Framing: 1st Floor - 4th Inspection

I started this post November 2018 and am just now posting. My apologizes to my few, faithful followers.

The start of the new year brings with it the next phase of building - the framing!! Framing the house encompasses the 1st and 2nd floor sub-floors, the 1st and 2nd floor walls and the roof. There's a lot that goes into the framing so let's get started with the 1st floor sub floor as there's three big pieces that go into this part of the framing phase.

Number 1, the Girders - these are what I call "Wood Sandwiches" as they consist of 3 - 2" x 12" pieces of pressure treated wood that are glued and nailed together with a sheet of plywood (cut to fit the dimensions of the 2 x 12) in between. Below is a picture of the one of the girders made by Chip. They are extremely heavy! The girder sits at the same level as the mudsill.

Chip is working on building and placing the first girder - it will span the length of the house. 

Number 2, the Joists - These are placed perpendicular to the girders and there's a lot more of these as they aren't the big stabilizers like the girders.

Sister-in-law, Shawn, taking measurements.

Number 3, the Sheeting - these are the plywood sheets that sit atop the girders and joists; aka: the part that you can walk over. Although, when the house is finished no one can see the sheeting (unless you're in the crawlspace and look up) because it's the sub floor.

Those are the three big parts to a sub floor with a crawl space. There were many other pieces and parts to get the phase of framing complete and we had friends, family and neighbors helping when it was needed. During this phase of construction, Chip ended up the in the ER one evening. He was sheeting the floor and was almost finished. He thought there was sheeting a few feet behind him so stepped back and fell in between the floor joists. The right side of his body scrapped the side of one joist and his forehead broke the fall when his right eyebrow hit the sheeting in front of him. Blood splattered everywhere. Our neighbors helped him up and I ran outside to find Chip holding a shirt to his forehead to stop the bleeding. Bullheaded that he is, Chip was determined to stop the bleeding and continue building. Fortunately, the neighbors convinced him to call it a day and to get his laceration stitched up by a professional so he wouldn't have a gnarly scar on his face for life. He reluctantly agreed, to which I breathed a sighed of grateful relief.  With the fear and stress of what could have been worse behind us, our next concern was focused on the dreaded ER visit. The experience wasn't as horrible as we were dreading perhaps because he had a legitimate reason to attend the ER. In the end, Chip skinned, scrapped and banged his right side from eyebrow to calf, needed several stitches and was sore and stiff the next few days but we were both grateful that was the worst of the accident.

Below are a few more pictures to end on a positive note.

Me supervising!! Hahaha. Nah, I'm probably asking questions. 

My sister-in-law, Shawn, is a hard worker. She handled the palm nailer like a pro. 

The joists are almost done and sub floor will go in next. 

The joists almost done.

Chip perched precariously on two joists. 

Nailing in the first few sheets of sub floor.

 P.S. No cost breakdown here - I'm posting this so late that I've lost track of receipts. Safe to say it was only the cost of materials, pizza to feed our helpers and 1 ER visit.