After a few years of sitting in the ground, foundation timbers moved a little left and right. That meant I had to chip away at the frozen ground to line them up later with a sledgehammer and some comealongs.

After assembling the first floor, then there was the task or laying down the 1 ½ inch decking (flooring). I decided to use decking screws instead of a nail gun. Maybe a nail gun is faster but I’ve noticed that over the years of repairing things and changing boards, its just easier for me to unscrew the old board with a cordless drill. I ended up using over 75 pounds of 2 ½ inch deck screws. The difference of buying a 25 pound container at Home Depot versus the local lumber yard was $25. That was $75 savings right there.