a little more of everything tonight

Right now it's all about keeping going.

I can see the finish line, this is the fun part...when spring hits and I have some warmer weather, it'll get heavy again...literally, as I will be building a big frame for more barrels and have to shift gears again.

So, in the meantime, I'm enjoying the hell outta this finer detailed work and the artistic side of this process.

I added the rest of the long cedar boards tonight and am shy just a few...I'm putting my intention out there to the universe to not have to buy another pack of boards since I only need one or two (not eight)....I think I may have an idea too!

I've almost finished my insulations....yeah i know I still haven't wired the lights, but at least the insulation is pretty easy to deal with. All, except for that bad batch I got from Jackson Lumber Yard, it's like soggy diapers a huge difference between the blocks I've been getting.

I think I'm gonna have to complain. Although, if it doesn't ruin the insulating properties of the stuff I may as well keep it since it's already in place. I'm not one to waste and would hate to see it all getting trashed for no reason.

I also took another stab at my electrical issue building my in-wall extension chord. Another pair of eyes showed me I wasn't lining up the wires correctly with the screws and the holes and a little-indented section of the inside of the housing.

yet another redo..
straighten everything

see all the lost ends in the
background!?

now to be more conscious of the
direction of the curl

hot wire looking better

neutral straightened up

I thought this was my prob..
NOT.

Come to find out that these larger holes were NOT where the wires needed to come out. The three holes on the bottom were correct after all. So, after a fourth or so time undoing everything I finally got them in the right holes, in the right direction and after struggling pushing it down about 20 iterations, FINALLY got it to "snap" into place.

That sound was such a relief! The problem after that was how to make it less wiggly in the housing. I attached it to the face plate and I managed to find a few screws for the back of the housing to try to secure the inside component. It's not as tight as I imagined but at least it seems it will hold the pushing and pulling of the end of the attached extension chord.

This little project was WAY harder than I ever imagined, but I didn't want to give up and hand it over to someone else. We do this way too often in life with lots of stuff. But, in hindsight, if we buckle down and slow down and break it down (still asking advice and opinions is fine) then we will see WE CAN DO IT....whatever IT is!

So keep "plugging" away....i did, and now....I have a plug I can use! 

(crossing my fingers still! 😁)

octagon frame and more t&g

wow...if you would have asked me to make a frame for an octagon window even a month ago I don't think I would have done it this quickly (or as well). Amazing to see my skill and confidence level increasing so much!

I looked it up online and got long drawn out explanations...asked carptenter friend Dave and got...
"take a board and draw the diagonal line across the window to the other side to get first angle cut...then just measure the desired width and keep using the same angle. Seemed simple enough to me! And with only a minor fitting issue I knocked this thing out in about 20 min. (and hint, hint, the chop saw has a red circled 22/12 degrees which is the perfect angle for octagon windows!)

not bad for my first framed window!

also got a good system going on the rest of the cedar! LOVE IT!

A little more t&g

Have to keep pluggging away to make it in the water by April...a little every night now...

Tonight starting the next wall...

Cedar smells divine!!!

this was my true splurge and the lightest weight most beautiful option for siding my closet / bath area.

CEDAR tongue and groove !

before

Soooooo beautiful!!! It feels like it’s really real now!

after!!!

And Cambyr is adding a hand painted touch to some trim we got for the loft! 

Each leaf is unique just like us! 

Saturday lofting day

Today felt great! I got about five hours of sleep but was invigorated and focused on my goals for today. I wanted to get the loft walls done...All of them!

Starting the day out with the power of the sun to crank my tunes and set the tone !

Nailed down the floor

View looking down from the loft

Starboard side wall pre wall finish

Port side wall

Using the jig saw

let's see....

Teaching Cambyr the jig saw

Go girl!

Hell yeah it fits!

Taking a well deserved lunch break

i'm in love with my little home!

Friday all nighter loft walling and roof fixing

I got so much done tonight it was incredible! Stayed up pretty late and worked all day, but I'm seeing some excellent progress these days that is truly igniting my fire again! (The warmer days aren't hurting either!)

First thing first...Had to take care of this disaster!

Leaking from somewhere....I nailed down the siding better....

The major Culprit....t1-11 edge not covered.

The new black drip-edge...Splurged on the extra 40 cents to get black! It looks way cooler than white!

when I finished the roof I cranked out another round of insulation...Getting close to finishing that up too, yeah!

\

electrical delays

I'm learning ....so slowly sometimes, but it's all good.

Today I was hoping to fix up the start of the electrical situation. Just wanted to stop having to have a chord running through the open doors. So, I basically want similar to a mini extension cord built into the wall of the structure.

