The On Coming Storm

 

Well it’s been a long time since I posted anything. This same thing seemed to happen last summer.  The nice weather comes along.  I think “ya! I can get some things done!”   But it doesn’t happen!  Last summer it was a lack of money.  This summer it was a lack of time.  O.K…. Lack of money as well.  There is always a lack of money, ain’t there?

What happened is that I finally quit the job I was complaining about in past blogs.  I teamed up with a friend of mine to start our own general contracting business.  I had a fantasy that I was going to make more money and have more time to myself.  But that ain’t the case.  I had a fellow business owner say to me, “The beauty of being self-employed is that you get to choose which 80 hours a week you want to work.”  So needless to say, starting your own business is a time suck.  It’s also an emotional rollercoster as well.  You try to split your focus between the work you are doing right in front of you and making sure the near future is filled with work as well.  Keep the money flowing.  Even though the economy is picking up, what the downturn has taught people is how to hold onto a buck and squeeze out a bargain. I don’t blame them.  I obviously do the same.  But if you are the major bread winner in the family forget about getting a good night’s sleep.  So the word is scramble.  Find the work, do the work and bring home the bacon (quite literally… as long as there is something to eat) and do it all over again.  But I’m loving it because it’s mine and I only have to impress the clients.  No middle management bull shit, no yearly review to justify my existence. No need to kiss the company owner’s ass because I’m the owner and my ass is pretty kissable.  So like most Americans, I’m over worked and broke but free to call my own shots.  Is this a good thing or not?  We shall see.  For now I put in the time to make it work and all the while there Betty sits waiting for some action.

Betty's back side still needing work.

 

It finally came in the first week of September.  Generally, September in Seattle is one of the nicest months.  Many painters I know love the month of September because it’s sunny but not too hot. So on a Sunday when the forecast called for a long string of beautiful sunny days I decided the time had come to tear back the tarps that made up the roof. 

 

 

 I had dressed Betty up, now it was time for a hairdo.  I  pull off the rafters in back in order to frame up the second floor!  I had a light week for work and figured I could get this done, right? 

 

 

 

 

But as you have read in my past blogs, things have a way of taking interesting twists that you may not have anticipated.  A window install that takes longer than expected.  The temperatures jumping into the 90’s.  The beginning of school, soccer practices, meeting, bids to write, SCRAMBLING.  Now Betty sat there again, neglected.  This time with the humiliation of having no top on and the nice weather clock was running down.

 

 

 

 

 

I did manage over the summer to score on some great material.  I managed to find 365 square feet of roofing shingles for $80 (I need 362 to cover the garage).  Cleaned up some more framing wood and stock piled some left over pieces of Trex for a porch.  I did get Betty cleaned out and re-organized.  (I’m always re-organizing)  On the side opposite the wood rack, I built half of the wall that will separate the sitting area from the storage area.  Put in permanent wood shelves and filled them.  All my tools, hardware and bags of concrete left over from past jobs all sit neatly on these shelves.  Shelves that are right under the large hole I cut above.  These are things that don’t necessarily like to get wet.  So as I listened to the weather forecasters raving less about the glorious sunshine and record temperatures and began to preach of the impending doom of oncoming rain and thunderstorms, my anxiety meter climbed.  I knew I had to jump into action.  I had hoped for some help, but none offered itself.  It was simply me, up against mother-nature and out of time. 

