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Another 3-day weekend has come to and end. Not all my goals were completed, but the main one was — getting the roof put on and the felt paper down.

The day started a bit slow, for I had to run to Home Depot to pick up some trim board and drip edge.   Home Depot doesn’t open until 8a on Sunday, so by the time I got home it was about 8:40a and my neighbor across the street came over as I was getting out of the truck to chit-chat.   After about 15 minutes, another neighbor came by to join in the conversation.   That blew 30-minutes, and finally I could get started — painting the trim boards, which is a paint and wait game.

Finally, about 10:15a after the second coat was dry,  I could finally put up the painted trim along the eaves, which I needed to get up before I could start putting up the roof sheathing. Of course by the time I started getting to put up the roof sheathing, the nice cool morning was gone, and the sun was now beating down on me as the temperature kept rising.

At least I learned one thing today, I never want to be a roofer.

Day 6 Photos

I forgot to notify Mother Nature of my shed building plans this weekend.

I awoke to thunder at about 4:30a this morning. I jumped out of bed and looked out the window — it was raining. My siding that I was hoping to stain wasn’t going to happen now, so I went back to bed hoping to fall back to sleep — well that didn’t happen.

The rain moved out around 9:00a and because the siding was wet, Linda and I decided to just hang the other side as-is, and will stain it at a later time. Those panels went up with no problems.

Originally, I wanted to hang all the sides (after being stained first), so I changed my plan to now start working on the roof. I cut all 18 rafters, and cut out the bird’s mouth on 14 of them (the remaining four are for the fly rafters that extend past the front and back of the shed.

After the rafters were prepared, it was time to attach them to the ridge beam. I screwed through the bird’s mouth onto the top plate on the two front rafters and the two back ones. Next it was time to have Linda climb up on the ladder and hold the back of the ridge beam up while I screwed the front two rafters to other end of the ridge beam. Once the front and back rafters were attached to the ridge beam, the remaining rafters all went up with little problem.

As I was getting the last few rafters attached, I could here thunder in the distance. So, once finished, we scrambled to put all of our stuff into the garage. It wasn’t long when a wicked storm hit. We got rain, hail and high winds. At the beginning of the storm, several golf ball sized hail fell, hitting the windows, front door and siding. After about 60 seconds, the hail came harder, but smaller.

This pretty much ended Day 5. Tomorrow, I’ve got to run to Home Depot to pick up the fascia boards. We’ll stain those white, put them up and then put up the OSB onto the roof. I am hoping to have the roof dried in before the sun sets Sunday.

Day 5 Photos

I took a vacation day today to have another three-day weekend to hopefully make good progress on the shed. Last evening I headed over to Home Depot to get the 12 sheets of T1-11 siding, 2 sheets of 5/8-inch plywood for the loft and 6 sheets of 5/8-inch OSB for the roof, plus the wood needed for the the loft beams, ridge beam and rafters. I also needed more saw blades for both my circular saw and chop saw. Total bill last night: $520.

I discovered that one of the 5/8-inch sheets of plywood, actually was a half-inch (someone put the wrong size on the pile) — so I had to run over to Home Depot again this morning before I could get started.  After returning and then getting all of my tools out of the garage and into the backyard, I started the day working on the front and back lofts. I cut notches in four 2×8x8s to fit under the top plate and screwed those to the sidewall studs to tie the two sides together.

I then had to cut the plywood to 86-inches (shorter than the 8-foot width) to allow the rafters that will be put up later room to rest on the top plate and clear the top of the plywood when they start angling up towards the ridge beam. I then cut a notch in the center of the end side to allow the 2×4 that will support the ridge beam to be erected.

I aligned each side of the loft in place and then screwed the plywood to the loft beams. This will give additional storage space — sweet.

The next job was to start working on the siding. I first stained three sheets of T1-11 with a coat of gray. While they dried, I snapped a chalk line 3/4-inch below the top of the skid, and attached two scrap pieces of wood along the line to allow me to rest the siding on when I was ready to put it up. I then cut a sheet of T1-11 to a length of 86-inches, and stained it with a second coat. The stain dries fairly quickly, so after about 15 minutes I hung the first piece of siding. The same process was done for the other two sheets, which completed the left side of the shed.

That was enough for one day. Tomorrow I’ll have to run to Home Depot again to get more stain. There was only a bit over a gallon in the 5 gallon container we had since staining the deck. I thought I had more, but was wrong. I am hoping to have all four sides up tomorrow and work on the roof Sunday.

Total estimated costs so far: $1085

Day 4 Photos

Scattered thunderstorms was the theme for the day, but that didn’t stop me from framing the front and back walls and then erecting them.

The day started out with blue skies and sunshine. But I knew the rain was coming, so I put up my EZ-Up popup canopy over part of the platform and behind it to keep everything dry when the wet stuff arrived.

