OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Stupid spring in western NY. 72 hours from 80 degrees to this. I've never cooled sunburn with fresh snow before....
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OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

I may have to raise my camera up. The walls are blocking the action.
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This was one of the heaviest walls I've ever built, which is why there's no sheeting on it. We lifted it in two pieces if you look at the plate separations. I didn't feel like adding another 100+ pounds to each lift.
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OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Rule one when having people help you lift walls. Don't kill them. Make sure they say, "Hey, that wasn't too bad." Then they have no problem coming back. My main wall lifting help is my wife, 16 year old son, and a couple of neighbors in their early 50's. I'm limiting walls to about 16'.
I'm not looking forward to the 12' high wall with a 12' window and transom in it. I may end up using the forks on my loader with chain hoists for that one.
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OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Ah, the fun of being a side job. I realize that these guys are doing my furnace after hours and on weekends and I'm saving a pile of cash, but it's slow going. At least some work has been done. Everything is waiting of the furnace. I can't tear down the kitchen walls until i have a furnace. Which means that I can't gut the kitchen, level the floor or paint the walls. So I'm trying to find things to do.
I now have a passthrough between basements for the containers. I can also fit through
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We decided that a half wall would work around the spiral staircase to the basement. Nice and solid.
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Got everything all masked off to prime most of the great room today, but the needle in the spray gun snapped. No paint store in the area carry it, but could have it for me in two weeks. Amazon will have it here tomorrow.
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Some furnace and ductwork progress.
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Since we're removing the back wall of the kitchen, there are two ducts in it for the two existing bathrooms upstairs. Those will now be fed from the new furnace. The existing lines will go to the back of the new kitchen.
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14" return
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Neighbor didn't like my light. It is pointed straight down to meet code. Strangely his flood lights on the back of his house, point right at the side of my house. I'm waiting for a complaint.
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OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

I'm going to declare that a minor miracle occurred. The whole plan was to have the new joists line up at the same height as the existing joists. Those hopes were dashed when the foundation morons poured the foundation an inch high. That caused stupid things like this to happen:
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yes, a 6" x 6" spot from the existing house hanging 1" low in the garage.
I ripped out my temporary sheeting and scraps preventing death.
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However....
After ripping out all of the tile, mortar, hardibacker and mortar, the level looked like it could possibly match. Yes, the kitchen had 5/8 sheeting on it when it was built in 93, and then a layer of 11/32 sheeting that i put in back in 05, and that somehow lines up perfectly with the new joists?
WTF?
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It's dead on, height wise. Again WTF? Perhaps I sacrificed a fisher cat to the construction gods on the vernal equinox?
It all just worked its way in
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Tappity tap that last sheet in with the sledge hammer. Side note: never relax the swing of a sledge hammer, i may break your pinkie toe...
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And we're good until i move some plumbing so we can shift the sink and dishwasher into the new portion.
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Here's the many layers. Original + 11/32 + 23/32
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OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

I feel like I should make something out of it. It's not every day you get a cylinder of foundation.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

Those are all of the bricks from the front of the house. Around the garage door and the entire front porch. I'm planning on slicing all of the bricks in half and using them on the wall in the pinball area. There should be enough to do all three walls in pinball alley. I may try to hunt down some free bricks on Craigslist, just in case I need extras.

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

You don't like your efforts to be heard many rooms away?

OP

Quoted from yaksplat:

I take pictures of everything. Mainly because there might be some small detail that future me needs for some reason. Current me needs to know the location of pipes behind the wall, where a vent is, wire locations, or even when something happened. I can always check the date on a photo and know exactly when it was done. Like right now, there's a guy fixing the gutters that were installed 2 months ago and leak horribly. I have a couple pics of him working and his truck with the company name and phone number.