Grey skies looming above
 

It was the following Friday afternoon when I was finally able to finish the demolition of the existing rafters, pull all the nails and clean up the area.  I wanted to get a jump on framing up the walls so all I had to do on Saturday was put up the rafters and sheet the roof.  However, the prep work slowed me down and the last day of sunshine ended once again with no new roof in site.  Saturday started with a little sun that was quickly swallowed by a building depth of clouds.  Nothing threatening, just a reminder that I needed to work quickly.  I got started at 8am.  My goal was to have all the walls done by noon and rafters set by the end of the day.  I called my folks to tell them of the situation and they wanted hourly reports of my progress.  Here is how the things went:

·        8am - Pulled out the windows that I want to put into the sleeping loft and prepped my tools.  I wanted to put in the last two joists for the floor and finish up the floor so I didn’t have to work around a large hole.  However I found that the 2x6’s I was holding onto for this purpose ended up being 2 inches to short. It figures!  Have to move on!  My thought was that I would raise the height of the roof 3 feet for the loft, but the window I salvaged to use on the south wall is 42” tall and to cool to do without.  This will make my walls nearly 5 feet and the peak of the roof nearly 8 feet taller than the original roof line.  Much taller than I planned which means more framing.  I figured it would be a good idea to keep up the good relationship with my neighbors to the south and make sure this height would not obstruct their view.  So I built one wall and waited for a proper time to knock on my neighbor’s door.

 

·        9:30am – Neighbors took a look at my wall and gave me the green light to proceed.  Sun poked out of the cloud to give me hope that the rain would hold off.

·        10am – Second wall finished!  On cruising speed!

 

·        12pm – Third wall finished.  This one faces the alley and will have the multi pain window.  It took a little time as I built the headers for both walls that have windows.  Clouds moved back in but nothing that looks to concerning.  Lunch break.

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• 2pm – There’s always one wall to give you trouble!  That of course is the last wall I need to frame.  But the trouble was my own creation.  I discovered that I placed the framing for the final wall on the wrong side of the existing rafter and had to pull it apart.  I came to discover that if you are going to nail anything into a piece of old growth tight grain Doug fir, you better be committed because it will not come out without a long painful struggle!  It takes me about 30 minutes to pull things apart.

·        4pm:  The last wall continues to be a challenge as it is built on a 22 degree angle to match the pitch of the rafters.  I get it done, but am forced to call it quits for the day as we are going out to dinner with my in-laws and their out of town guest.  I check the old I-Phon Almanac weather report for Sunday and it is not promising.  30% chance of rain by 9am.  Each hour added another 10% increase in chance of showers.  (Dinner was fabulous by the way!  We went to a quaint little Italian joint nestled in the Alki neighborhood of Seattle called La Rustica.  I had prawns wrapped in a thin cut of veal.)

Sunday morning started in a fog that already made everything damp.  I’m up early and eager to go, but  Dana forbade me to start hammering before 9am!  That was when the chance of rain jumped to 30%!  I tried to keep my cool as I set up everything for the day.  As I am re-using the old rafters I decided a quiet activity like scraping and sanding the old paint would be o.k. until the clock struck 9.  However dark clouds were looming right over my shoulder whispering there songs of dread into my ears.  By the time 9am came around, it wasn’t the chime of a bell but the rumble of thunder that greeted me.  It seemed that the 30% odds worked against this bet and the first squall came through with a heavy dumping of rain that lasted about an hour.  Holding back no amount of volume as I cursed he sky I got a tarp up and was ready to call it quits for the day.  But the rain stopped and the sun repented by poking through the clouds giving me the encouragement I needed to go back at it.

·        11am: Managed to set the ridge beam into place.  Wow it looked really high!  I thought it best to check with the neighbors again to make sure this would fly with them.  They approved and my little loft is now a full height room.  With the addition of the ridge beam that didn’t exist before I had to pull a new measurement and adjust the angle on each rafter.

·        12:30pm:  My father-in-law came by to help out.  I had a lot of running up and down on the ladder in order to get the right lengths and angles.  The old rafters were like some worn down bones.  None are a consistent length nor straight.  It was nice to have a second set of hands.

 

·        2:30pm:  All the rafters are in place.  Despite my earlier curses, the weather gods are being kind to me as they keep blowing the dark clouds past.  I start to cut plywood sheeting hoping to get enough on for a tarp to secured to.

·        3pm: Thunder is rumbling in the distance adding even more urgency.

