We weren’t in any hurry to set the the tall wall posts. We procrastinated that job as hard as we possibly could, if I’m being honest. We found plenty to keep us busy, though

The short posts needed to be leveled and shimmed, and needed an offset double sillplate and an edge cap, to begin with. Those job were pleasantly simple. Everything was at chest-high or lower, straight vertical hammering. A delightful change from some of the contortions necessary for other parts of the build. The worst part of this bit of the job was making sure that the angle on the sillplates was correct.

Because of a minor mix up on Raising Day, the final two joists had to be wrestled in on the ends at this point. The flooring was already down. The sillplates and end caps were already bridging the ends of the joists. These facts made the placing of these two joists a miserably difficult, very frustrating, rather dangerous job. It took 3 people an entire day to get the first one up. It had to be hauled 8 ft up in the air and then wedged into the (very tight) space. We had two ladders, no pry bar, none of the tools that would make this remotely OSHA approved. Quite frankly, it sucked. But we got it done and learned a lot in the doing.

For the last joist on the other end, we worked smarter not harder. The first one had been such a miserable job, (and caused us both two days of fairly extreme pain) that we were not at all eager to repeat it. Instead of putting up the whole 20ft at once, we did half at a time. It worked considerably better and only took us a couple hours while the first one had stolen an entire day. It also didnt leave us needing painkillers at the end of the day.

Once these two joists were up, the final two middle-row posts could be finagled into place. Thos was somewhat tricky as, not only did they have to be lowered onto the beam through the floor, but theh also had to be notched to fit over the two new joists. It took time. And remeasuring and recutting. And frustration.

Eventually, when all the other jobs were done, we had to set the tall posts. We did everything we could to make the process safe(r) and simple(r). We put the edgeboard on first, to prevent the ends from sliding off the edge of the roof. We had cleats and braces ready to be screwed on immediately. All the same, balancing incredibly heavy 8ft 6x6s on their end, on the very edge of an already 8ft wall is a paranoid sort of job. All vehicles were moved out of the potential drop zone, and the kids weren’t allowed within 100 yards of the build site. I didnt mention it at the time, but I had 9-1- dialled in on my phone, just in case something went horribly awry. Blessedly nothing did. After all the dread, it was entirely anticlimactic.