Another Project!!!

Beth's parents came into town last Thursday night, and we allowed them nearly a full 12 hours to settle in before putting them to work. This post will end up mostly detailing Andy's work helping us with some rough construction, while I'll save Mary's tireless (she might argue that it was actually "tirefull") work in our garden(s) for a later post when I can include some pictures of more than bare dirt. Construction-wise, the goal for their visit was to replace our old work shed with a bigger, non-leaky, non-fall-aparty, shed. Step 1, of course, was to take the old shed down, so after emptying it out we removed the front and back walls, weakened some supports, and started that sucker rocking:

On the second try the rocking worked and we suddenly had a much lower shed roof, which Bella celebrated by jumping on top.

That was about it for construction (destruction?) on day 1. Next, Andy and I bonded on a trip to "the boneyard" at our local Spenard Builders Supply (think Home Depot, but with really knowledgeable staff and awesome service). "The boneyard" is full of custom windows that were ultimately not used for previous construction projects that SBS sells at cost, so given that we didn't have any specific needs for our windows other than that they be transparent it was the perfect place for us to show. We ended up buying 3 windows for about $275 (would have been $600 or more), then with a little time left over after shopping we made a quick run to the dump before cocktail hour.

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The goal on day 2 was to build the foundation for the new shed. Most of the building supplies had been delivered earlier in the week, but we still had a number of additional supplies that we needed. Andy and I went on another dump run while Beth and Mary headed to Lowes to find supply #1: a door. After our dump run, Andy and I met them there, and together we also picked up pier blocks, cinder blocks, all sorts of joists and brackets, a Miter Saw Stand (actually got that on a side trip to home Depot) and some other building materials.

We used pier blocks with adjustable brackets to make a level foundation using 2x12" lumber, then hung 2x8" joists across the foundation.

Andy and Beth install joist hangers on the foundation

Once the foundation was build we laid down 3/4" OSB as flooring, which Bella celebrated by taking her rhino under.

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Day 3 dawned inauspiciously, by which I mean damply, by which I mean it then continued to rain all day. Being masters of backyard shanty construction, Beth and I whipped up a quick shelter for our saw station and we set to work undeterred by the weather.

Beth was #1 sawmaster for the weekend and managed to go 3 straight days with ZERO wrong cuts (or at least she managed to destroy all evidence of wrong cuts before anybody noticed. Maybe thats why she looks so pleased with herself here:

We laid out the walls on the floor of our shed-to-be, nailed the studs together and then covered them with 7/16" OSB, leaving about a 4" skirt of OSB below the bottom stud. When we lifter the walls into place this skirt pulled the wall right to the edge of the foundation, leaving it in virtually perfect position.

After a simple 1st wall, things got more complicated as we left spaces for windows and doors, but Beth was on the job and kept cranking out perfect cuts. After a long lunch break to dry off we still had no trouble getting all four walls up by the afternoon.

Once the walls were up we used the reciprocating saw to cut the rough openings for our 3 windows and a door.

When the battery ran out during the last window we declared cocktail hour.

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Day 4 wasn't predicted to be as beautiful as it turned out to be, and we awoke to a Memorial Day full of blue skies and bright sunshine. Bella celebrated by checking out the window openings.

After finishing cutting out the 3rd window opening I climbed up on our roof for a couple pictures as Beth and Andy attached a temporary support for our roof trusses.

While Beth cut 2x4" studs for the trusses, I made gussets to secure the peaks (visible in the next picture after this one). Then Beth and Andy laid down a form for the trusses on the floor of the shed (not even built and already a valuable construction space!) and nailed them together.

One-by-one we lifted the trusses into place, leveled them, attached a cross-tie to hold them steady and then nailed them in place.

 Next, we attached OSB to the trusses and removed the cross-ties.

Once the panels were in place we temporarily put up a tarp over the roof to keep things dry for the next week or so until we can get roofing ordered. Construction went a little longer on day 4 (we finished a bit after 6), but we still managed to observe a full cocktail hour. Bella celebrated with kibbles and a nap.



And thats the story of our 4-day construction binge - but it didn't completely stop there. By now the windows and door have been installed (no pictures, sorry) and the plan is to order siding and roofing materials this weekend for installation by the time the next round of guests arrive in June.

Not to worry, though, even though this construction should be done by then I'm sure we'll find ways to put them to work as well (cocktail hour to be served after all power tools are put away).