Okay great, that's exactly what I said to myself a nanosecond after said, "I'd love to have a sunroom off the side of the house."
There we go, another project to satisfy my passion for working with WOOD.
There were several reasons for my being so excited to do this #DIY project.
#1 - I would be building something that my better half had asked for!
#2 - I would be working with wood!
#3 - For the first time I would be framing a structure using rough sawn lumber
#4 - I was running a little short on hobbitizational projects. #farm-mom seems to always have a way to fill that possible void.😁
The sunroom went immediately to the top of the list.
The following morning she woke up to me dismantling part of the outside shower.
I gave it my best effort to be as quiet as a
I was using silencers on all of the power tools and I had wrapped my hammer in bubble wrap.
Despite #farm-mom waking to barely a noise, I told myself, it's the thought that counts!
Still half asleep, and before she had her first cup of coffee, she asked me what the fuck heck I was doing?
In a somewhat soft voice, since it was very early and I knew I may have disturbed her beauty sleep, I explained to her that the outside shower would have been in the way of what I'd conjured up that evening.
After shaking off those early morning cobwebs that go along with rising before one had planned to, she was all about it, but still somewhat perplexed with the velocity with which her request was being acted upon.
I filled her in on my plan for moving the shower. The method was time-tested and a favorite of the Romans Egyptians.
We'd be using the log rolling approach.
As the coffee took hold, she was all pumped-up, figuratively, and literally.
Working as a team, we managed to have the shower ready to ROLL in less than an hour.
Simple, right wrong.
An ordeal that lasted about a 1/2 hour stopped any further progress in its tracks.
I'd rather not HIGHLIGHT MY PURE STUPIDITY in this post, but if you have read this far and would like to know what the holdup was, just ask. Since then, we have gotten many good chuckles from that very, very, frustrating 1/2 hour.
Okay, we did run into one very avoidable snag, but mission accomplished.
Later that day I outlined the perimeter of the sunroom with the logs we used to move the shower.
Day two started with a trip to the lumber yard to pick up the materials needed for the next stage.
As usual, digging the footing holes was a great workout.
Setting the piers so that they are perfectly plum is always critical.
There's so much pleasure working alongside your partner.
Mixing concrete is starting to become her specialty.
Not only does #farm-mom get her sunroom, but she also gets a great workout, look at those forearms and triceps.
By the end of the day, we had accomplished what we had set out to do.
I even had some time to strip off some of the sidings where the ledger board would need to be installed.
Just a quick side note. I love when I'm able to #recycle anything, and the wood I used for the columns you see in this picture came from a bridge that we rebuilt for our son who lives back in Jersey.
I've referenced this place many times, and every time I go there I feel like a kid in a candy shop.
90% of all of the wood milled by Beardsley's Sawmill is Eastern White Hemlock.
Here is a picture I took on the way in of some logs they have on the premises. These two piles account for less than 5% of their stock.
Purchasing lumber for this project was almost impossible. With much of the economy shut down during this time, due to covid-19, the lumber yard's stock was almost depleted. If they had any wood, they were getting a premium for it. Some of the dimensional lumber needed for this project had increased by over 100%. This seemed like price gouging, but I guess the big boys can get away with that. The prices that Lowes and Home Depot were asking for were over the top.
When pricing out the lumber list I had put together the difference in price was staggering, conventional lumber quote from the big box stores $1,353.00 / Beardsley's Sawmill $637.00
The price, along with the inability to secure what I needed for this project provided me with the impedes for going with rough-sawn lumber.
Being that this would be the first time I would be using rough-sawn lumber for a framing project, I asked the pros about framing with it. Their only advice was to allow it to air dry for 4 to 6 weeks before building with it.
Great advice, as the wood had just been milled and was extremely HEAVY.
The folk at the mill said that after the drying period, the wood would weigh about 70% less.
That was great news as those newly cut boards were no fun to toss around as we loaded them into my truck.
More to come as #farm-mom's sunroom comes to life.