Once Around The Block(ing)

     The first of several lumber deliveries came early one morning. There is so much lumber to this project that there isn't room to stack it all, so Ed has it divided up into sections. The first delivery included the rim joists for the basement, glue lams and floor joists for the first floor, and the OSB for the first floor...floor. The driver shows up with this stuff and decides where he wants to drop it. Now the OSB is on the bottom, and the longest floor joists were 37' long, and on the top. I think they do it that way because when you're building, the joists go in before the OSB goes on, so you work your way through the stack, top to bottom. Makes sense....
     The driver had a tilt bed on his truck. Ed says "How are you gonna unload that?"
     The driver says, "I just tilt it until I feel it start to slide, pop the clutch, and go like Hell."   I smiled because I thought he was kidding. He got in the truck, tilted the bed, stuff started to slide, he popped the clutch and hit the gas. Lumber hit the ground just like butter off a hot knife...and except for that horrible crunching sound, it all looked good.  Ed and I exchanged of  those Tracy/Hepburn glances. The driver jumped out of the truck, and as he ran to the back he says "Oh, that didn't sound good."

We looked it over as best we could, considering it was still tied together, and didn't think any more about it.
    Our neighbor, Rick has been working with Ed on this portion of the building. The next morning they started putting up the gluelams. Once again, the tractor earned it's keep.It picked up those gluelams as easy as anything, and lifted them into place. With Ed on the tractor and Rick on the ladder,it looked so easy!
Once the gluelams were in place, they framed in the stairs going from the first floor into the basement, and started putting the rim joists in.

First of all let me say, house plans don't come with a manual. I mean, there isn't anything that says "Do this step first. Don't forget to (fill in the blank). How do they know what comes next? It's a mystery.
Anyway, Rick and Ed lifted those rim joists up, carried them up the ladder and then stood them up on the edge. And it has to be straight.  And level.

At this point the whole goal for Ed is to get the OSB on and covered with vinyl sheeting before it rains, and he's working like a madman. The problem is that the cement work we had contracted is so badly out of level, that the basement now fills with about 100 gallons of water every time it rains. No, really...100 gallons. the basement floor was supposed to be sloped out the back door. That is now the highest point in the basement.
You've heard the term "pushing water uphill"? Two adults with pushbrooms can actually do it, but it takes an hour and a half. Ed is not happy. As soon as we get the building sealed up a bit more it will cease to be a problem, but in the meantime, every time it rains we spend alot of time just prepping to do the day's work.
Once the rim joists were up, the floor joists could go down. This was about the point where we realized that dropping lumber off a truck is probably not the best idea. The OSB is tongue and groove. And some of those grooves had lost their mojo. About a third of them had damage. Some of that could be used on perimeter of the building, but not all.









 And one of the floor joists was all chewed up as well. Ed thought he could use most of it as blocking, but it slowed him down when he really needed to plow ahead  at full speed.
It was a little creepy watching those guys hang the floor joists. They balance on the gluelams, with a 9' drop to solid cement (ok, 2" of rainwater and solid cement) and nail those things in. I decided to go inside the house and find something to do.

Once the floor joists were all in, they started cutting blocking. I think it was about 160 pieces of blocking, and nailed them in. Just the blocking took a day and a half. This wasn't one of those really fun jobs, like say...framing walls. The weather was changing, a storm was coming, and the OSB may not get down in time.
Ed re-read the instructions on the glue for the OSB. It says "May be used in water or frost." Cool! We're covered!

The next morning, it's raining pretty steadily. The wood is as slick as vaseline in the rain, but Ed and Rick decide to try to get some down anyway. They haul some OSB up there, get the nailgun out, and start pumping the glue onto the floor joists.  It laid there like a slug on a wet sidewalk. The rain picked up, and two things became apparent. #1. The glue wouldn't work with this much rain. #2. It was too darned slippery to work safely. Ed called it for the day and Rick went home.  Thursday morning  was a lot drier. Ed and Rick worked frantically all day to try to get it done. By 1:00 they had about 2/3 of it done. By 6:00, it was getting dark, the rain was starting up,
and they were soooo close to being finished. But they were too tired to work safely, and they still wouldn't get it all finished. Ed threw in the towel and realized the rain was just going to get inside once again.
It rained all day today . It is, after all, Washington. Tomorrow we should have some clearing. With any luck, Ed will be able to finish tomorrow, and we can get it covered in plastic. Monday we leave for a long-overdue  vacation, and the project will be on hold for several weeks. How will Ed stand it?