(1) before a.m. break (2) before lunch break (3) end of day
A very productive day at the Build today. We put up the exterior walls, which we had unloaded from a truck the day before. They were pre-fabricated, made to measure, by inmates in a nearby prison. The hard part, besides the lifting and carrying, was making sure everything was 'plumb' (straight up and down); and “square” that is, fit to the foundation precisely. “level” as a concept comes later. We got the exterior walls up before morning break. (see 1 above)
Before lunch, we got most of the interior walls up – again, pre-fabricated by inmates.(2) Then, before we left for the day, we finished installing the interior walls, got the 'top plate' on the top of the exterior walls, and put 'hurricane clips' on the top plate, to fasten the roof trusses to the house. (3) As you can see, I'm learning lots of construction-specific vocabulary.
The men are doing much of the construction-specific work, reading the plans, confirming location of walls to the 1/2”, leading in lifting the heaviest pieces. But while all of the above is happening, the women are busy too - organizing the materials – 2 x 6's here; 2 x 4's there; labelling the tool shed – hammers here, chalk lines / measuring tapes there; they're doing all of the caulking around all of the joining places - ll of them!!, both on top, and underneath in the now floor-covered basement.
Women are double checking measurements, sawing boards with the power saw, lifting, toting, carrying everything here and there. Moving, putting up, taking down, moving, putting up the scaffolding. Some of us have now had a lesson in how to effectively nail, and are putting that to good use, as we follow behind the men who have put in the main nails to hold the pieces in place, and our nailing secures that the pieces will stay together. One of our leaders, Roseann, told a story about Roslyn Carter, wife of the former president, who was asked about her greatest aspirations – the audience expected to hear of desire for world peace, or some such lofty goal. But no, Mrs. Carter's highest hope was to be able to drive a 16 penny nail with 6 hits!! Now there's a practical wish!
The home-owners, Aimee and Joe, have been there much longer hours than we have – we work from about 8:00 to about 3:00 (all of us are over 65 at least!); but Aimee and Joe are there until it gets dark, making sure that their home is getting done as quickly as possible. We have a photo of them putting the first exterior wall up – what pride, what joy!!
After this pleasant day – really, it was great – temperature only 85, humidity only 75%, we went to a water-ski show put on by a local ski club. The Bad River Ski-ters are a national award-winning ski club, and we watched young people from age 6 up put on all manner of displays – 15 skiiers behind one boat; pyramids of 12; doing a 360 on swivel skis; barefoot skiing; slalom ski jumpers doing a complete vertical rotation off the jump; people starting on their back, feet first, then rising to ski backward around the lake – Wow!!! A pleasant end to a good day.
And then for Thursday, the crane came in, and we put the roof trusses up before lunch, and are getting the bracing reading to begin putting sheeting on the roof tomorrow. See photo below. It was amazing to see the crane operator, working from controls on his belt! He walked around the site, keeping his eye on the crane and his thumbs on the buttons on his belt, moving the roof trusses back and forth with great ease. He was done in less than 45 minutes - glad we didn't have to do that part by hand.
We also put up the shed for Aimee and Joe; but lifted the roof up 'by hand', so to speak. Good reminder of the olden days!
To top off another great day, we went to a fund-raiser for Habitat - a Door County Fish Boil, with Lake Superior whitefish, topped with melted butter; red-skinned potatoes, boiled onions, baked bean, coleslaw and pie. And that was on top of "pastys" for lunch - think Jamaican patties with hash for a filling - they are the speciality in many mining towns where men from Cornwall came to show the North Americans how to dig in the mines. I won't lose any weight at this rate - we are indeed well-fed.
(4) roof trusses in place, end of day August 5
No comments:
Post a Comment