Constructions Begins! (2005-06-05 )

Finally after 3 months of destruction, this weekend we finally were able to begin construction. We have roughly done one quarter of the framing & joist work. Though this was probably the easiest quarter of the room, we still had to do some jacking and easily as many special cuts as the other 3 quarters.

Here are the before and after pictures. My comments follow each before/after set.

This is looking from the living room towards the entry way and front door. We replaced those wimpy 2x6" joists with some new, hefty 2x10" joists. We also finally cleared out the rest of the rotten lumber - this wall was the worst. You'll notice that all the joists we replaced were doubled-up. At some point the previous owners replaced part of each of the joists on this wall with new, treated 2x6s. It was a big of a hack job that was probably sufficient, but rather ugly. Now we get to do it right!

This is looking from the entry way towards the living room with the front door to the left. The red arrow shows the same load-bearing stud - which we replaced.

Here you can see the "mini" joists we had to install. The red arrow points East along the South wall. Keep in mind that since the foundation is not level, every single joist has to be specially measured and cut. Its like putting together a puzzle. In our puzzle, the mini joists are labeled a, b, c, and d. The long joists are labeled 1, 2, 3, and 4. And that's just for the first quarter of the room.

Here you can see the final result. The first quarter of the room re-done! It feels great to actually be building something - and great to see our plans are working out. One thing you can't see in these pictures is that the result is level. That, after all, is the main point!

In order to make sure everything is level, I have to do lots of measurements and calculations. Essential to this task is my new favorite tool: the Laser Level!