Building Gypsy Rose

I've done a fair amount of building over the years. For each of my projects, I've always gone to the lumber yard and picked my own lumber. For the Gypsy Rose project, I needed a 24 foot 2x8 for the gable ridge. The local lumber yard advertises free delivery on orders of $100 or more. I decided to have the framing lumber all delivered with the long 2x8.

The lumber delivery truck pulled into the driveway at 9:30 this morning. I was raring to get started and could hardly wait to get the wood off the truck. One look, however, and I knew that the day wasn't going to go as planned. Ragged, barked edges were visible throughout the entire stack of lumber (Douglas Fir). I told the driver that much of it was not acceptable. He stared at me blankly and told me to call the lumber yard. No help there.

I was ready to help him off-load the lumber, but, to my amazement, the driver went to the cab, engaged the hydraulic lift for the bed of the truck, and I waited to see the whole load come flying off the back. As soon as it started to slide, the driver popped the clutch, accelerated forward, and the bundles crashed to the pavement. 

That may be standard practice at a construction site, but it did not meet my standard for lumber handling. Mouth agape, I took a moment to regroup and before starting to pick through the pile and sort out the pieces that would need to be returned. (Meanwhile, the truck drove off carrying only the 24' 2x8 I'd rejected and the five sheets of OSB (oriented strand board) they'd sold me instead of the plywood subflooring I'd asked for. (Another story there, but suffice it to say that I'm not a fan of "engineered boards", especially when used as a subfloor for the hardwood finished floor - nails don't hold as well in OSB as in plywood. Advantech has its fans, but I'm not one of them.)

Much of the day was spent making trips to the lumber yard to exchange the sub-standard boards that had been delivered. Of the six dozen 2x4 studs I'd bought, I had to exchange nearly half of them. I exchanged all of the 10' 2x4's and every one of the 16' 2x4's. I'll make one more trip to the lumber yard in the morning to bring back seven of the twenty 16' 2x6's that I'd needed for the ceiling joists and rafters. So much for free delivery. I'll rig up an extended support for the 24-footer on my truck and, in the end, insure that the roof on Gypsy Rose runs true by selecting my own lumber, thank you very much!