Off The Beaten Path

With one wall successfully under our belt — the simplest wall, due to height and amount of cutting necessary — we felt more confident heading into the first end wall. There are no windows or doors in that wall, so we assumed it would be relatively easy. We assumed incorrectly. Quite quickly, we discovered a…

Other than putting a few panels on the outside of out tent garage (in retrospect we did EVERYTHING incorrectly), I have never handled steel in my life. Husband got a bit of a tutoring whilst securing the roof, but when it comes to things like windows and doors, he has never done steel either. But…

The frame was finished. Our builder friend was home, and there was a day in the coming week that had almost no wind. All the pieces were in place. We called in a few friends and a couple of my cousins. It’s Roofing Day! When you’re dealing with 24′ sheets of steel, no wind is…

It took us a week to fully strap the roof. Mostly because weather kept intruding. Wintertime, after all. We’ve had far more rain than snow — haven’t had to use our snow blower even one time yet — but the wind is semi-consistently a problem. The good news is, even though this area sustained higher…

Hello, my name is Karen and I am a seed addict. It has been less than a day since my last seed order. I HAVE seeds. I have LOTS of seeds. I have so many seeds I had to get a bigger box for them. But…you see…the box of seeds is buried in the back…

Bad weather happens. It is unavoidable. One must simply adapt and work around it. We had a fairly ugly windstorm coming in, so we had to take a break from building to prepare for it. While we no longer live in the tent, it is our sole storage facility for the time being. Having it…

It had taken us exactly one month from Raising Day to this point. We were ready to place the trusses. The trusses are 24′ long. The building is 20ft wide. Manouvering each one up and around the centeal beam and then up to the proper place was…not fun. We figured out a system of sorts.…

We live, if not exactly in the middle of nowhere, then certainly at a distance from a major center. We have a very small grocery, a pharmacy, a hardware store within ten minutes, and a larger one of each within about 25 minutes. But if we need anything outside the basics, we have a minimum…

Sometimes, things do go right in a build like this, but more times than not, things go somewhat sideways. Putting the sillplate on the sloped studwalls was one of those times. For one thing, in order to do it properly, the first six inches on each end of the middle beam had to be notched…

Working on the high wall is not enjoyable. As we added strapping it became slightly less terrifying, but neither of us was looking forward to the sillplate on the top of that wall. And yet, it must be done before we could continue. Just like on the small wall, the sillplate is a double layer.…