The day started out as always... EARLY. The sun was shining and only a few clouds showed up, not the rain as forcast, thank goodness!
I made a bunch of phone calls to talk with the pros who were supposed to show up. Turns out there's a building boom on locally (something I was very well aware of) The good & bad news was that NO ONE could help us for a long long time and if they did come they wanted an arm & a leg to do it. The carpenter & crew who was scheduled (for weeks) to help us today with the huge trusses jammed out at the last minute. And NO roofers I talked to could even think of doing our roof for many, many weeks into the future.
So as usual, the good news is if you want something done right (and now) ya gotta do it yourself.
I had forgotten how much fun framing a roof can be. It's been 25 years since I've built a house.
The trusses arrrived at 2:00. They are big! We dropped the trailer on the neighbor's property out back & jiggled the semi past the building to set up the crane. The driver was a great guy who made the tricky job fun. Being the fearless type I had the job of walking the walls with one other of my crew on the other side to guide the many bundles of trusses into place and nailed temporary braces onto them to keep them upright.
Having my very experienced Dad on hand made the task enjoyable. True to form he couldn't resist climbing up & giving us a hand. AND HE"S 73 YEARS OLD. We all had a blast! The first time I had to climb to the top of the truss bundle for my studio to unhook the crane it freaked me out a little... I was 28 feet above the concrete floor! But I soon got over my fear of heights and was walking the top of the walls like a pro in no time.
The tower roof for the train station went up with little effort as well while we had the crane truck handy.
At 4:00 the truck left but the whole crew was too wired to quit even though it was cleanup time. So we climbed back up the ladders & scaffolding and set a whole end section of the roof in place before any of the guys would go home. It was great! And the guys can now visualize how the rest of the roof will look. I know everyone will be early tomorrow to get a jump on things... it's going to be another fun & challenging day at the ranch!
Once everyone finally left for the day I broke out the welder once more and began work on the huge steel doors for the front of the shop. They are going to be a work of art... I can hardly wait to show the pics of the finished product. I'd show a sketch of what they will be like but they live only in my head for now.
My daughter borrowed the camera to take pics of the flowers at Giggle Ridge today... so it will be tomorrow before I can post some pictures.
Building a new shop sure is fun. In many ways it's much more challenging than I imagined it, so many, many details to take care of at once... but I haven't had so much fun in years.
Janis reminded me yesterday that the entire Giggle Ranch project is going to last the next 10 years, at least... and I know it too..... just imagine the fun we can have in the next 10 YEARS!
-dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8761 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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Thanks for the update, Dan. I awlays look forward to hearing how the big project is doing. Sounds like you and your crew are very capable of overcoming the obstacles! Keep up the great work and lets see more pictures as time allows!
-------------------- Mike Berry New England Posts: 534 | From: New England | Registered: Jan 2002
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I had the job of walking the walls with one other of my crew on the other side to guide the many bundles of trusses into place and nailed temporary braces onto them to keep them upright. 
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