Raising the Roof
ealdthryth has already recounted part of the saga of raising the roof for the gate house. I ran a couple of errands on the way home Friday and the heat index was a little too high for comfort. We waited for things to cool down Friday evening before our attempt. We set up in a level place in the front yard because I really didn't want to carry everything down the hill to the level spot in the back yard. The framing worked perfectly after I got out a bench chisel to remove the shims I had glued in place on the dragon head fascia. The layers of paint eliminated the need for those shims. Putting in some stringers to keep the two ends of the roof stable was a little challenging. I kept dropping the screws, and in the fading light, finding them was a challenge. Unfortunately, the roof panels were about 1/2 inch too long for the span--which is something I had anticipated, but didn't want to actually encounter.
Rather than risk the roof frame getting vandalized overnight, we moved the frame to the back yard and put everything else back into the garage. I headed to the workshop and did a little more painting and we stopped for the evening. Saturday, while ealdthryth was at work, I finished the next-to-last bit of painting, assembled our new cart (it was bigger than I remembered), and set about trimming the roof to the correct size. Unable to resist seeing it all together, I lifted the roof frame up onto our camp benches and placed the roof panels in position.
Bounce.
ealdthryth arrived home not long afterwards and provided photo opportunities: gatehouse progress pictures.
It looked like it was going to rain, so before Alisoun arrived to deliver her merchant pavilion, we disassembled the roof and put it away for touch up work. Sunday, I took a big break. Probably a bigger break than I should have, but as we had stayed up late and the cats made my ability to sleep difficult, I was really tired. Even so, I got up relatively early and fixed pancakes from a gluten-free mix that ealdthryth had found. They were not too bad--but still needed syrup. Alisoun got ealdthryth pointed in the right direction for fixing/making additional garb for herself. Mid-day, everyone scattered--Alisoun back to Hidden Mountain, and ealdthryth off to work. Me? I lazed about half asleep for the afternoon.
The day was not a total waste, however. ealdthryth decided it was an opportune time to pick up critical infrastructure pieces that we kept saying we can get that later. Apparently, later arrived on Sunday evening.... Thank goodness she likes to make lists....8^) We picked up the water filtration system components and connectors (which was a little challenging for us since we don't usually do plumbing), stakes for the camp perimeter wall, and lighting. Still left are the hoses (which may end up being the stuff we already have) and getting the cloth for the camp walls. There was a bewildering array of couplings and adapters that looked too similar to one another, and I finally corralled the guy who works in the plumbing area to help. We were operating on the false premise that we should be able to take a garden hose coupling and step down to a 3/8" FIP for a connector hose to the sink. After much head-scratching and pondering, we realized it would be much simpler to simply buy a different connector hose with a 1/2" FIP. I guess I haz the dumb for plumbing....
There's still plenty of stuff to make or complete in the next few days--and we are going to lose 2 to 4 of those days to other commitments. It is a good thing I pushed so hard to get projects completed. I think I may have procrastinated too much on some of them, but we still have gotten a lot accomplished in a short amount of time, and we defintely would not be done if ealdthryth had not helped with the painting, staining, and sealing tasks.
Rambunctious Fu
I guess the cats know that Alisoun is a cat person. That, or we keep reminding them about who brought them a couple of their favorite catnip toys. All of them came down to greet her for her overnight visit, and Ignatius even hopped up on the couch to bunt her with his head. AElfgifu provided a bit of a floor show, as did Josie, each of them taking great care to play with the catnip shrimp and show Alisoun just how much they loved that toy.
Unfortunately, the visit entailed us staying up late into the evening...well onto the next morning, actually. I finally flagged and headed to bed. Ignatius had already been asleep on our bed, and he blinked very sleepily at me when I turned on the lights. I broke his sleep pattern, so he must have deemed it fair to mess with mine. Shortly before dawn, Kiera decided to play musical cabinet doors in the hall bathroom, and Josie kept jumping from bed to floor to nightstand to dresser and back to bed.
It is a good thing they are all so cute....
Rather than risk the roof frame getting vandalized overnight, we moved the frame to the back yard and put everything else back into the garage. I headed to the workshop and did a little more painting and we stopped for the evening. Saturday, while ealdthryth was at work, I finished the next-to-last bit of painting, assembled our new cart (it was bigger than I remembered), and set about trimming the roof to the correct size. Unable to resist seeing it all together, I lifted the roof frame up onto our camp benches and placed the roof panels in position.
Bounce.
ealdthryth arrived home not long afterwards and provided photo opportunities: gatehouse progress pictures.
It looked like it was going to rain, so before Alisoun arrived to deliver her merchant pavilion, we disassembled the roof and put it away for touch up work. Sunday, I took a big break. Probably a bigger break than I should have, but as we had stayed up late and the cats made my ability to sleep difficult, I was really tired. Even so, I got up relatively early and fixed pancakes from a gluten-free mix that ealdthryth had found. They were not too bad--but still needed syrup. Alisoun got ealdthryth pointed in the right direction for fixing/making additional garb for herself. Mid-day, everyone scattered--Alisoun back to Hidden Mountain, and ealdthryth off to work. Me? I lazed about half asleep for the afternoon.
The day was not a total waste, however. ealdthryth decided it was an opportune time to pick up critical infrastructure pieces that we kept saying we can get that later. Apparently, later arrived on Sunday evening.... Thank goodness she likes to make lists....8^) We picked up the water filtration system components and connectors (which was a little challenging for us since we don't usually do plumbing), stakes for the camp perimeter wall, and lighting. Still left are the hoses (which may end up being the stuff we already have) and getting the cloth for the camp walls. There was a bewildering array of couplings and adapters that looked too similar to one another, and I finally corralled the guy who works in the plumbing area to help. We were operating on the false premise that we should be able to take a garden hose coupling and step down to a 3/8" FIP for a connector hose to the sink. After much head-scratching and pondering, we realized it would be much simpler to simply buy a different connector hose with a 1/2" FIP. I guess I haz the dumb for plumbing....
There's still plenty of stuff to make or complete in the next few days--and we are going to lose 2 to 4 of those days to other commitments. It is a good thing I pushed so hard to get projects completed. I think I may have procrastinated too much on some of them, but we still have gotten a lot accomplished in a short amount of time, and we defintely would not be done if ealdthryth had not helped with the painting, staining, and sealing tasks.
Rambunctious Fu
I guess the cats know that Alisoun is a cat person. That, or we keep reminding them about who brought them a couple of their favorite catnip toys. All of them came down to greet her for her overnight visit, and Ignatius even hopped up on the couch to bunt her with his head. AElfgifu provided a bit of a floor show, as did Josie, each of them taking great care to play with the catnip shrimp and show Alisoun just how much they loved that toy.
Unfortunately, the visit entailed us staying up late into the evening...well onto the next morning, actually. I finally flagged and headed to bed. Ignatius had already been asleep on our bed, and he blinked very sleepily at me when I turned on the lights. I broke his sleep pattern, so he must have deemed it fair to mess with mine. Shortly before dawn, Kiera decided to play musical cabinet doors in the hall bathroom, and Josie kept jumping from bed to floor to nightstand to dresser and back to bed.
It is a good thing they are all so cute....