Pictured below is the plywood which has been glued and screwed down onto the joists. I became proficient at a special stand up drill tool that makes drilling in the hundreds of screws easier.
Pictured above: sis, b.i.l. and f.i.l. working out reinforcing the load bearing beam in the garage. This involved a lot of manipulating, brute force and some swearing to add the additional 2 2x10"s applied to three existing 2 x 10"s glued and bolted together. It required a special giant drill to get through the thick 2 x 10" sandwich to allow for the bolts.
Two weekends ago we were able to put our first big wall. The wall is constructed out of 2 x 6"s and the plywood exterior is glued and nailed in place. The 1500lb wall is constructed flat onto the ground and needs to be erected all at once to become a vertical wall. To make the "lift" we used to special jacks, raw man power and various lengths of 2 x 4 nailed in place as anchors as we lifted the wall up to rest on the edge of the existing top of the garage. Dad explained the precautions prior to the lift: if the wall starts to fall beyond the edge of the garage let it go, if it starts to fall towards us run like hell. I was extremely stressed throughout the procedure and relieved when the wall stood and was firmly anchored down.
It has taken me awhile to be able to write about last weeks disaster. Last Wed I noticed a small wet spot a the bottom of the kids bunk bed. While pressing a rag into the spot it mysteriously got bigger and bigger. I went up on the addition roof/floor which was tarped to find an ocean of water. I manipulated the tarp to push the water off the roof but realised the tarp could not keep up with all the rain and water was leaking under and into the floor of the kids bedroom. We discovered half the carpet and underlay was saturated and had to be removed and all the furniture and kids' stuff had to be taken out of the room as well. The kids thought it was quite an adventure that they got to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed for a couple of nights. In the end we really didn't "lose" anything as the carpet and subfloor were going to be pulled up eventually anyway, it was just the end to the dream that our inside living space would not be affected by the reno until the very end of construction.
With the flood behind us my team of family members arrived on mass this Saturday while I escaped to spend a beautiful Saturday attending a course. I panicked when HH texted "call ASAP" thinking someone had been hurt, however, he just wanted my approval on a window placement. I was pretty excited to come home and see real walls in place.
Pictured above: my awesome HH
