Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Following a whirlwind weekend of truss installation, I am at home (having taken the day off, but not to relax, sadly enough), but to wait for the natural gas line relocation adventure.  This is quite the production!

So overnight, SaskEnergy must have come by to re-mark the back alley where the gas line is going to go, as well as leave a pylon and piece of wood. (we notice this because Rob is up at 5:30 a.m. to drive back to Regina because he has a huge report going to Council, otherwise he would have stayed here, and I am up as well because we were told SaskEnergy was coming at 7:30 a.m.--and I don't want another bathrobe incident).

Thus I am sitting on a chair in the kitchen, looking out the back door, on watch for all the people coming today.  I can see through the garage window into the back alley, so I know when people arrive. (while I am waiting all day, I check emails, update the blog, pay bills, do an expense spreadsheet for the garage,  etc.)

8:00 a.m.--the hydrovac truck pulls up.  They are there to unearth the gas line.  They use a giant wand with water (like a pressure washer) to "dig" into the dirt and simultaneously use a giant vacuum sucker hose to draw up the water and dirt.  That way, they don't hit the gas line with a shovel but with high pressure water instead --very safe.  They were done in 5 minutes and left.  (they put that wood piece over the hole and the pylon on top--so that's what they were for!)

9:30 a.m.--a fellow from SaskEnergy arrives.  He's there to do more marking in the back alley, this time for diodes (?). He doesn't do the trenching--not his line. I tell him my natural gas story and explain the process as to how I think it is supposed to happen and it's correct. He says the trenching crew should be behind him by very soon. He does some markings and leaves after 30 minutes.

10:20 a.m.-- another SaskEnergy guy arrives, carrying a meter.  I'm thinking, man, this is slick and well-orchestrated. After a brief conversation and me telling my gas line story again, it turns out that he isn't part of this extravaganza--he just showed up coincidentally to change out the meter as it is very old.  He said that the trenching crew has to do their thing running the new line to the bracket, and that our plumber has to do his thing running our line to the new bracket.  Then our guy has to call SaskEnergy and they will come out with a new meter and install and re-light the pilot light.  So he's not doing the meter, it's not his line, and he leaves after 10 minutes.

10:40 a.m.-- yet another SaskEnergy crew arrives.  This is the first crew for the trenching--foreman and worker.  They are waiting for the rest of the crew.  I tell my gas line story yet again. And again, they stress how crucial it is for our plumber to do his thing, in order for me to have heat and hot water today.  So I phone Rob, who in turn phones the plumber, who's office seems to have lost the work order.  Needless to say, Rob insists on the urgency on the matter and they say they'll try and get a crew out today.  I sure hope so, or else I'm without hot water and heat!

11:00 a.m.--another SaskEnergy truck arrives.  The two drivers talk in the alley, waiting for the third truck.

11:30 a.m.--SaskEnergy truck number three arrives, this time with a baby backhoe/bulldozer and trencher on the flatbed.  I take brownies out to everyone.  Six guys at this point.  I tell my gas line story for what feels the fourth time of the day.  All good.  So they start digging for the new gas line followed by trenching.

The baby backhoe/bulldozer at work

The trenching machine

11:50 a.m.--the plumbing company owner shows up.  He is checking out the site for his guys who are coming after lunch.. I tell the gas line story again.  Yes, that jives with what he understands.  I ask will I have heat and hot water by the end of the day--he says they will do their part but it is up to SaskEnergy to do theirs (as we have learned earlier, SaskEnergy comes out yet again with a different crew to install the gas meter and light the pilot light once trenching crew and plumbing crew are done).

12:15 p.m,--the crews stop work as it is lunch time.  I'm kinda tired myself--all this supervising is wearying!

12:45 p.m.--lunch break is over and they start tying in the new gas line and removing the old meter.  I ask if they can take out all the extra piping around the meter.  That's not their job (or line!).  Gee, it does seem like every crew does a very specialized piece of work and nothing else. 

12:45 p.m.--the crew resumes tying in, back filling, and removing pipes from the old lines at the house.

The old lines and meter all removed--what's left is our line.

All done--like they were never there!

