by From Saturday, November 25 – Thursday, November 30 my dad and I set out to get all the framing done at my house. People ask me all the time how did I learn to do the DIY stuff I do? Well most of it I learned from watching my dad. Working with my dad is usually not a fun experience. He lacks patience, does not always give concise and clear direction/instructions, and a question is almost always viewed as “questioning”, which is a cardinal sin. However, years ago I heard God gave us two eyes, two ears, and one mouth for a reason. Although it is difficult to always keep my mouth shut I watch and listen to what he does and from that I’ve developed some pretty great DIY skills. As with my deck project from several years ago, my Dad’s skills and knowledge saved me $1000’s in contractor fees and for that I’m grateful. I will still need to finish the back wall of the linen closet (floor must be laid first) and I laid the sub floor in the first floor bath the day after he left, but credit for my ability to do so clearly lies with him.
My old house gave my dad fits. Current wall studs are spaced inconsistently, floor joist aren’t level or sag, but he was bound and determined that his walls and floors would be plum and straight and by golly they are. Thankfully everyday we were joined by at least one member of my demolition crew (Cameron, John, Jermaine, Greg and/or newcomer Anthony). Hopefully they learned a few things during their time with him. Unfortunately I don’t have any pics showing Cameron, Jermaine, and Anthony sistering the floor joist in the basement, but thank you Jonathon Scott and @PropertyBrothers. Originally we were going to remove all the compromised joist (which were true 2 bys) and replace them with double, modern, 2x10s, but Drew had similar problems at his Honeymoon house and Jonathan sistered his. My dad said that was a much easier fix. The original joists were seriously bowed, but the sistered beams are perfectly leveled to each other thanks to his diligence.
While they were struggling to jack the joist in place (we channeled our inner @ChipGaines using a car jack) I worked upstairs in my master suite removing the pine floor from the “wet area” of the bathroom and laying sub floor. I’ll be able to use that pine flooring to patch other areas in the house (also like Chip Gaines from the shotgun house), including completing the flooring in the new linen closet.
The most fun for me was getting to use my new framing nailer and Jobmax tool. I don’t know if it was because I tensed up preparing for the kick back after pulling the trigger, but I am more sore in the shoulders from working on framing than I was doing the demo swinging a crowbar. Here are more pics of the latest milestone.
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