Back to my own pillow

Polaroid from trip somewhere in Nevada

I'm Back!  I thought I might post while I was away but it was just so nice to not have to pick up the

computer.  I have felt so unpluged for the last month and a half it's really liberating you should try it!  We had

a

wonderful summer filled with lots of family and close friends.  My husband swam in 8 bodies of mountain

cold snow water and I learned how to make homemade jam's and jellies.  We camped and hiked, went to

 family reunions and a graduation. Built 2 sheds,

one for goats one for our stuff, won at a family tournament of horseshoes with my best partner brother-in law

 Rob (freak flag's rule!!) drank lots of homemade ice tea while listening to records on

 the porch and relaxed. It was a

 summer that both of agreed was the best summer hands down and really want to repeat it again if

 possible.  But now we are back and a little revived (you never really rest on vacations) and ready to dig back

 into the grind of finishing our Treehouse project. 

neun..nueve..9..nove..nine..negen..neuf

Well, we have been busy little bees lately, BUT we did recently celebrate our 9th year anniversary.  It's crazy to me how time fly's by, especially when you have a sidekick husband who is amazingly awesome for putting up with all my crazy antics.  We have so much fun together, work hard together, love each other like crazy together and this last year solidifies what I already knew but get to recap each year on our special day.  We decided to drive up to Tacoma for a day filled with glass, antique's, good food, and old building sight seeing.  (all of our favorite things I might add)  Tacoma is a new place that we haven't spent enough time in so we had a blast driving around getting familiar with this extremely cool town.  We always hit up Seattle for our city fix, but Tacoma has some really happenin things going for it.  At one point during lunch we had practically decided to move there.....but  at the end of the day we are content to stay where we are for the time being. 

We have summers off so since the exterior is all wrapped up and can sit tight for a while we are going on a month long vacation.  We need a little break and have some family and friends to see, some rental maintenance to do and some much needed R and R to par take in. 

So, as we speak we are loading up our little Shasta trailer, hitting the road and hopefully will have a full recovery when we return. There might be some fun events while on the road, so stay tuned for a little more summer road trip and a little less construction. 

Reaching the limit

Do you see this extraordinary thing behind me....

Its my sheet metal, and it's the last piece of the crazy puzzle of siding for this building.  And of course it was the heaviest to put up........I have finally reached the limits of what I can do as a girl who weighs 118 lbs.  All the little pieces around the door and the corners were manageable (still heavy don't get me wrong) but I had to finally bite the bullet making the call for help from my framers to come and help install the (8) four by eight sheets.  (it took 3 strong men and 1 shrimp girl to still lift those suckers and screw 18 screws into place)

The process went as followed for installing metal siding:

Waterproof the wall with black roofing paper  

Create a rain screen on the wall using furring strips (this allows the metal to sit off the wall 1/2 inch for air circulation) 

Place furring strips 16 inches on center so panels attach to framing studs for structural support

Accurately measure out pattern for 12 gauge sheet metal

Pre drill each sheet per furring layout on wall

Hang each panel using 2" metal screws

After a year or so the raw metal will slowly start to transform into a copper orange rust.  The marine air and the rain will speed up the process.  Maybe in 50 years the screws will start to rust though, but this siding is going to be the most maintenance free material used so far.  I'm really in love with it and cant wait to try using it again and watching it change from the cool blue colors to the more vibrate rusts. Just some little trim pieces on corners and such and the exterior siding is done!!! Hooray.... thank god......I need a break!

Whiteness all around

It's a wonderful feeling to see the physical change of a space, and I didn't have anything to do with it.  Drywall is in full swing and in just 2 days the walls are up and we are moving along!! All the skilled professionals that I have hired have been so darn amazing to work with.  I will admit I was extremely nervous about possibly having to scream and yell to get people to show up on time, clean up after themselves, not stick their cigarette butts in hidden nooks for me to find. But every single sub contractor from start to finish has been very conscious of being on time or early, and not a single piece of trash not even a cigarette butt has yet to be found.

Small note to people out there in the universe:

Take your time to hire someone and don't think that the lowest bid is going to be the worst or less professional job done.  I have from the beginning hired the lowest bid BUT it was a fair bid......... and that's the difference.  When I don't jive with the person bidding the job, I keep looking.  Yes it takes more time, but you are trusting this company to take care of you and give you something fair, don't you think you should wait for that?

Anywho, I have a nailing inspection tomorrow and then the "art" of drywall smooth finish will begin.  I hope I can learn a couple tricks of the trade while watching.....more to come......oh and we finally got the final exterior siding material today................can you guess what it is? Do you remember?

A change was in order

I cant handle things staying the same for 2 long, just a little revamp and we are good 2 go.

Future..... future project

This was one of the first weekends that we didn't actually work on the project, and on Saturday we stumbled on a historic house tour that got our feathers rustled.  We have a huge dream to live in a barn.......someday.

Dream one was to own a brick historic bungalow house........... (check that off the list)
Dream two was to restore an apartment building........................(also check that off the list)
Dream three is to live in a downtown, urban walk everywhere, live local, etc..........(working on that)
Dream four, buy some land, restore a huge ass barn to live, create art, own chickens, read books, listen to records and grow all our veggies.

(hummmmm in like 5-10 years)

So in the mean time we will curb that dream with ahhhhhhh inspiring tours of old school houses, first settler's homesteads and barns...... yes barns.  Most of the time we drive by barns declaring to ourselves that we love this size or that size, but you never really get to determine how big is to big.  You just can't walk up to someones barn and sneak around, well sometimes........ Some barns we toured had been converted into homes, some were in the process and others were just as they were built back in the 1800's.  We quickly determined what we will and will not be doing........ it was incredible and definitely has the wheels in my head a turning.

The next checklist

Good Monday Morning!!!

My morning was spent receiving Sheetrock and writing down what the next checklist of events will be for the construction, we are near the end and all but Sheetrock is on MY personal list of things my sidekick and I will be tackling.  Most we have done, so no fear panic feelings this round and I'm a little excited to see the inside come together!

As we work I will be updating the checklists to keep us motivated and if your curiosity strikes just click on the checklist on the upper right of the blog to view.