Start Framing - check
My wife couldn't join me today so I headed over to check things out directly from work. I arrived right around 5pm and was please to see the Worker Bees still hard at work. I pulled up in front of the model homes and proceeded to sit back and watch them work. Now I know how things happen so fast...there were 6 guys and they were simply amazing. It was non-stop motion and yet everything seemed synchronized and choreographed. They were buzzing all around the foundation, tape measures zipping in and out, hammers swinging, boards being carried to and fro. Since the foundation sits above street level I could only sit there and assume they were installing the sill plate. That is exactly what they were doing. Since it was a little after 5pm on a Friday before a holiday weekend I figured they would finish up the sill plate and call it a day. I couldn't have been more wrong. As they were finishing up the sill plate, one guy fires up the mini crane and goes over to one of the piles of lumber...next thing I know here he comes back with a steel beam...now where were those hiding. He brings it over to the house...lowers it out of site into the foundation with the other worker bees swarming all around. He pulls back and grabs another one and repeats the process. Then he grabs a huge one and while they are fastening that one into place, 2 of the other worker bees go over and grab a smaller steel beam and hoist it up and carry it across and put it in place by hand then grab another one and repeat. Before I knew it, it was 8pm and they were driving off and I was free to snap some pictures. They did not stop at all for the entire 3 hours I was there...amazing...simply amazing. At one point I felt like I was watching the wack-a-mole game...different guys heads kept popping up from the basement in different areas and then would disappear only to reappear again somewhere else. They were so in sync that at one point 3 of them all reach down and hoisted up their tool belts all at the same time...it was hilarious!!!
Mini Crane/Hoist with big beam!!!
Framing for basement
Beams and posts
The only post in the entire basement that is not contained in a wall is the one in the back on the right.
Closer shot of the sill plate and framed basement window
As some of you have commented about the size of the basement, I think our worker bees must have played a little soccer in the basement during lunch...they forgot to take their ball with them.
And finally - 2 pics just for LaLady
You stayed and watched them for 3 hours?! That's unreal. It must have been something to see...
ReplyDeleteAnd on that note, your description of how hard those guys were working, and how synchronized they are made me start thinking about how "worker bees" doesn't really describe them. I've actually been thinking about this a lot. Without those guys that work 12-14 hour days in all weather conditions and on holiday weekends, our houses would take more than 3 months from start to finish, and might not be constructed as well. So, I'm going to think of another way to refer to them. Craftsmen? Tradesmen? Carpenters? Besides, isn't it better to think your house was constructed by "craftsmen" rather then "worker bees?"
I need to decide on my terminology soon, because framing should start on our house next week!
3 HOURS BD!!!! You watched them for 3 hours!!??!!?? WOW!!! You go boy!!
ReplyDeleteLOL at "whack-a-mole". The soccer ball is a new thing I haven't seen before. lol
I have NO idea what a sill plate is or what it does. Your knowledge of all this still blows me away.
It looks really good. (other than the trash)
@Ranter - Craftsmen is definitely what these guys are!!!
ReplyDeleteThe sill plate is the wood that is attached/anchored to the concrete foundation. The walls of the house are then attached to the sill plate.
Ok Ok Ok...yes 3 hours...I'm a guy and enjoy seeing guys do guy things...these guys are true craftsmen and it was nice seeing a group work so well as a team and so hard...none of this 2 guys working 4 standing around watching...that never happened...not once!!!
Im with ya BD. I once watched two houses being built (one framing, one pouring foundation) in our current neighborhood for close to an hour...and it wasn't even my house!! Ha, definately a guy thing.
ReplyDelete