We're Getting the Band Back Together....
This weekend, Pop came up to help us out. This was his first time back since December and the first time he Wendy and I were all there together since November, so it was a good time for all.
Mimi and Pop were in the area on Thursday evening and Pop stayed over at Grandma Lana's, so I took off from the paying work on Friday to work on the house. Friday, we were a little behind after dropping the Matrix off at the dealership for repairs and stopping to get some sweet, sweet donuts from Bella Napoli bakery, so we didn't get to the site until about 10am.
We got down to work and started putting foam on the north side of the house. The foam on the living room side of the house went on very quickly and before I knew it, I was approaching the height of the Typar we had on, and before I knew it I had put the first layer of foam over an area with no Typar, working from the third level of scaffold. It was getting late, so we called it a day and decided to remedy that on Saturday
Saturday we started even later, since we had to go pick up the car, then made a run to Harbor Freight before heading up. Grandma Lana came to work with us since Grandpa Tom was watching the kids all day. She went to work on staining siding, while Wendy, Pop and I decided to tackle putting the staircase up as it was covering our cellar access hole. Wendy and I lifted the staircase while Pop inserted some 2x6s as braces to hold the stairs in place after we lifted them up.
Once it was up Pop maneuvered the stairs into the exact position it needed to be in by walking it up and down with another 2x8 and a pry bar. We were able to get it flush to the ceiling and pretty level with that method.
When it was in place, I took the 1 inch plate we had made last week and with Pop's help, put it in behind the outside stringer to take up the space between the stairs and the beam. I think using the discarded end-piece from the stringer really makes it look good.
The best feeling was, after the stairs were up and secured, when Pop looked them over said that it was a good looking staircase. He was a Union carpenter when he was younger (when I was still little he got out of it), and of course knows or what he speaks. He told us all sorts of stories as we worked about the guys who were really good at stairs, and even admitted he found stairs to be difficult, so I took his compliment as high praise of the job we did on them. Now we just need to cut out the loft decking over the stairs so we can actually use them, but that is rainy day work.
After finishing the stairs and having some lunch, we went back to work on the foam. We pulled the remaining scaffold planks out of the loft, where they have been since we finished the roof sheathing last year. We figured that they had been I put the missing Typar in place behind the foam I put up Friday night and covered the rest of the West side of the peak with foam, as far as I could reach from my lofty perch before calling it a day.
Pop decided to stay and work until lunch on Sunday to help us get the foam as buttoned up on the back of the house as possible. We shuffled the third level tower of scaffold over to do so more work. We only have 2 short planks (short enough to cover only one scaffold section, or 2 frames) and only one of them has cleats to help keep it in place, so we put the longer planks on the top so as to have a platform to work on (especially since I needed to use a step stool to get the foam at the peak).
After adding some more foam, I had an accident. After a while of being up on the scaffold you get relaxed with it, and even though I had markers to show where not to walk past, when Pop asked a question of me I thoughtlessly stepped over the line. Fortunately we had the better part of a deck of planks below me, and the plank I was on slid 6 feet down and hit the deck on the second level of scaffold. After recovering and getting off the plank onto the second level of decking, I was a little startled, but full of adrenalin, so I started to put to planks back. When I moved underneath the tower to push the planks back, I stepped on a plank that had shifted a few inches and it swung up and fell through. I caught my weight and was able to stay on a plank on good footing, but now I was shaken. I sat down for a few to get my self settled, and afterward I put the planks back up and came down to have some lunch.
Grandma Lana came up with the kids and Mimi showed up to pick up Pop, so we all chatted for a while and ate lunch. The kids enjoyed seeing the stairs, though they were disappointed that they couldn't actually go up them to the loft. Everyone else took off, leaving Wendy and me to finish the foam. After getting up on the scaffold again, my arms and back were aching - I guess the adrenalin had worn off. I was feeling exhausted, so I came back down and We put some Typar over the bottom of the front door hole to keep the water out of the basement - we had collected a small puddle on the floor inside that had leaked in where there was no paper. At that point we called it a day and vowed to finish the foam next weekend. I also decided I would cut down two of our long planks next week to make enough short planks that this wouldn't be an issue again.
The scaffold is one of the most valuable investments we have made in this house, and we aren't even finished with it yet! I got very lucky that things went the way they did, though. The plank deck on the third level of scaffold is eighteen feet above the ground, which could have resulted in a very serious fall (even 6 feet is enough to hurt you badly), not to mention the planks and tools that could have been falling on top of me after hitting the ground. The last thing anyone needs is that. We also tied the tower of scaffolding off the the bents inside the house to keep the wiggle down and make things safer. Be careful out there, and I will be too.