I went to Amesbury Industrial (my new best friends!) and talked to Scott about my options. He loaded me up with all the pieces and we talked in depth about how to put it all together.

Once I had the steps in my head I went off to try to execute it...thinking, of course, this shouldn't take too long. Boy was I wrong!

All the necessary pieces...check.

It was really fun seeing how everything worked and getting an understanding by physically doing it myself. I knew I needed to strip down the wire into its components (black - hot, white - neutral and copper - ground) and be careful not to strip the sheathing off too much since we don't want hot wires exposed anywhere behind the scenes. I also knew that I needed to match up the silver with the white, the bronze/gold with the black and the green gets the copper ground. Ok, now for the execution...a whole different story! 

I had the plan but boy it was my dexterity and the order in my operations lacking! 

 

Wow, it's so simple when everything is disassembled.
I had no idea these things could come out!

wired up correctly

I wired it up correctly without the housing...but then had to figure out how to integrate it with the housing. After a few iterations I finally got the wires straightened out and pulled through the housing.

wires through housing take 1

Wires through housing take 2

trying to pull them all the way down is proving difficult.

I had the hardest time getting the wires to straighten out once they were in their housing. I also had an issue with putting the main round housing securely inside the square lid the would mount on the external unit. Geez, something so simple has turned out to be trickier than I imagined!

I clearly didn't have enough time to install it tonight (I am heading out to ski this weekend up in Vermont...hey, gotta balance this work out with some relaxation and play!) so I will try to work on it this weekend/during the week and see if I can't get it "wired" by next weekend so I really can install it and get on with my other long list of  things to do!

Loft is in...windows are in!

I was so excited by my hardware discovery yesterday coupled with the extremely warm weather (60F/15.5C) we are having I knew I needed to take advantage and just push hard. So, I stayed up all night to get the loft installed and lined up some help installing the last few windows today.

First I had to figure out how to install my hardware in the tree....at first my head thought i needed to carve out a big hole....but that was my old design....this new one was even better as all I had to do was carve out a U. It took me some patience and various tools (chisel, regular large drill bit then finally a paddle bit) but I happily worked on it through the night until I was able to drive it all the way in.

Named the tree Ursula in honor
of my U-shaped hardware

A sweet moment pounding her in and she finally fit!

After installing the hardware Ursula was ready to go! I bolted her into the floor and readjusted my loft frame to utilize her as a support. My only problem was that I was lacking one more two-by-four to complete the end of the frame.....and I had put so much time into it by this point I really wanted to see it finished. Home Depot was closed and I searched my basement without any luck. I resolved to hitting HD in the AM first thing to get a board so I could have it all assembled before my friend showed up. Then, low and behold, there in the dark as I shown my light on the ladder to climb up and close up shop for the night I found her! A lone piece of 2x4 beneath my raft waiting, begging for me to use her tonight!

Me in utter disbelief that I got the exact length
of 2x4 I needed when I really needed it!

 See my manifestation powers really are getting honed! ;-)

I was so excited I got a second wind and went all the way! I stained the plywood so it would look acceptable as the loft floor (i even stained the underside of it since it will be exposed down below).

I stained all the joists that would be exposed to keep the feel in the place consistent with the roof beams, then I assembled her and laid the plywood on top to be fastened down later.

sanding away the print

staining the loft joists

staining the loft floor

still staining, and cutting

pretty proud of my calculations for fitting
Ursula into the loft floor!

OMG! I actually have a loft now!

I FUCKING LOVE IT!

It came together so nicely! I am beyond thrilled right now! Now my friend and I will have a platform to install the loft windows, making our work that much easier!

old hardware above, new below.

 In the AM (after a few hours of sleep) I got things
cleaned up and organized and fixed the
hardware on the kitchen window.

leaking like my weeping eyes...nothing that can't be fixed!

Another great thing about the thaw is I could see there was one wall that had some leaking issues. Luckily I was able to see this and correct it before it would be too hard to spot. I hadn't caulked or sealed the other octagon window so I did that as well as when on the roof and sealed the hell out of the loft roof edge on that wall. About 20 nails and a thick bead of silicon and I'm pretty confident most of the leaking is fixed. The rest seemed to be an oversaturation of the T1-11 which will be taken care of once I paint the outside with the elastomeric paint.

Finally it was time to install the window...and I have to say, because of the forethought and more experience that I had with the previous ones....these went surprisingly fast! Fast enough to get it all done by noon to have lunch with my girlfriends!

Dave installing port side loft windows

Finishing off the starboard loft window!

 so grateful for the help!

thanks Dave!