Sheer Energy

                      Getting the sheer panel up.  Also the porch beams are in and secure.  I wasn't happy with the wimpy little 'T' braces so there's steel pins driven through the beams into the columns.  Now they don't wiggle.

   There's actually an 'indoors' now.  Gotta do something about that draft, though.  This will be the living room.

                                                    Dining room/bay window

                So about sheer panel.   Before plywood and oriented strand board, what you'd do for diagonal stability was 'cut in' a 1"x4" board diagonally through the frame, then tip the frame up all square and ready to go.  Now, you can just frame it on the ground, tip it up, and worry about getting it squared up later.
                It's 'later' now.
                After all the walls for a particular floor are framed and attached to each other, you nail solid 'sheer panel' up.  They are 4'x8,9, or 10' panels.  Once nailed to a particular wall the frame becomes very stiff and won't budge.  So what I'm doing is starting in a corner, making sure the bottom edge of a panel is perfectly level then nailing it in.  Then compare the edge of the panel with the corner of the frame.  (this frame was off by 1 5/8")  Then the trick is making it right.  I have this two ton come-along to use.  For this wall (the biggest one) I was able to anchor to a post in the parking area and rick it straight, then finish nailing the sheer panel in place. 
               If I were building a single story on flat ground I might do the sheer on the ground, too, then stand the frame up.   (You can see a temporary diagonal brace in this pic.  It's only attached at the top and the bottom is resting freely on a block.  AS soon as the wall was straight that brace gets screwed in until the sheer panel can take over)

The First New Construction Project

   It's kind of an odd feeling to go through construction pics of the first new construction project.  Our dog has died.  The kids are much bigger.  The forest is thinner thanks to the Cedar fire, but recovering well.  My hair is thinner, and doesn't show any signs of recovering whatsoever.

   This first project was, in some ways, more difficult.  The home sits on bedrock.  You can see it to the lower left.  It's further from home.   Mostly, it was a first attempt.

                              These curved rafters were a trick....Well worth the effort, though.

                             The kids give the new tub a try.

                                     The Back Side

           This picture orients you to where the Cuyamaca properties are.  Our home, the current project, and the first project.  What's next?  I have my eye on the property immediately uphill from the current effort.  It's got a great view, and owning it would mean you could walk between properties without trespassing.  (The beach house couldn't fit in this frame.  It's just 45 miles to the South West)

What Song Best Sums Up Your Philosophy?

Row, row, row your boat
(Keep always moving.  YOUR boat, not anyone else's.)
Gently down the stream
(NOT frantically, or fighting the current)
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
(after all, attitude is everything)
(The best part-)
Life is but a dream.

Totally Beaming; Another Story

After encountering a few non-weather related delays, the second floor sub-flooring is in.  First it was the gremlin issue wreaking havoc on my tools one by one.  Yesterday the interruption was more welcomed-- an old friend stopped by to check progress.  Anyway, the first sheet of sub flooring is used to square up the entire house.  If you think of the upstairs as a square, even if all the sides of the square are the correct length, the corners aren't necessarily right angles.  So, you nail down one edge, force the corners of the house where they should be, then glue and nail the rest of the sheet down.  Also had to create some bridging in the floor joists anywhere there's an interior wall above.  Now there's an actual 'upstairs'.

The beam....6"x10" by 24'.  It will hold up the porch roof and also form the header for the bay window.  It had to go up, over, around, then on top of---probably a couple of other prepositions I've forgotten.  It's tied with the second biggest beam in the house (not counting the foundation beams which only had to be moved, not lifted)  You can see its sister jutting out there---it will go perpendicular, lapped at the cantilevered corner to the right of the last picture.  (The biggest beam is also the highest up single piece of lumber---the ridge pole.  6"x12"x24'.  It will rest on three wood columns, two of which are up already)

Oh---and that big beam that seems to be levitating against the rim joist there---that will support the bedroom window 'kick-out', where the floor actually pushes out by 6" to add dimension.  It will later be supported by the porch ceiling joists underneath, but it had to go in now for the subfloor.  The whole this before that problem...

Phase 1 Television Addict

Brains like television.  I think, overall, we'd be a happier society without it.

       Somebody told me about a show called 'Glee'.  I can only hope, by the way it was described, they were making it up.  Actually I fall somewhere between 'O' and '1'.

Go Ahead And Stair

 It really is going to be a small house.

 Safety required shoveling out the 1" thick ice sheet prior to any building

 Finished the stairs just before the sleet came back in

   Upstairs floor joists in.  To the right you can see the little cantilevered part that will be over the dining room and be a view spot.  You can also see the stairs.
   I think ANY progress this time of year is good.  Work's been busy, and on rare days off, the weather's been nasty.  Christmas eve I slipped---one foot went to the right of the beam the other to the left, and down I went.  Ouch.  Just bruises...It's really taking shape, and as soon as the roof's on I can work regardless of the weather.