January 25th, 2020 We got some wood on it.

The week was horribly rainy every day, so not much got done in the way of real work. But we did work on some things while it was raining.

We didn't let the weather slow us to a stand still though the rain kept us indoors for the most part, doing a few small projects. We bought a new sliding compound miter saw from Amazon and it needed a mobile bench to bolt it down to so we can move it nearer the house build. The saw is a wonderful tool that will easily cut up to twelve inch lumber with laser accuracy, so this was something we have a lot of work for. The bench we built for the new saw will sit on some new saw horses we built as the new saws very first project.

Other than this small stuff we bought the borate treated, bottom plate, lumber on Monday. This is the "green" marine treated lumber that sits on top of the concrete foundation and the rest of the house gets nailed to this first layer.  On Thursday I went up to Woodland, Washington to pick up the balance of the wood we will need to put the sub-floor frame together.

Lumber isn't something that can be chiseled for price very much. At Parr Lumber a sixteen foot 2x12 runs about twenty-eight dollars. We can save a bit by going to Home Depot where the wood runs about $23 dollars a board. But in Woodland, Washington (60 miles away) the same board runs about $18, but you have to dig through the boards to find good wood. It is worth ten dollars a board to us to drive an hour and load them myself, especially since the sub-floor frame alone uses seventy boards. We will re-use the concrete form lumber and save a thousand dollars, then save ten dollars a board on the remaining twenty-nine boards, bringing the sub-floor frame in at about half the expected price. This is right in line with our eighty-five percent rule (85% of our desires for 50% of the money).

Today the rain let up and it was about fifty-five degrees outside with some sunny breaks. We spent the morning doing a routine clean-out of the chicken coop .  The coop has had a perennial  rat problem. The little buggers come in under the front edge and work their way toward the chicken food dispenser, every few weeks we try another way of keeping them out. We added a layer of chicken wire under the floor, but it probable won't work. Rats are clever, and they have all the time in the world to figure a way around our defenses. We built a new rat live catch trap this morning . . . Maybe it will work.

In the afternoon we put the green boards we bought onto the foundation permanently. The first step of framing the house. Since the foundation has a bunch of bolts embedded in it, we had to find a way to mark the green boards accurately so that the wood and the boards line up properly with the bolts holding them down. Eventually we figured it all out and added a layer of closed cell foam between the concrete and the green boards to make sure everything is well protected from any moisture coming up through the concrete.

We still have to dig a bit under the house. This week's rain didn't allow much digging in the mud. But with any luck we'll get the trenches dug out, then we'll be able to nail the sub-floor frame together and get the preliminary plumbing installed.

After a few minor inspections we'll have a floor to walk on, enough to begin putting up some walls.