Sept 4th - Labor Day Means Labor, Right?

Another great sunny and warm day…Labor day, I guess that means time for work.

Greenbay and I spend the day preparing the kitchen and dining area for the heavy 4' x 8' beams. We have to complete the rim joists and check our layout to make sure that they are laid out perpindicular to the outside walls. It lays out perfectly.

Up on the hill on Joe’s other lot, Greenbay runs the material handler and moves the bunk of sub-floor out of the way so we can access the pile of beams we need. We have moved the load of beams down to the edge of the retaining wall and now have to move the beams one by one down the side of the bank and onto the floor. As it turns out there are exactly the number of beams we need; that means no mistakes on cutting.

We have laid the beams on the floor on their edges and Greenbay and I pull the remaining 5” old square nails out of the beams. These particular beams are fir and are more than 100 years old and still amazingly straight. Because each beam is slightly different in size, we have to notch the ends of each beam so the top surface remains flush for attaching the sub floor. We’ve laid out the rim joists nice and straight and each beam is cut the exact same length. By day’s end we have cut and installed 6 of the 15’ beams over the kitchen area…the beginnings of the 2nd floor.

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