Category: Daily Life

Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Weekend Project Day 6

This is the second weekend of Amy’s birthday present. Sarah’s birthday is this week. So after making a little progress on a programming project, I allowed myself a milestone break to get the upper half of the second wall in place. My weekend goal had been All walls complete and rafters begun. Once the second wall was in place, we whisked over to the inlaws to celebrate father’s day. Upon return I convinced myself that I should do a 3rd wall before returning to programming (you can program in the dark). The materials for my 4th wall are a full 1½ inches short. How that happened is beyond me. So after the 3rd wall, progress came to a grinding halt. Tomorrow I’ll pickup another sheet of T111 and that will give us enough material to finish the walls in short spurts during the week. Hopefully before the next rains come we can have the rafters in place to support a tarp or perhaps even the roof done.

Weekend project day 6 - 2nd wall finishedWeekend project day 6 - wall 3 done

Posted on by — Leave a comment

A smack of reality

There is the way that most of us believe the world works; then there is the way it really works. Most of us believe that we live in a rules based society where minor infractions result in catastrophic consequences. The fact of the matter is that we live in a fuzzy logic society guided but good suggestions but where oversights, back scratches, and silently looking out for one another is the norm. Sometimes we fail to realize that stranger is looking out for our best interest.

Today I thought I was exchanging 34 cracked pieces of fir precut studs for 34 in better condition. As it turns out I was only returning 32 plus 2 eight foot pine boards but the paperwork said 34 boards. Exchanges are not allowed in the yard. Wood has to be returned for cash and a new purchase has to be made. Paperwork is in triplicate…twice. After exchanging the 32 boards the yardman drove me to the stack of 2×8 pine, pointed, and said, "I’ll go take care of the paperwork with the yardboss." After swapping my two pieces of pine, I walked to the shed to sign the paperwork. I’d like to blame it on the lack of coffee in my system but truth be told my brain was turned off and I had a naive moment as I uttered, "what about the two pieces of pine." The yardboss glared at the yardman, questioned him, and like a scene from Brazil begin pounding on keys and muttering at her computer. I signed here, there and there again. As the yardman and I walked away from the shed, I apologized and he was good humored about it but I think he probably muttered at me as I left.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

The Little Miss Project

Amy had but one wish for her birthday…a clubhouse. And she received basically one present…a pile of lumber for a clubhouse. We are building The Little Miss by WoodManor.net. Below are the timelapse videos of the first two days of work. I cannot give you these 20 minutes of your life back. The audio at the beginning of the 2nd video corrects rather quickly. The best parts of each video are the last two minutes so skip to minute 6 on the first video and minute 10 on the second.

This weekend's projectWeekend project gravelWeekend project footersWeekend project- foundation and floor

Stopping for the night Weekend project day 2 - one half wall


Posted on by — 1 Comment

Making a girl’s 8th birthday wish come true

Amy has her mind set on a club house for her 8th birthday (tomorrow!).

The Fantasy

On Saturday morning, Ty Pennington and his crew from Extreme Makeover Home Edition show up with a bobcat and the materials to build The Queen Anne or the Spoiler. By Saturday evening, a portion of the yard has been contoured, landscaped and become home to Amy’s new playhouse in which we celebrate her birthday inside.

The Reality

Saturday I build the Little Miss by myself leaving landscaping for a different weekendlifetime. Sunday afternoon, we celebrate Amy’s birthday inside and around her clubhouse.

Cathy’s fear

The construction will be delayed and problematic and Amy will go without any semblance of a birthday present until the end of the summer or worse.

The Wishful Desire

Any volunteers want to grab hammers and shovels and help me put this together in one day on this coming Saturday? Does beer and pizza still work in exchange for labor?

And you can bet there will be a timelapse of the build.