1:15 p.m.--the crew has levelled the ground, loaded their trucks, and leave.  I say our plumber is coming some time after lunch and that they will call for the meter when ready.  Then I go look at the area with the removed meter and notice the lilacs have overgrown the pathway--so I do some pruning, so the next crew can get down there.

Our new gas line and old meter--just waiting for some action!

1:40 p.m.--the plumber and his helper show up.  Yes, I tell the gas line story again. He is a young guy, and either he has no idea of what I'm saying or I'm saying it wrong, as he seems unsure, but kinda gets the gist of it.  He said it should take about an hour.  They unload their truck and set up a pipe cutting machine in the garage.

2:15 p.m.--two more crew members arrive.  I go over the story again.  The older fellow seems to get it. I feed them all brownies. So the first crew is doing the pipe cutting and install along the back of the garage.  The second crew is in charge of the pipe shortening, trenching, and running the outlets (for the bbq and garage heater).



4:05 p.m.--the lead guy comes to the house to lit the pilot light.  I asked don't you have to wait for SaskEnergy...he said they were already here!  Wow--I was dreading having to wait for them to show up, as I have a meeting tonight at 6:00 p.m.  So on goes the water heater, they leave at 4:15 p.m., and I walk around looking at all the new stuff.

New gas meter--ta dah!

New underground connection



The new connections and gas line at the side of the garage



The stubbed line at the house

So now my day is done.  Whew I'm tired after having to be alert all day.  I also notice that this blog is very detailed and long.  Probably becasue I had nothing else to do all day.  But we have a new gas line and hot water again--yay! And it's finally OUR line!





With a little help from our friends...

A big shout out to our friends Jim and Doug who helped with truss weekend.  Truly, we could not have done it without them!  This was an intense weekend (when aren't they???) and again, Rob didn't think it would have taken this long...

So on Saturday, Jim travelled up from Regina.  He and Rob installed the giant and very heavy header beam across the front of the garage.

Then we installed boards on top of that.

And we sheathed the two front side walls as well as the header beam.  Oh and a quick trip to Home Depot for yet more stuff. And that fiddly work took all day Saturday!!!!

Sunday we were up early and at work by 7:00 a.m. because we thought Doug was coming by (this is the same Doug in an earlier blog that came by to help one morning and I was still in my bathrobe--not going to let that happen twice!). He thought we meant 8:00.  But it was good to be up that early. First, we traced templates for the sheathing for the two end trusses and put the sheathing on before we lifted it into place.

But we had to first put up bracing boards on the wall, so just in case the guys pushed too hard, ithe truss wouldn't flip over the wall and onto the ground!).

So the truss is incredibly heavy and awkward. Doug walked one end up his ladder, and Rob walked the other end up, so it was hanging upside down.  Then with Jim pushing up in the middle, they flipped it up into place. And thus we did that technique for about 10 more trusses, end to end and then flip into place.

Then to brace each end, Rob and Jim had to hammer in metal brackets called hurricanes (I assume the name means the braces are so secure they can hold up during a hurricane).  And unfortunately, both of them kept hitting their thumbs with the hammer--ouch!  Then we were ready to install and flip up the other end and brace.  That also took a long time, as it had to be adjusted into the right postion. 

Then the guys had to brace all the trusses so they don't fall down in a domino effect, level them, and secure them. I did trenching for the gas line relocate which is happening on Monday. And at the end of a 12-hour day, we have trusses.

That is a lot of wood!

So THANK YOU Jim and Doug for your help, your expertise, and your friendship!  We hope you had fun.  (and hey, what are you doing next weekend???  We'll be sheathing the roof if you're in the neighbourhood!)

It feels warmer now that the walls are enclosed!

Sometimes, in the hurly burly of Monster Garage building, one has to take time to appreciate some magic moments.  As you will recall from the previous blog, the trusses weren't coming until Saturday morning...7:00 a.m.  So I'm out on the deck at 6:50 a.m., ready for delivery, and the truck pulls in across the street...and right above it in the beautiful sunrise, was a hot air balloon cruising by.  Magical!

If you look real close, the truss truck is right under the balloon on the street.

