Quick easy but productive day.

Well ,we counted exactly correctly on the strips, I had none left over but had exactly what I needed for my roof.  All I have are a few pieces of scrap.


On the whole roof, I only made one slight error where something didn't line up where it should have.


All the furring strips are installed though, and the roof is ready for metal.
Top view:


From inside the shed:


I don't have the outriggers installed yet, but those aren't strictly speaking absolutely necessary to move forward with the metal.  Unfortunately, I am now out of material, and my truck is out of commission at the moment.  The wheel bearing had been getting worse for some time now, but something else (tie rod end or ball joint) just went bad and now the truck doesn't turn well and shakes real bad, so I will be getting that fixed asap.

Apparently working outside all weekend without a shirt on burned this computer nerd's shoulders right up.  It is worse than it looks in the picture.


Since I know Heather has been waiting, I will be hopefully restarting the drive recovery tonight, I have the Win7 flash drive made up, and will be installing it tonight and restarting the drive recovery that was so rudely interrupted.

H ties in, Outriggers built

I got all the H-ties in.  I doubled a couple on the edges where the wind comes in, and the ones in the middle.


I also got the outriggers built for both the front and back.  I can't install them until I finish the siding though, so that will be tomorrow's task.


I also started to get the Z flashing put in on the front.

Rafters in and mowing.

During my lunch break today, I went up and did some mowing.  I can only get one chunk in during my lunch break, but it still means I don't have to waste time after work when I could be building.


I also brought up my propane tank and tested the free grill I got off Craigslist.  They said it needed new burners and hardware, but everything lit right, and I didn't see any massive glaring problems with the burners.  Everything looked perfectly fine and easily usable.


I still hate these kinds of grates.


I also completed the rafters today, all of them are now hanging.  I just need to get the H1-ties for the bottoms and make sure everything is lined up, and then start putting on furring strips.




Since I ran out of materials and stuff to do, I also did a bit more mowing tonight until it got dark.  Got another part of it done.


I am still debating on what to do about the overhang.  Some people will hang another set of rafters and then just put interconnects back to the triangle rafter, some don't.  Don't is much easier, but I am not sure how well it will survive the wind if I don't.  I have a foot of overhang on both the front and back.

Not as much as I wanted done today, but most rafters are in.

I wanted to get all of the rafters installed today, but only got about 2/3 of them in.  They are just nailed in for now, I do intend to put actual rafter hangers on them before winter rolls in.

What I have left


What is done.


I also got the Z flashing cut and put in place today for the back.  I will do the front when I get there.

Ready for rafters finally.

I didn't have my camera yesterday so I didn't update anything, but yesterday I got the tarps cleared off, filled up the generator (it ran out of gas on me) and got the ridge beam marked.


We had a lot of wind last weekend.  Enough to destroy previously perfectly fine bungee cords.


Where I had used straps, it just shredded the tarp.


The ridge beam is marked.


Today, I got the ridge beam standing.  The top of my head is around 2-3" above the top of the beam.


Apparently I misplaced my tin snips, so the Z flashing is just kind of sticking out.  I will get it cut off eventually.  Since I am installed it after getting the end cap installed, it didn't go in very well.


It appears that there is a slight modification still required...


But all in all, I am ready for rafters at this point.

Rafters at the ready

I got 15 rafters prepared (I got 16 boards, screwed one up), and they are all cut and ready to install.  The one I hosed up is the one with the angle going the wrong way...


It made a lot of pieces, the larger chunks were taken off with the miter saw, which was fine, but the smaller pieces made me realize that I need a new jig saw, mine is only slightly faster than doing it with a hand saw, though it is an antique Black and Decker.


I won't be doing anything this weekend, I will be out in Albany helping Mike move.  I went and got my truck all cleaned out, since I will be taking that.  It is amazing how much of it I could just hide under the back seat.

Other side is ready, now just need some good weather

The other side of the roof is ready to install.  Since I will have to retarp everything afterwards though I am going to wait for a couple of nice days in a row to do it, since retarping takes a long time by myself, and I would like to also get the rafters in so the water doesn't pool in the tarp as bad.


Its final destination.


I have also started cutting rafters.  I have a couple ready, and intend to buy more boards and get the rest of them ready tonight and tomorrow (it is supposed to storm tomorrow).


Now that we are in full bloom, it is actually quite shady up there.  I have also noticed that we are at the end of bug season, they haven't been bad the last couple of times that I was up there.


You almost can't see the road from the shed anymore.


