Captain's Log Stardate 11/29/2012

Turkey Day has come and gone, the leaves are changing colors and the rain is coming. We spent the entire four days off working on the house and it was pretty productive. There are so many to dos on the list and so much of my to do list involves CLEANING.



Kyle was able to install all the reinforcing steel beams in the master bedroom. We had to weld these steel bars across the ceiling of the bedroom before we cut the ceiling out. The current ceiling of the containers is working hard to keep the container together and square and we don't want that compromised when it gets cut out so the steel bars will do the ceilings job of keeping the walls together and square.

With the news windows IN THE HOUSE, pun intended, I spent a day and a half cleaning, scraping and foaming the frames to ready them for accepting their new mates. We temporarily put one window in its house to see what what they will look like, and they look pretty good.

We also started pulling the wooden floor out of the old hay barn and have found two local guys that will be able to mill them down to the thicknesses we need. It is a tad heartbreaking to cut them down but they really aren't of much use as they currently are anyway.

With the roof framing the ICF completed the mezzanine (loft) is going up and our welding guys are coming out to take measurements to build the stairs-yeh, no more ladders.

The picture below of the house in the evening doesn't even capture how it looked when the sun was setting and shining so orange through the windows it looked like an inverted jack o'lantern. Then later in the evening wheat was dark Kyle started welding and the windows lit up with that unnatural blue light and sparks, then it looked like a scene out of a horror movie.

Signing off for tonight,
Capt. Kirk

Window delivery

Windows are to be delivered today. Talked to the truckers this morning and all was good.

While we wait for the delivery we get a call, the truck was pulled over by CHP for being too long - 83'. Apparently not something the trucking company checked beforehand.

So back the windows go to a warehouse to be loaded onto a smaller truck to try to get back up here.

Wait, no warehouse will take them as they are not palleted.

So contact a small trucking company to pick them up, same problem, no one will take them as they aren't palleted.

Our fabulous window guy, Mike Hartman of Cavolt & Sons, contacts another window contractor that agrees to take the windows and then deliver them the next day. The trucker won't go to his shop for fear of a fine.

Windows still sitting at a truck stop on the side of Rte 80 for over 24 hrs now.

So off Mike goes with his own window installer to pick up the windows themselves on the side of the highway, load them into their car/truck/trailer etc... and bring them to the house themselves.

Thanks to Mike Hartman, Dave Duncan of DAD's Glass, James and Karl of Anderson Pacific Builders for helping to unload them at the house.

We have windows....now just to get them installed.

And they came with their own whoopsie cushion;-)

Thinking Ahead

After the main ridge beam was installed and before the roof went on Kyle had a great idea to put some hardware on the beam that would allow us to lift heavy things up to the second level. Things like windows, furniture, the gym equipment that will live up there eventually.

Keeping in mind that these pieces would be a permanent part of the beam forever he made some pretty cool brackets that fitted around the entire foot deep beam and had holes at the bottom for attaching lifting rigging.

Then we attach the little lifting machine that carries 1,000 lbs and lifts by climbing a cable, like a winch.

I think they came out fantastic and are a cool feature as well as being a really useful tool.

Dog CPR - Everyone needs to know

Puppy CPR - A must save for dog owners

(Click to enlarge)[Via: Carrington College's Veterinary Tech Program ]