Obstacles Are Weak Walls

The wall framing is tedious, thought provoking, and important. Each corner of the house must work with the others. They need to be the same height, come together at a perfect 90° angle, and support one another. A house cannot be simply "four walls". The walls need to be a cohesive unit that work together.

The neighbor that I spoke of in my last post is Jimmy Jackson. He used to be in construction, and has been out of work for a long time due to falling off a roof. He broke his hip, and things are tough for him. He has so much knowledge and experience that I am able to tap into as I work on this house! Learning from mistakes is good, but learning before you make the mistake is even better!

Jimmy and I framed the first wall on the trailer before lifting it into place. They others we did on the ground, and then lifted and maneuvered them into position. For the walls, I followed Tumbleweed's design to the centimeter. I do not want to mess anything up at all!

 

Here comes the tricky part... I'm not working on a level surface. I can't use a level to tell me when the wall is in the correct place! Jimmy had the solution. We nailed blocks of wood to the floor, and used a 2x4 to brace the walls and keep them in their correct position. We used the Pythagorean Theorem to get each wall into position before attaching the brace.

As you can see, we did not get lazy with the braces!

 

As you're framing walls, take the time to lay out your stud placements.  That is, mark where each stud should be on both the top plate and bottom plate. It will make everything smoother, and will help you catch mistakes BEFORE you make them! Another interesting lesson is this : When using long screws, sometimes they want to give up before they're all the way into the wood. If you put some hand soap on the tip of them, it helps the screw keep going! (And the job site smells better)

With every passing day, this crazy dream of mine begins to become reality. I've had the desire to take on this challenge, but I've let obstacles get in my way. " I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. I don't know how to (fill in the blank)." What are these, other than excuses? Worthless excuses that I told myself for 6 years before I chose to put aside my fear, and jump in. 

"Obstacles are weak walls without foundations;  if you fear them,  they will defeat you. But the fact is, that they are even afraid of you. So why are you frightened?"

 - Israelmore Ayivor