Actually making some sawdust

Hi gang,
 I'm in the middle of actually Building something! When Lori and I moved down to VA last summer, our platform bed got disassembled... and never got put back up. Yep, doing the college/newlywed thing all this time with the box spring and mattress on the floor.  Finally bought some lumbah this week, and I'm about 60% done with building a new bedframe. It's going to be one of my 'signature' 2x material specials... overbuilt and sturdy with a couple of arts & crafts touches to it.

and since I know some of my Family Woodworking buddies wouldn't ever let me live it down, here are pics to prove I'm actually doing something...

end of the day...

Originally I was planning on stretching my dollar a bit, using some off-cuts from the 12' roof panels to cover the 'back' side of the shop. I basically underestimated when I picked up the panels last weekend. Dave talked me into buying three new panels so he can finish it off with it looking good all the way around the building.

I'm heading off to the Blue Borg in just a few minutes (Lowes for those who aren't familiar with the woodworking community's nickname (Home depot being the BORG Big Orange Retail Giant))

Last week we used Mark's truck, today I'm going to bring a blanket to put under the sheets to protect the roof when I strap them down to the roof of my truck . I figure that with maybe a couple of 2x4x10's from the borg will get them home safely. Normally I buy all my lumber from Blandings' Hardware in downtown Bridgeport, but this time I think I may just buy a few sticks from the Borg to help with the transportation.

Here's a few shots of the shop late last night (Took the family out to dinner after the guys wrapped things up last night, so no daylight shots)

I'm SO happy about the progress made yesterday, especially this view:

That shows the view up into the loft from just inside the main doors.

Speaking of which, that is on my to do list this weekend, we have a wedding to attend today, but tomorrow I'm hoping to close in the end walls and work on building the two main doors. Which of course means I'll have to buy some hardware, like hinges, a lockset, etc...

Off to the Borg, more updates later today. (I hope)

progress...some of it even forward!

The snow has long melted, and the budget was increased again, thanks to uncle Sam giving me back my money, or some of it anyway. Can you say 'flat tax'? But I digress.

After a long dark winter... (well, it wasn't that dark, but it sure was wet!) Things are moving again on the shop project.

I have been trying in vain to contact a local roofer about installing a roof on the shop for me. It turns out he is less than reliable, so I decided to do a gut-check and try to install a Metal roof myself. I originally was going to put on a shingle roof over sheathing, but the plywood installation got to me.

I left the building 'open' over the winter, which means there is some water damage to the CDX flooring, but that's easily remedied with another layer of flooring. I will add that if things get too annoying walking around later this summer. Job 1 is to get the metal roof installed.

ANyway, I went to Lowes in Oneida to check on availability, figuring if they didn't have the color/size I needed I could then schlep over to Cicero or even Rome if I had to. HOwever, Oneida was well stocked and it was two stop shopping (one for pricing, two for pickup after gathering up Mark to help with transport and cutting of the materiel).

They sell metal roofing in 8' ($30)or 12'($45) sections. Hmmm... I've got 22' of run to cover, so I mistakenly calculate that I'll be able to do this with either 28 8' sections trimmed down to 5' with 3' scrap left over, or 14 12' sections (which, as it turns out works, but more on that in a moment), cut up into two 5' sections and 2' scrap left over apiece. the 8' sections would have run me $840 plus tax, the 12' sections ran me $630 plus tax and other assorted accessories. By the time i got out of there it was $930 later. (Screws for securing the sheets, ridge cap, a saw blade to cut the metal, etc...)

Now, I've got a 6.5' bed on my pickup, as does mark in his, and we've got 12' long pieces to transport. Hmmm. Mark rigged this setup in his truck and driving carefully on the back roads we managed to get things home safely.

I wound up with the ridge cap and some tools in my truck:

Mark graciously offered the use of his new toyl, the Ez-smart cutting guide and associated circular saw. Man that's a slick system, but I've got other toyls to buy first. Wemeasured and cut all of the 12' sections as I mentioned before. Here's Mark with his EZ system in action.

The roofing is 29 guage painted steel, and we decided that using a high tooth count 'disposable' blade would do the trick. I'm pleased to report that a Skilsaw 60 tooth (well, now it is 59 tooth) carbide tipped blade worked very well. Here are all of the panels ready to use:

(no pic, but you'll have to trust me, it did happen)

So, we tore it all off. The metal roofing is normally laid down over 2x4 blocking spaced about 2 to 3' apart. Mark, James and I spent all day sunday and half of monday putting this up and in place:

and the front side...

Lori and the boys were pressed into service as well, and with all of us working, we managed to get the loft floor installed:

On a humorous note, It seems I had a guest earlier this spring...

I'm going to carefully remove that from where it sits now, and put it on a shelf in the shop.