House Progress – Second Floor Walls Up!

With all the lovely weather we’ve been having we have had a tough time, or rather hubs has had a hard time, working on the house so it’s taking forever….maybe it really is supposed to take this long anyway and I should relax a little.  When I go out to the build site and see nothing, in my mind, more done than the last time I was out but hubs has been out there “working” on the house all day until midnight, I get a little testy.  The wind has not allowed for much as far as standing walls go, especially on the upper floor, God forbid a wind gust would come along and swoop up a wall throwing it far into the farmers field….and yes, that would be our luck! 

We have had one of the coldest and snow filled winteres that I can remember in a long time with stretches of temps in the -20’s- to -30’s and the windchill warnings to follow of -38 or colder….brrrrrr is all I can say!  The groundhog  should be shot!  So much for him being a sign of winter coming to an end and an early spring; last I heard we are supposed to have colder than normal temperatures for the next 3 months, well into spring.  Again, this would be our luck.  If you think I’m joking or being dramatic, I’m not.  It never fails, whenever we have to do something big like move from one Province to another, build a house, book a holiday or whatever, it seems that the weather is always bad.  When we were packing the uHaul truck, temperatures were, no word of a lie, in the -30’s and -50’s with the windchill. Anyone who says that the windchill doesn’t make the temperature colder should try standing outside dressed like an Eskimo for five minutes.

Our 2nd floor walls are up! Look how tiny hubs looks.  😉

Nonetheless, we are making progress and I am excited to tell you that in one day hubs….I’m so proud of him…built AND stood the walls for the entire 2nd floor of our house!  Applause please.  😉  He might even get a little lovin for that.  Hehehe.  I’m starting to get really excited about it now that I can see it coming together.  The kids however think it looks small but it’s hard to imagine what it will look like without interior walls and the garage isn’t build on the side yet either…that will come soon. 

As you can see in this picture, he’s posing, proudly showing off his work.  Keep in mind all the windows are framed in but most are just covered with plywood right now to help keep the wind out; he’ll cut those out later on the top floor and remove the boards covering the main floor windows.  He built the main floor walls by framing in all the windows and precutting all the plywood around the windows but for the second floor he decided in order to save time, he’d board right over the framed windows and cut them out later with a saw.  It seemed to go quicker, although there weren’t quit as many windows on the second floor so this could be part of the reason.

This picture is the front/side view of our house.  The center hole, between the windows, will be our front entry with an oversize door and side lights.  The hole on the side of the house, right of my hubs is where the stairwell is; there will be 3 large windows up the stairwell, one on each landing of the stairwell (3 landings/3 levels – basement, main floor & second floor).

Holy rafters Batman! Inside view of the house from the stairwell.

Here’s a picture taken from the stairwell of the inside of the house. 

In this picture you can see:

1. part of the snow filled basement with the walkout windows open to the outside
2. the steel main beam that supports the entire house right in from where all the joists are supported for the main floor
3. the main floor view with widows open to the back walkout view of the house, there will be a deck off here, above the walkout….eventually!
4. another wood beam, right above the steel beam, to support the second floor joists…wowzers, those are a lot of joists!

Back/walkout view of the house before the 2nd floor walls.

Here is the back of the house.  The windows you can see cut out on the main floor, minus the boarding on the backside of the windows to keep the wind out, wille the same across the basement floor, except there will be a door to the outside in about the middle, off of the hectagon-type shape jut-out.

I was standing up top of the second floor coming from someone who is afraid of heights this was a big deal, and it is verrrry high!  Of course I wouldn’t go near the edge but I had the “idea”.  Hubs and my Father-in-Law thought it was sooo funny and wondered how I’d manage going out onto the smaller deck we’ll have off our master bedroom (right above the main floor deck which is above the walkout)…the jury is still out on that one!  Maybe IF the railing is above my head then I’ll be okay to go out there. 😉  By the way, this deck was not my idea it was my hubs idea so he might be enjoying it on his own.