Ready for the Trusses

Moving right along. Saturday was my birthday so I spent it doing exactly as I wanted, working on this project. My son-in-law was back to help out and with the help of a man-lift that we rented for the weekend, we got the headers in above the garage doors. Those bad boys were about 40-45 pounds each and there was 9 of them going 12.5 feet in the air. We worked out a system where Matt (SIL) and Dan (DH) were on the ladders on each side of the man-lift that I used to hoist the boards in the air, then we just slid them into place.

On Sunday, I ran around in the lift marking and cutting the tops of the posts and setting the "hurricane" straps in preparation for the trusses. With any luck and the assistance of our neighbor (who sometimes gets to bring construction equipment home from work), next weekend's update will show trusses, windows and doors in place. Seems slow going when most of the work has to wait until the weekend. Once we are enclosed, we will have more jobs that can be worked on after work each day. You know, the "little" jobs like building interior walls, electrical, insulation, drywall, mudding and taping said drywall, sanding, painting, etc, etc. Now, I'm tired just thinking about it. What's really bad is when we are in the middle of a project like this, even in my sleep I'm "working" and wake up exhausted.

I Missed the Concrete Pour

Due to another last minute business trip (second weekend in a row), I missed the concrete pour for our new garage/studio. Since I would be in Detroit, I asked my husband to grab my camera and click away to document what I missed. He took all except the last one in today's post.

Some friends of a co-worker agreed to float the concrete for us. Here they are doing what they are good at.

Now, with the floor height set we could frame out the windows and garage doors today. That's my husband in the last picture taking a break. There's no stopping us now. It is just taking longer than we expected. I may still be putting finishing touches on the studio at Christmas. Hard to believe it is almost Labor Day, not to mention me having another birthday next Saturday.

Garage/Studio Update

Just a quick post but I wanted to update everyone on the project status. Below is where we are on our garage/studio. If not for my son-in-law (Matt) and his friend (Joe) we would be where we are now. Those two strong young men lifted and stood our posts (the biggest was a 24 ft 6 x 6) up in the holes while we braced everything a couple of weekends ago. They came back yesterday to help nail some of the girts in place. As you can see, we are not done with the girts yet but at least we are building now. With luck, maybe we'll be pouring concrete next weekend or the one after. Pretty much all my daylight hours after work in spent working on this project. Since my husband is home all of the time, he is working outside when he is feeling up to it. We would love to have it enclosed by Labor Day. Wish us luck!