(The picture is from yesterday's work! This is how we started this morning!).
Woke up at 7:40 A.M. I did NOT feel very good. I grabbed a bowl of cereal (with milk!) and took a shower. Dad was here around 7:45, but I needed to wake up some more. So I took a shower to try to help! But I was just at 60%. I pushed through.
We started working on the shed right away. We started putting the gable siding pieces on. I forgot to mention that we didn't put these angled pieces on yesterday. We just ran out of time! This actually turned out to be more work that I had expected! The first (of four) went on so smoothly. But then after that I/we seriously spent about 45 minutes on the next cut! Basically, because of the lips on my wooden siding, it just wasn't working out perfectly. But we finally figured out what we needed to do, and we put 'em up. My roommate Dug came out to help, so that was nice. And Jobu came out around 10:30, so that was nice, too.
But it was HOT. I should have known when I walked around the corner of my house just a little after 8:00 o'clock and could literally SEE the moisture in the air. It was just hovering almost like fog. But it was actually pleasant at that time. But that didn't last very long. By the time 11 o'clock rolled around, it was just dangerously hot. I was sweating profusely, and I usually don't sweat like that. I usually have a little head sweat, a little sweat on the chest, but this was literally a full-body seeping of water. I was wet. And I started feeling a little rough.
I had a good few hours, but all of a sudden, something just hit me. We came inside to take a break around noon, but I just couldn't sit up. I had a terrible head-ache, and I couldn't shake it. I lay on my floor, covered in sawdust, and just tried to get rid of that head-ache. I felt terrible. I seriously just felt terrible all around, stomach included.
I felt so bad that I even passed up on lunch. That is unheard of! But I needed to sleep this thing off. I was seriously going to be out of commission if it continued. Dad and Jobu left to go get something to eat, and I tried to sleep right there on the living room floor. The problem is I wasn't tired. But I ended up in the crazy la-la land...not really dreaming but not really awake, either.
I came out of it about an hour later or so. And I kid you not (this is kind of gross), but the room just smelled terrible. I mean disgusting. I grabbed a bite to eat of a sub they had left for me, but I couldn't even get through it. I made a trip to the bathroom, and I sat there for about 15 minutes. Something was killing me! But in all honesty, after the purging, I felt so much better!!! I came out and finished my sandwich, then went outside to see what I could do by myself on the shed! Not much! I cut and put up a little siding piece, but that was about it.
Plus it was now dangerously hot. I mean, you can die in this type of heat! It was 99 degrees with a heat index of 116. It was nothing short of oppressive. Dad and Jobu had gone out to the ranch to put in some posts, but I later found out that they couldn't really do much, either. It was just too unbearable. So I sat around inside for a bit, just waiting for some type of relief to come.
But the forecast wasn't much better. They were calling for it to still be 90 degrees at 8:00 P.M. Yikes.
I ended up adding up my receipts today, not necessarily out of desire, but out of a commitment to myself to be good with money. I was so nervous to see the final total. And it's WAY more than I had budgeted. Or expected. As of now, I am at $797.13. NOT where I wanted to be at all. That is $300 more than I had planned on! And I still need more parts! But I'll be able to take several items back, too. My guess is that that figure is going to be pretty close to accurate, though, by the time I get what I need and take back the returns. $800. Is it worth it?! (As a side note, though, it's still cheaper than the $1530 I was quoted at last week...). I just wasn't as accurate as expected in my planning.
The sun baked the earth all afternoon. But around 5 o'clock, Dad and I decided that we could go ahead and put on the roof. It wasn't going to get any better, and I needed to get it done. So he came back by from home. He had taken off the day to help me. It's unbelievable how I get the 116-degree days to work. Why not one of those 85-degree days from a week or two ago?! This was seriously crazy. It's now August, but this has been one of the hottest summers I can ever remember. July was just brutal this year.
He came over, and we lined up the tar paper that we had put up last night. Then we put on the drip edge. And we finally started our first row of shingles at 6:10. But it was so hot. It was actually fine to stand in the shade. But once you did ANY amount of movement, it was over. My shirt literally became drenched. I could see water glistening on the outside of it. It was completely and totally soaked. Again, it was like a sweat that I just don't remember. It was nasty stuff.
We worked on one side, and it was coming along fairly nicely with the air gun we had borrowed. But we needed to take a break around 7:30. It was just becoming too much for us. We took a quick break, made a quick little trip over to Casey and Erica's to sell something for them (the people in the driveway ended up leaving as we were going over...ha!), then came back and went at it again. I finished one side, then started the other. I could tell Dad was really feeling it. But I understand that! It was a lot for me!!! And he has 28 years on me! But we pushed through.
Mom brought us homemade ice cream around 8:00. That was a welcome relief. I scarfed it down, then continued. I REALLY wanted to get this roof done tonight. I hate leaving projects open-ended. But we were fighting heat exhaustion AND darkness. But we pushed through. Finally, at 8:42, I put up my last shingle row. It was almost competely dark by then, and it was getting very hard to see. We had done it AGAIN. Two nights in a row. We cleaned up the yard and called it a night.
Wow. But the shed is looking good now. It was again too late to take a picture, but it's looking sharp. There is still much work to do, but it's actually got most of the body work done. I need to put the ridge shingles and vent on next. Then make the doors, fill the siding with nails, put up the trim, and then paint it! And then I am literally DONE with the booger. It should last a solid 15-20 years (that's only $40/year, right?!).
What a learning experience it has been! Right now it's kind of a thorn in my side! It's a long, sometimes frustrating and complicated process of building! I have learned a bit, and it's been fun to pull the Man Card out, but it is complete and total work. A good lesson in that, too!
But I am definitely EAGER to put it to use. Enough of this empty shed stuff!
And today wasn't without its own frustrations. We had the hardest time figuring out the gable end pieces after that first cut. It was later found out to be a matter of that lip part on the siding. But it took some thinking. We also had a problem with my shingles being used to hold down the tar paper. Basically, the 116-degree heat bonded them to the paper. When I tried to move them, the tar paper ripped up with it. I also had an issue with the trim. I definitely need trim for my corners, but I also need it between my bottom siding and my top siding on the gabled ends. The problem is a matter of covering the seam. If I cover the seam, then I can't have the trim go all the way around the shed, as there would be lining-up issues. Hard to explain, but it's certainly a problem. I also have a problem of putting up the trim below the drip-edge. Basically, you are supposed to put the drip-edge over the trim, but I didn't have it, AND that would force me to literally put trim around the ENTIRE shed. I don't need to do that, but as it stands now, the drip edge will take water and place it on top of the future trim piece. Not supposed to be like that!
Of course, we also had the heat and my very poor body today. I seriously can't give enough credit to the heat. It is just downright unbearable. We were literally forced out of working today. A body just can't handle that. The National Weather Service even put out a Heat WARNING saying to stay inside, limit exposure to outside, and definitely not work outside. It was that bad.
But...in the same breath, we worked when we could, we pushed through frustrations, exhaustion, and the lack of desire. And we have a shed that is actually starting to look pretty decent. I'm eager to see the finished product.
What a day.
I don't think I'll have much time to work on it tomorrow, as I'm helping out at the ranch tomorrow. And I have a business meeting in the afternoon (grr!), so we'll see what happens. Plust it's supposed to be between 110 and 115 degrees again tomorrow with the heat index. More of the same.
I guess we'll see! I'm just ready to put some doors on there! And I'm ready to fill it up! Can't wait!
Went to bed pretty exhausted at 11:40 P.M.
Alarm is set for 7:15 A.M.
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