 And now back to business.  The truck pulls into the alley, and the driver decides that he can't pull onto the concrete pad to drop the trusses due to cable and phone wires too close to his lift.  So he does a tricky maneuver in the alley--undoes the straps, lifts the truck bed, and jerks forward with the truck so the trusses slide off.  Pretty slick:

Ta dah! But since this wasn't truss install weekend, we dashed off to Home Depot to order the window and man door (15% off sale) and buy 30 pieces of plywood for the sheathing. That was fun loading the cart, and then loading onto the truck.  So here is our first panel going up:

The upper row took forever, as we had to install a bracing block for under each panel to hold in place while we nailed, make sure it was the right height, then carry each board off the truck, Rob runs up the ladder, and he and I huft the panel into place over our heads. Then we move the ladder, reload the air nailer, more measuring, etc--for every panel. The second, lower row, went a lot faster, but this north wall took us all day Saturday to do.

So on Sunday, we worked on the south wall and the west wall.  Still took all day.  Looks great though!

And then we still had to make the framing board for the natural gas connection on the south side (board, aluminum sheeting cut to wrap around the board,Tyvek (borrowed from my crafting stash--do you know you can heat Tyvek with a heat gun and it does some funky melting), bracing boards on the back). Very fiddly. Finished at 8:00 p.m.--another 12 hour day. But good thing we did it, because on Monday, SaskEnergy came by to pre-install the bracket for the natural gas meter (we didn't think they were coming to pre-install, but just inspect prior to next week, so good thing we got it done!).

Though why do we need to heat the garage, as it feels so much warmer now that we have the sheathing on!  Oh, we need a roof--that's next week!

The Day of the Jackal

Well, it was more like the night of the jackal (for those younger folks, The Day of the Jackal was a thriller movie in the 70s--but I'm just shamelessly plagarizing the title because it sounds cool and kinda works for this story).

And in my story, it's not really jackal (which is an animal similar to a coyote), it's jack-all:

So how does this relate to Monster Garage, you ask?  Well, as you may have read in the last post, the roof trusses were being delivered today (Friday), so Rob wanted me on Thursday night to prep the site for delivery of the giant trusses.  That meant moving all the lumber off the concrete pad, laying down some 2 x 4s to act as a ramp from the gravel back alley to the concrete pad, and removing the wooden snow fence we had strung along the back, so the truck could drive in and dump the 19 trusses (26 feet wide and 4 feet high) on the pad.  The first two tasks were easy, but the snow fence was a tad tricky.  Rob had pounded in five long pieces of rebar to use as posts to string the fence along.  Read that again--pounded with a sledge hammer, in compacted gravel, using rebar that is designed to grab and not move.

So I tried everything to get those rebar stakes out.  Tried wriggling.  That didn't work.  Tried digging them out with a shovel and then a pitchfork.  That didn't work. Tried calling/ringing the door bells of our male neighbours (and actually going through my daytimer to see who else I could call).  That didn't work. And it's dark out.  And late. And I'm getting cranky. Finally in despair after an hour, Rob had a brain wave--use the jack-all (it's a giant jack) to pry out the rebar.  His instructions:  lift the (heavy) jack-all out of the cluttered shed; lug it to the back; tie a string to the lifter foot and also to the rebar; use the lever bar to jack up the rebar and thus pull it out.  Voila.

You would think it would be that easy.  Not.  I could not get the lever to engage and start moving up.  The gear head kept slipping down.  And all of this is over the course of another hour, punctuated by phone calls back to Rob, me getting a tad more and more testy, trying to figure out which button, lever, or crank to move to engage the lift.

You see how tricky it is to find the right crank!

 It reached an all time low when Rob said....and I quote... "bring the jack-all into the house, boot up your computer, and skype me so I can see what you are doing." ** That did not go over well.  Not, no well at all.

So I went back outside and swept the concrete pad to cool off.  Our friend Kim came over and we moved the fence at least--had to slide the fence up and over each stake, and all the wood slats fell out of the fence (it's a very old dilapidated fence), and pushed it out of the way.  Then we tied the rope around the rebar posts to protect people from impaling themselves in the dark.  Then I had a solution.  I would phone our friend Doug who drives by our house sometimes on his way to work.  He is an engineer too (like Rob) and does a lot of home reno projects. Perfect! I gave him a call and he was game to come by in the morning.

