First floor joists

Once our RPSLs were up we got right to putting in our first floor and some rough decking. This was important for safety and allowed us to put up some scaffolding for easier access to our walls.

Our friend Russ came to help out for the afternoon when we set our ledger boards. We set these 2x8s along the log walls and made sure they were level.

Once our ledger boards were all in place, we bolted them in with pairs of 1/2" x 6" lag bolts every 2' along each board. We were able to plumb these ledgers by tightening or loosening either the top or the bottom bolt.

With the ledgers were properly secured, we hung joist hangers on them and started laying down our floor joists. To level our floor joists, we decided to shim them where they rest on the girder. Doing this instead of notching the girder seemed easier to us.

All the joists up and we were able to put down some rough decking. This plywood now goes about 8' in around all 4 walls.

Ridge Pole Support Logs Up!

Yesterday we lifted our first Ridge Pole Support Log (RPSL), and lifted the other two today. These logs go directly up from the basement to hold up the Ridge Pole at the center of our roof. Normally people put these logs up last, but we chose to put them in early so we could put up our first floor sooner.

 Here's Steve watching as Angelo set the first RPSL in place. We rested it between the south wall and the first floor girder.

Using the forklift to lift the first RPSL into place.

After about 2 hours of messing around with the machine, we got the first RPSL in place.

With the experience we got on the first day, the second RPSL went up in about an hour.

Before we knew it, the third RPSL was up. After each RPSL was in place, we drilled holes in our foundation to set brackets in place with anchor bolts. Then we drilled through the RPSL into the girder and held them in place with 1/2" x 6" lag bolts.

1st log through the 15th

Dropped our first log May 22nd, 2011. Here's Angelo pounding the rebar to the side.

By May 26th we had two full courses and our first floor girder dropped. Here's Steve working the forklift to put the girder in place.

With our first floor joists resting on this girder, our basement ceilings are going to be about 10ft high. It'll be a huge open space with tons of exposed log.

The way we left the place about 2 weeks ago when we went on vacation.

Panoramic view from the inside. 3.5 courses up, many more to go.






After 2 weeks off, we're heading back up on Monday, June 13th. We'll be working non-stop for the next month after that, so expect some serious progress. We also just had internet installed on site, so we'll be able to do more frequent updates.