When the beam gets heavy, these men fold their arms.

Our construction crew, Jeff the Pirate, Larry the Hairy (note hat), Mark the Orange, and Dave, who has the biggest hat.

A well deserved celebration after the noon whistle blew.
Thanks guys!

Beam work begins

The crew arrives early and bright. (We'll give them the benefit of the doubt.) They cut some 2x4s for bracing.

A temporary 2x4 stud wall holds up the second floor while we figure out how to take out the old beam.

The beam starts to give with some prybar help

Jeff and Mark adjust the new, deeper beam's first half as it is set in place.

Larry and Jeff ruminate on beams and the beer to follow

Dave holds up the whole 2-ton beam all by himself.

Well, Mark and Larry helped.

Jeff adjusts the new post.

 

Dave nails in the last of 64 nails. (Jeff and Larry helped.) See, Jeremy, we do listen to the engineers instructions.

 

New beam, it all its bracketed glory.

 

Really opens up the space!

A little trim work

With the help of friends we are making progress on the trim work in the studio.

Each window has nine pieces of wood showing and several pieces that don't show. It is slow and we are very careful with the power tools, which is the only way to be.

And Dave and I did a high five after we hung the first door of our marriage. (We are learning to not look too close at the work.) It even works. I installed the hardware this morning and we have a colorful door that will match a color in the nearby painting. The trim will be stained later to match the jamb.

This may not look like much, but what you are not looking at is, er, are, bare uninsulated studs. The west wall had no insulation or drywall until just before my sister and brother-in-law arrived for a visit. Nothing like the motivation of a deadline! Also, there is painted trim installed around door and base. That's new, too.

Lake deck is done!

The crew finished the beach deck today and we're ready to celebrate summer!
Father and son head out to try some new fishing lures...
Time now to spruce up the beach area!

The Deck Repair Continues

Working on Saturday the crew got the deck done to the railings, all but the cables.
They came and drilled the holes for the cable railing on Monday morning.
At the top of the steps they built a wooden platform, which feels much more secure than before!

Deck boards on, steps, too. On to the railings!

The work continues on the deck. All new Timbersil deckboards (guaranteed for 40 years against rot, bugs and even fire.)
New steps going up to the main ground level and work starting on the posts. Sure a lot sturdier than it was!!