Walls and ridge board installed.

Today was a gorgeous day to do some building.  I had some coworkers over to help with the walls.  Thanks Mick, Barry, Greg and Tim.  It went really quick (faster than I expected, under an hour) to get all four walls up and nailed together.  There was only one snafu, one of the bits that I lopped off with the reciprocating saw wasn't a straight enough cut.


Everything got moved off the slab.


I did the ridge board supports a bit different on the house than I did on the shed, it is only two boards instead of 4.  Not as strong, but but still plenty strong enough.  The ridge board is screwed into place.




Unlike the shed, I couldn't get a single board for the ridge board.  To strengthen the join, I used merging plates, which worked not as well as I would have liked, and I also built a 2x4 C beam around it.  It still sags a little, but once the rafters are in they will help hold it up.  For now I just have a support under it.


Towards the end of the day, I started running out of things to do, so I started leveling the trailer.  I need to level the trailer so I can make sure the walls are square.  Unfortunately I need more blocks.


While I was building the ridge board support, The other guys got bored.  So they decided to clean the slab.  It looks nice guys.




There are big piles of dirt and debris though.  I might try to pull the nails and stuff out and then just sweep it into the yard.


It was only 5PM when I ran out of blocks for blocking up the frame, so I also fixed the tractor.  It works good again.  The key that came with it is a bit rusty, but I think I have a spare one somewhere.


I will go up tonight after showering and eating and get the rest of the blocks and the door.  Here is the next plan of attack:

1. Level trailer and get jackstands under it.  
2. Square and center everything up.
3. Install the door.  I am doing this before the roof since the roof will require the top plate, and the header nails into the board under the top plate.  
4. Install the top plates and rafters.  
5. Sheathe the roof (I intend to fully sheathe it with 1/4" CDX instead of using furring strips).  Put the tarp on it.  I hope to get this far before it starts raining again.
6. Install the windows
7. Tyvek wrap the outside.