The East and West Walls

After Lance and Rob got the floor boards on, they began nailing together the framing for the second floor walls on the east and west side of the building. The vertical wood pieces are 2"x6" - the height varies with Rob's design because the roof is sloping in two directions - the east side wall goes from 9 feet to 7 feet high and the west side wall goes from 9 feet to 8 feet high. On the outside of each wall section are Zip boards, which are waterproof panels, but they are vapor open to allow any water vapor in the walls to escape. Our amazing neighbors came over to help push up the wall panels, and then we put the giant blue tarp over the structure, since it was supposed to rain. Unfortunately, we found out the next day that giant blue tarps are not waterproof at all! The whole building was soaked and we had to sweep off the water and let it dry out.

Rob building in flip-flops - his normal attire

Lance's final day on the job - we miss you Lance!

Two windows on the west side

The east side wall section

Lesson: Do not buy big blue tarp on Amazon.com and expect it to be waterproof

Here you can see the Zip boards from the outside

The next challenge was to put in a post in the northeast corner, which will have windows on both sides. After Rob cut and fastened the post in place, he lifted three LVL's (really heavy beams) above the opening. They sit on the post and in a groove in the east side wall. He nailed the LVL's into place with the nail gun and glued the LVL's together and to the post and wall with adhesive.

Putting adhesive on the post 

Putting adhesive on the groove in the wall

Clamps held the pieces together until they were nailed in place

The first LVL in the groove

Looks really heavy!

Putting the second LVL in place

Loading the nail gun

Nailing the LVL's together

Putting in four giant screws to hold everything together

I can't forget my job - sometime while all this was going on, I learned to use the screw gun, and screwed down the plywood boards onto the joists and LVL's underneath.