I am getting close to not needing nice weather to work, which should speed things up tremendously, which is good since I am a month behind schedule at this point.

Mowing after a long weekend

First up:  thanks Matt for lending me his old Elph camera.  I can now shoot real pictures pictures again.


So I ran into something yesterday.  Stopped the mower dead, couldn't pull the recoil either.  I figured out why today.  I apparently ran over a bunch of chicken wire.  Didn't see it, didn't know it was there, but the blades found it.


The grass needed it.  Badly.  This is the part that had been mowed previously, and it was up to my shins, though it is hard to tell in the picture.


But over the last two days, I got the whole front done.






The side and back are really really bad.  I am not sure I can easily mow them at this point.  I might just let it grow wild and do something about it towards the end of the season.


The back is probably over knee high at this point


As usual, I found some goodies in the yard.  Normally it is just rocks and garbage, but today I found a new gas can cap, one that has the insert and will actually seal.


I also found this.  The engine is familiar, the 2.8 multi-port is what mom had in her old Celebrity, but I don't recognize the part.


I haven't gotten anything done on the shed, but it looks like the second gen tarping solution didn't work either.  The shed appears to have stayed dry, but the tarp wasn't taught enough and it has now pooled.  Thankfully when I get the rafters installed that should no longer be a problem.

Finally some pictures

Tim felt bad for busting my cheap plastic ones, and made me a very nice set of sawhorses.  All pressure treated, and in classic Tim fashion, I could probably put my car on them.  They are stackable as well, that is why the supports are on the outside on one, and inside on the other.  I might make myself another set (non pressure treated, those things are rather heavy) to use as scaffolding or the like.


As I mentioned previously, I spent some time mowing last week during lunch, and at some point I apparently kicked something up.  So much for my industrial strength glasses...


Despite that though, the front yard is mowed.  This picture is a little blown out since I forgot that I had left the camera at ISO800, and the shutter speed couldn't go fast enough to expose it correctly.




The back yard is getting really bad.  It hasn't been mowed yet this year.


The first triangle is partially sheathed.  I am glad I am going single slope (shed style) on the house, building an A frame is a lot more effort.  I will probably install it as is, and then add the supports later.


I saw some sprinkles around 630, so I packed everything up and decided to get ready to head out.  Good thing it appears, since there were storms moving in.  Hopefully nothing too bad, since the shed has no tarp on it anymore.

I need more hours in the day...

Unfortunately I haven't brought my camera the last couple of days, so no pictures.  I got the first triangle ready to install, the second is almost ready, but I ran out of time.  It rained all last weekend, so I have only been working during the week.

I will have to find a new solution for bugs.  My bug spray is kind of working, though not as good as I might expect considering it is 98% deet.  I have been spending as much time swatting bugs as I am building of late.  I don't remember it being this bad last year, so maybe it'll calm down after the spring rush.

The lawn needed mowing really really badly (most of it hasn't been mowed yet this year) and I got the side over by the well and part of what was in front of the old foundation mowed today during my lunch break.  Hopefully I can get the rest of the front yard mowed tomorrow during lunch before the rain moves back in.  The back yard will have to wait, which is unfortunate since it takes the longest to dry.

Apparently it is time for new glasses too.  I cracked the lenses in two different spots when something was kicked up from the lawn mower today.  These were the industrial grade safety lenses I got to that were supposedly shock resistant.  Heavy duty polycarbonate lenses my ass...

I half-heartedly put the tarp back on, but I know at this point that it won't stay, so we shall see how wet the shed gets.

Slow week

It has been raining pretty much all week, so little progress was made this week.  There might be a slight break in the rain tomorrow, so I might be able to get the triangles for the roof built this weekend.  The tarp is all but roasted, so a lot of the rain from the past week has ended up in the shed.

While I was out at Mike's last weekend though I did make an updated floorplan.  This is the full 27' of the trailer.  I added a couple of feet to the kitchen, and a couple of feet to the living room.  I also added a couple more windows and changed the loft design ever so slightly.  The biggest change though is the conversion of the bathroom into a bathroom and a utility closet.  I think instead of putting a shower stall into the bathroom, I will seal the whole room and make the whole bathroom the shower stall.  The squiggly line is because I intend to put a double door setup, so that I can hang towels on the door and have them not get wet.


One thing I did get done this week was I picked a free fixture I got from Craigslist.  There isn't a scratch on it, and I honestly don't think it was ever installed.  I picked it up from an old mansion that was getting converted to apartments, so I think it was a spare, it is in fabulous shape, and I was intending to buy one anyways for the living room.