Some updates

Ok, we're behind, but to give you a sense of where we've been...

July 26th: the mason grouted the holes in the block every 48" and sunk a 16" J-anchor. Jeb & I drilled and bolted down the pressure-treated mudsills to cap the block wall. The Monday after, this is our first lumber delivery.

These are the "LVLs"--laminated veneer lumber. Essentially giant plywood beams. These things weigh a ton. At 16' & 24', it took 4 of us to carry them over and place them inside on temporary block columns.

July 29: We are getting close to our vacation in Cape May and we're not quite where we want to be. (somehow we'd imagined the house would be under a roof by then)

Props to Jeb. He drilled 39 1/2" holes 6" into the concrete pads (I drilled one, just to try it). Tip: hammer drill of any size beats big half-inch rotary drill! Julie's workin' the Styrofoam (see previous entry).

July 30: Beams are in but yet leveled for the floor joists.

Beam pockets of my own design. J-hooks mortared into the holes and bolted to heavy duty angles, with beam thru-bolted. Concerned about getting the beams positioned just right, I designed something super-strong but with room to "adjust" for any errors (which, we, learn, are inevitable).

Pressure treated lumber base with 1/2" pine shim to bring level with the mudsills (top left).

August 2: Eric & Jeb decided to try parging the outside of the wall. Meant to protect the block and mortar from moisture and mechanical damage, and provides a substrate for the damp-proofing. This was 45 minutes and small mixes of mortar. Once again, I'm thinking of a certain mason...

Meanwhile...

We installed level lines in 3 places across the beams.

Here's a close-up. Then, we're told, take a 2x4 piece and slip it under the line as it crosses each beam. If the beam's low, there will be a gap between the wood and the string (which must be bar-tight). If the beam's high, it'll push up on the string.

The joists in the background...first I did some layout. Here's a close -up:

This, we're told by our builder-consultants, is best done by one person--minimizes errors. The right-edge mark is 15 1/4" for the sill edge. X marks the joist, so it sits 16" on-center. This had to be done on 2 sills and all beams. Ok, maybe this seems like everything was going on at once that day. It was.

Under the steel columns note the little thin black composite shims to bring the floor level. Composite is preferred over cedar shims, which are too soft and still a little moisture prone. 3 of the columns were too high. Concrete block temporary columns were placed, and the long columns were unbolted and sent back to the steel fabricator for shortening.

And finally, a sleeve of 6" drain pipe, set in place at a slight downward angle with hydraulic cement. This was taken before the outside was filled.

A particularly busy day. And then we left for Cape May (Yay!)