Sunday, February 24, 2013

Beaming Up

     Yesterday was BIG! It was exactly 4"x12"x13', and I wish I could tell you how much it weighed. Steven and I are so incredibly thankful for the help from Ryan, Craig M., and Craig R. You guys have definitely earned some credit, so let us know when we can help with your next project :) Yesterday's job was a full 12-hour day, whew! Can't imagine how the guys felt at the end of the day - I was pooped, and I was pretty much just the gopher.
     In preparation for pushing out a wall to enclose the future dining area, we installed an LVL (laminated veneer lumber) beam to support the load of the original roof. Obviously, a beam of that size requires some heavy duty framing below it.

Hopefully this helps you visualize the scenario. There will also be
reinforcement placed between the LVL beam and the added roof.
 

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Call 811 and Hope They Know What's Below

     Let's get the bad news over with before we get to the good stuff. You may remember from my last post that we were going to hire a contractor to do an exterior overhaul (i.e., framing the exterior wall in the future dining room, plus windows and siding for the whole house). Right after meeting with the contractor about his estimate, we went straight to the bank to begin the loan process. Then we came to a screeching halt. There was just no possible way we could qualify to borrow the amount needed to cover the exterior work from the contractor, even with great credit and our mortgage being our only debt. 
     We attempted to bring down his price by focusing on what really NEEDS to be done now instead of the whole exterior. The contractor certainly tried to work with us on that, but the reduced job would have just been too small for his crew. It was pretty frustrating for us, but I completely understand that contractors, carpenters, etc. would prefer jobs that last longer than a week or two. We took it as a compliment when he said we were not like his typical clients; he also said we would get more bang for our buck by doing the work ourselves.