FAIR WEATHER, FAMILY, & FLOORS

WEEK SEVEN We have been blessed with mostly good weather this week. Therefore, we have been working hard.


I started helping Frank with the first floor joists. He soon decided that he could do them himself, and gave me the job of doing the bridging. Let's see. Just for the top joist installation there are 6 nails for each joist. Five rows of bridging across the house. I don't know how many joists, but that's a lot of nails to pound! I was absent for one of the rows of bridging, but still, I think I'm developing muscles in my right arm! I'll have to find something to do to exercise my left arm. Tonya suggested hammering every other nail with my left hand. I don't think that would work. I'm not sure how many fingers would be operable on my right hand!


Another job he gave me was installing hurricane ties. That's 10 nails per joist around the perimeter of the house. Again, a sizable number of nails!



Besides joists, Frank has been working on building the walls for the mechanical room in the basement. He has two walls up, plus the chimney chase.




Another project this week has been the electrical conduit and trench. Craig dug the trench last week. Frank put the conduit in. The inspector came and okayed what was done, but said his men couldn't come until the trench was filled in. Frank bought and installed another conduit before he filled the trench. Both were fitted with ropes to pull the wires through. The telephone sent a man to install the wires. When he saw no trench, he decided that he was early. Frank told him about the conduit. He simply left a roll of wire for Frank to pull through, and told him how much to leave on both ends. He said he would be back to pick up the extra wire! Of course the wire does us no good as they have to expand service before we will be able to get a land line. We have no idea when that will be. Also, we have not seen hide nor hair of the electric company, so are still using a generator every time we need electricity.



Wednesday evening Frank's sister and brother-in-law, Richard and Rosella Schrock from Missouri, stopped by on their way to Florida by way of Lancaster County to visit with Mom and Dad King. They stayed on Thursday to help us with the first floor deck. We had over half of it done by Thursday afternoon, when we had to stop for want of daylight. Thanks Richard and Rosella!!







Friday, I did the last of the bridging, and we put down another two or three rows of sub floor.


Thursday was also my birthday. Now I am officially old enough to retire! (Someone said they think we're working harder than ever!) Tonya fixed a wonderful supper for all of us, plus a very yummy and gooey chocolate cake. I also went to meet my new doctor on Thursday, which was why I missed one row of bridging.


Friday, Tonya and the girls took me to Sisters 4 Tea for lunch. Four sisters started a tea house. They have hundreds of tea cups and saucers. You choose your own cup. I think Tonya and I drank two pots of peach tea, and the girls had a pot of a different kind. There are many crafts for sale there, also. It was a nice treat, and an interesting place. Thank you, Tonya.


Our garage door was to come next week, but Danny called Thursday, and said they would be out to install it Friday. So we have a garage door! Frank plans to make a temporary door for the "people" door, so we can make the basement critter proof, and unload the PODS into there. The biggest problem is that it keeps getting darker inside, and we have no lights!



We finished up the sub floor on Saturday morning. I went all over the entire floor, checking to be sure that all required nails were in, and pounded in far enough, plus removing extra glue. I blew it off twice. Then we painted it with all sorts of returned paint that we could get. We had to buy several more gallons to finish it. So now, it looks like this--red, white, and blue. Patriotic?



Saturday, Frank made a "people" door. Now we can lock up the basement. If we only had windows.....



We're getting close to laying logs! We need to finish the bridging on the bottom of the joists. That will be Frank's task while I paint a second coat on the first floor deck to make it water proof. Some of you wanted to help stack logs. It won't be long now! Make your plans to come.