·        3:15pm Thunder getting louder with wind picking up.  Makes it difficult to carry full sheets of plywood up the ladder.  Larry’s a great help

·        3:45pm: I have about ½ the plywood sheeting up.  Clouds are looking scary!

·        4pm: I think we can make it!

·        4:05pm: Lightening flashing.  We are about ¾ finished.  We are thinking it might be good to stop here and throw up the tarps.

·        4:15pm:  Yup!  Time to stop!  Weather gods are growing impatient.  They throw a lighting strike nearby and yelled at us with a loud pound of thunder.  We started tarping Betty’s new second floor room.

 

·        4:40pm: THE WEATHER GODS WILL WAIT NO MORE!!.  The clouds open up, the wind swoops down like a hand slapping us into submission.  We retreat into the house and hope for the best.  Hope that I can get a roof on her before the really bad weather comes to town.

Update:  Since this day I did manage to get the rest of the plywood up.  I salvaged some really nice tong and groove boards that were originally on Betty’s interior walls and ran them through the plainer. 

 

These made up the soffet.  I was ready to put the flashing and shingles up when a wind storm came through and tore off all the felt paper.  So… I put on more along with the flashing.  I am hoping that this Sunday will be roofing day!

Time to Dress Up Betty

The old lady has a name.  Betty!  Betty seems an old fashion enough kind of name to give an old girl like my garage.  Betty can sound simple enough yet sophisticated in her humor.  Think Betty Rubble from the original Flintstones cartoon.  She had a quick wit about her with just a touch of "sauciness" in her humor.  That just about sums up the personality of my garage.  My Old Betty.  She seems simple enough to work on, yet her playful nature will throw a little challenge at me.  And if I mess that up her saucy mood can down right make my day miserable.  But I love her anyways.

You can see from my unconditional love for her why my wife referrers to her as "The Other Woman"

Betty was also the name of the old lady who gave me my first job.  I cut her grass and shoveled her snow.  She was an incredible gift to me for marketing my little business as she spread the word to all her neighbors of my reliable nature and determined hard work. I believe it was more from a delight that I was "her" helper.  However more calls came in and I soon had a monopoly on most of the old ladies in my neighborhood.  I was thinking this was a great until the winter of 1979 when we were hit with on blizzard after another.  Thus began the history of my constant back aches.  The huge volume of business and the overwhelming amount of attention I was receiving from the other old ladies in the neighborhood started to take a toll on Betty.  I was no longer at her beck and call.  She had to actually schedule time with me.  I began to notice that her sandwiches where a bit skimpy compared to the sandwiches Sally across the street was giving me.  Erma's baked goods were a step above hers.  But Betty didn't give up so easy to keep the number one spot.  She upped her payout from $5 a lawn mowing to $8.  Word of this spread and soon everyone felt I was worth $10.  Christmas of 79 was a profitable one as my clients dug deep into their pensions and showered me with gifts and cash bonuses to see who could win my devotion.  In the end it got a bit ugly as some of the ladies began to gossip to me about the others.  Who could, in their lady MacBethian way, fuel my devotion to them while poisoning my opinion of the other.  Politics is an ancient game and finds it way into many relationships especially when the affections of a senior woman are involved.  Thank God High School started for me and I passed off my business.  It was the only choice I had in trying to avoid a full scale geriatric war.  However, as time went on I would still get the occasional call to see if I was free to "help an old lady out".  The call to swing by for a "little box of cookies I made for you".  But they all knew if was over with me.  I eventually went from the coveted helper to the "nice boy who used to mow my lawn".  A fading memory that maybe brought a smile to them.

