When I last wrote about it, I had managed to dig and level the foundations of the barn. The weather seems to have finally broken (for a few days, anyway), and a friend came over Friday afternoon to help with construction. I'd already put together most of the floor joists on Thursday, then finished them Friday before he arrived.

We put down one sheet of floor decking to square things up (diagonals are within 1" of each other; that's square enough for my purposes), then all the remaining exposed joists got nailed to the skids underneath, effectively locking everything together.





Once that was complete, the remaining two sheets of decking got nailed down:


And then it was time to start framing the walls. Note the step in the wall. Instead of even-length slopes on either side of the peak, I decided to build this in the "saltbox" style, with even pitches and different length.



Working on the installed floor means we have a clean - and more importantly, level - surface to work on. The sill plate was laid out and marked for 16" centers, then studs were cut to length and nailed on with 3" framing nails and the air nailer. A single top plate was then nailed to the tops of the studs, and a second top plate nailed to the first one with 2" nails.

My fearless helper, who made the amount of work we got done possible:



Once the wall was framed, it was raised into place, tacked on one end, squared up to the foundation, then nailed in all the way across and a brace put on to hold it in place:



The second wall was built in much the same way as the first, but note the double stud two-thirds of the way down. Those studs are 3/4" longer than those to the left, to accomodate the difference in height between the decked and undecked portions. The top plate is common, the sill plate is in two pieces.



Shortly thereafter my assistant headed off for the day, but MrsZ came home and helped me knock together the last two walls:




Observers with a clue will notice one critical item missing from this project - doors and windows. We hadn't decided on where to place those yet, so I will be cutting out the frame for those as soon as we decide. Soon.

I put one coat of paint on the sheathing Saturday and sealed the back Sunday (we're using LP Smartside, which is rated for structural use), and hopefully this afternoon I'll get some of the sheathing installed so I can start working on the roof framing. The weather forecast for the next several days is gorgeous, so here's hoping!