Took care of one big prerequisite today: tacked up screening across the ridgepole crevices where the bats congregate. This was a hard-and-fast prerequisite to Marsh helping with any of the second floor tasks — and as soon as it was done, there she was, pulling nails, ripping up linoleum floor tiles, sweeping…. wonderful thing, prerequisites!
Disturbed the lumber pile which has been under tarps for more than a month. It’s like we live in the woods, or something! (Attr: Marsh)
A dark fishing spider on the edge of a 2×4. A true-measure rough-sawn 2×4. As in: that’s a generous 2″, maybe even 2-1/16″, that guy is casually embracing. I moved all further lumber while wearing gloves, you betcha.
I saw a vole, but it scampered too fast for a pic. But there was also a frog:
Aside from moving lumber around, all the rest of my work was in the house, so no additional bug bites today!
Yesterday had been a very despondent day for some reason, didn’t mark off any milestones — the biggest accomplishments were making sausage and roasted potatoes for dinner, and starting a new spreadsheet for building materials budgeting. The ladder I need is $390, so we’re waiting until we either really need it, or God speaks, or something.
But today dawned clear and quiet, and I could just tell all cylinders were humming. Marsh was feeling better, too, so I didn’t have to worry about her (too much). We recapped our priorities, and then full-speed ahead.
I filled in some additional planks on (what would be) the attic floor, so I could walk around up there more safely, and stapled the aforementioned screening across the gaps on the ridgepole. (For the record, this is not to keep the bats out of the ridge vent — that will come later. This is just to ensure they don’t drop down from there into the house.)
Somewhere in there I unmolded the concrete piers in the basement:
And then in preparation for working upstairs I added a makeshift support column on the first floor (where the other staircase was removed) — my dad may be happy to know the 2nd floor is MUCH less bouncy!
We really should have been working on squirrel poop, but I had promised Allan the Plumber that I would have the upstairs half-bath roughed in, so he could reliably know where the pipes need to go. That took the rest of the day, from about 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
There’s more to do in the morning, but it’s a good start. The studs are the easy part — the sills and headers were the toughest, as the house is not square, true, or perpendicular whatsoever, and I had to make decisions about how to run the new walls. Also, we did actual design work on the fly, which should have felt more hair-raising than it did. Upside: we’re going to have a very large closet (to the left of the bathroom). Walk-in storage closet. Which we certainly will need.
Finally, back to the camper — sans bug bites — to shower, fix dinner, feed dogs, write this post, etc., etc. So now you know.