I finished the back wall and 90% of the front wall when the lighting and thunder rolled in. After the thunder-boomers left the area, and only a light rain remained, I went back out to finish the front wall.

Once again, a hard rain started again. After about an hour, the rain quit. Linda ran off to the grocery store and I went out to prepare the platform for the walls. I moved the canopy to an open area in front of the shed, cleared the platform of wood, saws, etc. and was ready to put up the walls.

I didn’t want to wait for Linda to return, so I tackled the job alone. I setup the left sidewall, and braced it with a 2×4 to keep it stable. I screwed the bottom plate to the platform and plumbed the wall.

The backwall was next, followed by the other sidewall. Just as I was about to put up the front wall, Linda returned and gave me a hand lifting it onto the platform.

Boy, this sucker looks huge now. Next stage, the siding.

Total costs so far: $473

Day 3 Photos

I awoke this morning only slightly stiff — much better than I thought I would feel. So, it was off to Home Depot again to load up with the wood needed to complete the four walls.

Keely wanted to help today, so I started her out with a small hammer, some finish nails and a few scrap pieces of wood to practice hammering. She practiced for about 10 minutes before deciding she would rather measure stuff. So, as I was finishing the first wall, she helped me in measuring to check for a square wall.

I completed two side walls and noticed some dark gray clouds moving in — so I cleaned up and put everything away. The forecast is for rain this afternoon/evening and into tomorrow. So, not sure how much more I will be able to complete this weekend.

Total costs so far: $385

Day 2 Photos

Well, today I finally started building the 8×12 storage shed that I have had the plans for since about the turn of the century.  The actual plan is for an 8×10 shed, but I’m extending it two additional feet.

I got up this morning and headed off to Home Depot to get all the supplies I would need to build the platform. All the wood for this portion of the shed is treated, which means heavy! The heaviest items were the three 4×4x12′ and the three sheets of 3/4-inch PT plywood.

After loading the truck, I headed over to get my permit. Surprisingly, that went very smooth.

Linda and the kids headed off to a friends house for the day to do some swimming, so I had the entire day to myself.

At first it was a slow go, for I had to cut the 4×4’s to exactly 12-feet, then cut a bevel on each end. I then had to cut the 2×4x12’s also to exactly 12-feet, followed by cutting the 2×4x8’s to 93-inches. I was antsy to use my hammer!

By about 11:30a I finally nailed a floor joist to the rim joist- woo hoo! I nailed about 4 of the 13 joists when I took a lunch break.

The platform framing was done by 1:00, and all that was left was to put on the plywood. The hardest part about that was carrying the boards over to the platform. The three boards went down quickly, and the platform is now complete and square!

I guess tomorrow I’ll have to run over to Home Depot again to get the wood to start on the walls.

Total costs so far: $250

Day 1 Photos

Saturday we visited Jerusalem Mill for a Civil War era renactment of Gilmore’s Raid on the General Store.  Seeing so many people dressed in vintage clothing in the setting around Jerusalem Mill, made us feel like we were back in the late 1800’s.

The weather was pretty sticky — mid-90’s with high humidity.  We found a nice shady area near the water to eat lunch.

In addition, we also got to watch a 19th century vintage base ball game.   The locals in their 19th century garb played against the Chesapeake and Potomac Base Ball Club.  The players play by the rules as they were back in 1863.  They wear the same type of uniforms, use the same type of ball and play with no gloves — just as they did over 145 years ago.   I really enjoyed it, and am thinking of contacting and joining the base ball club.

Our front door has been an embarrassment for years. The faded blue never seemed warm and inviting.  After getting paint samples and checking them against the gray siding and our almond trim, we selected Cinnamon Cherry.

Originally we thought we would paint the door and the shutters this color, but have now decided to paint the blue shutters with dark gray.  That project will have to most likely wait unti after I finish my new project — the shed.  More on that in a later posting.

The neighborhood kids came by this evening for some water fun with the Slip-n-Slide.   Henry has yet to work up the courage to try it, so he decided to just watch up close and from all locations around the slip-n-slide. Not sure how he managed to elude all the other kids, but he managed to survive untouched, only getting splashed occasionally.

On the down side, Keely landed hard on her leg and got a large bruise and didn’t get to participate as long. She shook off the injury and returned to get a few slides in before Linda made hot chocolate for them all to enjoy in the backyard.

It was bound to happen, there was no preventing it. Henry has discovered a love for watching television, well, to be more specific a certain show — Dora the Explorer.

Shouts of “Door, Door” fill the house as Henry hears the opening music, or sees Dora on a plate, or T-shirt. He now has his first obsession — watching DVDs of Dora the Explorer over and over again.

I’m sure this phase will only last a short time.  College football season is approaching, maybe I can convince him to join me in my television obsession from September through early January.

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