Sunday, August 1, 2010

Work, Work, Work!!!--July 31, 2010







Woke up at 9:30.  VERY tired.  I hate when that happens.  I was seriously struggling.  Just lay in bed awake for about 20 minutes.  Trying to find some way of not feeling how I did.  Finally got up, ate breakfast, took a shower, then loaded up some wood that I needed to return to Menard's.

I headed over to my sister's house to see how the garage sale was coming along.  Got there around 10:30.  They had made a whopping $2.50 this morning.  Oddly enough, it never got better!  They made around $268 yesterday.  And $2.50 today.  Crazy!  Doesn't anyone shop on Saturdays anymore!

While there, I was kind of lured into helping dig out a fence post.  We dug and dug and dug.  And dug some more.  And this thing wouldn't budge.  We probably spent 45 minutes working on it.  Three of us!  And it just wouldn't go.  Casey has SEVERAL posts to take out.  It was becoming a personal mission for me to get that out, but we were seriously struggling.  We ended up quitting.  GRR!!!

Dad and I left from there to take left-over items to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore shop.  We dropped off the huge countertop and sink I picked up last week (that I shouldn't have), Mom and Dad's old vanity and sink, and the sink that came with my countertop from last week's garage sale (two weeks ago???).  While there, I checked out other items.  And I ended up finding the deal of the century.  Gallons of stain for $1.  I learned later they had been dropped off by Lowe's just a day or two earlier.  I ended up buying 30 GALLONS!!!  Basically, I picked up $600 worth of stain for $30.  I would've bought more, but I allowed another guy to pick up 10 of the gallons.  He had come over and found my loot as I was pulling them out of the box.  I figured that was fair.  Now I can stain my deck and fence!  For cheap!!!

I also picked up a small cabinet and countertop.  Looks nice!

From there we headed to McDonald's.  I was feeling so weak!!!  I needed food.  Two cheeseburgers and a sweet tea.  So hard to beat.  From there we went to Menard's and returned the wood I had purchased yesterday.  I then bought the new wood that I needed.  That ended up taking much longer than expected.  I had planned on hammering my first nail at 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon.  We didn't get back until after 3:00!!!  We were probably at Menard's for an hour or so.

Saw the highway backed up for miles on the way back.  Later learned that a woman was critically injured while changing her tire on the interstate.  I kid you not.  It blew up in her face and left a deep cut from forehead to chin.  Pretty nasty.  She was literally life-flighted out of there with the helicopter.  You just never know when you're goin'.  Kerstin yesterday.  And a woman's life dramatically changed (or lost) while changing a tire.  Life is crazy.

Ended up coming back home and going to work on the shed walls.  I had Dad and Casey's help, so that was nice.  The walls went together pretty easily.  Not too hard.  We had to think a bit with my door (I'm putting it on the 12-foot side), but I think we will be fine.  Mom, Boogs, and Baby came over with supper, so we had a nice break for some taco salad.  But I went right back to work!  After the walls were done, I wanted to move everything to the backyard.  So Casey and I started leveling the ground.  I kid you not, that was probably the hardest part of the job!  I picked a fairly poor surface (in terms of level-ness) for my shed, but it's where it will look the best!  We worked and worked and worked on that!  Dirt is just so hard to move!  Mom and Dad came back by (they had to return the tables from the garage sale), and we continued the process of leveling.  A pain in the butt!  But we finally got it pretty decent.  It's not a perfect science, as I have fairly warped 4x4's that will be acting as the base.  Oh well.  I was happy with it and think it will work fine
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Then we had the very difficult task of getting a several-hundred pound floor from my driveway to my backyard.  It took a little ingenuity and a lot of help.  Mom, Dad, Casey, Dad, and I all put some serious effort into moving that thing.  We cut up a long PVC pipe into 3-foot sections and literally rolled the huge floor along my yard.  It was work!  It was so hard keeping that huge thing balanced, and Mom was rushing back and forth taking the rear pipe and putting it in the front.  At any time, if that floor went sideways, the person on the side would have no way of holding it up.  It was unbelievably heavy.  I couldn't believe it!
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But after much effort and sweat, we finally got the floor back to the 4x4's in my yard.  We had to move one of the 4x4's (more grading!), but it wasn't too bad.  We FINALLY had the floor in place.  I think it was around 7:30 by the time we had gotten that far.  Crazy.  But it's a step in the right direction.
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I certainly don't have the walls up and the roof in place like I had wanted to do today, but we're getting there.  After cleaning up the tools, I went out back and walked on the floor.  It's very sturdy and flat!!!  I'm going to call it level, too!  I'm excited to get this thing done!  It's going to be so handy!

Spent the rest of the night inside.  Eager to get the walls up tomorrow.  Spent some time researching how to do rafters this evening.  It's all about learning as you go!  Will tackle the roof tomorrow, too.  Basically, it's putting the walls up, making rafters, installing them, then putting the siding and plywood on the roof.  The doors and shingles are the finishing touches, but we're only a couple of days from a nice-looking shed that should last for years!!!

It's so nice having fruits from labor.  Nothing like getting the satisfaction out of DOING something.

Oh, and around 10 o'clock, I ate two tiny little tomatoes that I had picked earlier from my garden!  They weren't much, but they tasted like tomatoes!  We'll see how many more I get.

Went to bed at 12:45 A.M.

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