Tag Archives: hurricane clips

2013_07_18 (Thu) Progress And Some Evening Fun

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We found out in conversation last night that, at age 61, I appear to be the youngest person on our HFH RV CAV / SKP BOF team, and Linda is probably the youngest woman.  Two of the men are close to being tied for “most senior” at age 77.  Regardless of age I have been impressed with our productivity, but more so given this new information.  The experience that comes with age often matches or exceeds youthful energy and brute strength.  Our team has been safety conscious to a person.  Each of us is aware of our own limitations and limits, and has kept a watchful eye on each other.  There hasn’t been any misplaced youthful competition, just patient, persistent, focused effort, guided by the advantage of being able to think ahead many steps in the project because of the ability to look back and remember.

We convened at 7:30 AM.  After circle one of our first tasks was to remove, rearrange, and reset six roof trusses.  Brian pulled the nails on the hurricane clips.  Kent and I then went up in the trusses to remove the bracing, which I cut out with a Sawzall one truss at a time.  In the process I dropped a short piece of 2×4 bracing on my head and decided to start wearing my hard hat.  We were joined by Lynn, Linda, Linda (we have two), and Jack so we could hand each truss down, move it over, and put it back up. Once the six trusses were reset, Kent and I aligned and secured the peaks (again) and re-installed the metal braces.

While the truss work was going on, a crew, worked on cutting off the east and west wall truss tails plumb as preparation for the eventual installation of the soffit and fascia.  Another crew started installing the 4’x8′ finish siding.  After helping with the trusses, a third crew started sheeting the roof with 4’x8′ 5/8ths OSB and the two Lindas built and installed closet walls.  The more they worked together the more fun they seemed to have, and could be heard laughing all over the build site.

We went to lunch at 11:30 AM, and ended up having an extended lunch break as we waited for a mystery guest to arrive.  It turned out to be the Sheridan mayor, Dave Kinskey, who was joined by a Deacon and one of the priests of the local Catholic Church that is sponsoring this build.  They expressed their gratitude for our work and the mayor explained the unique housing challenges in Sheridan.  Housing here is unusually expensive yet 50% of the wage earners make $20,000 a year or less.  Dave also invited us to come downtown for the 3rd Thursday street gathering and offered to get us coupons for free beer from the local Black Tooth Brewing Company (a microbrewery) and ice cream from Dairy Queen.

By the time we got back to the job site the temperature and sun were too much for most of us and we packed up for the day.  Mayor Dave stopped by Peter D’s and dropped off the coupons, which Linda and I delivered to our fellow team members.  We traded away our DQ coupons and ended up with four free beer cards.

Sheridan WY 3rd Thursday event.

Sheridan WY 3rd Thursday event.

Today was the 3rd Thursday of the month, and that meant five blocks of Main Street were closed from 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM for the street event that ran from 5 to 9.  We got down there a little after 5, parked a few blocks away and walked up to the event area.  Black Tooth Brewing Company had a tent so we used two of our cards.  Linda had their Saddle Bronc Brown (an English brown style) and I had a Wagon Box Wheat. Linda likes beer, me not so much, especially if it has a lot of hops, but I liked the wheat beer; it was cold, light, refreshing, and free.  BTW: Did you notice that we were walking around Main Street with beers in our hands?  That doesn’t happen “back home.”

We walked the event and stopped on our way into the farmers market spur to listen to the band.  The music was nice, and there were chairs for those who wanted to sit and listen.  We also stopped and chatted with a wilderness preservation group and a couple from the local Democratic party.  Yes, they have a few Democrats here.  This was the first night for the farmers market, but it was mostly crafts with some bakery and other food products.  As we saw in Gillette, farmers markets don’t open around her until later in July, and local produce comes later than that.

We found our way to the actual Black Tooth Brewing Company building and used our remaining cards for a second round.  This time I had their Bombshell Blonde, seasonal golden ale.  Mmmm, another good one.  Linda had another dark brew, also a seasonal item, but we can’t recall the name and it is not on their website.  This time we received the full pint specified on our cards.  Linda was pretty sure this was the first time in 45 years she saw me fully consume two beers relatively close together.

We were done with the 3rd Thursday event by 7:00 PM, so we drove to Sheridan College south of town to watch Brian’s community men’s’ league softball team.  We were joined there by Jan and Kent.  Jan and Linda rooted for Brian with great enthusiasm.

 

2013_07_17 (Wed) Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

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Mornings are lovely here this time of year with 5:00 AM temperatures typically in the mid-to-upper 50’s and clear-to-partly cloudy skies.  And so it was again today.  I know, because I was up at 5:00 AM working on our blog and watching the sun rise.

Linda L. holding the tape at the truss peak.

Linda L. holding the tape at the truss peak.

We gathered at the Works site at 7:30 AM, had our circle, and went to work.  Kent and I were joined by Lynn and Linda (the other one) and worked to correct the spacing of the roof truss peaks.  The spacing between the peaks had gradually increased from rear to front so that the ones by the front wall were leaning 3″ towards the front of the house.

 

Bruce and Lynn adjusting the truss peaks spacing.

Bruce and Lynn adjusting the truss peaks spacing.

Linda held the free end of the tape measure on a common reference point while Lynn and I worked our way along the trusses on either side of the ridge, alternately measuring, aligning, and then nailing 16 foot 2x4s to the center upright of each truss to hold the peak in place.  Kent worked from below passing tools up/down and using a board as a push stick and/or lever to help push the trusses into position and hold them while we nailed.  It was slow, careful work, but we got it done before lunch.