Now missing the garage tent

I am hoping my present Betty will do the same when she's finally done.  I will think of the drawn out challenges we went through to get her to that place of finished beauty and those memories will bring me a smile of satisfaction.  But those days are still in the future.  Perhaps long into the future.  The progress that I thought would go quickly once she was on the foundation has come in spurts.  This time its not for lack of material, but time and weather.  In some ways I'm a bit sorry that the garage tent went away because it made a great shelter for a cut station.  Nothing drives me more nuts than pulling all the tools out that I need, getting them set up and then it rains. It a substantial amount of tools I need to get some siding on.  Table saw, shop saw, compressor, nail gun, on and on and on.... I generally don't mind working in the rain, but I hate having my tools get wet.  I guess it's time to invest in a portable canopy.  Not really something I can find for free.

Larry working his magic!

However, progress has been made I have been getting the old gal a glamorous dressing.  I got hold of a portable planer and ran some of the old cedar boards that came from my neighbor's deck through it.  Made them look as good as new.  I milled those up for my corner trim, door and window casing.  (The door was a slight challenge to trim out as the wall is still a bit out of plumb.)  The siding went at a steady pace.  As it was salvaged from Betty's exterior and even the interior I tried to scape off the old paint and do some sanding before I put it up.  By the time I finished the south side of the garage the salvaged siding created a multi colored and textured mosaic that I was nearly tempted to leave.  But to the relief of my wife and neighbors, I solicited the help of my Father-in-law, Larry to do some priming.  This guy is one fast painter! It was after seeing that first coat of primer that the true potential of the finished beauty really started to show.  Betty was turning into one hot mama!

South Side before primer

A mosaic of ... something

Hot Mama!

Broken off sill

The east side facing the house presented it's own challenges.  I had salvaged a nice double hung window to put in to that side of Betty.  Unfortunately the individual who pulled the window out did quite a number on the sill and I had to replace it. 


Luckily I kept one of the sills from the old windows that use to be in the south side of the garage.  After carefully cutting out the old sill, I set the window then glued and screwed in the replacement sill.  Again I used old deck boards for the milled up for trim and then "BANG" Larry was back to do his magic.

Clean Cut

Magic!

East Side looking sexy!!

Good Ol' Keith

The north side has some changes coming to it.  As I felt I needed to save up some of the salvaged siding for the eventual "pop up" in the roof, I decided to pull off all the siding (once again with the help of my good friend Keith) and actually buy some siding panels for this side.

This side will eventually have a shed roof put onto it so that I have a place to store my little boat.  I tried to get something that looked close.  I guess I could have tried to hunt down some free material, but the closer I get to finishing this, the smaller my patience for finding salvaged items gets.  So please forgive me salvaging gods.

Pretty Close

Ain't Betty Lookin' Good?

I  have yet to start on the west side that holds the garage size door.  This side has a number of issues of it own that will force on me some head scratching time.  That's what Betty likes to do to me.  Keep me guessing as to her mood.  Keep me guessing to my approach.  Will it please her or make her furious?  Like any relationship I have to take it step by step.  But she is looking beautiful and every time we tassel over something I gotta simply step back and look her over.  My mood softens, we figure out how to work it out and once again I'm hers.  I can't seem to help myself.

The Purge (or The Big Dump)

I sat silently with a cup of coffee in  my hand.  Just staring at the situation I had to deal with.  The morning was sunny and cold but I felt comfortable in my layers of old sweaters.  Frost clung fiercely to the plastic tarp as the building warmth of the sun ushered it away.  I lifted the cup to my mouth directing my attention for just a moment to the steam floating from the coffee and warming my face.  A short moment of serenity as the robins sang out their anthem to the spring and to this day.  For today is the day I am to tackle the mountainous mess that I have affectionately referred to as the "garage tent".

On it's last legs!

For close to a year and a half I have stuffed this tent with items that I have salvaged.  Items I believed I could use in my projects.  I have attempted to neatly organize and store it.  But blowing storms, hasty placement of objects and a family of long tailed critters living within the layers have forced me to this task.  To empty the tent.  To purge! To make the big dump!

What to do with all this stuff?

