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!!!!!!!!!!

Measure Twice, Cut Once

So on Saturday, it rained all day.  Rob was pumping out the garage drain receptacle to keep the water from overflowing onto our lumber pile.  And he was brushing off the pad as well.  Sort of seemed like a losing battle, but the rain let up about 4:00, so we did a few hours of prep work...like measuring more wood and cutting it (yes,measure twice, cut once).

We got up early on Sunday because the weather was nice (and we are under a deadline--need to get the walls up and sheathed by mid Setpebmer for the natural gas installation).  Rob spent the day doing more measuring (!), snapping chalk lines, and laying out lumber. I spent the day continuing to dig out the dirt and major tree roots along the south side, between us and our neighbours, in order for drainage to occur so we don't get the garage flooded with snow melt. Rob was about to start drilling holes in the concrete for the anchor bolts, and then discovered he didn't have the right drill bit.  So of course, that involved a tool run to Canadian Tire. 

And then the drilling began. He did 27 holes and it took all afternoon to drill--concrete takes forever to drill through. My job was to hold the nozzle of the shop vac next to the hole as he drilled, in order to suck up all the concrete dust so he could see where he was drilling--a very vital role, if I say so myself. Then we had to install the anchor bolts.

And this is what it looked like after a full day's work:

So we have the foundation for the walls installed and anchored down.  Then this weekend we will get the walls framed and upright. But first we have to buy the lumber for the walls--Rob calculates about 90 pieces of wood--which means we sort through lumber piles for the wood, then load the wood in the truck, and then unload the wood at the house--oh joy!

Another Milestone

Look at this little green piece of paper:

This is the approval slip from the City after they inspected our concrete slab.  You have to have an inspection at certain points along the way of construction and you need approval before you can move onto the next step. One more milestone reached. So yay, we can now move on to framing.

So we bought some lumber on Saturday (after much checking by Rob of each and every piece to ensure no bowing of the lumber; I read my quilting magazine in Home Depot during this arduous ordeal). 

And we popped the forms off the concrete (popped off very easy--like getting a cake out of the pan).

And then we ran out of energy.

So on this coming weekend, we will have a wall framing frenzy.  As well, Rob has ordered the roof trusses and they should arrive by mid September.  So we had better have some walls up.  And then the SaskEnergy dude will come the week after the trusses arrive and install the new gas meter on the outside of the garage, and we need a wall for that.  Let's hope for good weather this weekend!

Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Saskatoon

What does the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles have to do a Monster Garage in Saskatoon?  Think on that while I take you through the last couple of weeks.

As you will recall, at the end of July we did mondo rebar installation, followed by survey staking.  We then covered it with a tarp and left for the lake for a week.  This is what the tarp looks after 2 inches of rain.  Like hundreds of little tents formed by the weight of the water in the valleys!

Then this is what the tarp looks like when Rob pumps it off for an hour and half.  We didn't want the tarp to stretch and break and then have water flood the hard packed gravel.

And there was another reason why we didn't want water on the tarp.  Because....the concrete guy was coming!  Yes, it's true.  Concrete guy came on Monday August 13.  Yay!  (Rob stayed up from Regina to await their arrival; I went to the office). They arrived at 2:30, spent an hour and half pouring, and then another four hours smoothing it over.  That's a long day.  This is what I found when I got home: 

And here is the final version. That is a lot of concrete and a lot of garage! I was worried that someone would write their names in it (or handprints, a' la Grauman's Chinese Theatre with the handprints of movie stars), but it was firm enough by the time we went to sleep on Monday. (though I did keep waking up worrying about it, so kept getting up to check on it)

But it doesn't stop there.  Concrete as it cures gives off heat, and you want to keep it wet so it dries evenly and doesn't crack.  Which means watering it every waking moment so it doesn't dry out.

So I've been watering when I get up before work, coming home at noon to water, and water at night.  Our sprinkler makes the garage pad turn into a water fountain feature!



And we reported the slab to the City's Building Department and they will come out and do an inspection tomorrow.  If all goes well, then we are buying the first round of lumber on the weekend and up goes the walls.  Rob has said after each gruelling round of prep and construction work, that it will get easier.  I've yet to see that, but I'm optimistic!