Tuesday, June 20, 2017

We have (interior) walls!

Picking up where we left off...

Once the gas line and all the electrical runs were in the floor, we put down the rest of the subfloor.  It was heavy and slow work, especially the parts I did by myself.  A 4x8 sheet of 3/4" plywood is rather heavy!  We had to leave one corner open because in the process of building the stone walls we managed to break a drain pipe in the slab.  We had to repair it before we could finish the floor and, naturally, the repair required a mail order only part, so that corner had to wait an extra week. 

Subfloor except for the broken pipe area

We kept going though!  Over the weekend of June 10th, Jeremy and Scott framed and installed the 2 downstairs walls.  The bathroom, laundry space and a storage space all go into that corner and the electrical was held up until it was installed.  As with all the other parts of the house, Jeremy and I changed our minds about exactly where the walls were going the night before they went up.  LOL. 

Scott assembling the wall

Jeremy standing the wall up while I attach it to the south wall

The finished corner room

Jeremy spent all day on Monday leveling the floor joists on the east end of the loft so that we could put down the car siding that makes the ceiling in the dining room and kitchen and the subfloor for the kids' rooms.  He finished it up on Tuesday morning, then we started laying floor on Tuesday evening.  By the end of the week, we had the subfloor in and the garage panels installed and it felt like a real loft!  Catherine was enjoying 4H camp, so Jacob was clutch on getting the garage doors and car siding installed.  I don't know what we would have done without him. 

View from the kitchen of the new ceiling on Tuesday night

Subfloor in the loft

The finished and the unfinished loft areas

One problem we had to solve was how to support the dividing wall between the kids' rooms.  It falls directly between 2 floor joists.  We didn't really want it to just be resting on the subfloor and garage doors, so Jeremy and Jacob imbedded wooden sleepers in the garage door layer that span the gap between joists.  This way the weight of the wall will be supported on the sleepers which are supported by the joists.  Problem solved!

Sleepers in the floor
 

Jacob with his loft


The parts arrived to fix the drain on Wednesday and I did the repair on Friday night.  We already had the subfloor cut and ready to go, so it only took an hour or so to get it all closed up and ready for us to finish the first floor framing (except the tall living room bay).

Finished subfloor corner


This past weekend, we did a lot of divide and conquer.  Jeremy and I and the kids worked on finishing the frame out in the bathroom so that we could be set up to do the loft floor for Jeremy and I's room.  We also decided to turn what was going to be our closet into a half bath instead.  It will be nice to not have to go downstairs in the middle of the night.  That does add to the complexity of the plumbing rough in though.  Scott is taking the change well, thankfully. 

Speaking of Scott!  While we worked on framing, he worked on the electrical panel.  He got all the floor runs tied off and then started pulling wire through the downstairs walls for the kitchen and bathroom.  It was a very productive day all the way around.

Scott and his panel


Sunday, Jeremy and I enjoyed a very pleasant, 80 degree Father's Day working on the house.  LOL.  Jeremy got the joists on our side of the loft leveled for floor and I framed in the front wall of the kids' rooms.  Then, around 4 we went to town to buy all the stuff for the bathroom.  A tub, surround, vanity and toilet later, we have a bathroom sitting in boxes in the (will be) living room of the house.  It was an expensive day but felt really good to be buying finishing stuff finally.

Kids room front wall upstairs


This week, we are pushing toward getting the walls up around the downstairs bathroom so that the final plumbing and electrical rough in can happen this weekend.  Jeremy and the kids are also putting down the car siding in Jeremy and I's room and then the garage doors.  It's really starting to look like a house inside!