A few more walls this weekend. Almost all of the interior walls are done. Just a couple left in the master bath.

dji_export_1652705509290 (resized).jpg

All of the exterior walls are up, with the exception of the garage. Still some setup to do before that happens.
dji_export_1653153080060 (resized).jpg
Side wall of the great room were extended up from 10 to 12'. Ready for the 10' ceilings on one side and 12' on the other.
IMG20220523085331 (resized).jpg
Did a bunch of top plates, but that's not very exciting or even very visible. Same with the load of garage stone or fixing the drain pipe in the side of the house that was 3' down. The visible stuff is a lot more fun.

But in the meantime we got some sheeting underway. The bottom row is the toughest and then the rest flies up. The bottom is nearly complete so the rest should go quite smoothly. I had help today.

IMG20220525202546 (resized).jpg

Here's a spot that's been causing me a headache for the last 6 months of so. It's all very simple.
pasted_image (resized).png
It's just a landing that goes between the garage, outside, shop and basement. Not a big deal at all. It just sits on the foundation, yet only on two sides, or three corners. Architect says, "There should be some hanger that you can use." I chat with my friend that's also an architect, she says, "There should be a hanger that works." But here's the kicker. It's on the edge of the rim joist, but a step down, so only 4.5" of contact area between the landing and the rim joist. Every single hanger needs full contact area, and i have a 2x10 hanging down another 4.75", into a beam with an open web. I really don't want to drill and pack the beam. I don't have the equipment for it. Drilling 1/2" holes, 1/4" through steel in several locations, while 9' up is not fun. All of the structural screws have a minimum contact area of 7.25", so i can't attach it like a ledger board.

It finally dawned on me the other day. Just support that fourth corner with a column. So simple. I have a bathroom planned under the landing and part of the stairs, so now there's a structural column in the bathroom. Now, the only weight that this landing will ever see is me and someone else lugging a JJP machine on those stairs. So, a 900# maximum. That means that the live load on that corner is no more than 225#. I'll oversize it and put a 2x4 column in that can handle 3000# and call it a day. I also have a few structural screws in there, just in case

I present the solution to my stressor.
IMG20220528191714 (resized).jpg

Bathroom is initially framed out. Now I just have to rebuild the temporary stairs and then i can proceed with the remainder of the asshole shields.

I figured that there had to be something like that for the exact same situation with a packed beam.

Now that the landing is in, I was finally able to do some garage walls. Build them in the driveway and then get them over to the final resting place. It's great to see the lumber piles dwindling down.

The neighbor spent 3 hours vacuuming his deck while I was working out there today. Bizarre.
dji_export_1653943684283 (resized).jpg

Nah, he's a whiney piece of crap that spams the town building department with complaints that have no merit. The head building inspector had to bring it up during a town board meeting as this turd keeps calling the supervisor's office and complaining as he can't get anywhere with the building department. I believe he's up to 18 complaints now and not one was deemed valid from the inspectors.

But that leads me to today's update. We have a full wall of asshole shields installed. While my wife and I were putting up the ply, the two complaining neighbors had to convene several times in their front yard, pointing and looking angry. Good thing they really don't exist anymore.
IMG20220531202632 (resized).jpgIMG20220531202625 (resized).jpgIMG20220531202434 (resized).jpg

I actually never thought about supporting garage walls before. Working on crew and only having two car garages, the build usually had the ceiling on the same day. But since this is just me, I have to make sure a gust doesn't take this wall away. I just need to get the other walls up around it and get the beams ordered.

We were thinking that some neighbor kids could paint a rocket on it.
pasted_image (resized).png

There's some severe jealousy. The guy's wife is a miserable C. Every time we had been talking over the fence it was guaranteed that she'd stick her head out the door and scream "JEFF!!!" Then he'd have to end the conversation and get back to work. Once, he had pointed out to her, "Hey look at Jim's wife. She's outside helping." (My wife is out helping with everything on this) He wasn't seen for about a week after that. I honestly think he is a kept husband.

Just last summer he was telling me how he only has a small shelf in his house that he's allowed to use. I was actually going to help him build a third car garage on to his house so he'd have a shop to work in. But that ship has sailed.

I know that no one likes Pantera over my age, so that playlist is always going when it's just me here. I also won't subject my wife to that.

Tried to get some clay thrown around before the rain hits later today. I pulled 15 yards off the pile and graded everything away from the house. I'm completely self taught in a skid steer and it's definitely not the optimal piece of equipment for a grading job, but it's what I have. I'm just happy to grade the clay and flatten the area around the house.

