Week 7: The Spider, the Pit and the Hold-Down.

Before the lumber is delivered we'll be covering all of these
pipes with gravel making it much easier -- and safer -- for us
when we're erecting walls and building in general.  My iphone
makes keeping a photographic record of all this stuff really easy.

Because the new house has a footprint smaller than 750 sq. ft. the city allows us
to run our footing and downspout drains to an 'infiltration pit', more commonly
known as a dry well, which we located near the corner of the property by the alley.
This will be filled with 2"-4" rock and then covered over with gravel. Here Cecillio
 is nearly finished, having dug to a depth of approximately 4 ft.

That's a lot of lumber!

First wall up!

The detail indentation at the top of the foundation will allow the  rain-screen siding to flush up to the side of the foundation, keeping everything in plane.  It should look pretty cool and 'architectural' as long as the reveals
( the gaps between materials) remain consistent and tight.

Most of the first floor walls are up, though they still need to be leveled and plumbed.  Next up
will be the big steel beam running down the center of the building, the 4 x 10 joists and then the
second floor framing.

Here is a photo of an HTT22 hold-down.  These will be bolted to the foundation and nailed to
double studs at all the critical corners of the shear walls.  We have four shear walls, so we'll be
using eight of these.  

We've had tons of spiders here this season.  Every morning when Kaleb or Cecillio come to
work, up goes the spider arm.