Lots of progress

I've continued the small shop shuffle, and here is how things 'stand' for the moment

I moved the storage cabinet to its semi-permanent home next to the main doors. The 'man door' will be just there to the right of the cabine where the bandsaw is at the moment. I'm thinking that will be a 'springtime' project.

Looking up into the loft, where Adam was a big help getting the gear up the ladder. I handed him the items as he stood on the ladder.

A whole lot of clutter, but I'll get it sorted out eventually.

Looking from the doorway down the left side of the shop. As you can see I have to clear up my benchtop a bit. I moved the power strip to the middle of the wall, eliminating one extension cord up to the 4' shop light

yeah, that light!

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.

mid winter bleahs

Well,

it definitely has been awhile, but thngs slowed down after the end of july. I did managed to get part of the roof on, and all of the trusses up, by the end of October. Then I discovered (re-discovered actually) that I have a very well developed fear of heights when at the top of a ladder. I'm fine in a building, but when there's a long drop and nothing but a ladder to hold onto, I tend to really want to hold on for dear life.

I'm hoping to get a crew to do the rest of the sheathing and finishing up the end walls (I Might be able to swing those, but if I'm paying for sky work, I might as well go whole hawg)

On the plus side, work is going very well. I'm currently lead hunting, which means I'm looking for 'For Sale', 'For Lease' For Rent, or 'Available signs and the properties attached to them. This includes land, which is a good thing, cause I've been hitting some really rural territory and updating lots of vacant land listings.

I think I'll be starting another blog for some shots which I'd like to share, I'll update here when I get a couple of posts done, as well as a catchy title.

here's an artistic interpretation of a shot as an example. Just a valley I stopped and saw tonight on my way home, put through photoshop and a filter.