More Pictures - It's Starting to Shape UP!

	As you can see, I am still moving forward. The next big phase is to put sheathing on the roof.

New Pictures, Few Explanations

Suffice it to say, I've been busy with a variety of things, but I have made some progress.

Lessons Learned

Admittedly, this entire process is a learning exercise, but in particular, here are a couple things I have figured out about subfloor decking:
- A sheet of plywood is not necessarily straight, even on a factory edge.
- If a part of the tongue or the groove edge gets damaged, you are better off if you just remove it. On the other hand, if you love beating things with a sledge hammer, I bet you could get two tongue edges together.
- Do NOT let your tubes of subfloor adhesive get wet. If the tube is still wet when you use it, you get the Pillsbury "canned biscuit explosion" effect as a seam ruptures under pressure. Or, if the tube has dried, it may seem to be working OK, but horrible things are happening on the inside, where you can't see it until its too late. Suffice it to say that only about half of the glue is going out the nozzle.
- There are differences between the T&G profiles from different manufacturers. I am using some standard grade OSB 3/4" T&G, and some "premium" stuff. They work together OK, but you would not want to randomly mix and match.
- If you don't have a helper to step on the edge to get it to mate, a box of nails works pretty well.
- Instead of hammering the heck out of a stubborn panel, it works pretty well to use a board. A piece of 2x6 about 6' long can deliver quite a whack. Just swing the board in an arc, sliding on the bare joists, keeping one end up against the plywood edge. (That way, when the board hits, you don't dent up the edge you are hitting.)
- Finally, when you are moving a sheet of plywood around, keep it down-wind from your body. Especially near the edges of the building.

Has Spring Sprung?

Apparently the "Great Melt" has begun, and we have survived the Winter of '07. Mounds of snow within the confines of the existing walls of the workshop are slowly converting into sheets of ice. Luckily, they provide me with an opportunity to practice those liver-rending lurches my body goes through to prevent the injuries that might be sustained by a fall.
It seems that my schedule of Blog updates is settling toward once a month - though I would like to think that rather than being a symptom of laziness, disorganization, and apathy, it really is due to the lack of actual progress as constrained by the weather.
As far as progress is concerned, the recent warmup has helped greatly. Now that things are melting, I no longer need to spend time shoveling snow, then scraping and sweeping before I can work. Also, when it is above freezing, my nailgun works better without periodic warming. The subfloor adhesive does not need to be kept inside. I can go without a coat and wear a toolbelt. And, I can wear gloves that let me grab an individual nail from the pouch. So far, I am almost half done with the T&G plywood on the second floor. With the help of Mother Nature, I hope to have the subfloor decking finished this week and start the second floor framing.
One of these days I will put another couple of pictures up, too.

Hit the Deck

Now that the deep freeze has broken, I am getting something done again. Somehow or other I was able to find something that needed more urgent attention than the building project almost every day that the weather was below zero. Once, when I was mentally preparing to face the minus-30 windchill, my wife thoughtfully provided the opportunity to disassemble our 5-disk DVD player to remove the library disks that refused to come out. Surprisingly enough, it still works after reassembly.

This past weekend, I started actually putting down the subfloor decking. It went pretty well, though I had to keep sweeping the plywood clear of the falling snow in order to tell where the joists were. Only another 30 sheets, 1200 screws to go.

Ok, Now I'm getting cold.

I feel like I made good progress today, installing the (2) longer floor joists on the end of the stair opening. They were a little cumbersome, being 11-foot pieces of the 16" I-joist, but not too bad, really. I was glad, though, that I had decided to cut them a bit short of what I measured. Even so, they wanted to bind and jam on their way into place. The solution? Hammer time!

The Paslode nailgun is acting up more and more as it gets colder. It really looks like I need to put on a coalescing filter to remove most of the water vapor. That should prevent the gun from essentially freezing solid after 20 or 30 nails. I am using an antifreeze pneumatic lubricant which helps, but it won't stand up to the recent cold snap. This evening before I came into the house, the temp was getting very near those negative numbers.

More Pictures

Although I have been putting some effort into the project, there seems to be little progress. My guess is it's related to the time it takes to wrestle with the larger pieces. At this point, I need to place the short joists on either end of the stair opening, then I can start on the actual subfloor decking. Below are a couple of pictures which prove not only that I am still working on the project now and then, but that winter has decided not to skip Wisconsin after all.

Still Making Progress

Last night the first rimboard went up. In my enthusiasm, I thought "Sure, I can carry this thing up the ladder!" Bad idea. First, I may have to look into a better ladder - the creaking and groaning sounds were rather alarming as I carried the LVL up for placement. Afterwards, I checked the load rating (how's that for thinking ahead?) and determined I had exceeded design spec by about 50 percent. Second, the deadlift and carrying part were not too bad. But, as I started up the ladder, it dawned on me that the final placement would require getting the beam up over my head. Luckily, the stepladder was level enough that the beam would balance on the top while I took a breather. I plan to approach the next rimboard placement differently, since the effort required to lift a 165 lb beam all at once is very close to my limits. It may require some extra time and rigging, but I figure the reduced risk of grisly death is probably worth it.

Once all the rimboard is in place, the next step will be applying the decking - 3/4" T&G plywood. The trusses will be arriving next Monday, but I do not believe I will be quite ready to place them by then. The biggest holdup looks to be the steel hardware required to hang the "open ends" of the I-joists where the stairway opening comes through the floor. I have them on order, but they are scheduled for mid-January delivery. Oh, well, I think I can find something to keep me busy till then.