Comin' Along

    As soon as I got the insulation in, it rained HARD.  So before we left for Temecula I took off all the plastic wrap and left the batts loose to dry out.

    With the insulation in place, it's time for the floor tongue-and-groove panels.  They're 1" thick.  Construction adhesive avoids a squeeky floor later.  After the panel's in place it's nailed down.

    You always put the panels down so the groove side is out;  that way when you beat it into place with a block of wood and a...persuader, you don't mess up the tongue.

   A perfectly aligned and installed subfloor can be tested by seeing if a soccer ball will levitate without moving over any given spot.   Here, Patrick is amazed by the results.

  I gotta go to work for 48 hours and more rain is coming, so I put down plastic sheeting.  I'll just frame over it and cut it away later.  It's really exciting to be framing.  You can see where the plumbing and electrical come through .

Floor Framing, Rough Plumbing

Got past a major hurdle---the rough plumbing and floor framing inspection.  There were quite a few little things I was concerned about.  The inspector didn't share my concerns.  He was very complimentary....The rough in plumbing had to be temporarily extended up 10' , then an inflatable plug put in the lowest point of the plumbing, then the whole thing filled with water to check for leaks.  (The plug is called a 'weenie'.  I'm going with large piping so I never have to worry about drain problems...Turns out a 4" weenie is hard to find.  My brother Jim was with me as we went around the plumbing supply place, and had to inform the owner he didn't have a weenie big enough)  Fortunately a plumber at the shop sold us his well used weenie for half price. (Oh grow up)

The inspector was very impressed with the framing progress.  Now the most fun stage starts.  First some strapping (I'm using scrap OSB) goes under the joists perpendicular, then the 14" batt insulation goes in.  Then I can put down the subfloor.  Then I get to start framing.  THAT is the most fun stage of the whole project.  I just wish it were Spring instead of early winter.

The Modelling Gig

Mike (my old partner on HazMat, pre-helicopter) and I got a job for the last 5 days working for DuPont.  There's a huge Safety Council convention in San Diego right now, same place they hold ComiCon.

I only got pictures of Mike.  Once the demonstration begins there's no one to get pictures...We were demonstrating the superiority of Tyvek suits compared to SMS suits, doing a '16602 test'.  Every half hour or so, a DuPont guy would start talking and gather a crowd.  I would be there with him while he explained 'Two actual San Diego Firemen' were helping them with the test...We both had on paper suits that were very absorbent.  Mike had the SMS suit on over that, I got the Tyvek suit over mine.  He'd get in the chamber first and march in place for 60 seconds, slowly turning 360 degrees, while 5 nozzles sprayed water with black dye in it at him.  He'd get out of the chamber and disrobe in front of the crowd, showing how much permeation there was.  Then I'd get in the chamber and do the same test.  When I disrobed, my undersuit was spot free. 

Really, I offered to be the dirty suit guy every day, but Mike refused.  So I had the easier of the two jobs and got to stay mostly dry.  At the end of each day there was lots of scrubbing of the chamber to do.

The pay was really good.  The weather has been wet and rainy so I can't work on the new place anyway so this timed out perfectly.  I'm kinda glad it's done---it's true what your hear.  The glamourous world of modelling is a lot of work.