Originally posted April 2, 2023
We are very delighted that big progress is starting to happen! Coming up one weekend to finish the final preparations before the insulators arrive, we ended up scrapping the idea of pressure washing the inside, due to the amount of time it would take to fully dry out the slab again.
We did, however, wrap the steel loft frame in stretch wrap to protect it from overspray, since the steel will be a visible architectural detail for the kitchen ceiling.
Amusingly, it looked a little like Halloween decorations when we were done. All said though, it turned out to be an elegantly simple and effective way to protect the painted surface. I threw as many panels of plywood I had on top of the steel as decking for the insulators to work from, and it was decided to leave the scaffolding set up for their use.
The other main objective for the weekend was to receive delivery of the framing lumber. As luck would have it, the only option for delivery was Saturday, and the weather forecast was less than promising. I got the call that the driver was on route and gave him directions to the rear entrance to the property. The front paved drive is not navigable by large trucks, partly due to canopy overhang, but mostly because of some very tight turns. The rear entrance is not that much better, being a bumpy limestone road, but at least it was a straight shot with plenty of overhead clearance.
When I inquired about the size of the truck I knew I needed to quickly figure out an alternate solution. I had previously navigated a 26 foot box truck down the rear road but only barely made the turn onto our property. I realized a 36 foot semi with rear forklift would never make it. I quickly hooked up 1 of 2 small flatbed trailers, neither of which were in outstanding condition, and told the driver we would meet him on the county road at the entrance of the dirt lane. Of course, as soon as he pulled up, the skies opened up with torrential rain.
After a few jokes about the fantastic weather, the driver had the first pallet loaded up and said he would wait for me to come back with a second empty trailer. I headed back toward the farm, and halfway back the trailer hit a bump, jumped off the hitch, and landed nose down in the dirt. Still raining, I got out and looked incredulously at the situation…
“Really?” I said to myself as my brain scrambled to come up with a solution. Getting back into the truck, I headed trailerless back to the farm. I pulled up in front of the main garage and jumped out to grab a large floor jack. My wife came out curious about what was happening, and I wasn’t able to fully articulate the details, so she hopped in the truck to go with me.
I raced back to the fallen trailer, and quickly backed the truck into position. Using the floor jack I was able to lift the tongue of the trailer just enough to get it hooked back up.
Now with both of us soaking wet, we headed for the farm, much slower this time. Somehow the trailer jumped again, but this time landed on the step of the bumper. I reattached it again, and continued on, as slow as was humanly possible. Finally arriving at the farm, and with extremely poor visibility, we managed to back the trailer into the cover of the steel building.
Quickly, I hooked up the second trailer and we headed back to the county road, with no sign of the rain easing up. I apologized to the driver for the delay and under the circumstances he was quite gracious. After loading the second pallet, I signed for the delivery, and we headed back towards the farm.
As we rolled across the bumpy limestone road, super slow to avoid a repeat of the first trip, my patience was noticeably wearing thin. My wife reminded me that the Lord likes to teach us lessons in ways that we often don’t find easy. Somehow, through the heavy rain and setbacks, we had accomplished our goal by persevering and not giving up. She reminded me that we would laugh about this soon, and despite my soaking clothes and frazzled nerves, I had to agree.
We managed to get the second trailer secured under cover and at that point, nothing else could be done. Thankfully we headed inside to dry off, change clothes, and warm up. Eventually the rain subsided and we went out to assess what should happen next. We ended up removing the plastic wrap from the two pallets to prevent trapping moisture, and set fans around to help dry them out.
Returning the next day, under sunnier weather and renewed spirits, we found the lumber to be fairly dry. So I pulled the one trailer out from the steel building and we decided, after some discussion, that it would be better to rewrap the pallets and leave them under cover, instead of hand restacking the lumber inside of the workshop.
Fortunately, I had more than enough of the stretch wrap left over to completely wrap both bundles of lumber, and so we left them, awaiting our return in one week to start carpentry.
As the week went by, I received an update from my mother. The insulators had come, and were able to successfully finish the whole structure in one day. That was a relief, hearing that they hadn’t encountered any issues hampering their progress.
So we headed back up to pull a three day weekend, and had the good fortune to be joined by my in laws. This was a huge blessing as my father in law (Chris) has 30 years experience as a contractor, and I knew that would greatly increase the amount of work we would be able to accomplish.
We arrived early Friday and were pleased with the results of the spray foam. As the day progressed I could definitely feel big difference in the amount of heat buildup.
After a quick huddle with Chris, we got to work. Since the flooring lumber was stacked on top of some of the framing lumber, we had to move it. We decided if we were going to re-stack it, we may as well prep it at the same time, squaring the edges with the table saw and miter cutting one end. 40 boards later and we had it prepped and stacked inside the building where we could work around it.
Next we got started on actual building. We framed up some of the downstairs walls, and then I finished framing the downstairs pantry and bath, and Chris started building the staircase. I left this in his capable hands as he has a lot of expertise with stairs. I was very grateful for the assistance, as I would have taken twice the time figuring out the process and making the odd mistake or two along the way!
While we were working hard, my wife and her mother applied some sealant to the underside of the upstairs flooring. We figured that would effectively seal the wood where it contacts the steel beams, and make the final finish easier to apply. Ingeniously, Chris had the ideas of using the garden gate as a drying rack, as they only had enough sawhorse space to work on 7 pieces at a time.
By the end of the day we had a fully framed out area under the loft and a very handsome set of stairs.
Sunday was a short day, I spent a little time with Chris figuring out the mechanics of the floor install, and our next steps forward. As an experiment, we put together a small corner section of the floor and tested the fit. Satisfied with our progress, and facing a long drive back, we called it a day, and agreed to get back together Easter weekend to finish out the floor.
It is always a little sad to leave the farm and head back to city life, but we are very encouraged by the progress we are making. If all goes well, we hope to ring in the new year in our future home!
As always, thanks for reading, stay tuned, and GOD bless everyone!!
FXT LEATHER 