I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day. For the past week we have been on vacation, in that we haven't been going to our respective places of employment. Each day has been somewhat similar to the previous: get up, poke at some materials order or delivery, jack the house a bit, hang drywall, eat food, watch Battlestar Galactica or the the second season of The Wire, go to bed -- then it starts over again.
However, I am pleased to announce that the jacking is complete. They say that you should only jack a floor 1/8" to 1/4" a day to allow for it to settle properly (like a chiropractic adjustment). At that pace and given we needed about 2 inches to make the second floor not sag in the middle (and to subsequently create a structure that would keep it from sagging again in the future) it was a slow process. Luckily it appears to have gone off without a hitch. Only the parts that were supposed to move moved, and as you can see from the before and after shots (click to enlarge) of the level laying on the second floor -- verifyable results.
To make sure we didn't jump the gun and start lifting wildly we kept the log at left. You can see that we might have rushed it just a bit (getting a couple of lifts in less than 24 hours), but foregoing another day of groundhpg purgatory, we're ready to move on. Today we're going to prep the area in the basement and on the first floor to install the permanent beam (the LVL should be here at noon). As tomorrow is Thanksgiving we may not install until Friday.
Much like the insulation before, it feels like the drywall is another task that will never be done. Easy parts of the second floor went quickly, and the third floor is slowly coming together. As you can see from the photos it's somewhat of a geometry problem up there. Cutting all of the odd shaped triangles to fit up to the ridge line and fit in the dormers is a math test of patience if nothing else.
Adding to the level of difficulty, we decided to leave the rafter ties exposed. This means carefully cutting the sheetrock and combing it up through the rafters. Out of the gate we were golden. The first, biggest, most complex piece fit almost perfectly on the first try. Then, well... let'ts just say the rasping and triming skills we have been developing over the past week or so really came in handy.
Oh BTW, that last bit of work we discussed contractor to knock out this week and finish up his contract, uh...didn't happen.
So what's going to happen to all that romex cable?
Posted by: ivy | 2005.11.27 at 17:26