2.27.2016

Jim worked this morning on starting to wire up some circuits in the shop!  Very exciting steps towards being able to turn on a light switch!

In the afternoon, he switched gears and put up the rafters and window frame work he had made - it looks amazing!

 

I had some fire school work to catch up on, so I wasn't taking many pictures today - weather is supposed to warm up tomorrow so more work and pictures to come hopefully!

High 36/Low 29

 

2.26.2016

Today was a much colder day and the brisk wind only made it colder.  Jim went to the cold-formed steel place this morning to pick up some angle pieces.  He got all that unloaded into the shop as well as made two more rafters before he came home for lunch!

After lunch, I got all the angle taken apart and organized in our piles while Jim made more pieces for the side around the dormer window.

Lots of steel rafters waiting for a little warmer day to get installed!

Then Jim switched gears and opened up his new electric panel box!

He decided to change his initial plan of having the box on the outside bathroom wall to switch it to inside the bathroom.  That way he's not taking up any valuable wall space inside the shop.

However, that required moving the position of one of the rafters so that both flat surfaces faced in towards the box for mounting purposes.

Rafter is in right position now and Jim is fastening it down.

Jim decided to use these little baby studs (so cute!) to form top and bottom mounting plates for the box.

Attaching the mounting pieces...

Box is in position...

...and all fastened down!  So exciting to be installing the inner workings of the carriage house now!

 

High 26/Low 8

 

2.25.2016

It rained on/off all day.  Jim went out in the morning to see what kind of damage control he needed to do for the water leaking into the downstairs shop, but was pleasantly surprised.  The buckets caught most of the water and they hadn't overflowed during the night - all good news.

However, the rains have created such muddy grounds.  The ground is still frozen except for the top few inches so there's nowhere for the water to drain.  But we have no standing water anywhere like we see in many yards.  Just makes it messy to walk around.

I brought lunch out and we headed to Lowe's during a rainy period.  Jim had to talk to his rep about his latest quote, which includes everything from shower doors to trim boards to electric panels.

It was good that we went - we did some more exploring of the shower doors and decided to go with a different one.  It's really beautiful and well made.  We'll wait and see how the quotes come back but it was fun to look at all that.  We checked out tile and flooring a bit too as we walked through the store.

Jim was able to get a good price on the electric panels - one for the main box and one for the subpanel in the downstairs shop.  We were able to take those today so that he can get started when he's ready.  We also bought a big box of electric boxes.  Fun to think about working on all of the wiring - hopefully we may be able to flip a few switches in the near future!

After we got back, Jim got back to work on the rafters.  He tweaked the fit of one of the rafters that he wasn't real happy with and then moved on to making the rafters for the dormer window area.

 

Another good day of work when the weather didn't really cooperate!  We are headed for a big change in temperatures come tomorrow.

 

High 47/Low 21

 

2.24.2016

Today we got a light dusting of snow before it mostly changed over to a sleety, rain mixture.  Jim went out in the morning to assess the water situation and empty buckets.

He went back again after lunch hoping to work on cutting some rafters.  He accomplished that and more!  He got two more rafters cut and up in place!

It's looking so good - even through the misty fog!

 

Quite an accomplishment between raindrops!

High 37/Low 36

 

2.23.2016

Today was a great day - especially considering that yesterday was filled with frustration. 

Jim worked on tweaking the hip rafter this morning and then got it up into place.  He's thrilled with the way it fits so it was all worth it.

The next step was to put the track on the other side to make it a box beam (that's the track leaning up against the building).

Jim pulled the track up and got it into place...

Then he did all the fastening.  At least this side has the scaffolding - between that and a ladder, he was able to reach all of the connections.

Putting the first side rafter in place...

Then the first rafter on the front side...

The next rafter fit perfectly too...

Jim wasn't as happy with the fit of the last rafter on the front side so he brought it back down and did a little modification.

Now it's a perfect fit!

The front and back sides are all finished now!

Another view...

 

At this point, we took a break to prepare for water control.  We are under a winter weather advisory for a mix of snow, freezing rain and sleet again.  Unfortunately, the buckets that Jim used to catch water were not only frozen to the shop floor but were totally filled with ice.  Jim tried a couple methods to get the ice out, from pounding on the bottom of the bucket...

...to pounding on the ice itself.

Eventually he got the giant ice cubes out!

I did a little more cleaning of the yard - brought the rest of the steel in and picked up all the loose wood and metal strapping that they use to wrap the steel.  All of our steel piles are gone now!  And the steel piles inside the shop are getting smaller each day too.

 

Jim stayed after I left to make the next side rafter.  He not only made it, but got it installed too!  So this is the final end-of-the-day shot!  He got the hip rafter plus 5 other rafters installed today!

 

 

High 36/Low 27

 

2.22.2016

This was a tough day.  Jim had a couple of appointments this afternoon so he knew it was going to be an extremely short day - he had to close down no later than 2:30.

This morning he got another rafter made - this one is the first side piece that will get attached to the hip rafter.

He also got all the finishing work done on the hip rafter...

Then he spent time getting as many fasteners in as he was able to reach on all the rafters on the back side.

This called for Jim to get into some pretty tough positions - none of these are real accessible.

In order to start work on the front side, the top level of scaffolding had to come down.  Jim also had to unfasten the legs of the scaffolding tower from the landing and move it back towards the carriage house and refasten them so that the tower wouldn't be in the way of the hip rafter.

Putting on the clip angle...

Jim also put a catch angle up on the top as a place to set the hip rafter until he could get it into place.

The hip rafter is made of the heavier gauge steel so it's quite the challenge to get it up in place.  Jim brought it outside first...

...and then just had to lift it up.

He first set it up on the scaffolding until he could reposition.

Bringing it up...

...and setting it in place.  However, Jim realized that the clip angle wasn't in the right position.  These are the things that happen when you are in a hurry.

So that meant bringing the rafter down and then redoing the clip angle...

Let's try that again...

Setting it into place.  Now it fits perfectly on the clip angle but Jim isn't as happy with the fit on the ridge.  So once again, he had to bring the rafter down and back into the shop.

 

It was really frustrating for Jim to have to leave instead of being able to go back in and tweak the angle so that he could get the rafter back up into place.  But he had to leave it - tomorrow is another day and another challenge!

 

High 33/Low 8