10.7.2015 - First Gable Wall Section

Another kind of disjointed day, but an exciting one!  Jim had to do some follow-up with Lowe's this morning on the windows - the rep apparently messed up on the order and didn't order the right amount.  So she's reordering another window at the same price - which is good, because we got a good deal on the other windows.

Jim first got busy building some shoring posts to hold up the ridge beam of the main roof structure.  He made these out of 3 different pieces of steel but designed them so the beam can fit right on top of these posts to hold it when we are placing it - sort of like the clip angles did for the rafters.

Bracing the post and getting it all level...  Now we can really see how tall the roof is going to be!  We keep repeating...But it didn't look that big on paper!

We were waiting for the steel delivery so meanwhile Jim did a little repair work on the driveway.  Between all the heavy trucks that have come up the driveway and then the rains, we had some ruts and washout.  Jim wanted to divert the water a little more so that it rolls off into the grassy area.  I took the lunch hour and ran to Staples to pick up flyers for a mailing that had to go out today for the fire school.

The steel didn't arrive until about 2:30 - Jim was very anxiously awaiting it!

Here's all our new steel!

I kept bugging Jim to throw these gloves away but he said he would get his new pair out when we started back building walls - so today was the day!  I think he got his money's worth out of these!

Again - we have the chalk marks on the deck for layout purposes.  So we got the top and bottom track pieces first - here Jim is punching holes in the bottom track to use to attach to the deck once the wall is in place.

The first stud was a double stud - these are much more difficult pieces to cut because of all the angles.

Once Jim was happy with the placement of the first stud and got it fastened to the tracks, we flipped it over on the deck so that he could fasten the other side so that it would be more secure when we eventually stand the wall up.

Then it was back to cutting the next studs...

Cutting the corners with the grinder...

The next stud was a double one also - so it all has to be screwed together first.

You can see the cuts and angles Jim has to make so that these studs will fit in the track...

Attaching the next stud...

And then the next one!

Then we stood the wall up into place and got it braced down to the deck - it looks amazing!

 

Putting a few screws in the bottom track to hold it in place...

 

Fastening the brace down...

We were determined to put the wall up before we left, so you can see there wasn't much daylight left as we were cleaning up.  But the first gable wall section looks amazing!

 

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