Author Archives: cstults

After completing the roof, we began framing the walls. We started with the sill plates at the ground level. They bolt directly to the slab and provide a wood base for the rest of the framing. The main function of a sill plate is to help seal the building from the environment. We used pressureContinue reading “Girts”

Out with Jackson and in with Steve! Steve also lives in LA and used to share a house with Sam and Jackson. He is our second most frequent visitor. Steve took over Jackson’s job as chief bucket truck operator. I continued cutting plywood, and Sam and John maintained their positions on the roof. We chargedContinue reading “Roofing with Steve”

Framing the roof has been the most challenging task yet. We began with the purlins. We developed a system in which two people install them from the bucket truck. First, we load the telehandler with a stack of 2×12’s high up in the air. Two people in the bucket truck fly over the stack and secureContinue reading “Roofing with Jackson”

We weren’t quite done with the steel. We put up the two remaining crane beams, extensions of the yellow ones. The red ones terminate at the dividing wall between the shop and living space. One day they will all be the same color. We wanted to weld the crane beams in place before moving on.Continue reading “Buckets of Fun”

We procured a crane! Chris (of Schofield design) came through! He found a mechanic to fix his truck on Friday and was set to come Saturday morning. Since he had a smaller boom truck that couldn’t reach the whole building from one spot, Sam and I had some planning to do. We measured distances, checkedContinue reading “Back on Track”

We rented a crane to put the roof frames up. It was scheduled to come on Thursday morning. On Wednesday morning, we stopped by Kreps Ranch to borrow their bucket truck. It had some trouble starting up. The cattle dogs were not impressed as we waited for the battery to charge. The truck eventually firedContinue reading “Derailed!”

We were so excited to start erecting the steel frames. We bought a scissor lift, and it arrived just in time. It can lift 1500 lbs, and it goes up 40 ft! We also rented a telehandler for a month. (It’s a telescoping boom lift with forks.) It can lift 8000 lbs, and it goesContinue reading “Ups and Downs”

Building during the pandemic has been an adventure. Imagine reliving the great toilet paper shortage of 2020 every day for 5 months! That has been our life recently. We were aware of the construction boom early this year and had started to see its effect on the cost of wood, steel, and other building materials.Continue reading “Building in a Material World”

We reached another big milestone- pouring the slab! Since we have radiant heat and most of the building is a workshop, we decided to leave all of the floors as exposed concrete. Cracking, texture, sheen, color, and the general appearance were all concerns, especially in the living area. Luckily, Matt and his crew were upContinue reading “Floored!”

Last week we tackled the in-floor heating system, hot and cold water lines, and insulation. These were the remaining tasks before pouring the floor. We chose a hydronic system, also known as radiant, as the primary method for heating the building. Hot water will be pumped through miles of PEX tubing under the concrete floor,Continue reading “Things are heating up!”