I finally have the garage pretty weather tight that I can use it as, basically... a garage.  The south side that was open to the blowing elements has been sealed up with a layer of siding paper.  I have in the door and the window on that side as well.  The only holes left on the garage face away from the direction of any incoming weather.

The tarps on the roof are in good shape so I am confident that anything I put in here will stay dry until I put on a permanent roof.  But I need a wood storage rack in the garage and I don't necessarily want to build another one when I have a perfectly good one.  In the tent... buried under a boat load of wood.  





So what do you do in a situation like this?  You stare at it for a while as you sip your cup of coffee and psyche yourself up for the task.  Because I know this is no quick task.  I know that the moment I start this will be at least an eight to ten hour task.  But it must be done! Because like any kind of purge, any kind of cleansing, the psychological relief can be up lifting. Comparing to that of a laxative induced release after days of clogged suffering.  With that inspiration in mind, I put down my coffee cup, put on my work gloves and walk straight into the cascade of clutter.  Perhaps never to be seen again.

Now that the garage is down on the it's foundation and the framing has begun, I have a clearer idea as to what I really need.  For months it was a grab bag mentality when it came to the opportunities for salvaged material.  Although I had a vision and tried to curtail my salvaging to meet it, there were still many unknowns that pushed me to take things for the "what if".  Many of those items I now see are simply adding to the overwhelming collection in the tent.  I pulled material out and spread it all over my backyard. More or less covering every square inch and even surprising myself how efficiently and densely packed the tent was.  This alone took me nearly thee hours.   I then had to step back for a moment and grab another cup of coffee to survey the scene.  The material was laid out like injured soldiers in a triage field awaiting surgery.  It was now my job to walked through the wounded and decide who would make it and who would not.

I knew I wanted to keep the cedar boards.  I had many uses for those.  I got the rack set up in the  garage and dedicated a portion of it to the cedar.

New Rack in the garage.  Looks about the same.

I then picked through the framing material and evaluated what was useful and what was not.  As you can see from my last entry, my standards aren't to high.  However, I did have many pieces I had to convince myself were really of no use.  I do have a very difficult time taking things to the dump, but eventually it does have to happen.

Luckily in Seattle I do have some choices as to what to do with my unwanted items.  I am thorough in my separation of the material heading out.  Almost to an obsessive point.   I stack all the metal objects in one pile, even a couple of old caulking guns.  Even though there is a metal recycling pile at the dump, I like to give my metal to the scrap metal guys that hang out at the entrance of the dump.  The wood I separated into a the "useful" and "not".  The useful stuff went to Second Use Salvage.  The "not" was separated to "clean" (with no paint or stain) and "dirty".  The clean can be thrown into the yard waste.  Dirty... well it's dirty and has to become landfill.  I was happy that in the 4 truck loads that I hauled away only one became landfill.

The happy ending... NO MORE TENT.  I'm sure there was celebrating within the walls of my neighbors house.  The eye sore testimony to my white trashdom was finally gone.  No more rattling and rustling coming from my backyard during the winter storms.  The unfortunately thing is that there was no saving it.  Besides the year and a half this stood on my yard, it spent two years on a construction site.  It did well in it's job to serve and protect.  But the tarp bore many duct taped wounds and no longer shed water.   The poles were severely bent.  The metal salvage guys were blessed this day.  Sadly the landfill is a little more full.  But my yard is open, the garage is packed and I can once again see the mountains from my backyard.

Look at that view!  OK.  The old tree needs to come down.  But I do have a hard time letting go of those things.

Framing Like A Cheap Bastard - 101

I have finally started to re-frame parts of the old garage. (I feel like I need to give her a name.  If you have a suggestion, leave a comment with the name).  Before I get in to telling you what I have accomplished, let me tell you the challenges a cheap bastard like myself has when it comes to framing.  When using salvaged material, you need to be ready to add a few extra steps to the process.  You can't just grab a fresh 2x4 off your pile of framing material, cut it to size and nail it into the wall.  Chances are the salvaged board has nails in it that need to be pulled.  Some times a few nails, some times a lot of nails.  Take these board for instance.

