Chapter 16 “Hard at work in the New Year”

This is the latest chapter of a continuing story. To jump to the first chapter…

A new year has come, and with it, a renewed sense of energy and excitement! Even though it seems like much still to be done, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Everything is falling into place as it was meant to be. We have set the goal of having the space habitable enough to sleep there on weekends by the end of May. Once that goal has been reached we will be up more frequently and we are determined to make 2024 our last year of city dwelling.

A lot of people look at me as though I were crazy when I talk about building this place ourselves and creating a fully functional farm, especially at my age. However, I have found age to be no more than a state of mind and understand that anything is possible with spirit, determination, and faith. Every moment we spend up there working towards our future makes me feel like a kid again with giddy excitement at every turn. 

We’ve been diligently working on the ceiling, which of course is one of the more difficult aspects of the build, and when that is finished everything else should be comparatively easier. After insulating the rafters and installing the galvanized roofing panels the next step was to trim out the center beam.

We chose to wrap the beam in pine which was stained the same color that our upstairs floor will become.

I decided the easiest way to do this was to build interlocking channels that could be screwed into place. This way everything could be completely finished with a clear coat prior to installation, as opposed to after.

Once everything was dry I began putting them up. The first went up rather easily but I needed to modify the second section for the ceiling fan box. 

Anecdotally, if I was going to run into any trouble I knew this would be the spot. While the beam overall is pretty straight there was a subtle bend in it near where the first two sections would meet. Once I had everything set for the ceiling fan, I lifted the section into place and was surprised to see that both of the side pieces that would interlock with the first section had warped in exactly the correct direction to allow for the bend in the beam! I said a quick word of gratitude to GOD and later laughed with my wife that perhaps my late father had come down in spirit to lend us a helping hand.

Once it was all up we both were quite happy with the look but did notice that the new lumber didn’t fully conceal the edge of the roofing panels as intended. So a quick trip back to the store and we picked up some crown molding to finish off the look of everything. 

Sunday, all that material was stained, sealed and left to dry for installation on our next trip up. A big thank you to my lovely wife, for the countless hours of brushwork put in on everything that has required pre finishing.

Once the trim is complete we will be finalizing the electrical wiring prior to connection and then start the plumbing. After those are in place, we can finally start covering the walls. I’m super excited by our projected progress over the next few months and look forward to being on the other side of the hurdle with this build!

As always, thanks for reading and GOD Bless!!

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