You guys.
We have a GARAGE. Not just a slab… but actual walls and a covered ceiling and a doorway and window space and garage door space and oh my goodness, WE HAVE A GARAGE!
Day one.
The festivities began at about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Brett was setting up the tool table and I was organizing the coolers. It was muggy, hazy, humid and hot. Because of the bad wildfires in Canada, the haze helped shield some of the sun for most of the day but even at 6:30 we were sweating.
My parents and brother showed up around 7:00 and we immediately dove into working.
We had to take the old Tyvek paper off the existing side of the house and do a few other odds-and-ends to get started. And then it was putting together the walls. We built them in sections on the ground and then lifted them up into place and screwed them down.
Once the math-stuff was figured out, everything went fairly quickly.
Throughout the remainder of the morning, more help started to arrive. The guys kind-of knew what they were doing which meant they had to work. Us ladies had the pleasure of chatting and catching up in between bringing over studs and other random equipment they needed.
The last wall was framed in and put up at around 12:30, which was the perfect time to break for lunch. The trusses were the next up and having done this before, we knew they were going to be awful. I think we were all putting it off as long as we could, so food it was!
After lunch it was time for the fun part: putting up the 44-foot trusses.
My brother-in-law (BIL) was on the roof, ready to catch the top. Brett was on a ladder off to the right and the rest of us were in charge of hauling it in, getting each side on the wall and pushing the peak towards the sky. We had to do this without killing anyone.
Once the first truss was secured, BIL scaled along the bottom of each truss and had to catch the next one and secure it to the previous one with a 2×4. Our stomachs were in knots the entire time.
About 1/4 of the way through, my genius BIL created ‘The Jig’ that allowed him to hold in place the new truss against the old truss making the entire process one million times easier. It’s the hardest thing to explain so I’ll just say that the likelihood of injury dramatically went down and the time maneuvering the truss into place was cut in half. I would be so bold as to say he saved the day. But we’ll never tell that to his face, of course 🙂
If you see that little jut-out on the right side for the single-car garage, you’ll notice that it’s missing its trusses. That’s because (of course) they sent the wrong size. We’re hoping the new ones will be in this weekend. Thankfully they’re a piece of cake to put up compared to the large ones and shouldn’t take too much time.
Once the trusses were up and secured, we called it a night and had family dinner. It was a looooong day and we were all pretty exhausted.
Day two.
We slept in a little and didn’t start until about 8:30 this time! Shocking, right?!
Today, putting up the sheathing on the walls and roof was the goal. Unfortunately, the haze was lifted and it was even hotter out than the previous day.
We started on the back side and worked our way around to the side with the door and window. The debate was whether or not to do the roof first while it was cool but the sheathing made the roof more stable so it made sense to do that first instead.
It was a repetitive process of measure, cut, nail. Us girls were in charge of bringing the boards to the proper station while the guys cut and nailed. It was a pretty slick process and between you and me, my arms got a nice workout 🙂
Once again, they started on the roof around lunchtime; we tried to work WITH the sun instead of against it and move the guys around the roof based on the shady spots. It worked a little but it was still way too hot.
I believe they nailed down the last piece of the day around 5:00 p.m. and we closed out the evening with a frozen pizza picnic on our new deck. It was the perfect way to end a wonderfully exhausting weekend.
The rest of the sheathing was finished on Tuesday and Wednesday – and we did put up new Tyvek paper (except it’s called something else that’s escaping me) late Wednesday evening but I don’t have any pictures of that yet.
So, my friends. We have a garage. A real, tangible, garage.
And in real North Country Nest fashion, it’s about that time we tell you what’s next on the garage list:
This weekend, Brett is hoping to get the two smaller trusses up and then finish the sheathing around that single stall.
The roof needs to be prepped for the shingles and next weekend we’ll (hopefully) be roofing. I know, exciting, right?!
After the roofing, we can call in the inspector to check on the framing. Then it’s time for wiring, after which the state inspector comes in to check on everything. And that’s about as far in advance as we have the brain capacity to handle!
Have a great weekend!
All our best,
Leave a Reply