Good boards... lots of nails.  It is time to take a look at my up coming hand book "How To Build Like A Cheap Bastard"  This is taken from chapter on framing.  The section is called "How to de-nail a board- 101".
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... You must know your tools and which one is the right tool for the job.  Having an assortment of pry bars will come in handy to face the number of types of nails you will encounter.

Of course hammer and nail pullers.

Always remember your eye protection.  No fun trying to do this with a piece of nail stuck in your eye.





It is almost certain that you will salvage a number of boards that have been nailed together.  I find that these are some of the best boards to salvage and re-use.  Being joined together they generally have not twisted or warped over time.  Here are some simple steps to pull these apart without a huge amount of cussing.

Step One:  First you need to bend back any nails that have been bent over the board.  Do this by first slipping the claw end of the hammer under the nail and pulling back.  Then gently tap it back with the head of the hammer.

 

Step Two: Using a stout pry bar, tap it in-between the two boards and give it a twist.  Repeat this all the way down the board on both sides.

At some point in this process you may have to move up to a slightly larger crow bar for a little more "UMPH" and repeat this step

Step three:  Slide a larger pry bar between the two boards.  At this time you may have to place the board on the ground and keep a foot on the lower board as you pull up on the upper board.  The boards should pull apart with a little persuasion.

What you should have at this time are two boards with a bunch of nails sticking out of them.  You can choose at this time to keep one of the boards like it is and turn it into a home security weapon, or move on to step three.

OUCH!!

ALWAYS REMEMBER NOT TO LAY A BOARD FULL OF NAILS ON THE GROUND WITH THE NAILS STICKING UP!  Nothing stops progress than a trying to pull a nail out of you shoe and foot!

Step Four: Tap the nails backwards until they are no longer poking out that side of the board.  (see below for helpful hints on what to do if you bend a nail)**

Step Five: Flip the board over and use your pry-bar to pull the nails out.  If the nails are pretty long, it helps to put a block of wood under the pry-bar for extra leverage.



If the head breaks off the nail, use a nail pullers.

Step Six:  Dispose of the nails properly.  I like to keep them in bucket because I love to see just how many nails I have pulled.  Look around the area you have been working and make sure no stray nails are laying about.  Especially if you have been working on your lawn and barefoot kids are near.  I like to fill the bucket and take it down to the metal recycling center.  I got 3 bucks for my last bucket of nails!

You now have two perfectly good boards for framing!!

As you can see, I have salvaged quite a few!

Here is what framing I have accomplished thus far.

I re-framed the south wall.  This is where the old window was.  I framed the rough opening for the door and a small window I salvaged.  Using 1/2" ply that came off my neighbor's house I managed to sheet this entire side of the garage.

Next was the garage door opening.  The entire west side is also getting re-framed and most of it was rotting away.  I re-enforced the header and re-framed the opening.  I put in a new beam over the header that was left for me by the guys who built the house next door.

A beam that come out of my neighbor's house is now in place in the center of the structure and I was then able to partially frame the loft.  I now have a safe place for the windows and skylights  I have salvaged.

The more I strengthen her bones the stronger my confidence in this structure.  

My next goal is to button up the outside and make her weather tight.  But in order to do that, I need to deal with moving this....

OH MAN!! THE TENT!

***HELPFUL HINTS IF YOU BEND A NAIL!

1) STOP POUNDING!

2) DON'T PANIC!!

3) Get your nail pullers!

4) Place the nail pullers slightly above the bend in the nail 

5) Bend the nail in the opposite direction of the bend straightening the nail.  In bending the nail back it may bend where it comes out of the wood.  Don't freak out.  Just lower the nail puller to that spot and give it a little tug back.

6) O.K. Go back to pounding the nail out, but start softly and bring your hammer down straight for crying out loud!!

GOOD JOB.  Now you deserve that martini!