Landing Posts, More Ceiling Panels, a Bear

I realized this week that I would need to get the upstairs railing posts fastened to the floor joist before mounting the final ceiling panels underneath the uppper hall. I wanted to use 1/2" through bolts, which requires access to the both sides of the joists. The posts are 2"x2" angle iron.

The first (corner post) was stubborn today. Lessons learned:

• A ceramic bit in a jig saw is ineffective on concrete.
• Masonry grinding discs work on concrete (and make a big mess).
• Don't attempt to drill pilot holes in metal joist hangers with drill bits meant for wood.
• Don't forget the socket set when your putting in lag bolts.

After over 3 hours, two through bolts were finally in the corner post, and starter holes for the lag bolts as well. (They'll wait until I bring up the socket set.) The remaining three posts were mounted with through bolts in about an hour.

The rail posts for the upper landing.

I used 1/2" through bolts to mount each post to the floor joist.

On Tuesday afternoon, we installed 2 additional rows of ceiling panels.

2 more rows on Tuesday afternoon.

Then, after installing the posts on Saturday, we finished two more rows.

2 additional rows on Saturday.

Ceiling panels and railing posts in full view.

Oh, and on the drive in over a temporary detour we saw another large, brown bear. He'd caught wind of our car and was in full gallop ahead of us, darting into the trees before we could get a camera on him. Needless to say, Mackenley was inside most of the day with us.