On to the porch

Kurt was putting up the beams -- false and otherwise -- for the porch fans this morning (the false ones hide the wires, and the real ones help support the fans), and it was obvious we'd reached a new stage.

Carpentry inside is all but done -- just little things like doors to hang, and they're a week or 10 days out. So today the first part of the subfloor on the porch went on.

Here Arnold is T-nailing the very first of the nailers, which will sit under the decking boards.

"Glue 'em, nail 'em, screw 'em," he said.

Ref had worried for months about how he was going to attach the deck to the old concrete, at one point even considering cutting trenches, recessing pressure-treated 2-by-4's in them and using them for nailers. Months ago, I talked about this method with Shawn, and we settled on this one. It should provide terrific stability.

The concrete T-nailer is an extra-strength gun from Ref's arsenal -- Arnold says it's really handy for attaching studs to concrete block -- and we'll probably try it directly on the ipe wood, too.