10.23.2015

Jim started the day off by going to the family-run auto repair place he found last year to do our car inspections.  Unlike the experience we had going to a bigger name-brand place that wants to find all kinds of things wrong so that you have to pay them to fix it, this place just does the basics.  He was able to get his car in and out in no time and drove away with a new inspection sticker.  He set up an appointment for us to bring my car in at 2:00 today but he told the guy that we may not make it since we were waiting for a steel delivery.

Back at the site, Jim got busy working on rafters.  All told, he got four main rafters built and spent awhile figuring out the angle for the top rafter on the front wall.  He got a piece worked out that he can use as a template - he was happy with the way he got it to fit.

Carrying rafters out to the yard awaiting their trip up to the top of the deck.

When I got to the land, I got busy unpacking the truck after clearing out most of the storage unit last night.  I got everything unloaded and stashed away just as the steel truck came up the driveway.  They got the steel unloaded in perfect time for us to head to the shop to get my car inspected - that went fine so now it's 2 down and 1 to go - Jim will take the other 4Runner on Monday morning.  Everything comes due at once since we registered all our cars at the same time!

Once we got back, we brought up one of the track pieces that goes on each of the valley rafters to complete the double box beam.  These are the really long pieces again and since they are track, they are much more flexible.  But we got it up and then Jim got busy cutting it to fit.

Before we could attach it, Jim had to finish putting all the screws connecting the existing rafters.

This piece went in perfectly without any issues at all - especially considering how big it is and how difficult it is to even maneuver this big piece through all the existing steel on the deck.  Then Jim got busy fastening the two rafter pieces together.

That task kind of required Jim to get in difficult positions to reach the very bottom - at one point he was laying flat on the deck but I couldn't get my camera out quick enough!

Fastening it all the way up...it takes a lot of screws on the top and bottom.

Then we got the next piece of track for the other valley rafter up on the deck and Jim started cutting it to the right shape.

While this picture shows the rafter all in place, there was quite a bit of challenges in between these two pictures!  Jim had said this piece would be the hardest and it was.  The scaffolding had to be positioned kind of far from the rafter because that's the only way it would fit, so poor Jim had to carry the bulk of the weight with his arms stretched out.  Then I had trouble getting the bottom end to go over the existing rafter.  Whew - thankfully, it's all in place!

Jim used the remaining light of the day to put all the screws in to attach the rafters together.

 

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