Floor Joists Going Up

It has been just about a month since we have been able to get out to our property and work on the house. Today we had John and Rose hammering chinking nails, Anna home with the little ones until lunch time, and Brian and Julianne hoisting 4x10 floor joists up to the 2nd floor girders via block and tackle. We got a pretty good system worked out here. The block and tackle hung from a perlin. The rope that wound around the joist and hooked onto the B&T would slide along the beam so we had our son John tack on some 12” boards with a gap just big enough for the rope. Next, Brian pulled and Julianne used a long board to guide the joist into the right place. This long board had a nail tacked in that helped to get the rope off the joist from the floor instead of climbing a ladder each time. Then Brian would use the board to shift the joist down the log girder until it was in the right place. We had one slip off the girder on one side and come crashing down. That was frightful, so were extra careful after that to not let it happen again. We had pretty much used this same system to get the third floor joists up, which had to take place prior to the second floor, of coarse, the only difference was we had to have someone up on the third floor girder to help the joist into place. I am continually amazed at how beefy these joists are. T&G flooring is next, in fact, it is sitting right out the door waiting for us. We have to stain the undersides before installing, and will sand and stain the floors after they are all in. It will be so exciting to be able to walk around all the floors in the house and admire the views, plan the rooms, lay out the windows, and dream of how it will all look when it is DONE, which is: hopefully before Jesus returns, or possibly Christmas.

Gable Ends

Framing in the gable ends on the house, and installing cedar tongue and groove in the soffit took the bulk of the last two weeks. We deliberated on what material to use on the gable ends. The cedar looks so great, we were tempted to use that, but Papa Dave advised we save it for the interior. Log slab seemed like a worthy possibility, but in the end, we thought it would not be similar enough to the real logs to look good, so we went with blued pine 1x12 and 1x10 board and baton style. We are quite pleased with the results. We bought this lumber from a local guy with a mill, the same mill we got the 4x10 floor joists from.
John, who is 15, learned to use the chop saw, table saw, and measure and cut for his dad. They spent hours and hours, rain or shine, finishing this part of the project. The overhang on the roof is so great that even in blowing rain storms, they were not much affected and kept working.
Although we looked at some angled windows at Habitat for Humanity, we opted for the less expensive all around Pella 48x48 lo-e, which we will use on the second floor as well.At this point, we are pretty much done with the exterior with the exception of the chinking, and will move to installing floor joists and flooring next, maybe the porch as well, as that would make bringing materials in and out of the house much easier. But alas, there is Vacation Bible School at the church this week and then a Staff Conference to attend , so I suppose that the next phase will have to wait until July. That will likely be a welcome break for Brian, who has been putting in some really long hours, studying early in the morning, squeezing in visits, counseling, Bible study, meetings, and family around the daylight hours he can work on the house. What a guy!! We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful daddy and husband.

Friends and Solar Panels

The Dole family showed up a couple of Fridays ago to help us with the house. It was a very nice surprise. Mr. Dole went right to work, the boys went right to shooting ground squirrels, the mamas went right to fixing more pizza dough for dinner, Savannah baked cookies, and the babies played in a mud puddle. The rest of the children ran from tree fort to pond to tree fort, and all had a great time. It was so encouraging to Brian to have a buddy there to help him with the project.

The next weekend, the McKinney’s came up. Brian had asked for the wise council of Mr. McKinney in getting a fused service disconnect hooked between the generator and the invertor.
Getting power into our slightly remote location was going to cost a bundle, and we had always wanted to be off-grid, so we have solarpower with generator backup that will provide all the electricity we will need. Our set up came from Mike Slanga who owns and operates Inland Generator in Spokane, WA. Mike built us a 10KW generator powered by a 3 cylinder Perkins diesel engine. We have a battery bank to store the electricity and two solar arrays that total about 920 watts. With all the beautiful weather, the solar panels are powering all of the electrical tools and the electric man lift. That is pretty satisfying! Making your own energy is a wonderful feeling. Equally great was watching the 5 teenagers hammer away the next Monday when the Doles returned. There must be a nail every three inches on the top of eqch log insikeand out on eqch log. These are put in right next to the center of each log, and leave 2 ½ inches of the nail up for the chinking to hang onto. Each young person got a hammer and a bag of nails and went right to work. Many hands make light work! They did a great job, getting up four logs in an afternoon. Brian and Mike were working on the gable ends, and Mike jack hammered a hole in the foundation for the septic to go through.

Never Dull

I have found, since starting this building project that being my husband’s helpmeet is a very interesting and variable job. Training and raising our children, teaching them at home, keeping house, cooking, practicing hospitality, visiting older people and the like, in the name of our family seemed a good job description. But now, I am finding myself stretched to reach new ground in helping my husband be successful at whatever he is about.
I am overcoming my fear of machinery as I measure and cut the tongue and groove he is installing for the soffit. It is cedar, bought a few years ago at a great discount, and now it takes it’s place next to the log walls, stunningly framing in around the roof. I, with fear and trembling, climbed the ladder to the third floor to help him get the insulation started. The view from up there is wonderful, but, wow is it ever a long ways down!!!
Here I am driving the 4 wheeler. This was the very first time. With burning season over, the stumps and such that were left from our burn piles needed to be choked and hauled to one large burn pile until fall. I admit driving the 4 wheeler is pretty fun.

Next, I got on my dad’s tractor and dozed the last remaining burn pile over so that I could extract the last large pieces out of it. When that was done, I graded it level, or, as level as a novice could. This was all very helpful to Brian who is busy with the house, using the rented equipment, meaning his time is of the essence.
With Savannah and Rose very capable of babysitting the little boys and Bethany for a few hours, I am able to help Brian, which is a nice change from my usual line of work, and it made him smile to see me on the tractor!