Little House in the Big Woods - In Mud We Truss

I left Texas on October 20. 

My plan was to come to the Pacific Northwest to oversee the building of a house. 

My plan should have been to come to the Pacific Northwest to build an ark.

At the end of November I've been near continually rained upon for 31 out of 36 days. I expected rain in the Pacific Northwest, I also expected the rain to stop sometime. It hasn't. At best it has merely paused to gather more moisture from the atmosphere and then pour it upon my head and the earth. The air is too thin for fish to swim, yet nearly too wet and thick to breathe. The construction site has become the definition for a slopapalooza mudfest. The framing crew shows up every morning and works through the weather. I give them credit - I would not want to do it.

The center support beam is added to the design so floor trusses don't have to span the entire width of the basement.

Once the basement was framed up, we needed the floor trusses to span the length of the basement on which to put down the sub-flooring decking for the first floor. The truss company rep looked at the architect's blue prints and shook his head; "No way this design is going to work for this house," he said. "I framed houses for years, you shouldn't put your trusses across that kind of span." 

Floor trusses come nine days late. Supply Chain.

My contractor and the truss man agreed, the way it was drawn, the floor would have about 1 1/2 inches of bounce when you crossed the living room. At best, a poor design. The truss company then redesigned and came up with a new scheme that involved two heavy beams supported on top of the basement's cement walls and the trusses would only span half way across the basement void,  resting on the center beam for support. It took four redesigns and days of delay before we had a workable plan.

Arriving floor trusses drop down in a rare break from the ever-present rain.

We were told the trusses would be arriving on November 10th. The redesign and engineering set us up for delays. I've heard this tune before. Phil, the contractor, rattled their chains and they promised the re-engineered trusses would be built and delivered on the 17th - No, strike that, they would now be ready on the 19th.  

 

Crew set floor trusses according to the 4th redesign plans.

Twelve day delay waiting for trusses

The truck carrying the trusses found a less muddy place and set its outriggers and used its boom to unload the package of floor trusses. It looked like a return to progress after spending long, idle days waiting inside my trailer as I watched the rain come down with no construction going on.

The framing crew had finished their work as far as they could on November 10th, waiting for the promised trusses before they could continue. The framing crew returned to work on November 22nd, after twelve days of dead time. 

The place had not gotten any drier. The crew set the beam and slid the floor trusses in place as the rain came down. I gave praise for the return of home building progress. 

My motto: In Mud We Truss.