Pointed Playhouse: Cold, Busy Weekend

48 degrees and the first fire in the fireplace of the season this evening. Mosquitoes may have flown to Florida.

To be absolutely honest I feel as though I wiped out on my bike. I'm am bruised, cut and tired from the long cold days but it was still fun. The project is small and nothing ends up taking too long. It was a productive weekend and at the end of each day I just could not sit down and write in this Blog. The weather changed and it is now cold, dry and the feel of Autumn has arrived.

On Saturday I began to put the plywood sheathing up on the north side of the house and finished putting in the two windows. I was impressed by the quality of the windows as they are supposed to be "contractor grade" and made by Anderson but under a different name. They slide nicely and have a screen.

Vanna White showing her window (fenster).

On Sunday I started in on the second floor by nailing in the second plate that goes around the entire ridge and laps over the first plate to lock it together. The rim joists, which were left sixteen feet long were ganged together and I drew out the locations for all of the cross joists. Just like the walls I had to plan for the start of the first sheet of plywood and then allow the far edge to overlap the joists to make room for the next sheet. The plywood edges need to be sitting on a joist.

Second plate over the first.

End of rim joists left long and dog eared. I will add "false" dog ears along the ends to make it look as though long beams were used to support the second floor.

Window with window wrap.

While running the large plywood from the driveway I dropped a sheet off of my back and onto the skin on the back of my leg above the heal. It did not shave the hair away but instead rolled the skin down to my sock. It did not stain my sock much.

I still have yet to erect the last end wall, which will occur when I get the large timbers for the German doors that I have been storing for almost 20 years. I have the hinge pins that are really for gates but should work fine. The entire top of the house now has a plywood floor to keep the weather out and to give me a safe place to work while building and raising the second floor end walls. Later I will cut through the first floor ceiling to expose the loft.