Bethy's birthday present: Walls!

Today (which happens to be my birthday :-) ) we began building WALLS!

We began by laying out the bottom plate (PT 2x6x16) and the top plate (2x6x16), and the studs (2x6x8, pre-cut to 93") on 16" centers. The areas where studs are currently missing are where windows will go. One of the window headers (a sandwich of 2x6's and plywood) is visible in the above picture.

The picture above shows a framed in window. Jack studs, which span the height from the bottom plate to the header, are first nailed to the sill (using the cripple stud for correct spacing on each side). One of the jack studs is then nailed to its adjacent stud, and the header is put on top. The other jack stud is aligned with the help of the header, and a king stud is put in next to this jack stud. The top cripple stud is measured, put into place, and everything is nailed together.

After all of the studs are nailed in, we sheath the wall with a plywood board. We first nail it in a corner in the center of a stud. We then square up the top and bottom plates along the edge of the plywood. We square everything up to within 1/32 of an inch, and then nail the sheathing to all of the studs (which have been marked on the plywood with the help of a chalk line), headers, etc. We then use a router to cut out the window opening.

Technically the router bit we are using is for cutting laminate, but it was inexpensive and is working well so far. Since we already built the window frames, all we need to do is follow them around with the router and we get a nice, clean, precise window opening.

Voila! Our first complete wall panel. We then mark along the bottom where the J bolts will align. We are very careful to measure correctly both length and width-wise on the bottom plate. We then drill out holes so that we can stand up the panel right onto the J-bolts and drop into place.

We modified the tractor bucket with some custom-made "tusks" to scoop up the panel between studs and do the heavy lifting for us.

We started out with two tusks but later found it was easier to work with only one.

We built two panels (the other one will have an 8' sliding glass door in it) so that they would help stand each other up once raised. The process of getting them in place was a bit hairy, especially because the wind picked up and was catching the panels quite a bit! After some pretty stressful moments, we successfully got the panels into place, tied down the J-bolts, and nailed in bracing. Although the process was challenging (and for me, nerve wracking), we didn't have any major mishaps or errors - though the sill seal kept wanting to blow away...

As a final reassurance, we used the tractor to help hold up the wall since there are some pretty major storms and winds in the forecast for tonight. Here's hoping all our hard work holds firm until we can build more walls tomorrow!

I am really enjoying doing the framing. It is pretty amazing to watch a pile of lumber come together to form real walls and start to make the house take shape! I can stand inside and already envision what the view will be out my windows. It is very exciting! Plus I enjoy all the measuring, sawing, nailing, and drilling, and the pattern of steps we take each time we build a wall panel. It is like a big precise puzzle coming together, all with the work of our own two hands (and some handy tools). Oh, and although I was scared the first couple times I used it, I am in LOVE with the pneumatic nail gun! (And my regular hammering is getting a lot better, too.) Looking forward to building more tomorrow; I think this will actually go pretty quickly!