We had some rain overnight and the morning was quite foggy when we went to church. Jim said Lake Angel was back when he got to the site. But he hooked the sump pump up and look at the water gushing out! He has to sometimes play around with it to get it to continue working but it's certainly worth it. It's much easier for me than bailing water and it's just kind of depressing to be sloshing around in puddles inside.
The poor lawn mower has been sitting outside where it died. New fuses didn't work so Jim has to spend some time working on it - yeah, right! But the problem was that he didn't want it sitting out any longer and it wouldn't turn on. So this morning, he got the Bobcat out and alternately pulled and pushed it, even having to stop and put air in a flat tire, until he got it inside the shop.
Then Jim got busy making the tracks and the first studs for the other wall section.
Putting the pieces on the deck...
Punching the holes in the track - much better than drilling!
Fastening the first double stud together...
Putting the stud into place...
Fastening the corner together...
Putting the next double stud in place...
Then we flipped the wall over - again, difficult with so much steel surrounding us now! - and Jim fastened the other side.
And it's standing! On this side we were able to just stand it up and then move it down into position (sounds a little easier than it was with a 15' wall!).
The wall looks great standing up so tall!
We then had to take apart the scaffolding and move it over so that Jim could take the bracing pieces down from the first gable wall to use on this new wall. For those who are very observant, I said in an earlier post that Jim took these down and used them for the front wall. That was the plan, but after I left Jim decided to do the front wall differently.
Then it was a crazy puzzle to move the scaffolding again. We tried quite a few different directions in and out of all the bracing and Jim finally got it over on the other side of the deck.
Once Jim had the scaffolding up, we stood on top of it looking out over the trees! It's crazy high up there! Now that leaves are falling, you can start to see the mountains through the trees again.
Then Jim worked on the connection of the two wall sections - it went together perfectly - he just had to bend the tabs down and everything fit just as it was drawn up on paper.
Fastening the top connection...
Putting the brace pieces in place...
Then the next nerve-wracking task - putting up the remainder of the ridge beam. It's not only a huge piece of steel to get up in the air but it has to mate perfectly with the existing beam and sit level on top of the wall we just built. Just a few minor points to consider!
So Jim cut the first piece to size and brought it up...
Dragging it through the braces on the wall....
...and then lifting it into place!
Then Jim had to slide the channel piece down to mate with the existing beam.
Whew! All in place! Then Jim brought the level up and it was perfectly level - truly amazing! Such attention to detail along the way really pays off!
Fastening it into place...
Then Jim had to bring up the track piece that fits on the other side to make this a beam.
Sliding it into place through the bracing...
...and then fitting it over the channel piece all the way down.
Fastening it all together!
Wow - the ridge beam is finished all the way across the top of the building! What a big check mark today - and it all went pretty smoothly.
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