Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Another Big Truck, Another First and Look At That Sky!

Things are moving fast at La Ti Da...or else I am blogging slow....

Yesterday a big truck came to deliver the glulam that will hold up our second floor.  Not sure how that works just yet, but they look sturdy enough....
Truck.  It makes my house look tiny...

See how long it is?  You can barely see the other end...

The truck slowly dumps...err, slides it off.

I love how my husband used the old fence posts
to rest the new boards on...nice juxtaposition.

See?  These boards are seriously LONG! 
And they have to go on top of some 4x4 posts and up some stairs and stuff...

 Today, my little husband had to go and get a shingles vaccination - seeing as how he is old enough. 
Teehee.
That left me at the work site all by my lonesome.  I could have read on my Kindle and relaxed, but I wanted to surprise him when he got back, so, I built interior stud walls...all by myself!  Another first!
Measured the 16s, carried the boards, drove the nails...yep, all of that!
I did 3 little walls and one bigger wall.

When my safely vaccinated little husband got back we finished a wall and stood them up.  It is so interesting to me how my house changes.  When we dug the hole, it looked big, when we poured the slab, it looked little, when we put up the exterior walls, it looked big and now it looks little again with the interior walls going in.  Not to worry...I like little!  Anyway, here are most of the walls in the bedroom section of the house.


We also have been cutting out the windows so we can get some air moving.  It gets hot on that cement!  First, we have to unwrap the area and get the wrap out of the way.  Next, my little husband uses the sawsall to cut out the OSB and last, we put the wrap through the windows into the inside and staple.
Window on the left is unwrapped and ready.
Window on the right is open and rewrapped.

It was a lot of up and down the ladder...we have 9 windows on the house so far!

OK.  Back to yesterday.  Sorry for the discontinuity...Our friends, Stevie and Larry stopped and brought us cold drinks and corn on the cob...my favorite!  We visited for a bit and then the sky began to look like this...


It was very nice to have extra hands to get everything put away before it got rained on.

And one more thing.  Remember the bow on the front door?

It looks even cooler as a shadow, huh?
Tomorrow is the story of another big truck....

9 comments:

no spring chicken said...

I love the playing that you did with your camera. It made for some very interesting photos! Don't visit my blog tomorrow... you just made me feel like a wimp! ;)

Blessings, Debbie

Donna said...

So, I had to go and read your blog before I could reply to your comment...teehee! Truth is I much prefer homebuilding to house cleaning, but I do play the "girl card" when I need to and am ever so happy that they have bigger muscles and better tools and they just know stuff...God knew what he was doing! Hallelujah.
And you are not a wimp...motherhood takes you right out of that catergory for all time.

Scoutmaster said...

Use caution... those laminated beams for the second floor are uber-heavy, much more than they look. And I kindly request photos of the bricks in the next update. :)

Donna said...

And that, Scoutmaster, is why your brother is expecting you to come and help him for a day...well, that and moving the cast iron bathtub one more time! He left you a phone message.

W-S Wanderings said...

Oh, the crazy HUGE beams. You are bringing back so many memories for me here. Our beam in the kitchen is still exposed. Haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet. Not much liking its orange colouring. Yours looks like a nicer colour. Can we trade?

And those dark skies - we've been seeing a lot of those too. Makes for some dramatic photos. Makes for some appreciation for solid walls and a roof.

You built walls!!!! I CANNOT WAIT TO RETIRE. I wanna do uber cool stuff too. I mean, WALL BUILDING. Awesome :-)

And the shadow bow. LOVE that you photographed the shadow bow. Shabow.

K said...

Skies, skies, skies!!! Those are like Missouri run-and-dive-into-the-cellar skies. YOW. And you made walls!! HOW COMPLETELY COOL AND MAGICAL IS THAT?? I am laughing at my tired self. Golums I thought you'd had delivered, and I wondered what the heck? But it was GLUE-LAMs. One of which is hanging right before my face between living and dining. We shellacked that thing and left it out for the sun and the oil in the air from years of cooking to turn a lovely shade of woodiness.

This was my bedtime story tonight, an hour and a half after I was already supposed to be asleep. If I had built walls today, I bet I'd be asleep. I know what you mean about houses changing sizes. IT's an amazing experience having your house grow and shrink like that. It gets big again when the drywall goes up. Or wait - is that smaller? Too many decades ago. Looks plenty big and fun to ME.

Shingles. I had 'em. And I wasn't that old. I mean, properly old. It was like ten years ago - I got the belt and everything. Fortunately, my neighbor had just had them and we found out in time to get the Very Expensive Meds that kept me from permanent pain, but still left me feeling like I'd been kicked by a horse for months. So good he got it, babe!!

This is so much fun! Wanna come tuck me in now? Maybe I can get the dogs to do that -

Donna said...

So, the beam, the Glu-Lam (sorry for the confusion, Kristen)...mine has words and numbers on it from the factory, but, wait, maybe it doesn't on the bottom. I never really considered leaving it exposed...WSW, it is a bit orangish in real life (darn PAS and no photoshop-teehee).
I was having issues sleeping before we started this whole adventure...not so much anymore! We both missed a storm that came through night before last...and I love a good storm! So, perhaps that is why our homesteading ancestors didn't have so much anxiety and stress...just too dang tired for that!
Shingles...so, now I am wondering if I should get the shot, too, if you were young, Kristen. I don't even know about the belt.
If I came to tuck you in...the sun would be rising before we got to that, I'm sure. Hope you and the doggies had a good night after you finally got there.

K said...

Shingles: the Chicken pox virus goes dormant and sleeps along some neurons around about your belt level. When it wakes, it's shingles - and taking costica steroids (???) can wake it up - I had taken some for some reason I can't remember. The itchy spots often appear along the neural path it follows, usually like a belt line from navel to back bone - usually on one side. And it's awful. First itches like mad, then the pain - because the nerves are damaged by it. You may be one of the unlucky who have these things ALL over your body - including in your mouth and eyes. So yeah = it can hit anybody of any age - Guy's brother had them just a couple of years ago and he hasn't broken fifty. I had them I think in my 4os. YUCKY

Donna said...

So, now I should consider the shot? But, I have never even gotten a flu shot...hmmmm.
My two elderly friends have had it in the eye and in the ear and on their heads generally...extrememly painful! Scary. My little husband has had no side effects from the vaccine. All good.