20x speed

I wouldn't be surprised. I actually think he didn't really care. I had gone through the plans with him and had outlines drawn in the yard, and showed him that there'd be a wall 15' from the fence. I think it was his wife that lost her mind when they saw the hole that was initially dug. It had a 3' over dig for the foundation guys and then a 4' shelf. So the dig footprint was 7' outside the foundation. That certainly looked huge to me as well. He even said that she was screaming at him since the second they got home and this was 24 hours later. Did I mention that she's a huge C?

Everyone wants to use a neighbor's yard for their view, but the second something changes, they hate you. I have another backyard neighbor that doesn't like me because I ruined her view by cutting down 100 trees back in 2006. We had a freak snowstorm in October that year which dropped 2' of extremely heavy snow and I was left with 100 trees that were turned into toothpicks. Her response was, "If I had known how cheap your house sold for, I would have bought it and not cut down one of those trees." Because I really had a multi year plan of hauling thousands of branches to the curb, cutting down 100 trees, removing stumps, running 450 of drainage, grading and planting grass. That was a nightmare.

So, until one of them offers to pay some of my taxes for the view that I provide, they can just kiss my ass.

That's going to be a great addition! Wood is still extremely expensive, but if you can wait until August, you'll save at least 30%. If you get it dried in by November, you'll be in really good shape to be up and running in spring. I try to work outside at least 4 hours every workday and about 8 on weekends. Beyond that I'm just too exhausted. Although it's the best sleep that I've ever had. It's nice to go to bed because you're tired and not because the clock says so.

I bought this skidsteer for 26k about 5 years ago. It's an absolute beast and can get you in trouble really quick. I can't wait to sell it off though. Prices are currently in the mid 40k range for TL250 loaders with similar hours on them. Maybe i can swap it for a pinball machine at that point....

I have 3 - 14" x 1.75" x 22' lvls coming in my next load. $300 each. I got a ton of extra sheeting in my november load. It was $34/sheet, which is still expensive, but waaaaay down from the $60/sheet that it was. I'm hoping it gets sub 40 again before I have to buy another 150 sheets.

No trusses here. I'll be cutting and hauling 20' and 24' 2x10's up there. Good thing is that i can batch the cutting and hauling. Cut until i get bored and haul until i get sore. The shingles that I'm using are actually metal. It'll be the last roof that I ever do. They're 14" x 52" panels that weigh 140 pounds per square compared to 240 with asphalt. www.decra.com

I used to haul shingles up ladders. Two bundles and me on a ladder that was likely rated for 250#. Just a mere 140 pounds over the rating.

Wow. No updates in 27 days. That's way too long with so much going on.

Things in the past month:

Found out that no above ground piece of my garage foundation is the same height. There were deltas of up to 1.25". More grinding and construction grout to get every part of the garage foundation within 1/32".
IMG20220604171943 (resized).jpg
Finally finished the garage walls.
dji_export_1654734890128 (resized).jpg
I built up the beam on the back of the house. That's 3, 14" LVLs that are about 160# each. Supported by the wall on one side and this really cool LSL column that I made on the other. That column holds up the existing second floor, a large steel beam, and portions of the roof surrounding it. My son asked, "What if someone cuts that with a chainsaw?" As if we randomly have unwelcome guests with chainsaws.
IMG20220611155616 (resized).jpg
I had to rip out the two old windows upstairs in the existing house. One could be replaced with a new window that was an awning type, but the other window would be removed and not replaced. Removing an old window is nice and simple. Pop it out, frame out the inside, sheet it and done.
IMG20220613203517 (resized).jpgIMG20220613203615 (resized).jpg
Replacing a window with a different shaped window? That's a whole new mess. The header and all surrounding framing had to be removed and rebuilt for the new window. Not fun.
IMG20220614135524 (resized).jpgIMG20220614191233 (resized).jpg
I framed out all of the ceiling joists above the laundry, mudroom and pantry. Threw some decking up and then built the front wall of the great room with a shelf.
dji_export_1655599169881 (resized).jpg
Then I was able to order up the beams. It's amazing that I can order 3700# of steel beams at 4:45 on a friday and have them at 8:15am on tuesday.
IMG20220621101520 (resized).jpg
Called the crane guy and he was here a couple days later. I got to play ironworker again.
IMG20220624120058 (resized).jpgScreenshot_2022-06-24-18-39-23-37_965bbf4d18d205f782c6b8409c5773a4~2 (resized).jpg
At that point i could finally frame out the kitchen roof. I ordered all the wood up and was all set to go. There was this little table that I noticed on my plans mentioning hip sizing. I did some measuring and it suddenly looked like my hip was not going to be a 2x12, but a pair of 1.75"x 14" x 23' lvls weighing 160# each. pasted_image (resized).png

And finally on to some rafters. I haven't cut a rafter in over 20 years and I've never done a hip roof before. So I was doing a lot of reading and learning on youtube. So back to that little table i noticed on the drawings. The thought of cutting a 320#, $660 beam didn't sit well with me. I asked the architect if i could support the hip, mid span from a double LVL underneath it to reduce the unsupported span and then reduce the size to a 2x12. Turns out i could, and I could save $400 and a lot of work. I thought...

