Cripple Guy Construction/March 2024

 We have been so busy since we have gotten back from our Winterpaloozafestathon. That was our little getaway to the Gulf Coast and Florida. You can read about it here if you haven't done so before. Winterpaloozafestathon. It was a much needed break but we are glad to be home and work on our addition. If you don't know about our new addition you can read about that here. Remodel. Once everyone is caught up we can continue. 

Alrighty then.

Once we had returned home we contacted the electrician to finish the rough-in electrical work. Once that was done and inspected we continued work on the Mezzanine. We chose to call it a mezzanine instead of a loft because a loft is so bumkin sounding and we are sooooo much more sophisticated than that. 

We put the floor of the mezzanine down before our vacation but I failed to include that in our last remodel update. My bad. It was suggested by former friends of ours to use a 3/4 inch tongue and groove OSB board instead of the 1/2 inch plain OSB I wanted to use. It nearly killed Lisa and I to get that up on the mezzanine. According to the "Google" 3/4" OSB weighs 80 pounds a sheet versus 53.44 for 1/2" OSB. Cripple Guy Construction was struggling that day. We were glad when my strong son and his strong wife came and helped us get those dang things up there.

That flooring is done so we can laugh about it now. But during that installation process, it was not a pretty sight and there were some definite cuss words thrown in the direction of South Dakota that day. I then put up a railing and we started to fill it up with our many treasures.

View from the mezzanine looking into the barn.

For the next step, we put up sheetrock to separate the rooms from the barn. It was also decided by Lisa to put up some kind of barrier on the mezzanine so that people couldn't see our treasures from down below. I call them treasures while she refers to the stuff as junk.

After that we really started to kick it into high gear. We went to our lumber supplier to get tongue and groove wood for the inside. Lisa started to stain like a woman possessed. 

Lisa's first truck load of wood and her work space.

I started to insulate the walls and the ceiling. We are adding a family room, walk in closet and a master bedroom.

Family room north wall.

Family room wall and ceiling insulated.

Family room is all insulated now.

Once Lisa had enough boards stained, I started hanging them up. Starting with the ceiling. We decided to go with bugwood there. Bugwood is reclaimed pine from forests that were killed from a pine beetle infestation. It looks really cool so all Lisa did was put a couple of clear coats of varnish over it. It came out really nice.

Bugwood.

For the walls we are doing a dark stain. One that we have used before in other parts of the cabin. It is called Toasted Barrel. The original plan was to only put it on one wall as an accent but Lisa likes it so much that we are going to put it on all the walls. these pictures are kind of dark because our windows are not in yet. They have been ordered and are on the way.

Working on the family room east wall.

Once we decided on the wall color it was back to the lumber guy for another truck load of wood. Hopefully it is our final load.

That's a lot of wood that needs staining.

As soon as Lisa would have enough for me to work with, I would start putting it up.

Bedroom north wall and west wall in progress.

Which now brings us to where we are today. 

Three walls and part of the ceiling in the bedroom done.

We have been working hard to get as much done as we can because food trailer season will soon be upon us.

On a more personal note. I have been doing a social experiment lately. What I mean by that is this. I have noticed that almost every single time Lisa wears a specific hooded sweatshirt, people always comment about it. The hooded sweatshirt simply says one word. Norway. With a Norwegian flag on it. I'm not kidding when I tell you that so many people come up to her and ask her if she is from Norway. Or if she has been to Norway. So it got me thinking. Now whenever she wears that hooded sweatshirt out in public, I wear a Bass Pro Shop t-shirt. Still people come up to her and ask her those questions but I have not had anyone ever ask me if I have been to a Bass Pro Shop or if I work at a Bass Pro Shop. Never. Flummoxed still to this day.

Could it be that she looks really cute in her hooded sweatshirt and I just look like a crabby old guy? Nahh.

Until next time.