Well, it's been a week since the last post. The lag in coverage has most assuredly not been due to a lack in progress on the studio. Truth be told, we've been working so much on the studio that most nights, I haven't come inside until after 8:00; after eating dinner, taking a shower, etc., I've been too worn out to update the blog. But, tonight that will not be the case. We knocked off a little early this evening since we had a proofing at 7:00, and dinner along with Jack's bedtime pretty much filled up our schedule until 9:00 or so. There are a lot of pictures in this post to get you caught up with all that we've done the last few days, so enjoy.

After the sill plate went down as shown in the last post, I started framing up the floor. I decided to go with 2x8's throughout the floor in an attempt to simplify the construction process. In the early stages of planning, I had 2x10 beams with 2x8 floor joists, but later it seemed to make since to have double 2x8 beams with single 2x8 joists. The floor framing overhangs the foundation walls by 4" on all sides to accomodate 4" of rock work that will run along the bottom of the studio, coming out flush with the exterior walls of the completed building.


After spending so much time on the foundation, making sure it was perfectly square and level, it was incredible to pull stringlines from the corners of the floor and find that they were absolutely perfect! I'm here to tell you, that will make the rest of the construction process much easier.



A few months ago, the highway department called us and told us that we had to remove our sign from the mailbox. Apparently, after two years of having it hanging on the mailbox, they decided to enforce some rule that states that you can't have a business sign on your mailbox. Now, you can have a sign with your name and address, just not your business...makes no sense. So, April has been itching to get some new signs up. Since our other sign has been down, we've actually had people ask us if we were still in business. April designed our new signage, and we called a sign shop in Conway and had them made. I built some frames and we put them in the ground yesterday.


Here I am working on the new sign frames.


This is my dad (pappy) painting one of the sign frames.


The new Ruple Photography signs in all their splendor.

Lee came down on Monday and he and dad and Spencer and Seth all helped make a ton of progress. First, we put down the floor decking, which is 3/4" tongue and groove plywood. This was quite a job, but having all the hands really made it go by quickly. Seth's favorite part was getting into the crawlspace and pretending to be a troll.


There is the troll boy now.


Spencer and Seth (mostly Spencer) helped by screwing down the decking. It was quite a job. An unfinished job, I might add.




Lee and I laying down the decking.


Doesn't a nice level subfloor just warm your heart? I thought so.

After completing the subfloor, the next step was laying out the top and bottom plates for the wall and marking where each stud, window, and door were going to be located. After consulting the plans, Lee laid out the first wall. I decided on 9' walls instead of the typical 8' walls, since we often take portraits of tall guys, and we don't want the ceiling to be showing up in the pictures. You wouldn't think one extra foot of height would make that much difference in the way the walls look, but these boogers looked huge once we started standing them up. It sure will be nice to have that extra height once the studio is done.


As Lee measures out the wall plates, I check his work...he was pretty accurate.


Up goes the first wall. Now that's progress!




Look at that hunk. You might want to keep one of those 2x4's to beat the girls away.


My cousin Mason showed up at the worksite just in time for lunch. He left right after dinner...go figure.

Framing is without a doubt my favorite stage of construction. The foundation work is so laborious and it always looks the same at the end of the day as it did at the beginning. But with framing, you can really see a change in the building as the hours go by. Plus, your rooms start to take shape. You can stand out in the yard and really start visualizing what this new structure is going to look like when finished. It really is exciting. And gratifying.


Within the course of a day, all four walls were standing. Another day, and all the interior walls were done. I love this stuff.


The sun sets on another good day of progress.