I’ve commented before on how different stages of construction cause the project to present different appearances. With the second floor framing well underway, and almost all of the first floor sheathing done, it looks like boxes set on top of boxes. Which isn’t at all what the design looks like! Without the roof you don’t get the angled lines and planes which soften, and hide, the fundamentally rectangular nature of any set of rooms.
These monstrous beams, supporting the master bedroom over the garage, were both raised and put into place by hand. It was a very impressive evolution to watch, reminding me of how large masses were moved before we had powered cranes and lifts: big exertion to raise one end a few inches, block it into place, big exertion to raise the other end a few inches, block it into place, rinse, lather and repeat.
An interesting oddity in the process was how the foreman coordinated the efforts of the four or five workmen. For small lifts it was “uno, dos, tres” lift. For bigger lifts it was “one, two, three” lift. This pattern repeated itself several times while I was watching, so I don’t think it was an accident. I suspect that when maximum effort was called for, he wanted to ensure the Anglos pushed at the same time :).
I’ve written before how houses use a lot of metal hangers and connectors, not just nails. They also use a lot of glue. In fact, it’s the glue the really contributes most of the strength and squeak-less-ness of the subflooring over the long term. Of course, with glue comes glue guns, leading to some interesting imagery:
Next up, roof trusses. Once those are delivered and installed we’ll start to see some of the angles and slopes take shape.
