Late July 2005:  As you can see from the pile of lumber they dropped off, a big chunk of this phase was manual labor.  First I had to get the subfloor sheets on top of the structure, which I decided to do on the very hot, humid afternoon they were delivered.  Warning:  Despite the large quantity if water I drank that evening, I was a little headachy and nauseus with heat sickness by the time I finished.  The moral of the story:  Water alone doesn't cut it.  Gatorade is the key.

The next day, before starting to actually fasten down the flooring, I bought 2 gallons of Gatorade.  It was even hotter and more humid that day, so I drank almost all of it by late afternoon.  Also, by late afternoon, I realized that one person simply can't lay 'tongue-in-groove' flooring by himself.  I ended up hiring a local contractor to come help me with the bulk of the flooring, and they did a fantastic job.  I felt a little bad about "copping out", but there are simply some jobs that require help and/or professionals.  No shame in that, I guess.  Oh, and along with the subfloor, glue, nails, etc., I bought some plywood to finish off the front and rear faces of the structure and some 2x4 studs for I-joist bracing, etc.

Cost:  50 sheets of OSB "TNG" subfloor ($1000), a dozen sheets of plywood ($160), 50 2x4 studs ($120) 16 tubes of subfloor glue ($50), glue gun ($10), air-nailer rental ($25), stitch nails ($30), air compressor rental ($46), contract labor ($450)

Lumber Pile!                                 View from SE

View from SW                                        View from NW

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