There were literally thousands of timbers and planks to deal with: joists, sills, posts, studs, rafters, braces, headers, jambs, all heavy and needing to be sawn and set in place quickly so that sheathing, siding, sub-flooring, flooring, decking and trim could go down.
On day one I learned about positioning the “crown up” for horizontal pieces and the practice of sighting along an edge became instilled. Time would reveal over a period of a few years just how much some timbers would move once they began to dry.
The next choice was to work around knots so that they would not fall in joint areas or right at the end of boards.
One thing I wasn’t aware of was powder post beetles.
Not long after we moved into the house we heard mysterious chewing noises and began to notice powder on the floor in places, invariably under timbers that had sections of bark along waney edges where the beetles lay their eggs. This problem lasted a couple of years until the moisture content in the green wood dropped. We were lucky in that their destructive action was limited and that there were no successive generations. Today I make sure to remove any strips of bark from green timber.
The season progressed:
My brother-in-law Paul Vanas spent his week of summer vacation building a door to the basement and setting up my first table saw.
The closing in process reminded me that fall would soon be ushering in cold winds, the windows,
woodstove, and insulation products would keep us warm, the electric wires provide us light, the copper pipes bring us water: a wonderful shelter was being created.
Dave and I had embarked on an ambitious plan, just two guys starting the construction of a house in May and being done by the first of October so that Courtney and I could move in. It was a great summer. We got her done.
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