finishing the upstairs floor

Finishing the Floor.

My sisters, Gloria, Laura, and Lucy, and husbands Elroy and Dean came over one day and helped finish part of the upstairs floor.

Gloria brought over her carpet cleaner and cleaned some carpet Max gave us.

The center was the last part of the floor to be finished.

This is what it looked like before we started on the inner walls. This is the first of the inner walls, with the insulation stuffed inside and the bottom window sill nailed down. We started putting in the carpet foam so we could lay the carpet.

french drain, windows, siding

We finally got our french drain in. We dug a channel, laid down some street cloth, put some plastic up against the wall, pushed in a perforated pipe, and covered it with gravel and pine needles to keep out the mud.

My sister Gloria came over and helped put up plastic around the bottom of the back walls. Max showing us how to nail up the cedar shake shingles he made for us on his lumber mill. This is what it's going to look like when it's all finished. We were sure glad to get all the windows in and the tar paper all around.

Charles stapling up the last of the tarpaper around the eves.

walls and doors

Things are slowly getting done.

We were quite excited to get our first real door hung on real hinges.

This is our first upstairs wall.

I cut all the edgings for the walls and Charles nailed them all down--from 10 feet up in the air (I was glad it was him and not me).

This is the back wall b.t. (before tar paper).

Here it is a.t. (after tar paper).

roofing (tarpaper)

The Roof III

The roof is looking pretty good from the under side.

Our roofing crew, Max and Greg, show up to show us how to lay the tar paper. The cats don't have a problem with heights--in fact we have to chase them off the roof. I, on the other hand, do have a problem with heights. But Charles finally got me top side to help him nail down the tar paper. The roof is finally done!

constructing the roof

Time to get started working on the roof.

This is me, making "seat cuts" for the roof joists to rest securely on the headers.

I cut lengths of edgings, Charles nailed them down, and then we cut the ends off of each section so they would be even.

First half of first panel done.

Our friend Isaac was a great "go-fer."

When we had enough done so we couldn't reach any more from the inside, Charles braved the heights and nailed the rest down from the topside. He found that he got better traction if he went bare-foot and wet the wood down slightly with a spray bottle. But he still made sure he kept a rope tied securely around his waist.

the staircase

The Staircase. Our friend, Kelly, and my brother-in-law, Elroy, came over one day to help put in our stairs. This is the way you cut a log in half lengthwise--Elroy looked like he was getting snowed on! Kelly doin some more of his "chainsaw art," cutting a groove for the post to sit in (my shutter got stuck again).

First step.

Last step.

When they finished we had some beautiful stairs!

"the tree"

Saga of "the tree." Greg and Charles cut down a tree that was in the way. It fell on top of the roof joists, so Greg cut it again, and it landed upright right in the center of the yurt--a long, long way down! We had to cut it into pieces to get it out.

roof joists

Max showing his skill at "chainsaw art," cutting a groove for the first roof joist to rest in. Greg did his "chainsaw art" at the bottom, and the first roof joist is up. Charles climbed the scaffolding to nailed in the hurricane ties for the rest of the joists. I helped lift and hold the 2 x 8's. Our friend Lyle nailing in the last 2 x 8. All the roof joists are up now.

upper frame; lower walls

We got some free 1 x 2 "edgings" from a local lumber mill which we are using to build our walls with.

Our friends Max and Greg helping put up the second story poles. They drilled holes in the poles where they meet and inserted a 6" piece of rebar to keep them together.

Charles helping lift the poles.

Max and Greg up on the scaffolding, using a maul to pound down the posts firmly.

I don't much like climbing up that far--it's a long, long way down, without any walls and a big hole in the middle. Scary!

upstairs floor

Floor joists are up now. Charles using a nail gun to nail in the 2 x 4's that we'll use to nail the flooring planks to. First floor panel started.

Now there's something to sit the rest of the planks down on.

Kinda looks like a spider's web.

Second story floor almost finished.