Shed: Revenge of the Seed of the Bride of the Shed

Yes. I realize I took these pictures in the dark. Tonight. Thanks for letting me know. Most of the remaining two walls were "completed" Sunday afternoon.



I did everything but that little section above the Four Wheeler Door® Sunday afternoon, but Monday I just wanted to hang out so we went to a park, so that's the only part I did.



Next up I start framing the roof, after I tack on that little piece of siding right there on the corner.

There's geometry involved in roof framing, so I'm a little nervous. In high school the only F I ever got was in Geometry. The only D- I got was in Geometry too. Oh wait, no, I got an F in French II also. Bah, I was a senior at that point. My fate was already sealed. The ironic thing was I actually liked Geometry better than Algebra (I was no mathematician in that regard either) because I can visualize shapes and what not, but I just couldn't keep up with the homework assignments. Oh sure, I was a wee bit lazy, but I did ask for help, and I would start the assignments at home, hit a tough question, quit, and then be behind the next day. Why am i talking about this? Good night.

Shed 6: The Next Day

Finished the framing Saturday morning. Piece o'cake 'twas.



Next up is the siding. I opted to go with plywood exterior siding to save money. The good thing about it is in the future I can put clapboards over it if I want.

I have a 4000 cnt box of 3 inch nails, with roughly about half left. I could have used them for the siding, but a) 3 inch nails is a little overkill and b) I don't want to run out since I still have the roof to frame. What I really needed were some 2 or 2 1/4 inch nails, but unfortunately neither Lowe's nor Home Depot sell that size in less than a 5000 cnt box. I'm not spending 90 bucks on that. Too bad I didn't have the foresight to purchase nails online, ya know, the interweb? As my boss would say, "It's gonna be HUGE." Well, I ordered a 500 cnt box today from Amazon for 11 bucks.

One of the reasons I didn't buy the nails before isn't really because of my lack of foresight. I had three boxes of these:



8 penny nails from a project my Dad did around the time that the first Clinton was campaigning for office (if this Clinton gets into office, let's hope she can keep her pants on. ew.) which I inherited.

The first piece took me almost 45 minutes to get in. All that hammering. Ugh. What a drag. And the noise. I was essentially banging on a huge wooden drum. After the first piece, I just nailed the other sheets around the edges. The rest I will take care of when my shipment of 500 2 3/8" nails come in.

After Saturday, I had two walls "done".





Here's me and my chlorophyll stained sneakers (I still have to mow the pasture) for all my fans.

Some People Say

That the ole Gagknee shed is haunted...

Shed 5: Out for Blood Justice Death

Fourth wall up. Nothing else new to report. Although, I forgot to mention the other day that I shot myself in the hand with the nail gun. Anyway, here's a couple of pictures. Of the shed.





Okay, all you framing connoisseurs, just lay off. There are a few bits I haven't finished yet. I know.

Shed: The Saga Continues

Another wall up. Could have put up the fourth wall too if it wasn't for the dad-burned rain.



That's my daughter after taking a bath after getting WD-40 in her hair. I didn't ask how.

Shed: Part Three

New tool for the job: Ear plugs. Why I've never used them before, I do not know. From the whine of the saw, to the BAM of the nail gun, these little bits of foam are amazing.

My pile of wood on my craptacular patio (that's next years project).



The floor was finished by noon. My crappy circular saw crapped out when I was attempting to trim the plywood, so I dug around in the attic for 30 minutes until a found my sabre saw, which worked great for the job. Better than I thought it would.



The back wall. I had to hoist it up there myself, because I was home alone at the time. It wasn't too bad to lift, but getting it level was tricky.



The side wall came next. I should have done the front wall but I decided to change my plans, and hadn't redrawn them yet. Oh well.



Artsy Fartsy

Tales from the Shed

New tool for the job: Framing nailer. Its a refurbished Campbell Hausfeld. Yeah, I know its not a sexy name brand like Dewalt or Porter-Cable (I really wanted a Porter-Cable. To match my finish nailer), but it was a lot cheaper, and honestly, I won't use it for more than 2 or 3 projects. It's pretty awesome using a framing nailer. Makes the work go real fast. Unfortunately, Lowe's only sells 4000 count boxes of nails. That's a lot of nails, but since this thing is so much fun to use, I've been shooting in extra nails, where maybe I wouldn't have otherwise because swinging a hammer is kind of a drag after the 100th nail.



Two weekends ago I poured the piers for my shed. Luckily, the rain had stopped for a few days and I only had issues with water in two of the holes. What to do what to do. I just started dumping concrete into the tubes and when the water level was high enough, I bailed it out with a cup. Seemed to work ok.





I waited a week and slapped my beams and floor frame on. I had the hardest time trying to get the floor frame square, until I decided to measure the width of the frame. Hmmm. Apparently, a 10 foot board isn't always 10 feet long. Oh sure, I know that a 2x6 is actually 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 but who knew that a 2x6x10 could actually be anywhere from 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 10' 3/8" to 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 10' 2 3/16". Not me.

This part was finished on Saturday. It was supposed to rain, but actually turned out alright. It's a little higher off the ground than I wanted. Oops. I didn't have too much choice though because of the slope.





Sunday was miserable and cold and rainy. In the high 40s. I had to keep stopping to bring all of my tools inside because of intermittent heavy downpours. Got the framing done though.

Bodycount '08

Cat killed a frog, a bird and a mouse this week. Here's some video of him playing with the mouse in my weedbed. He bit the head off too and left it there. I never found the body.



In other cat news, our other cat, Trixie, got herself knocked up and out came five kittens. The one in the forefront is a runt, and we've had to supplement what little she can get from ma with some kitten formula. Yeah, I know, I didn't want them in the first place, nor the mother frankly, but I can't just let something die. The tiny bottle I bought is too big for her, so we've been using a dropper.