Six Days of Wall Frames

Days 1-2:

We tackled the wall frames by beginning with the one-windowed 16’x8’ back wall, the least complicated of the four. All of the boards were measured, marked, and cut into different sized pieces late one day, and the following morning Connor and I marched out the shed to assemble them. Months ago as we were planning and dreaming of our home, building the wall frames was what I always thought of, the epitome of the construction process, the skeleton of the home. We studied timeworn do-it-yourself construction books and manuals that we’d found collecting dust in our parents’ bookshelves, hoping that by doing so the week would go as smoothly as possible. From these books we learned that to create an 8-foot wall our 2x4s needed to be 92 ¼ inches. Maybe that is obvious, but it was something we hadn’t even considered – we just assumed an 8-foot wall would have 8-foot 2x4s.

We created our 16’ long top and sole plates by nailing blocks of wood over the joints of two 8’ long studs and in a 4’, 8’, 4’ combination so that all joints were offset. With our 16 on centers marked, we began the first corner, comprised of two studs with filler blocks between them. Moral was high and all went as smoothly as we’d hoped until we hit the window opening. The rough opening itself had already caused us some distress because we’d bought the window used, and there was no indication of the manufacturer’s rough opening requirements. After combing the books, we settled on an additional 3/8^th inch on all sides. But for the trim, sill, header, and cripples, we discovered that even a difference of 1/32^nd of an inch determined whether a board was too loose or just snug. There was no disappointment greater than carefully making a cut, then unrolling the tape measure and finding that the board was 1/8^th too short. Thus we learned to “shave”, using the table saw to cut each board a tiny bit too long, then slicing off 1/32^nd to 1/16^th an inch at a time until it was the exact size we needed. It was painstaking and slow, but fewer boards were wasted and bit by bit we improved our accuracy on the initial cut. With the window completed and the last of the studs nailed, we lifted the top of the heavy frame so it was standing on the floor. Oh you beauty! Now what to do with you? The frame was too heavy for us to carry, so we lowered it to the sandy ground and slid it upright across the shed until there was a space large enough to lay it on a few boards.

Days 3-5:

The second wall frame took us three days to finish. This one is 16’ long x 10’ tall with two window openings, a door opening, and three times as many trim, sills, headers, and cripples. The relative enormity scared us to bits. Our worries were affirmed when we reached the door opening. The trim was nailed and we were nailing both ends of the header into the king studs at the same time. The blows of the two conflicting hammers crooked the boards, creating an unmistakable gap between the trim and header as we hammered on in oblivion. Our nails were good and buried before we noticed. It was a careless, avoidable mistake.  

Connor labored with hammer and drill for 20 minutes fighting to get the nails out. We hacked at the header until it split, freeing it of the nails, trim, and king studs. The header was ruined, we were cross with each other, and we weren’t halfway done with the frame. Connor built a new header, I cut cripples. With the new header nailed in place, we began laying them out. In a matter of a few minutes, we lost the bit to the screwdriver, pulled out a dozen bent nails, destroyed another board, and completely lost our composure. We were done for the day.

The following day we happily ignored the mess of the door cripples and moved on to the last window. Halfway through we ran out of nails. An excuse to drive into town? Well sure! It was cloudless, warm, and beautiful, and as those things go sometimes, we quite forgot to return to our wall frame after returning.

On day five we finished the window, corner, and lastly the dreaded door cripples. This frame was, expectedly, even heavier than the last, and taller than either of us had imagined. We slid it across the floor, Connor pulling and I pushing, both of us grunting, the frame creaking, until it lay on top of the first.

Day 6:

Only the two slanted 8-foot wall frames remained. Following previous advice, we built an 8’x8’ frame with a 10’ 2x4 on one corner, leaving the triangle for later. The windows are non-opening sash, and the two shortest walls were methodically constructed with almost no nail bending, wood destroying, or cursing to ruin the mood. Our skeleton was almost complete.

Finally, a photo of our windows! 

Beam Construction:

Originally we did not have enough money to both build a house and buy a trailer.  So, we needed a way to secure the house to the ground.  We began by building and laying concrete footings but the next pressing question was where do we go from there?  At first we thought bolting the floor joists to the footings directly was the way to go.  However, after some consideration we decided that we would build three beams, bolt the beams to the footings, and finally bolt the joists to beams.  This way the house would be raised off the ground by over a foot, which would hopefully help with flooding and varmints.  We chose treated 2X8’s to construct our three, twelve-foot beams.  Each beam consisted of three eight-foot boards and three four-foot boards, offset to ensure support.  We ran out of nails after the first beam so we stopped and intend to finish where we started the following week.

Digging Holes:

There has never been a storm shelter at the cabin and we figured if we were going to be living there “long term” we would need something to keep us safe from the large, terrifying storms that roll over the prairie.  So, we have begun to take a crack at storm shelter construction.  More details on this later but for now let’s just say we’ve been digging, frantically.    

Mailbox upgrade:

The winds blast and race across the prairie, teasing and poking at our mailbox until they finally slap it to the ground. We had thought the extra concrete we poured into the bucket would stabilize it, but the truth is our mailbox never stood a chance. Fed up with up righting it every hour, we were faced with two choices: saw off the post from the concrete, elongate it and dig a hole to plunge it in, which would definitely work, or pile rocks around the bucket, which might work. Rocks first. So far the winds nudge and howl but haven’t been able to budge the structure, and we have the added bonus of a very aesthetically pleasing mailbox!

Nature Watch: this is what we've spotted so far!

Killdeer, redwing blackbirds, grackles, chipping sparrows, assorted ducks and canada geese, northern harrier hawk, red tailed hawk, barred owl, roosters, common cranes, and chorus frogs.