1.2.2016

Another blustery day but Jim persevered and headed out in the morning.  Besides the cold temperatures and wind conditions, the site is hazardous because the snow is frozen so it's like a skating rink.  Since the whole lot is on a hill, just walking is difficult let alone trying to work.

Jim spent most of the morning dismantling the decking that has been over the stairwell landing area.  These pieces are extremely heavy so it was a tough job.

 

Whew - all off!  Now there's just a big, scary opening to worry about!

 

The pile of discarded decking - we eventually moved this to on top of our last remaining wood pile in the yard just in case we need it again.

Then Jim started working on making the sill plates that will sit on top of the lower level wall so that we can start building up the wall in this area if weather allows.  First he drilled holes in the treated wood that has to go on top of the concrete for the anchor rods.

Working on icy surfaces over giant holes is a scary prospect - all movements have to be slowed down.  Here Jim is placing the wood on top of the wall.

Drilling holes for screws to hold the wood down temporarily while he works.

Putting in the screws while perching on top of the wall...

At this point, Jim realized that he didn't have the right size drill bit for his hammer drill that he needed to drill into the concrete.  It was lunchtime anyway, so I drove to Lowe's to pick up the bit.

Once I got back, Jim used the bit to drill into the concrete using the original holes he made in the wood.

Drilling the last of 6 holes in the concrete...

We had bought stainless steel rods to use as anchors into the cement so Jim cuts them to size...

Then he used the pneumatic grinder to get off all the burrs after cutting.

Check out the difference - before is on the left and the nice polished pieces are on the right!  This way, the nuts and bolts that will hold the sill to the wall will go on smoothly.

The holes get filled up with concrete dust from drilling, so Jim had to use his air hose to get all the dust out.

This is special two-part epoxy that Jim is using to anchor the rods into the concrete.  If it was summer, this epoxy would dry in minutes; in today's temperatures, it was supposed to take about 1-1/2 hours to harden.

Putting the rods in the holes...

Last one...now it's waiting time.

Meanwhile, Jim did more work on the sills - putting together the two pieces that will be used.

Then we cut sill plate gasket and Jim stapled that on.

It was getting late and Jim didn't want to rush doing anything else with the sills to make sure everything was hardened correctly.  So the last job of the day was finding enough planks to cover up the hole so that no wildlife (or humans!) fall in overnight.

 

High 33 (wind chill 21)/Low 25