We set a time for 7:15 a.m. (I thought), but Doug was a tad early, so I answered the door in my housecoat and fuzzy slippers.  And pulled the jack-all out of the shed for him in that attire. Duoh.  I went to change into jeans as he went to set up.  He tried wire instead of rope for the first stake--snapped the wire.  So back to the rope.  And it worked.  And the next one worked.  Doug showed me which crank to move to engage-- a ha--I had tried moving that piece last night, but didn't move it far enough as I didn't want to break it.  But done in 5 minutes.

So all ready now for the trusses coming today.  Then I get a call from Rob at 5:00 p.m.   The truss truck had broken down and they are not being delivered today.  Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  After all that work and agony and rush--and the trusses come tomorrow....

**Footnote:  The skype incident is somewhat similar to when our washing machine broke down.  I described the grinding sound to Rob, and he surfed the Internet to find a solution.  Some part had broken, but the part was designed to break to take the pressure off other, more expensive parts.  A simple $4 part, but not worth a $100+ service call. So Rob sent me a YouTube link on how to take the washing machine apart, install the new part, and put it back together.  That too, did not go over well.  I used friends' washing machines for two weeks until Rob came up and fixed it.

Something a little different this weekend!

Believe it or not, we took a break from Monster Garage this weekend. Though I think we started having withdrawal symptoms.  I travelled down to Regina to see Rob and do a little thing they call running a half marathon race!   

This is the home stretch--final few metres before the finish line--all uphill!

I was running in the annual Queen City Marathon on Sunday.  Had a fun time.  For those not sure of distances, a half marathon is 21.1 kilometres.  It was a nice cool day but with a 40 km an hour wind--a head wind going out, but a tail wind coming back--except for when we turned for the last 1 km and it was a head wind again.  And uphill as well.  Sigh.

So this coming weekend is Monster Garage again (or as someone said, the Garage Mahal). We have to get the sheathing on, the natural gas bracket put on, and trusses get delivered on Friday.

You know, I'm beginning to think that we don't lead normal lives.  I don't know any other couple that does this. Hmmmm........  Kinda feels like a garage building marathon!

Do they give out medals for garage building???????

This is why they call it Labour Day!

Actually, it was Labour Day all weekend long!  We finally got the framing of the walls done--it took us four days of labour.  Whew.  Rob came up Thursday night, and while I was at work on Friday morning, he was at Home Depot, bringing home this:

Yes, 90 2 x 4s and 2 x 6s.  Then up went the first wall--ta dah!

Rob's comment after that first wall was "Gee it's larger than I thought!"  No kidding. Everything about Monster Garage is larger than life (larger footprint, larger height, larger garage door, larger man door, larger window, larger blisters, larger working hours...)

I came home at noon and was in charge of stapling down a sponge pad that goes between the foundation board and the concrete, to lock out moisture.  It was kinda fun--like cutting fabric, which I love!

After that, the walls went up pretty quick.

And lest you think all I do is take photos, here I am holding up the doorway prior to nailing!

Work continued into Saturday and Sunday (had to stop and go get OSB/chip board and pressure treated plywood at Rona on Sunday--missed part of the Rider game, and boy was it a good one), and the wall framing got finished!

Of course, every board had to have at least 12 nails, just in case.  So like our fence, it is built uber solid, so in the event of a nuclear explosion, those two structures will remain standing--like a fallout shelter.

This is the view from the street.  Rob is on top of our new 10 foot ladder, nailing down the top boards.  It is a rather impressive site from the street. And that's our faithful work truck, that's been hauling all the lumber, tools, supplies, and new ladder.



Monday was spent squaring up the frame and we were pretty close.  Rob did have to do some tweaking, pushing, and banging to get it all in place.  Then we nailed on the pressure treated plywood around the base (weather resistant to snow build-up against it). So here is the frame, with the first round of sheathing around the base.

Our next task is to put on the rest of the wall sheathing, trench out the natural gas line (as it is being relocated Sept 24, so needs to be ready by then), cut giant tree roots out of the way, and we take delivery of the roof trusses in a couple of weeks.  I'm really looking forward to that task!  They are big and heavy but Rob thinks we'll be fine lifting them.  Gee, it's becoming Labour Day month!!!!!!!!!!