joists in

We have most of the joists for the main floor in.  The only ones that need to be finished up are the ones that go in the front section of the 4 foot addition toward the east, plus the one that will be put in as soon as we take the east wall of the house down.

 We also have some of the decking down.  We have to keep it well covered!  We've had a bit of weather lately.

Thanksgiving

Martin and I are headed to my mom's today, through a very heavy rainstorm (better than snow). We won't be posting tomorrow, November 28th.

first floor

The first set of joists for the first floor of an tigin are ready to be installed.

delivery

 Martin's first big order of materials has arrived.  Now he can start framing up the last two exterior walls.

sill plate

Martin put the double sill plate on all of the foundation walls where we aren't using the original sills.

deshingling??

We are back to demolition. I had the pleasure of removing shingles from the east side of the house.

Martin finished the deshingling job and then took out the doors and windows. He is getting ready to frame out the bay window and move the front door to the left corner of the house.  Also the new windows will be a different size than the old ones, so the window openings need to be reframed.

The old windows are going to be reglazed (my job) and used in the barn.

foundation is back filled

Our wonderful neighbor with the backhoe stopped by again to help Martin finish up back filling the foundation.  

new joint in carry beam

The new joint is done.  The beam is back in place.  Martin is happy.

Center support beam

The sill from the north side of the house is being reused as the support or carry beam across the center of the house.  This beam is supported by the partial concrete block wall and an angle iron. It will support the joists that will eventually run north/south in the house.

If you look closely, the nibbed scarf joint in the center isn't nice and clean.  For those of you who know Martin, you will understand how much this bothered him. So after putting up the angle iron and the beam, he took the beam off again to fix the joint.

Waterproofing

The north foundation wall has two coats of waterproofing on it. We are just hoping that it dries in time to not be washed off by rain.  

Prep for support beam

 These concrete walls were put in to support the carry beam that will be placed in the center of the house.  The walls run east-west.  The top picture was taken on the east side of the house where we are bumping it out 4 feet. The smaller wall, below, is on the west side of the house.

stairs are in

Martin got the bulkhead stairs built and installed.

a better glimpse

 Here is a better view of the back foundation wall that was just finished.

last exterior foundation wall

Martin and the mason finished up the north wall of the foundation. The cores are filled and the wall is capped!  YEAH!! The foundation is done. 

On to getting the basement finished, and the bulkhead stairs built and in, and.....

bulk head stairs

The concrete work in the bulk head is done.  Martin is in the process of cutting the stringers.  He got lucky and found some lumber on sale that he can use for the treads.

One rock pile gone, one to go

Martin finished up moving the rocks to back fill along the west and south (front) sides of the house.

back fill

Martin and I spent a chunk of time hauling rocks from one of the rock piles to start to back fill around the foundation.  Rocks don't hold water and will require less compacting than if we had filled with sand.  We did shovel sand from the piles to fill the gaps between the rocks (in front - we still need to cover the rocks on the side with sand.)

This is the rock pile we are pulling from for now.  By using rocks, we are getting rid of the rock piles too.