An Entire Row of OSB

We installed an entire row of OSB today plus another sheet and one half in the next row. After that we were cold and there wasn't anymore ready to install anyway. Thirty six degrees inside the house today.

Below, looking at the new rows from the door into the kitchen.

A Little More Sub Floor

We've had a little cold snap the last couple of weeks, not as bad as some in the past but highs in the low 20s or teens) and single digits at night, plus more snow and mostly cloudy days, does not make for comfortable temps in an uninsulated metal building. However, we did manage to finish the subfloor along the back of the house. This covers the master bedroom in the far corner and most of the living room in the center and most of the kitchen in the foreground. 

The next thing that happened was Hal attached the metal tension bridging across the tops of the floor joists in the next 12' x 48' section.

Then the cold snap hit and it wasn't till this past week it was warm enough for him to crawl along underneath the joists to nail the bottom side while I made sure the boards stayed at 16" on center. It is amazing how sturdier this makes the floor.

Below is a photo of the entire row of bridging. The cost was $0.35 each from Home Depot.

Tension Bridging

Yesterday Hal trimmed the next row of OSB while I vacuumed the crawlspace with the shop vac. Got rid of lots of dead flies and sawdust. Will make it much nicer for future crawlspace work with plumbing and heating. Today we install more subfloor because it's sunny and already 33.3 degrees F outside!!

Christmas 2020

Despite the pandemic and certain idiot politicians, Hal and I and the pups celebrated the holidays with my sister K and her boyfriend/fiancé M and their dog Lyra, We had a great time. K and I baked a lot of cookies while the men had a good old time hunting deer. (I usually only hunt during the November season).

Neither I nor my sis became sick, one of us if not both usually get some type of flu. I cannot attribute to robust immune systems so much as to the fact people who were actually sick with whatever stayed home! 

But back to Christmas. We had 2 guests for Christmas dinner, my friends from Barton City, John and Tom, we had ham and lots of sides and of course, pies for dessert. No one went hungry and everyone seemed pleased. 

Looking forward to the next Christmas, hopefully at our new home.

House Build Update

 Well, better late than never.

We haven't been totally negligent in the house build since my last post, though we did take off 3 weeks for the holidays while my younger sister visited. 

First thing we did after the concrete garage floor went in was to install the garage doors so that we are really closed in. No more wind or weather blowing in. We haven't installed the ceiling tracks as there isn't a ceiling to attach them to so they don't operate yet, but it's a start.

First door installed in November 2020.

The garage door for Hal's truck

Then Hal added temporary lighting in the garage so we can work then started putting up the walls in the garage for the utility room and his workshop. 

Above is the workshop.

These walls also have wiring in them for outlets and ceiling lights.

The stairs into the kitchen. All the above photos were taken before Christmas. In January, Hal cut up some 3/8 sheets of plywood into pieces to fit between the purlins (rafters) at the 3 gable walls to block wind and, of course, weather, like blowing snow. It was a suggestion made by our building inspector. We figured, besides being a good idea, anything that pleases our inspector could help us along.

Yesterday we got back to installing OSB subfloor in the house. Today we added two more sheets. We will finish the row tomorrow and then have to add more bracing between the joists in the next section before we can start the next 3 rows. This photo was taken yesterday.

Next week it's doubtful much will be done, the temps are dropping dramatically and it will be too cold to get very much done at all.

Rough Plumbing and Electrical - Under the Floor

Hal has been busy a few days now. Occasionally he needs my help to pull wire or play gopher but mostly it's a one person show. He has been installing copper pipe for the cold water feeds to both kitchen sinks and red PEX for hot water and blue PEX for cold water everywhere else. The reason for the copper rather than PEX everywhere are the possible chemical leaching into water from PEX that some claim can happen (like the state of CA which has banned PEX altogether). We usually only get drinking water for tea coffee, cooking, etc out of the cold tap in the kitchen anyway, so why not play it safe. So here are a few pics of the piping.

We also ran the feeder line to the location of the subpanel which will be in the laundry room. The black cable hangs a left where the coil sits in this photo and I secured it using plastic holders screwed into the joists. The sub panel will be feeding the bedrooms and laundry and bathrooms, while the main panel in the utility room feeds it and the rest of the house and garage. 

After these floor runs are finished we will probably pause the rough plumbing and electrical work as the rest would need to be inside interior walls which can't go in till we put those up. Have to have a floor first and that will be more fun once we put up the large garage doors We'll be able to use heat then). we just have to figure out how to build those first.