Almost there...

I just had a huge load of siding delivered today, which was fun. I met the truck driver at the bottom of the hill and he asked where I wanted it, at which time I gestured towards the top of the mountain and told him we needed to go to the top. He was really nice and everything, but on the way up he kept grumbling about how he was driving a new truck that they just got from California and he was worried that all of the overgrown branches brushing the sides would leave marks or bust his mirrors off.

It started to get a little steep, so we made it as far as we could and then he unloaded it and we headed back down the hill. Our windows were rolled down and on the way he got stabbed in the shoulder with a branch that came through the window. Not more then 15 seconds later, the same thing happened to me, except I got mine in the chest and arm. I joked with him that he was just trying to even things out, one for him and one for me.

As another tree branched scraped over the top of his rig he laughed and said that not only did he wish he could do that, but that we were not even close to being even.

Hmmm.

...

So I drive back into town and feel and itch on the back of my neck. I reach to scratch it and feel something grabbing my fingers, at which point I freaked out a little bit and threw whatever it was to the ground. "It" was a big black beetle. Apparently it had decided to hitch a ride in my hair for an hour or so.

I hope that Mr. Beetle likes the sidewalks of Bellingham, because he is a long way from home.

Roof?

I almost litterally stumbled upon this galvanized material tied to a tree on a neighboring piece of property. It looks like it's been here for a long time, so the plan is to talk to the owner and see if some kind of a deal can be worked out. If so, you might be looking at my new roof.

Concrete (not the town)

Originally, I was going to build this thing attached to a foundation, but then I decided to bump up the square footage which meant that I would need to build it on skids in order to avoid needing a permit (skids means it can move, meaning that it's a non-permanent structure).

After careful consideration I decided to dig down to the bedrock and pour six little concrete pads that the skids can sit on. This way everything will be level and I won't have to worry about the ground sagging over time.

There's no water up there yet, so I had to haul buckets up from a nearby lake and mix the concrete in that big white tub you can see on the left. I was able to get by only using about four 80 lb bags, but that was because I also filled some of the holes with large rocks to help take up some space.

Everything else should start moving pretty quickly now, since most all of the wood is cut and ready to go, It just needs to be nailed together.

Location Pics

Here's the spot. It's fairly level, and based on some test holes that I've dug, I won't have to dig very deep at all to reach bedrock. There is however, one large, dead, problem with this area...


...and here it is. I'll need to bring up a chainsaw soon and take this thing down. It's pretty rotten, but I should be able to salvage some decent firewood from it.

2 Things

2 things that I have figured out:

When buying lumber, even it the tag says that it's 10 ft long, or any length for that matter, that is not always true. While I haven't ended up with any that are shorter then specified, I have ended up with lots that need to have about a 1/2 inch trimmed off.

The second thing is that when using a skill saw to cut all this lumber, it's easier to tilt the board on it's edge a bit, so that gravity can help pull the saw through, instead of having to push it all yourself.

I'm getting excited.

Construction is still moving along. Right now I'm still spending a lot of time measuring, cutting and numbering all of the lumber.

Hopefully by this weekend I'll get to start moving things to my spot and actually assembling it.

I did have a sit down meeting this week with someone that builds houses for a living just to make sure that I was covering all my bases. I showed him my drawings and he thought everything looked good, but when I get to the roof I'm going to meet with him again just to make sure I've got everything right.

Also, I met with a professor in the Communications department to talk about books and extended education. He was raised in Chile and I thought that since he didn't have the standard American public school education like most people I know, there was a pretty good chance he could bring something new to the table in terms of relevant literature that significantly influenced their life. We talked about a lot of books and he is making me a list that I will post shortly.