It's been a long, cold winter. The phase 2 construction has been slowed down by the cold and by a construction injury that has since healed. We have a nice comfortable place to live so we aren't in frantic hurry anyway. During February we put up furring strips on the ceiling and outside walls. The furring used up just about the entire load of lumber seen on page 30. Every one of the furring strips on the ceiling are drilled and bolted through the roof purloins at every crossing. There are hundreds of connections to bolt one at a time. Its tedious work but it strengthens the roof while holding the ceiling.

All the outside walls get 2x4 furring on 24" centers. Unlike stick build houses where they are all cut to the same length, each one of these sticks has to be individually measured and cut. Takes nothing but time.

Winter has been long and cold. I'm writing this in March and we still have snow on the ground. Its been snowing every night all last week. I'm ready for spring.

I manage a row of furring strips each day. There seems to be so many. My plan is to completely finish the ceiling and high part of the walls in the west end before starting on the lower partition walls. That way I won't have walls in the way of the scissor lift while working on the roof. When we did the east end last year we ended up working off ladders from the mezzanine to do the high ceiling on half of that area. My new plan is to finish and paint the high ceiling before starting on the lower walls.

Here is a look at the SW corner where the master bath will someday be.

Here is another view of the SW corner. You can see what is left of the load of wood shown on page 30. I even bought some more 2x6 most of which is still in this wood pile. Of the 2x4, we're all out of 8ft, and have about a dozen 12 foot left. Not enough to finish furring.

Here is a look back toward the SE corner where the temporary laundry installation is. It will eventually be the kitchen, but for now it's where stuff get put while we work on the west end.

More later: