Work Day 22 - RG Project

Things went well today. I didn't get as far as I wanted, but the whole place didn't come down on our heads ether. As I cut away and dropped the ceiling joists the center beam started to sag more and more. So we had to change things a little. I had to remove the 2x6x16' rafters that I had used for planks to walk on. Their weight was making things worse. So I had to do it from underneath. There was no way I was going up there again. I had already cut loose at least four joists. The ceiling joists are 2x6's 22 feet long.

The other problem was that I had to remove the boards that were tiring the joists to the center beam. I used the ladder, but it is just a little shorter than I like for that kind of thing. But I did get it done.

In the picture you can see where I cut the joist on the right side, east. And notice that there is nothing on the left side. When the joist would fall it would pull the other end off the sill plate and come crashing down. But the center beam was toe nailed to the joist and I had to pry it loose with a 2x6x16'. I used it like a long crowbar. I got 14 down, one still hanging, and only broke three. One broke in half. I thought, I was walking on those?? There are 18 left. We left the ones above the windows to help keep the walls stable. BTW the walls do move a little.

Tomorrow we will remove the blocks above and between the windows. We will leave the end walls until last. The corners make them more stable that the long walls. We don't want the walls coming down on their own.

We were a little nerves there for a while but, we worked it out. If we could have just gone back on top and removed the 2x6 planks and the center beam, it would have been easy. But that was not an option once I cut loose enough of them and it began to sag. Tomorrow should be fun.