Garage Build Twenty-Ten | Part Three

We have walls! All that was missing from this weekend's wall raising were the straw hats and overalls. With the help of about 8-10 extra people, Mike and I were able to get the walls raised and nailed in place this weekend and Monday.

Mike spent a couple days last week building the walls, and on Saturday he and I finished up the last (and most difficult wall), being the front wall with the man door and garage door.  Both requiring exact measuring and header positioning.  Here's a shot before our muscle came showing all the walls laying inside on the right.


We knew we might get hit with some rain later in the day, but none of our labor could make it out until 4:30ish.  We had probably a full hour before the skies opened up.  Just enough time to get one wall up and the tarps put on.


Fortunately for us, we had a nice crew who came back on Monday.  With a little muscle, some engineering, and a little luck we were able to get all three remaining walls up and in place.  And it's finally starting to look like a garage!  Next step is to put the trusses up and attach sheathing and then it's roofing, siding, doors, and concrete!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

While we've been focusing on the garage, it's been kind of nice not having to worry about much else.  Yes the laundry still needs folded, and the dishes still need cleaned, but for the most part we've been fortunate.  That was until the truss delivery last Friday. 

Having taken off a personal day, I was able to be home while the truss delivery truck came at 8:00am.  While the actual delivery was a little rough, they chose to use our delivery as training for a new driver, it wasn't too bad.  Some 22 point turns in our street and blocking only a couple cars from driving by wasn't too bad. 

And this is exactly what I was planning on telling Mike when I went inside and starting dialing his number.  That is until I heard the brakes and the yelling.  I came out to find the truck attached to our cable wire.  And upon further examination, he was attached for what looks like about 2 feet.  Or that's the amount that he ripped down our siding.  The siding, by the way, that was replaced very soon before we bought the house, but not soon enough that we found extra pieces laying around in our attic or anything.


After talking to the driver, and fishing the runaway cable from the truck, I checked our TV and internet and since everything was okay, they left on their way to destroy someone else's morning. 

Not only did we then have a rip in the corner, but the cable was lax and hung down to almost 4 feet from the ground, effectively blocking the drive.  

 
To update: After calling the truss company, someone was out on site not 5 hours later.  He took a piece of the battered siding and returned on Tuesday with a piece that could have passed for the original and within a 2 hour span had removed all of the siding from the corner, replaced the whole 10' section and replaced the siding, also tightening the cable to keep from hanging low.  Not on professional construction sites have I seen such prompt accident control. 

Office Work

Short of painting Mike's desk and some little styling, the office is complete. As I explained, Mike's space was a last minute add-on, so most of my energy has been focused on getting my space up and running.

At our townhouse, the second bedroom was a joint office, similar to our space at the new house, but a little smaller and more things stuffed inside. We had a couch and everything that would have gone in our basement, had we had one. Things like camping supplies, archived files, and extra linens. For this reason I had only one way to go and that was up. I fit my whole office/crafting area on a six foot section of the wall because I went vertical. After using the space I realized this was the most effective way to work. Everything was within reach and when your using things like hot glue guns, you have about 0.6 seconds before it dries, so things better be within arm's reach.

With this in mind and the fact that I was bringing the same amount of stuff/crap to the new house, I had hoped to recreate this setup. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Here is a photo of my space at the townhouse:


After a marathon trip to Ikea, I made the previous set-up a little more stylish with some new shelving and bucket container system. I also moved the white cube storage from under the desk to the opposite side of the room, (which I'll show in a later post). This opened up enough space for our filing cabinet, (which the handy boyfriend built himself back in the day).


The new and improved, not to mention bigger, shelving allows me to keep all the essentials close at hand. My ever-growing Cricut cartridge collection, some ribbon, and some office supplies are all nicely organized and close-by so if I ever find myself in an Andretti-style crafting race against time (which I've been known to do from time to time), I don't have to stop to demolish our office looking from some tape.

