Building Begins!

Hi Folks,

The day finally came – Dan, my carpenter, arrived.  He got here a day later than expected but that turned out to be perfect.  If he’d arrived on Tuesday he would have arrived in the midst of a snowstorm on an incredibly cold, grey day and would have found me in my pajamas, barely able to get out of bed.

When he arrived on Wednesday the sun was shining, the snow melting, and we got started with showing him around the town, getting him set up in his digs and introducing him to Gyrtle.  Thursday we met with Scott to talk over details and then went to move the trailer to it’s exact building spot and get it leveled.  Then we went hunting for southern yellow pine to fill in the flatbed to provide support for the aluminum that will protect the belly of my home from water and invading rodents.

There was no southern yellow pine to be found anywhere so we finally decided on a substitute – douglas fir, I think – which had to be primed.  This happened on Friday.  We also spent most of Friday locating suppliers for various plumbing supplies and getting the order of lumber and other building materials lined up for delivery on Saturday with Home Depot – or maybe that was Thursday.

First thing Saturday morning the truck arrived with the building supplies.  Unfortunately all of the insulation we got was wrong so that will have to go back on Monday.  Saturday we also put those white boards on the trailer.  I actually sawed some of them.  Then we started rolling out the aluminum and siliconing it down.  It was a very cold day and lots of wind so I was glad that nothing blew away – or blew us over.

I find I vascillate between thinking “Wow, this is really cool” and “OMG, how is this actually going to get done?”  There is so much to do, so much to buy, so many details to be worked out.  I did have a moment when I could feel my Dad looking down from the great beyond, enjoying that I was building my own home.

Whistle while you work!