Floor joists

Today DH and MD got the floor joists done for everywhere except where the stairwell to the basement is. They even got some of the plywood subflooring down! (I know these posts are sparse in words, but really, the pictures tell the story.)

 Getting the first few joists upright and nailed into place!

 Different view of getting the first few joists nailed into place.

 They are almost all in at this point. That's DH standing in the crawlspace and MD standing on a ladder on the far side of the basement wall. Those boards were HEAVY!

 Starting to work on the subfloor! They are being glued AND nailed down.

See. Got that nailer going!

The center beam is in!

Today was a long day. DH cut the additions floor joists to size. Then DH, MD, MM, and I all worked to create and place the main center beam. That thing was HUGE! It's comprised of three side-by-side 2x2x18 plants of Yellow Pine. I thought we were going to drop it on ourselves several times. Luckily, we didn't. Tomorrow, we'll finish anchoring the beam in and install the floor joists. Who knows, if we do this fast enough, we might even be able to get the plywood down onto the floor joists! Here's hoping!

 My Dad putting on the sill and the sill seal. (Try saying 'sill seal' five times fast.)

 The floor joists! They aren't installed just yet, but they are in place to be attached to the center beam.

 Little Man rocking his ear protection.

The center beam going in. In order: My Mom, Hubby, My Dad, Me

We've got wood!

Today was our first shipment of wood! It's just enough to do the floor deck and build the main frame for the walls. More wood will be delivered soon. The trusses are supposed to be delivered in 2 weeks, so we've got a LOT of work to do between now and then.

If a tree falls in the woods....

Well, more like when trees fall in the city. Today was the day for the huge ugly locust trees to come down. These are NOT small trees. E, my Dad's handyman, was in a 50ft bucket skid, and was barely making it 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up the tree. Yeah. BIG trees. We were able to down most of them without incident. Notice I said "most". Yeah, one fell in a different path than it should and landed on the trailer next door. Luckily, my Dad owns that property, so it's not that big of a deal. Ooops.

 The 50 foot boom skid.

 The first tree going down!

 This is why they have to come down. See the light part, that's healthy tree. The dark part that's MOST of the middle, that's all rotten.

 The second tree coming down! (Yes, I took pics of all the trees coming down. No, I won't bore you with it.)

 The aftermath of the second tree down.

 Dad hauling the logs from the trees with his tractor. Like I said, these a HUGE trees.

 Oops.

 Not exactly what we had planned.

 But, it is what it is. Good thing Dad owns the property though.

See, BIG trees. 50 foot boom full extended.

And here is a Before/After. It's not a very good one, but you can definitely see that we opened up the view.

Before and After: Mowing edition