Go Sit In The Corner

Although I boasted in previous posts that there would be no boys allowed in my crafting room, my girly space has been infiltrated. More than that, fast forward a couple months and the Crafting Room is no more. An Office has taken it's place and over the weekend Mike staked his claim. Most of you that have visited, knew the office was the last place to get unpacked. While the boys were playing in the dirt, I got to work on some of my own dirt inside. I unpacked everything, then organized what I needed and trashed what I didn't. The next couple of posts will be dedicated to this, until recently, forgotten room.

Since I removed everything from the Tupperware containers it was all living in, Mike's office area was in limbo. Before moving in, we had planned on setting up his shop in the guest room, but after moving the furniture in there, we realized that idea was laughable. We then, after much discussion and some feet dragging from my direction, decided the office was big enough for the two of us. Not to mention, since the removal of the Tupperware containers, Mike had quietly been carving out his little area already.

This is what his "Corner Office" has looked like recently. Pretty pathetic, eh?


Well during some downtime (downtime? what's that?) Mike built himself a desk with some wood picked up at Home Depot and two doors from ReStore for $5 a piece. He used the measurements of the space to create a corner desk. Not my favorite concept, but the best use of the space. He then filled in the holes and sanded it all smooth. Although we plan to paint it in the near future, Mike wanted to put in upstairs to use it in the meantime.

Even with the awkward shape of the legs and railing, and the top weighing what seemed like 200 lbs, we were able to get it up the stairs and in the room.




Someday soon, I'd like to paint the top white to match my desk and the legs will probably be stained a natural color since Mike would kill me if I did anything fun like paint them yellow!

Domestic Goddess

During one of the garage build weekends, as usual, I was on food/refreshment duty. On the last day the guys were hungry and I was exhausted. I couldn't make food fast enough. I hit up the local KFC and got as much chicken and sides they would give me. Since the chicken fumes hit the guys hard and Mike was complaining about work productivity weaning, I had to think quick on my feet. I grabbed some help and put together a picnic close to the action.

Working in the construction field, I'm used to seeing what some would call ingenuity, buckets as chairs, tailgates as desks, those sorts of things. So it wasn't until my neighbor pointed out my makeshift table that I really stepped back and looked at the sight.


And yes, that's O'Douls. I can't account for our volunteer's taste.

Handy Helper

Even though Mike and I have gotten into our routines here at Casa Rogers/Danks, I always love it when I get a helping hand.

Here is our little helper matching socks with me.


And helping hang curtains in the living room.


Putting away my latest loot from Tarjay.


I'm sure you didn't even notice him here in my previous post, but that's Benelli down in the bottom left holding down the plastic tarp (from the inside for those still searching) while I'm painting.


And on this specific occasion, he only had one task and that was to make sure the curtains were level. Hopefully no one notices they lean a little to the left.



(Sorry for the crappy phone camera photo, it was all that I had nearby.)

Garage Build Twenty-Ten | Part Two

About two weeks ago, a man in a dump truck began dropping loads of dirt into my yard. When it seemed like no more dirt could fit, and I thought he would leave us alone, he came back with gravel and dumped it in our driveway! Mike, being the resourceful guy he is, decided this was exactly what he needed to backfill the garage and re-grade our yard.





Another couple days off of work and more equipment rentals, the boys were off to work again. This time braving the heat (hitting 95 degrees) and the rain. On a side note, did you know that topsoil smells like pig's poop when you strip it? Think about that + 95 degree weather. Yeah, not so nice. I'm still getting used to the assult on my nose whenever I walk outside.



Even though whenever I looked out the window it looked like the boys were just digging piles of dirt to fill with other piles of dirt, they actually were removing the topsoil, backfilling with fill and tamping it as they went, then placing gravel on the garage pad and driveway and tamping some more. So, pretty much digging piles of dirt to be filled with other piles of dirt, just a little more scientific and engineered. Although the rain proved to be problematic, (Mike kept saying "10 steps forward and 5 steps back"), the guys were able to finish all the earthwork in 4 days.


Now we have a garage pad and driveway ready for concrete and a yard that's ready for some landscaping. Now we just have the little task of actually building the garage.