8:00 - Wake up when Jack wakes up.
8:30 - Eat breakfast and feed Jack his cereal
9:30 - Clean up the house and get ready for the photo shoots
10:00 - Our first photo shoot has been at 10:00 am every day for the past month
11:00 - After finishing the shoot, we get Jack down for his nap and start making lunch
12:00 - Lunch
12:30 - I go outside to work on the studio while April starts working on touch ups, sending off orders, laundry, whatever.
6:30 - After a full afternoon of working on the studio, I typically come in, clean up, and get ready for our second photo shoot
7:00 - Our second shoot starts and typically runs for about an hour and a half
8:30 - I put Jack to bed and April starts making dinner
9:30 - We sit down (finally) for dinner
10:00 - Since Jack is asleep, April can finally make real progress on the computer work which usually takes a couple of hours
12:00 - get ready for bed and turn in
So, we have basically been putting in around 14 hours each day...not much time left over for blogging, but alas, tonight there was no photo shoot! So, I'll get you caught up on the construction progress.
After all the trusses went up, they needed to be tied to the rest of the building. For this, hurricane ties were used, and Spencer and Mason put all these in. I worked out pretty well too, since Spencer is right handed, and Mason is left handed, together they could drive almost all the nails. Pappy or Uncle Brent had to help with a few.
Next came the plywood decking. After putting on the lowest row, Pappy suggested that I nail on some 'safety boards' at the bottom of the roof. Presumably, they would hang me up if I happened to slip, and keep me from hitting the dirt. I don't think I could have wrestled the plywood sheets onto the roof without using them for a solid foothold.
Pappy and Spencer would hand the plywood up, and I would pull them into place. This was one butt-kicking job! Unfortunately, it was my butt that was getting kicked!
As April's dad would say "the nail gun is the greatest invention since the weedeater". I have a hard time disagreeing.
The plywood decking really adds a lot of rigidity to the building. I start feeling better about the structure being able to withstand wind after the roof decking is on.
Spencer got to be on the roof right at the end of the day but he apparently had to keep his center of gravity low.
OK, this doesn't have much to do with the building progress, but it sure is cute.
After all the decking was put on, April and I put tarpaper on the roof just before leaving for Camp Caudle for a week. I just hoped the wind wouldn't get up and blow all the tarpaper off. It only blew loose a couple of pieces, no big deal.
After we got back home, I ordered the metal roofing from Metal Mart. The guy just cut the metal pieces to the exact length I needed them (17 feet), and they went up in only a day and a half. April would help me lean the long pieces of roofing up against the building, and I could then grab them and walk backward up the roof, lat them in place, and screw them down. Only tough part was the fact that it was about 160 degrees on top of that big frying pan.
The next step was to cover the exterior walls with tarpaper in preparation for the siding. This keeps any water that gets past the siding from infiltrating the wall cavity. All the tarpaper took about two days.
Check out my new "rolling scaffolding". Worked perfectly!
After all the tarpaper was up, a special adhesive flashing was used to seal all the window openings. The key to keeping water out of the building is to make sure that all the materials have a "shingle" effect, where the upper layer always overlaps the layer below. This is true from the foundation up to the roof cap
I went to Lowe's to look for windows. Luckily, I found vinyl windows made by Pella (a really good brand of window) on sale. The big 3'x6' windows were marked down a hundred bucks each. That saved me $800. I had planned on using single hung windows in the sun room, but with the sale, it was actually cheaper to go with double hung.
The process of installing the windows was actually much easier than I thought it would be. First, the sill was checked to make sure it was level and wood shims were laid down to make sure it was.
Next, the window units were tilted into the hole and nailed into the surrounding framing after they were checked for plumb and level. I started out using regular nails and driving them old-fashioned style with a hammer. Later, I decided that it would be much easier to use the nail gun. I had read that nail guns could crack the vinyl flange on the windows in cold weather, but I think we were safe from that since it wan near 100 today.
After the window units are nailed in, you have to check to make sure they open and close smoothly. This is also a great opportunity to poke your head out like a dork and have your picture taken by your wife.
This is where we stand as of this evening. My electrician is coming in the morning, the plumbers finished up their 'rough in' yesterday, and the air conditioning guy is coming on Monday. We are going to make some great progress this next week.
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