Framing

Nearly two weeks ago, Ken recruited some muscles to help him with framing. When I showed up that afternoon (after working in the morning) I was surprised to see lots and lots of wood standing when I drove up the street:

They had placed the back patio and master bedroom wall

 Joshua is nailing it all together

Making sure it's all level and in the right place

Father and son teamwork

Ryan is braver than I am...

Ryan & Joshua building the bathroom wall

Getting ready to place the bathroom wall

Caterpillar walk

View from the southwest corner

Master bath and bedroom walls

Kitchen/bedroom #2 wall

Some serious muscle usage for this one...

Ken using the persuader

Richard showed up just in time to set the garage wall

Ryan bracing it off

Ian hammering the supporting stake in the ground

Lifting guest bath/bedroom #3 wall (Nat's bedroom/bathroom)

A lot was accomplished on one Sunday!

Framing Prep

While I was messing with the plants, Ken was busy getting stuff ready for some serious framing the next day:

Site of future walls. The wood will be set right over those bolts cemented in. 

Doors leading to patio from master bedroom. The wood was first laid out like this all around the house, as he went around measuring and cutting and figuring what went where.

Master bath shower

The cement people called in a cleaning service to do something about the oil spilled all over the road from a couple days prior. It made only a bit of a difference.

Notating on the board where headers will end up.

Drilling holes in board to fit over bolts

Those box looking things are the headers, meaning you're looking at our future bedroom windows (and bathroom windows further down in the photo)

Garage header to be made from these two chunks of wood. Each piece is made up of 13 smaller boards, making it very heavy. 

Neighborhood stray

Bush Wacking

Two days after the slab was poured, Ken and I spent our entire Saturday at the lot. (After hitting Old Navy at 7am for 60% off swimwear. He began measuring, cutting, and laying wood in preparation for some serious framing the following day. I decided to take care of this mess:

See that mass of vegetation next to the shed? There's actually a huge clump of bamboo back there, covered by Kudzu and other vines. And, there's more of the stuff growing around and up the oak tree. (This photo was taken back in February, before stuff had really started growing in the season...)

This is what it looked like on Saturday before I got down to business

Putting on my gloves (I would learn later on how necessary they really were). **Please note the poor decision to wear shorts and a short-sleeve shirt.

Tools for the day

The stuff was pretty easy to cut. If the gardening shears wouldn't do the job, I used the Sawzall.

The worst part was pulling it all out once it was cut down; everything seemed to have thorns on it. And, apparently when bamboo is cut all these little tiny wood fibers are released into the air. If they land on your shirt, no biggie. If they land on your skin, they all end up as tiny splinters that are nearly impossible to get out. I am still scratching these bamboo fibers out, 6 days later.

Dead bamboo is surprisingly easy to cut. When this piece was cut, a bunch of ants crawled out of the stalk.

I found a vine that started out at the bottom of the oak tree...

...and somehow made its way as far as it good to the top of the tree. It was a real bear to pull out.

Remember the short-sleeve shirt? Check out my bamboo gash. (You'll notice halfway through the day I end up wearing a long sleeve shirt. My allergies caused me to totally break out so at Ken's urging I went home, showered, and put on a new shirt at lunch time).

And those shorts?

 Luckily the finished product made the blood and sweat worth it. Check out that bamboo!

What else to do with this stuff then burn it? :)

We had no idea how much room was actually back there. Even though this area will eventually be behind the garage, it's still neat to have it cleared out. The bamboo clump is the perfect spot for orchids.

Ready to hit the dusty trail

I'll post a framing update soon. Happy Easter weekend everyone!