the decking is put on.

 

Fastening the wood down to the end...

 

When he was done, he put a plank up next to the 2'x4' so he had a place to stand - he said that was one of his goals today!

Jim took this picture when we were both up on the plank...he took it because I was too busy holding on to Jim for fear of falling!  It's a long way down from here!

Then it was moving day - Jim's favorite...or not.  We needed to clear the ground floor and rearrange things a bit.  So out came the welder.

Jim was able to get the Bobcat's tracks exactly to straddle our ramp up to the deck - it was pretty crazy to see!  Then we put the welder up on the deck and covered it up.

 

We moved the truck down to the front of the carriage house and started emptying out our giant foam bundles.

Scaffolding was next - Jim was able to move the entire pallet of scaffolding with the forks on the Bobcat.

 

We moved it to the staging area where the trusses were for so long.

Then we brought up another big pallet and stored the rest of the scaffolding there too - it's finally all located in one spot.

The inside is looking really good - we can definitely proceed on now without so much in the way.

Time to build temporary walls on the garage door openings just to keep out any animals.

We brought the saw up to the top and before we covered it up, Jim cut up more ledger strips for the sheathing.

 

It was a full day but Jim spent the last daylight hours cutting some grass.  It's impossible to keep up with everything but Jim does his best!

 

High 78/Low 63