Walls!

Hooray! We have temporary power and put up our first two walls today. Since we're building a story and a half, we're doing partial balloon framing for the two eave walls. We're doing this instead of platform framing the first floor and then adding a two foot knee-wall to the second floor, which would create a potential problem with the rafters putting pressure on the knee-walls and pushing them out. The walls are 11 feet as is, but you can imagine that the first 8 feet is the first floor, then a foot of floor joists for the second story and then two more feet up to give some additional lift to the roof and create more space on the second floor. Trust me, it makes sense, although it takes a bit longer to do all the figuring and double figuring since it's not the standard way to build. Balloon framing is sort of old fashioned, but it seems to make sense for this little house. Also, in the exciting news catagory...Bea started her first day of preschool! She woke up this morning at 6:30 and announced proudly, "Wake up, today is my first day of school and I get my own cubby with my name on it!!" The day unfolded with as much enthusiasm as it began and Bea was beaming when we picked her up. She proudly showed us a rock and a leaf that she found to add to the Nature table. The preschool is a fabulous little waldorf-inspired place with fewer then a dozen kids. She's been attending the friday playgroup with Matt since we arrived last August, but now she's three and is ready for the three day a week program.