CHASING A DREAM: house of rock 2

well, another weekend of work behind me and i'm feeling pretty good about it. i was able to resolve the key situation and gain access to the entry i needed. i put together another material list and, with the help of some good friends, was able to load them up on a trailer and drive them right up to the front steps. thank you bonnie!!! and cainin!!! luckily i had gone over earlier in the day to check on things and was told by the lady at the gate that @ 5 they were closing off the streets and would not be allowing traffic back in until 6 and that would only be for the concert that night in the gardens. narrowly escaping a nightmare stuck in traffic with a load of wood while the wife and mother in law wait at home to go to dinner, we were in by 5 and out by 6.

the next morning i went back by home depot for wood for the roof frame, another ladder and screws. a lot of screws go into something like this. i unloaded everything and started marking, cutting and assembling the rafters for the roof.

after cainin arrived, we began to put the first one up when i noticed.... because of the angle i had cut, the pitch on roof was really high. it looked as if we were building the steeple on a church. earlier, i had ignored my intuition that maybe i shouldn't assemble them all until i checked one...but as usual, i was impatient and wanted to keep moving. so, needless to say, we had to take them apart, figure a different angle for a lower pitch, re-cut them and re-assemble them; this time, checking the first one before moving forward with the rest.

cainin coming by was a blessing. not only was there really no way to climb a ladder, stand one of the rafters up on top of the walls, measure each end to be in the correct spot, and attach it- there was definitely no way to so it safely. and, in addition to that, having an extra hand kept me from falling behind schedule and i was able meet my goal at the end of the day.

the complete house frame was done and i was off to mom's for a visit; yummy home cooking and porch sitting. .....can't think of a better way to end a saturday.

sunday morning i was sore as a m.f. but felt refreshed and ready to go. i was early to the park, and it was cool and quite. i climbed the ladder and checked some things out...then sat in the shade and planned out the next step.

views from the ladder

aside from a couple of injuries, the day went pretty smoothly. i framed in where i wanted my windows to be and began one by one bringing the sheets of plywood up, measuring and tracing the frames where i needed to make my cuts.....i carried the sheets back down to cutting center (which was my tailgate and a saw horse) made my cuts, carried the sheet back up and nailed the sheet in place; creating my walls. later i will go back in and apply many many screws to what is now just nailed.

first wall in place

second wall in progress

i had just gotten my first wall up and was on to the second, when the wife and kids came by. soon, there'll be an addition of the talking kind to the photo.

you can't really tell by these photographs that it was quite breezy sunday. which, i must say, there really is nothing like a breeze when you're working in the sun. unless, you're carrying a 4ftx8ft sheet of plywood. then, suddenly, usually by catching wind, you become aware you have a big wooden sail in your hand.
some of the injuries that could occur while battling wind with plywood. it can; fall while you're not looking and hit you in the back, (remedy- temporarily nail in place while taking measurements.) it could, catch wind and slam you right in the forehead while carrying it, it could get caught by the wind while trying to set it down at cutting center, making it slam down on to the tailgate, thus, making it bounce and land on your ankles, scraping it's way down to your feet, leaving a nice cut and bruise in it's path.