clear, hot, but a cool breeze

It was still raining this morning when we got a call at 7:30 from the site foreman saying they were going ahead with raising the frame. He said it looked like it was going to stop raining, and though the forecast called for rain again later, he said the weather for the days ahead looked equally shakey, so they might as well go for it. By the time we got down there at 10:20 with some riceballs and tea for the crew, this is what we saw: most of the posts and cross beams for the first floor were in place.

Over the past few days, they'd been doing the preparations: laying a layer of plastic dividers over the concrete that lets air flow between the foundation and the house itself, and then laying the horizontal beams on top of that, bolting them to the concrete and burning them with a butane torch. This is supposed to ward off termites and prevent rot. I'll let you know how it works in 10 or 20 years or so.

By the time we left a little after four, most of the framing had been done, and they were getting ready to start on the roof, since once they get the rough roofing down and waterproofed, they don't have to worry about rain delays much. M, m and I were all sunburned, since it turned out to be a beauty of a day, with a nice breeze off the sea. I had a great day, climbing all over the scaffolding and watching this event take place. None of the carpenters talked much, but there's no loafing, no wasted moments, no overlapping of jobs. It's like watching a well-oiled machine in action. The foreman had to yell at them at three to stop working for the snack break. More than once, and he finally had to threaten a few of them.

We found out from the foreman that he had to unload all of this lumber yesterday with no forklift, no crane, nothing. He and another foreman from the same contractor (and a reluctant truck driver) had to carry all this from the truck to the site. It's not that far, but it is a huge amount of wood, and every time a car came down the one-way road, they'd have to re-attach the sides of the truck bed and drive it around the block. He was laughing about it. How it took six or seven hours. How he conned the other foreman into the job. How pissed the other foreman was.