In the meantime through all of the back and forth, two weeks had passed and even though my lumber was all covered, my 25' 2x12 twisted some. I didn't think much of it and I cut all 28 rafters. As long as your building is square and plumb, rafters go in super easy. Lift, nail, nail, done, next. But this hip had other ideas.
IMG20220625172231 (resized).jpg
It was twisted enough that my rafters weren't fitting right in the layout. I ran a string down the hip and i could see how bad it really was. The top and bottom were so out of plumb that nothing was fitting at all. So i had to un-twist it. Two ledgerlok structural screws with an extremely high yield point were screwed into the top and bottom of the joist and then pulled with ratchet straps. As it would line up with the string, i'd install a few more rafters. Considering how bad the hip was, this actually worked well.
Screenshot_2022-06-26-22-10-01-76_965bbf4d18d205f782c6b8409c5773a4 (resized).jpg
dji_export_1656280880280 (resized).jpg
I just threw the sheeting on yesterday and taped it all up. You'd never know that the hip was a mess and we officially have a dry area now that can hold all of the tools.
dji_export_1656459404729 (resized).jpg

I think the problem is that the wood grows too fast. You see a 2x4 with 4 rings in it compared to one that has 30 rings. In my experience, the dense ones are always straighter. It's almost like you need a wood humidor if you're not going to use it immediately.

It's not the only hip. There are a couple on the other side of the roof.
pasted_image (resized).png
But that doesn't tell the whole story. Those shaded parts are overlays. So there are two layers of rafters there. Everything color coded for length.
pasted_image (resized).png

This one warped a touch.

IMG20220629124434 (resized).jpg

Ceiling build out in progress. My lumber guy just stopped responding for some reason. Couldn't get a response or a call back. I ended up hitting up another lumber place and saving $700. Couple hundred 2x8's delivered a couple days later. So, I'm either a pain in the ass, or my business isn't worth it.

dji_export_1656799292197 (resized).jpg

All of the garage joists are spaced at 12" and I found I do not fit in a 12" gap. That just makes me so them one at a time from back to front. Fortunately the rest is all at 16" spacing, so that's a whole lot easier.

That's the answer right there. There's not much snow in SoCal. We have the potential of 50 pounds per square foot. When you run the calcs, there are two options. Get an engineered lumber package or space 2x10's at 12".

There will be tons of storage up there if i ever need it. I shouldn't, but who knows. With as much space that's up in the attic, i should have quite the interesting cat walk set up all over the place.

Almost done with the ceiling joists. They just keep going and going...

Thanks! I look forward to not lifting lumber anymore. It's a hell of a full body workout though.

The neighbor still has a staring problem. He and the other guy on the corner convene on their sidewalk and angrily point at any progress that I've made in the last week or so. It's kind of fun to see.

I am surprised at how long it's taken me to do the ceilings. I think part of it is that I can physically only get so much lumber from the driveway up on to the top of the walls. At 45 there's definitely a physical limit. Each 2x8 is between 40 and 50 pounds and I am certainly not in shape.

In the downtime, I've been watching framing videos and picking up tricks and techniques. Unfortunately, once I'm done with this, I'll never be doing something like this again. Or I'll be a more educated foreman if one of my kids ever wants to build.

The drones are amazing now. For that shot i just highlight the house on the screen and then tell it to do that shot. It keeps focused and does a lap around automatically.

It's just about 2/3 of an acre. 115' x 264' with some truncated corners. It's nice having a lot this size. We didn't really know what we had when we bought the place during the winter. It's also a lot of upkeep. I've had to take down over 100 trees from a storm in 2006 and then run 450 of drainage, as water pooled in the yard. I'll be happy to use up more of the yard with a pool and some other structures.

I bought a whitewater machine from a guy that was just north of toronto. He was thrilled that he had the largest lot in the neighborhood. I think the backyard was 20' deep and you could easily jump from roof to roof. I swear those houses were just feet apart.

needs more pinball

Never did a tray ceiling before. The middle is 11' and the surround is 10'. The middle was supposed to be 12' but I couldn't make the beam fit in with a good pattern of faux beams. It was just far enough out of the centerline of the room, but not far enough. 11' will be fine though. The lumber yard was out of 11-7/8" LVLs so they gave me a 14" at the same price. Because I just really wanted to lift some extra weight. But that ceiling is crazy solid.

IMG20220712190746 (resized).jpgIMG20220711205153 (resized).jpg