Back to the Front Porch

The porch is now back in business. It is now finally getting cool enough at night that we are able to spend time out here reading and catching up on some email. We even get a game of cards in or some Scrabble frome time to time.

Up until now, it has been too hot at night lately to do anything out here for the past few months. Tonight it is great. It is down into the upper 60's and the bugs are making their noises in the trees. The previous posting about the porch last November showed a porch full of clutter but not any more. We have it mostly clean.

A porch is important when you have a small house. It is 400 square feet, which is about 1/3 the size of the interior space. So when it is usable it is like having an instant addition, with a few flying insects. The best part is the view. It is positioned so we look out over the pond and up the hill side. No houses to see and no lights. Just trees and pitch black darkness at night.

The best part is Stephanie sleeping on the couch under a blanket. Fall must be approaching.

Jacob's birthday cake video

Our youngest son had his 6th birthday last weekend and enjoyed his cake.

The cake was a two layer white cake with strawberry icing in the middle and chocolate on the outside. It was made with love by his mom.

The Barn Project Continued

Last time on BMR we were placing the roof trusses. With that complete we were able to tie everything together with the hurricane straps, apply skip sheathing and place the tin roof.

The roof came from Construction Metal Products in Statesville, NC. It is the same place we got the roof for the house. It is of the galvalume type and unpainted. We suspect that it will also sound great in the rain but there has been none (or very little) for close to a month.

Ed M. came back with the mini excavator and we ran 180 ft of conduit (2" and 1") as well as water up to the barn for modern conveniences such as 100 AMP power, water, cable phone etc. It was a long weekend where we put about 20 hrs on the rented track hoe, but it was well worth it. We also moved tons of dirt to level the place out and create a better log lot (In the picture on the right you can see some of the logs from the clearing and the log lot area). The saw mill will be housed under this end of the mill with a 36 ft wide opening for bringing logs and cut wood in and out.

With the roof on, power connected and water running it was time for lights and outlets. We ran a few 20 AMP outlets and some overhead lighting, but left plenty of room for other circuits. As we work on placing the horizontal 2x4's for the siding it is nice to have plenty of power and electricity for a box fan.

Remaining items to complete before the final inspection on the barn are the following:

1. final row of screws on the roof

2. a few lag bolts on the posts

3. 27 sheets of sheathing to go up on the walls

4. general clean up

A piece of cake.....???