Mimi and Pop were in the area on Thursday evening and Pop stayed over at Grandma Lana's, so I took off from the paying work on Friday to work on the house. Friday, we were a little behind after dropping the Matrix off at the dealership for repairs and stopping to get some sweet, sweet donuts from Bella Napoli bakery, so we didn't get to the site until about 10am.
We got down to work and started putting foam on the north side of the house. The foam on the living room side of the house went on very quickly and before I knew it, I was approaching the height of the Typar we had on, and before I knew it I had put the first layer of foam over an area with no Typar, working from the third level of scaffold. It was getting late, so we called it a day and decided to remedy that on Saturday
Saturday we started even later, since we had to go pick up the car, then made a run to Harbor Freight before heading up. Grandma Lana came to work with us since Grandpa Tom was watching the kids all day. She went to work on staining siding, while Wendy, Pop and I decided to tackle putting the staircase up as it was covering our cellar access hole. Wendy and I lifted the staircase while Pop inserted some 2x6s as braces to hold the stairs in place after we lifted them up.
Once it was up Pop maneuvered the stairs into the exact position it needed to be in by walking it up and down with another 2x8 and a pry bar. We were able to get it flush to the ceiling and pretty level with that method.
When it was in place, I took the 1 inch plate we had made last week and with Pop's help, put it in behind the outside stringer to take up the space between the stairs and the beam. I think using the discarded end-piece from the stringer really makes it look good.
The best feeling was, after the stairs were up and secured, when Pop looked them over said that it was a good looking staircase. He was a Union carpenter when he was younger (when I was still little he got out of it), and of course knows or what he speaks. He told us all sorts of stories as we worked about the guys who were really good at stairs, and even admitted he found stairs to be difficult, so I took his compliment as high praise of the job we did on them. Now we just need to cut out the loft decking over the stairs so we can actually use them, but that is rainy day work.
After finishing the stairs and having some lunch, we went back to work on the foam. We pulled the remaining scaffold planks out of the loft, where they have been since we finished the roof sheathing last year. We figured that they had been I put the missing Typar in place behind the foam I put up Friday night and covered the rest of the West side of the peak with foam, as far as I could reach from my lofty perch before calling it a day.
Pop decided to stay and work until lunch on Sunday to help us get the foam as buttoned up on the back of the house as possible. We shuffled the third level tower of scaffold over to do so more work. We only have 2 short planks (short enough to cover only one scaffold section, or 2 frames) and only one of them has cleats to help keep it in place, so we put the longer planks on the top so as to have a platform to work on (especially since I needed to use a step stool to get the foam at the peak).
After adding some more foam, I had an accident. After a while of being up on the scaffold you get relaxed with it, and even though I had markers to show where not to walk past, when Pop asked a question of me I thoughtlessly stepped over the line. Fortunately we had the better part of a deck of planks below me, and the plank I was on slid 6 feet down and hit the deck on the second level of scaffold. After recovering and getting off the plank onto the second level of decking, I was a little startled, but full of adrenalin, so I started to put to planks back. When I moved underneath the tower to push the planks back, I stepped on a plank that had shifted a few inches and it swung up and fell through. I caught my weight and was able to stay on a plank on good footing, but now I was shaken. I sat down for a few to get my self settled, and afterward I put the planks back up and came down to have some lunch.
Grandma Lana came up with the kids and Mimi showed up to pick up Pop, so we all chatted for a while and ate lunch. The kids enjoyed seeing the stairs, though they were disappointed that they couldn't actually go up them to the loft. Everyone else took off, leaving Wendy and me to finish the foam. After getting up on the scaffold again, my arms and back were aching - I guess the adrenalin had worn off. I was feeling exhausted, so I came back down and We put some Typar over the bottom of the front door hole to keep the water out of the basement - we had collected a small puddle on the floor inside that had leaked in where there was no paper. At that point we called it a day and vowed to finish the foam next weekend. I also decided I would cut down two of our long planks next week to make enough short planks that this wouldn't be an issue again.
The scaffold is one of the most valuable investments we have made in this house, and we aren't even finished with it yet! I got very lucky that things went the way they did, though. The plank deck on the third level of scaffold is eighteen feet above the ground, which could have resulted in a very serious fall (even 6 feet is enough to hurt you badly), not to mention the planks and tools that could have been falling on top of me after hitting the ground. The last thing anyone needs is that. We also tied the tower of scaffolding off the the bents inside the house to keep the wiggle down and make things safer. Be careful out there, and I will be too.
posted by SKelly | 10:18 PM
1 Comments:
Holy crap! That sounds like a very, very close call. Glad you were able to walk away from that unhurt - the best kind of "hard lesson" to learn I imagine...
Good luck and I'll see you soon...
--Jason
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