Building the Wall

We are still hunkered down in our super secret undisclosed location working on our "Fortress of Isolation". The builders have finished the enclosure. We added a living quarters that I like to call our bungalow onto the side of our barn.

Front.

Back or Lakeside.

Side view.

So now our next steps into making this livable is to have the plumber, spray foam insulator and the concrete people come in. The concrete people have to prepare and grade the inside of the bungalow and the barn to prepare the ground for concrete. Once they do that the plumber will swoop in and do the rough in plumbing and floor heat. Then the concrete people will come back and lay the floor. Once done the insulator will come in and spray the walls with foam. Plus there are many other things that need to take place as well.

As we wait for all of this to take place, I needed to build a wall between the bungalow and the barn so that it would be ready for the insulation.

The only thing that the builders put between them were the existing beams, the original wall of the barn.

Since the concrete floor isn't in, I had to make it a floating wall. Not sure what the technical term is but that is what I am calling it. I started by placing 2X6 boards across the bottom to support the 2X6's going up. I also secured them to the horizontal 2X6's behind them for added support.

I did the bottom 8 foot section first and then added a 4 foot section above that. It was a little more work but it was all I could handle. Lisa did help lifting the sections into place. Next came the 4X8 sheets of OSB to complete the wall. I knew I was going to have to have help from Lisa for that so we had a big ceremony to commemorate the occasion. I sent out invitations but nobody showed up. I guess our super secret undisclosed location is hard to find. (That's a good thing.) Lisa was promoted from  Gopher to Carpenter's Helper. 

It was a big deal. We both had tears in our eyes. I bought her, her very own hammer and nail pouch. Best $5.83 cents I spent. Did you know that hammers are cheap? I think it is because nobody wants to use them. They just want their air nailers. So I was able to teach Lisa a soon to be lost art. I would measure and cut the sheets of OSB and then we would both position and fasten it to the wall. Once tacked up there Lisa would finish nailing it and I would measure and cut the next one.

We had a system going and it progressed more quickly.

Inside the bungalow view.

The first row was easy. Next row required some lifting and finally the third row required some effort. For the top row we slid the OSB up the ladder and set it in place. I would hold it while Lisa tacked it up there.

It took us about 4 days to put that up. Usually we just worked 3 to 5 hours because of the heat but it came out great. That wall looks so good that it could be down on the Mexican border. 

Over the past few weeks with the heat and humidity here, it can spawn some severe thunderstorms. Although not uncommon for this area, but what is uncommon is the frequency of the storms. We are having 1 to 2 severe storms a week. They bring along torrential rain, hail, high winds and some tornados.

Our driveway still washes out from the rain, even after asphalting it but it is getting better. There was a campground in the county we are in that had straight line 80mph winds that tossed RV's around like toys. Several tornados have been spotted in the area as well.

This one was spotted near a small town in our area. It was an EF4 so it was a very strong tornado. There was one death and several injuries. so this is wanting us to get our storm shelter buried soon. Our builder was impressed with it and took down the information for other customers. I hope I get a commission.

After every storm we head out to our secret location to do damage control. Usually there are some trees that come down.

I will go get the tractor and push them off of the road and then later on go back and cut them up. 

Ever wake up some days and think that maybe you should have stayed in bed. I got up the other day and we were going out to our property as usual when I looked at Gandolf and saw this.

 We took Smaug to work that day and I wanted to get my bottle jack to jack up the truck so that I could change the tire that evening. Well I forgot the jack and used the tiny little jack vehicles com with. I get all of the lug nuts off and the tire off the hub when the truck falls off the jack coming down on the inside of the wheel, bending a stud. Sheesh. There was no way the tire was going to go on it now. So it had to be towed into town. On the brighter side though, I am getting my new tires now instead of later. They were getting pretty bad anyways.

So that is our life in a nut shell. Stay safe out there.