The supplemental joists arrived, so we had work to do. Alone. Time to find out how well we were paying attention to instructions on the build day. In a way, the joists were the easiest thing we’ve done. No measuring, no cutting, just put them up, make sure they’re in the right spot, toenail them down and laminate the middle ends together. (I didn’t know words like ‘toenail’ and ‘laminate’ before the build day). 16 foot long 2×8’s are plenty heavy, I’ll tell you that.

Joists finished, next was end caps and sill plates. There are a lot of redundancies in this structure. It is built STRONG, Amish style. As a result, we had lots of chances to learn how to do a particular thing.

Getting the caps and plates on took a couple days. It’s mostly just the two of us, after all, and we weren’t terribly confident yet that we were doing things correctly. After the caps and plates, next comes the loft flooring. 720 sq ft of 5/8inch tongue and groove plywood.

Let me say, for the record: I HATE TONGUE AND GROOVE WITH A LASTING PASSION!

The flooring took forever. None of it was remotely simple, and what we had assumed would take a day, took us three very long, very frustrating days. I asked my husband just now how long he remembers that process taking. “Uh…at least a week?”. I had remembered nearly 2 weeks, but as I documented every step of the process, I can prove it was only a few days. It just felt endless.

It is CHILLY up on top when the wind blows; which is almost always out here. When the wind blows and you’re wrestling 4×8 sheets of plywood up over the wall, it is also slightly terrifying. We finished the job with no incidents, though.

Next up, placing the second story posts in place…won’t THAT be fun…