Very hot day

I didn't get very much done today, I spent a fair amount of time looking for my urethane, which I guess I tossed after the table, and it was really really hot.

I did manage to get the sheathing on the doors.  I wanted to urethane it, since it is an underlayment board that I used, which won't stand up to the weather very well, but I will worry about it later.  It was cheap if i need to replace it next year.  I don't have the trim on them yet, but that is a later in the summer ordeal.


Tim also came up, and cleaned out the shed, so it looks nice in there, and much larger now that the stuff in it is organized.


I also started cleaning up the maul.  As dad said, it appears to be cleaning up pretty well.  I don't have a picture of it yet.

Happy Independence Day!

All the siding is complete.

Front:

West side:

Back:

East Side:

Unlike the triangles for the roof, this time I actually made it line up properly.

Unfortunately it doesn't quite have 100% coverage, but I don't think it will be an issue, the bottom couple inches of the 2x6 framing are exposed.  I didn't really want to buy another 4 sheets of the thicker T1-11 just to make it have complete coverage.  The last two inches will get over it.

This is what the Z-flashing looks like from the inside.

It is quite dark in the shed now, and a very notable echo.

The only source of light is the space between the top plate and the roof.

I also got the frames for the doors built.  I couldn't remember what the normal height for a doorknob was, but I put the brace at 42", which is where I intend to put the closing hardware.

Dad - This is the old splitting maul that was down in the old foundation.  I might still consider using it as a wedge, but I think its days as a maul are over.

Roof is done!!!

For starters, it does appear to be a moose in my back yard.  I found this track not ten yards from the droppings I posted yesterday, with my foot for a size reference.  His hooves are almost as big as my feet.


It is hard to see in this picture, but based on the patterns in the grass, it would appear he was heading towards the stream for water.


The cook out actually happened today.  I am beginning to think they got rid of the grill because it sucked, not because it needed to be rebuilt.  My turkey burgers took almost 15 minutes to cook, with both the middle and right burners on high, the left burner was off.




On to the work for the day.  I finished the metal.  All of it including the ridge cap is installed.  Unfortunately my screws weren't long enough so the ridge cap is only screwed into metal.  Hopefully it holds.




This is what it looks like on the inside now.


And because I am sure this will give Tim and Dad a chuckle, this is how I ended up getting the last couple of sheets of metal up.  Yesterday Tim handed up all but the last two sheets, and the sheets are hard to get up there by yourself, I can lift them up and slide them on, but they slide off.  Enter my helper, Mr. Tree.  Despite his help today, the tree is still slated for termination though.


All that is left is the remaining siding and the doors.  The end is finally in sight.

Big progress

Today was a beautiful day, mid-70s and sunny.

A run down of what I got done today:
I got the rest of the siding for the triangles and the outriggers installed.


I got the Z flashing actually nailed in, previously it was just cut to length.


I also got better than a quarter of the metal roofing screwed in.  I ended up going with the nicer painted metal roofing, hoping that the paint will make it last longer, but something I failed to consider is that I was planning on installing all of it from the loft, but I can't reach three feet very well.  The other cheap metal was only 2 feet wide, I could have easily reached the whole sheet to screw them in.  I am still getting it done from the the loft, but it is a lot more difficult than I expected.


Tim came up today as well to clean up the large logs he left lying around last time he chopped down trees.  He went overboard, but I am not going to complain.  I have a very nice area behind the shed now with a fire pit.


The only thing that didn't end well today was that my cookout plans were thwarted.  I brought everything I needed except the most important piece: the lighter to light the grill.  Grrr.  At least I learned that my truck can run the cooler almost all day and not feel any effects on its battery.


I came across a couple of interesting things today.  A tree fell down today while I was up there.


I think it might have been a race for trunk versus branch, the trunk won.


I also came across this today.  My first thought was horse, but there aren't any wild horses up there.  It doesn't really look like what I thought bear would look like, and I don't know what moose droppings look like.

Prep work for the weekend.

I got everything prepped for the weekend.  The metal will be a pain to install myself, but it can be done.  I got a ladder to haul the sheets up with.


All the metal is at the ready


The Z flashing is all set.  It isn't attached yet, but is there and cut to fit.


Some of it is installed.


The rest of the siding is there too.


We were supposed to get some severe thunderstorms, and the skies definitely looked angry.  This kept me from firing up the generator and getting everything nailed in, but hopefully I will still have enough time this weekend.  It is supposed to be nice the rest of the weekend.

Substandard tarping and the loaner truck

I ran out of time today and the probability of me getting the metal up before I leave this weekend for Krass' has now hit 0, so I went up and did a rather shoddy tarp job.  I just hope that the rain and storms don't bring a lot of wind.  It shouldn't pool too much despite not being taught because of the rafters and furring strips, but I am concerned about it blowing off.




While my truck continues to drain my wallet, I got a chance to test drive two different models of new pickups.  I had a white 2015 F 250 while I was at work, and got a 2015 GMC3500 loaner.

All in all, if I were to buy one, I would have to play with the Ford a little bit more, but it would be the front runner.  The ford was less comfortable, but I didn't mess with the seat or any settings (it was the mechanics personal vehicle), but it ran much nicer, it shifted both smoother and more decisively and at what felt like the right times, and had much better visibility, whereas the GMC was a bit lethargic shifting, leading to a bit more jerking, and the GMC had much higher shift points which didn't help its cause either.  The ford had vastly superior mirrors, and the gauges were much more readable.  I also found its little display in the dash to be much more useful and better designed.  One thing I didn't like was the weird turn signal system they have, it isn't push it down and when you make the turn it will pop the stick back to normal, you push it down and it registers, and the stick immediately goes back to the neutral spot.  It would definitely take some getting used to.

The short version is that the Ford was designed better, ran nicer, but the GMC was "familiar" and a bit more comfortable.

I only have pictures of the GMC.  The profile of the truck.


The front end.  The top of the hood was at about chest height.


The interior.


The gauge cluster. I found it very hard to read, because the cluster is nearly vertical, and you sit very upright in the truck, which means you are looking at the gauges at a very bizarre and unnatural angle.


The console area.  I haven't played with this, but the controls looked reasonable.


They don't give you space behind the seats anymore.



Part of the visibility problem with the GMC was the weird interior design.  I had plenty of headroom, but the windshields (both the front and the back) were waay too small.  You can see in the second one that the rear windshield is less than a foot tall.  The same problem existed in the front.  If I were another few inches taller, my eye level would be above the windshield.  As it was, the visibility out the front was noticeably poor.

Prepped for storms and fixed the lawnmower.

So I got the site as well prepared for rain as possible.  I no longer have the ability to tarp it, so hopefully the furring strips don't take too much beating.  Regardless of the state of my truck (which goes in tomorrow) I need to get metal up this week, since it is supposed to rain again Thursday.

This is the part that seemingly had no home.  I couldn't figure out where it went, the holes in it didn't line up with either the parts above or below, so I just removed it.  The mower runs, so it didn't seemingly need it.



The rattle in the mower was caused by the blade being loose.  As the mower sat on its side:


I could push on the blade and put it at this kind of an angle:


I guess it isn't a terrible thing though, since the blade needed sharpening anyways.  You would never know by looking at it that I just sharpened it around a month ago.