Now for the walls, windows and ceiling/floor

The next stage of the building process.  The walls, windows and door (really the opening for the windows and door), the ceiling or really the floor for the second story.  On Friday the guys were done with building the basement and putting in most of the floor for the first story.

The next day, Saturday, the guys came back to finish up the first story floor and other little stuff like . . 

Tarring half the basement walls to keep the water out. They also put on the rest of the flooring and finished what was left of the basement.

On Monday Jason, our contractor, came back to get the 'old' house roof ready for the guys to build the walls.  Up to this moment the roof of the old place was still sticking out. 

  
But first things first and that was taking of the edges so the carpenters could butt up the new walls against the old house.

What is next?  I guess the tools will have to come out now so they can cut of part of the steel roof.

  

But first we have to have a look and make sure we are not cutting into anything we do not want to. Right!

   

Here we go!  All it takes is a saw to get through this steel.

A closer look of the cutting process.  Love the way the sparks shoot of the cut.

Here we are again.  Tuesday and a new week to do some more work.  When they build walls they start by building them on the floor and then lift them up later and put them in place.

This time they also put on the sheeting of the wall before they put it up.  Much easier as they are getting pretty high up from the ground now.

We still have to use the old tape measure to measure and mark our wood.  Notice the gloves!  It was pretty cool that morning and gloves were certainly needed.  

It takes 4 strong men to lift up the wall and hold it in place.  Notice our first window! 

Now for the second wall.  Just a short one beside our picture window.  Hope they won't push the boss of the edge now!

The walls with the sheeting are pretty heavy and not easy to move around. Also they have a little lip of plywood on the bottom so it fits right on top of the piece of plywood that is already in place. 

Now attach it to the corner and we should be fine.

Next we have to place the window frame but before we do we first have to draw a chalk line as a placement line.

This should not be too heavy there is a big hole in it.  Yes this is the frame for our picture window.

Place it on the line and attach it to the floor.  Well done boys!

This is a look from the other side of the room.  The picture window and the 2 side window frames are in place as well.

Now let's put up the wall across from the picture window.  This is the wall with the door opening.  So when you come and visit you walk through this door to get in.

Again we have to make sure the wall is sitting on the line.  Looks like another great job!

Just one wall left and that is the one up against the house.  Once they get this done they will start on the ceiling which is the second story floor really.

Because of the length of our room and not wanting to break it up with support post we installed a steel beam running through the middle of the ceiling up to the steps.  There we have a wooden post to support this steel beam on the one side and on the other side it rests on a joist in our old roof.  But first we have to get this steel beam to its destination.  A truck had just dropped the steel beam on our parking pad along the road.

Here you see the guys carrying the beam from where it was dropped to the building site.

It was a pretty heave beam and they did not have a lot of space to walk it.

Let's take a break!  What next?  As you can tell it is leaning up against the building so now they have to lift it up high and shove it onto the floor.  You can also see that Leo is documenting the whole process.

Heave!  Push!  and Push again!

Next comes the even harder part trying to lift this steel beam and place it correctly.

Got the one end done and now the other end.  I don't know if Leo is trying to help them by having is arms up in the air or is he holding his camera?

Now we have to make sure it is all level and once they are happy this beam will not move again.

As you can see the beam stick out beyond the current wall.  This way they can make the second story floor a bit wider because of the slant of the current roof.  I hope to show this later.

And there is the photographer again.

Now we can work on the joists for the second story. 

 

Look I am hanging over the beam and my other foot is on the ladder.  Lift it up!  Come on you can do it!  

You have to be an acrobat hammering in these joists.

I really like this shot as it looks like someone turned on the lights.  But they are almost done the joist.  It is time to call it a day.

Which they did and would be back the next morning (Wednesday) to put on the floor and stairs.  Which I will post tomorrow.