From 0 to 300 in Just One Day!!

Framing continued this week as the master bath interior walls were completed as well as the mud room.  The kitchen, dining and living areas are all open so no interior framing is needed there.  The half bath is all that is left to build on the main level but since it will be the smallest room in the house it is on the back burner.

We installed the floor trusses over the master bedroom and installed the LVL (laminated veneer lumber used for load bearing) which carries the whole open loft over the dining room.  Tuesday, of course it rained all day because there has to be at least one rain day each week.  So, Wednesday we finished the rest of the floor trusses.  Our celebrity carpenter (aka Ron who our neighbors are now cooking for) installed the temporary stairs so we could carry all the lumber upstairs. I must say carrying all the materials up a ramp and through the front door and then up a flight of stairs is less then pleasant.  (should of put a man lift in the budget and a new back!)  Saturday morning, we started installing the advantech flooring for the second story subfloor.

LVL beam

stairs to the 2nd floor

subfloor for loft above dining area

laying advantech on the 2nd story floor

view from what will be the window seat in the loft

view from the office

In addition to the framing, we marked where all 16 porch footers were going to go for the wrap-around porch in preparation for Headrick Excavating to dig them which they did on Saturday along with trenching in the water and electric lines to the back 40 where the garden and orchard are going.

markings for the porch footers

dug front porch footers (wrap around porch will be 3 sides of the house)

The biggest moment of the week for us was on Friday.  We've been staring at a 9' deep empty hole otherwise known as the garage for quite some time now!  After 13 dump trucks full of rock and a full day of moving it, the hole was finally filled with 300 TONS of stone!  The garage was then backfilled around the outside to support all that weight and is now ready for the concrete slab to get poured.  

the empty hole

finally filled to the rim

backfill around garage

It has been hard to work this week since the honeysuckle and our blackberry patch are in full bloom - the smell is awesome!!  The deer are also back; we saw 7 this week with one walking right down the driveway as we were leaving on Friday.