Mudsill and More

Pictures: 1. We awoke to these snow covered mountains across the river from The Drunken Bear 2. Mountain peak located a little northwest of us 3. Mt. Index 4. Myself toasting a bagel at the fire pit 5. Myself measuring a floor joist...the extra length will be part of the blocking 6. Steve tightening a nut on the foundation bolt atop the mudsill 7. Foundation before the building process

This last weekend Steve and I headed to Index to start the construction process. It had been a beautiful week in Seattle, sunny most of the time, but cool. Friday morning as we were loading up the tools and equipment, we were greeted with a downpour. We were hoping it was temporary, but as we headed out of town it appeared we were following the storm into the Cascade Mountains. When we reached the town of Gold Bar we decided to stop at one of our favorite haunts, The Mountainview Diner, to have breakfast and hopefully wait out the storm. As usual, breakfast was good, but as for waiting out the storm...it didn't happen. At least the rain slowed down to a constant dribble...enough to get you wet, but not drenched.

When we arrived at the property, the lumber yard had already been there to drop off the material we needed. We raised the cover of the motor home and got settled in, then headed outside to begin the work. I have to keep adding how lucky I am to have Steve as my partner in this endeavor. To me it was a pile of different types and lengths of wood. To Steve it was the mudsill, the support beams, and the floor joists. The mudsill consisted of attaching pressure treated 2X4's to bolts sticking out of the foundation. Now this sounds quite easy, but the 2X4's don't come with the holes drilled out. It required drilling the holes at the exact same distance as the bolts (which were set in the concrete at different distances, with some placed more to the right side, some more to the left side, etc.). We would lay a 2X4 atop of the bolts, take a rubber hammer and pound hard enough to have the bolt make an impression in the wood, pull the 2X4 off, drill out the hole where the impression was made, put the 2X4 back on the bolts and hope the holes matched up and finally, secure them with a washer and a nut to each bolt. We accomplished all of this on Friday only having to retreat a few times due to downpours.

It was too wet that night to have a campfire, so we retreated to the motor home and fixed dinner, played a few games with dice (we call the game "greedy") and went to bed mighty early. You could hear the rain coming down on the roof of the motor home most of the night. When we awoke on Saturday it was foggy outside, but the rain had quit. Steve made the essential pot of coffee and we went outside. The mountains around us were dusted with a fresh blanket of snow and were quite a site to behold. The fog moving in and out of the area made an ever changing landscape.

A ritual we seem to have established at The Drunken Bear is having a morning campfire where we toast bagels over the open flames or hot coals. These bagels seem to taste so much better than ones that come out of a toaster! With that morning nourishment we were now inspired to tackle the post and beams. In the picture of the foundation you will see cement blocks in the middle. Atop these blocks we put pressure treated 4X4's and atop those 4X4's we added 4X10 beams to support the floor joists. At this point we discovered we were short a 4X4 beam. We were also short a few of the nuts from the mudsill the night before. Since Steve knew what to do, I went in to the lumberyard in Sultan to get the missing items. Sultan is only about 20miles away, thankfully, as I would end up going back two more times that morning. Steve had gotten quite a bit done while I was away, so I really hated admitting that I had stopped for a coffee mocha...well, almost hated admitting it. We worked throughout the day taking only a short break for lunch. By dusk we had completed almost all of the floor joists. We ended up being short a few boards to complete the project. We called it a night and retreated to a campfire and much deserved bottles of MGD. The air was cool but the heat from the fire kept us toasty. After a few brews, Mother Nature began to water her garden once again so we retreated to the motor home and our beds that were very welcoming. All night long you could hear the rain pounding on the roof. We were so thankful we had completed all we could on Saturday.

When it was time to rise and shine on Sunday, the rain was still coming down. Since we did not have anything more to do for this weekend, we loaded the truck for the return trip home and left The Drunken Bear with a feeling of accomplishment.