The Shop

Our first building priority has always been to get a shop space built.  I have tools, materials, hardware, antique light fixtures, paint, stain, and all kinds of odds and ends (not to mention record albums, furniture, old toys, electric trains, and a rock collection; thanks, Lola) stored in locations up to 800 miles apart. The first thing I need to do on our property is provide a save, dry place to store and use all my crap.  So, we have been slowly, but surely working toward that goal.  To make this go as quickly, efficiently, and cheaply as possible, we decided to build a conventional pole building.  We hired Rick Ward, a pole building specialist to build the shell. He has agreed to build the shell for us in stages.  First the walls will be set, which should be done in just a couple of days.  At that point, Jason (son-in-law) will bring his crew in to pour the slab floor.  Without roof trusses set, concrete trucks can back right into the building and pour directly; no concrete pump or wheel barrels!  Then Rick can come back in and set the trusses, roof and finish the walls.  That's the plan and it's scheduled to begin August 6.

Rick has been very accommodating and seems willing to do whatever we need to get what we want.  He has agreed to install windows that I provide.  I'd spend my time finding a deal, rather than have him order full retail.  I want awning windows (hinged at the top, bottom swings open) so that they can be open in the rain.  They are also a bit more secure; difficult to climb into.  I found that no one stocks awning windows, special order only, so no easy deals are to be found.  I searched the internet for discount suppliers for hours. I found a place in West Virginia that we were traveling near, so gave them a call to check their inventory.  "Oh ya, we've got them.  We've got all kinds of windows."  When we got there we could only find one tiny awning window.  When I asked where all the awning windows were, he said," Here, just take these casement windows and put them on their side.  It's just the same.  I do it all the time."   Welcome to West Virgina!!!!  I can't understand why people make jokes about them.

This past weekend, we took a trip to Minnesota to celebrate Jan's daughter, Cammie's wedding to Josh Broberg. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Broberg!!!!!

Cheapskate and scrounge that I am, I checked the internet for cheap windows near Minneapolis.  Woo-Hoo!  I found "BMO, Building Materials Outlet" in East Eagan, MN.  So we drove my truck 1100 miles (one way) instead of Jan's Passat.  (That's ok, even though she gets much better gas mileage, her radio only works part time.)  BMO is a liquidator of surplus building material.  The place was incredible! Acres of stuff in warehouses, thousands of doors, tons of cabinets, and hundreds of windows.  Awning windows were still rare.  We dug through piles of windows, and found 6:  3 matching clad Andersens and 3 other off  brands of similar size.  We also bought a 3 panel window (center fixed, 2 sliders) about 5 feet long by 2 feet high.  Seven nice windows for $900.  (plus gas).  I think we will be going back there on other visits to Jan's girls.
 

The floor plan has evolved over these past months.  Early, we planned to include an apartment.  Instead, we will be putting that effort into building a small house (call it the cottage) that we will live in while continuing development of the property (earning money to help pay for all this, possibly building a spec house, and planning and building a larger, but not-so-big, house). The final shop plan (until this week) was to be a basic rectangle 30 feet wide by 40 feet long with a 16X24 foot open sided roof shed addition on one side.  After the wedding weekend in Minnesota, we drove South to set the final placement of shop on the land.  Jan and I messed with it for quite a while.  It just wouldn't quite fit.  Every way we pushed it, or spun it, it ended up too close to a tree or the garage door was blocked.  The answer was to get rid of the shed roof addition.  It would be nice to have covered storage attached, but if we just separated it from the building, everything would work.  We already had a contract with Rick, the barn guy, so we needed to see what he thought.  No problem.  It's nice to work with real people who just want to please us and are grateful for the work.  Now we have a site plan with the shop building at a slight angle from the road and an open storage shed off to the side backing toward the road.  In the next few weeks, Jason will get back out there with his Bobcat and work on the grade.  He will cut and fill so that the building pad will be closer to level (right now, 2.5 foot difference highest corner to lowest) and the surrounding land will drain away.

The other general features of the shop that are (pretty much) settled include an 14 foot wide overhead door in the end wall, a basic bathroom with slop sink, built-in shower and (future) toilet, an enclosed 10 foot wide heated space across one end with storage above, a wood stove to heat the main area.  The color scheme is tan walls with green roof.  I know, bore-ing.


The next big date: August 6.  That's when the building should start to rise from the ground.  About the same time:  water pipe, hydrants, rough-in shop plumbing, power to shop, fence and gate.  Then wiring, framing, insulation, plumbing finish in shop, gravel, clear driveway and house sites.

Being surprized and getting burned

I got a phone call from the electric company a couple of weeks ago.  They were about to set our new power pole and install our power drop.  Since they were adding a new pole for our place, they wanted to eliminate the next pole down the line.  They asked if I had any objections as they would have to cut a little brush to get access to remove it.  "No problem", I said.  So when we arrived Friday, May 25, for our next bit of work at Moss Hollow, we were shocked to say the least.  We did not recognize the place.  The power company had totally cleared at least 20 feet of brush and trees under the wires and back from the road the entire length of our frontage.  What we had left as a nice buffer and screen was gone!

BEFORE

AFTER

Of course, my first reactions ranged from shock to extreme anger.  But what can we do?  It actually gives us some other options for developing a plan for the face of the place.  We will need to create a new buffer/screen, but now we can do it with more ornamental plantings.  We have talked for a long time about having a grove of sumac trees.  We now have a nice place for that.  I see dogwood, redbud, forsythia in the future.  We now look at this as an opportunity.  The big lesson learned is: "Don't take anyone's word for what they will do.  And be there when they do it!"

That day, we also met Rick Ward (our pole building contractor) at the site.  I had thought that we could get our brush piles burned, cleaned up, the building site finalized, and the building pad prepared all in this 3 day trip.  Rick was ready to start the building in about three weeks and I said to put us on his calendar.  (A week later, after not getting much of this done, and considering the power company mess, I called him up and re-scheduled for August.)

Saturday morning Jason met us to torch the brush piles, now dried down and ready.  He also put a great effort into cleaning up the mess that the power company left (piles of trees and brush shoved into the woods).  Jan and I kept busy weed-wacking, trimming, cutting giant grape and creeper vines and picking up  deadfall and trash.  It was over 90 degrees and near a very large fire, but the humidity was un-typically low and a nice breeze helped.

That's really about all we accomplished on this trip.  The piles needed at least a few days to burn down.  Jason came back out Monday after we left and sorted out the burn piles; pulling out dirt and re-piling burnables.  We'll be back in a few weeks for the next steps.  Then we'll make a final determination on the exact placement of the shop building.  Then Jason can do more earthwork leveling a pad for it.  We also hope to locate the water line and maybe run some pipe and set a hydrant.  I'll also add a breaker box and receptacles to the power pole.  And then we'll locate the cottage and house sites and the drive down to them.  Jason can clear them in his spare time (he has soooo much of that!).  And, of course, weed-wacking and clean-up is never ending.