Linda L., Lynn, and Bruce, adjusting the truss peaks

Linda L., Lynn, and Bruce, adjusting the truss peaks

Angel and her two children.

Angel and her two children.

This house is being built for Angel and her two children.  As part of her “sweat equity” in the house, Angel organized the preparation of our lunches and got the food to the church kitchen and arranged on the buffet table.

 

 

 

Ron nailing hurricane clips.

Ron nailing hurricane clips.

Ron nailed hurricane clips all day and most of the rest of the team painted siding panels.  The Lindas installed another closet header and the worked with Lynn and Jack to cut and install extensions for the north trusses.

 

 

 

Front porch posts and beams (not)

Front porch posts and beams (not)

Kent and I were originally going to start sheeting the roof, but that had to wait for the truss extensions to be installed.  We switched off and worked on installing the front porch posts and side beams.  These are massive rough milled western Douglas fir (8×8 posts and 4×10 beams) pinned at the top by rebar inserted into drilled holes.  We cut the posts to length and notched the top surface of the house end of the beams using a circular saw and a Sawzall, and cut the rebar with a hack saw.  We cut and installed jack studs to hold the house ends of the beams.  When we finally lifted the west beam into place we discovered it was about a foot short.  Sigh.

A flurry of activity followed for the next hour as Brian figured out that the porch portion of the concrete slab was a foot longer than it was supposed to be, which placed the base pads for the posts a foot farther from the house than they should be.  Kent and I offered some suggestions for how to fix the problem beyond the obvious one of getting two new beams, but even that fix had the downside of a 3-week delay and another $300 in expense.  Brian conferred with Matt and Sandy (the architect), both of whom came to the site. In the end they decided to go with a solution Kent and I had suggested of constructing beams out of 2×10’s sandwiched together.  They decided to use 2×12’s and have us cut them down, but that would have to wait for Brian to get material on site tomorrow morning.

Linda F., Jack, and Lynn, extending and plumbing the north truss tails.

Linda F., Jack, and Lynn, extending and plumbing the north truss tails.

We had agreed several days ago to have a pot luck social this evening at 5:30 PM, with happy hour starting at 5:00 PM instead of our usual 4:30 PM.  Brian came, as did the folks from Castle Rock CO.  It was a warm evening (in more ways than one), and there were several dishes that Linda and I could eat.  Linda made the garbanzo bean salad, which tastes remarkably like egg salad, and is a favorite dish of mine.

 

2013_07_16 (Tue) New Building Experiences

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I was up early as I wanted to post a couple more blog entries while there was less demand for the RV park’s WiFi/Internet connectivity.  I also like to have at least some of my morning coffee well in advance of going to the HFH job site.

Linda L and John filling in the west foundation trench.

Linda L and John filling in the west foundation trench.

We arrived a little before the 7 AM start time agreed to yesterday and some team members wondered why we were starting so early?  (Our team is very cohesive, but is clearly not of one mind when it comes to start times.)  When we were done with circle many team members grabbed shovels and rakes and filled in the trenches around the foundation and smoothed out the soil.

 

The house wrapped in Tyvek.

The house wrapped in Tyvek.

 

All framed up plumb.

All framed up plumb.

 

The NW corner of the roof is “hip”

The NW corner of the roof is “hip”

I worked with Kent installing trusses for the hip roof at the north (rear) end of house.  We got that done just before the lunch break, but it wasn’t easy, and was not something either of us had ever done before.  With help from Lynn, we set the main double truss and then installed the two hip trusses that run out through the corners where the side walls meet the back wall.  We then installed eight smaller half trusses to compete the roof and ceiling structure.

Bruce nailing hip trusses.

Bruce nailing hip trusses.

 

Hurricane clip.

Hurricane clip.

The two Linda’s teamed up to start anchoring all the trusses to the east wall using hurricane clips.  This was a difficult job because of the short nails that are used, the awkward angles at which they must be hammered, and the fact that all of the work must be done on ladders.  They also built and installed a header for a closet opening which required the use of the circular saw.

An all female crew bending the foundation flashing.

An all female crew bending the foundation flashing.

 

Another all female crew painting the siding panels.

Another all female crew painting the siding panels.

A crew of men was asked to go help Matt retrieve a variety of materials donated by Wells Fargo Bank, take them to the ReStore, and unload them.  Some of this material had been moved the other day, but large, heavy items remained.  Many of the other women team members finished wrapping the house with Tyvek and then put the first cost of a deep crimson red paint on the loose siding.

After lunch Kent and I worked on truing up the main trusses.  We climbed up, in, around, and through a maze of trusses and spacer bars to un-nail, position, and re-nail bracing to hold the truss peaks plumb with uniform spacing.  In spite of the pleasant temperature and continued cloudiness, by 2:00 PM everyone was ready to call it a day.

Looking back on the day, a lot was accomplished both on and off site, and a lot of it was done on ladders.  I recalled that one of the last safety reminders we got from Steven before he left was that that biggest safety hazard on an HFH build is the use of a ladder.  We did not have any accidents or injuries today, so that along made it a good day.

Back at the rig, Linda prepared a pot of her wonderful vegan chili while I made a phone call to the FMCA offices in Cincinnati, Ohio to complete our registration for the GLAMARAMA rally in Goshen, Indiana in September. FMCA was updating their servers last week when I tried to register online, and our transaction did not compete successfully.

We went to the social at 4:30 PM and stayed until 6:00 PM when most of us returned to our rigs to have dinner and settle in for the evening.  As usual, we went for an evening stroll around the campground and enjoyed the cloudy, cool, breezy conditions.