It's October.

October is here. 55 degrees in the workshop. The old furnace bit the dust on August 22nd.

The new furnace arrived yesterday. Ten thousand dollars. And the accessories an additional 2400 dollars. (The piping alone was nearly $1800 for 85 feet of it.) Add $231 for the concrete pad I poured Monday, which my wife wanted to inscribe "patient woman" into.

The guy who delivered the furnace asked me if I was restoring an old barn. I guess that is a compliment.

Finished staining the soffits and fascia and now to install gutters before breaking down the catwalk staging for the winter. Would like to do it today but am going to a luncheon in my honor later. It will have to wait, like everything else. My help is long gone and we are about out of money.

At least Mary has a good place to ride her bike, which she mastered last weekend. That's what is really important.

Roof top views, finally.

For the last year Mike has been working for me, first on the horse barn and now on the addition, framing it. I should have renamed this blog but I'll be at it solo again soon enough.

He rolled his truck a few weeks ago but emerged from the wreckage unscathed. He'll be going on the road in a week or two and I will miss him, though he will be making real money.

We have the roof on the main structure as you can see and are now tying it into the house. I am hoping that he can get the kitchen roof on before he leaves. I am working on framing up a new fixed window for over the kitchen.

What have I learned? You have to have some steady help if you also have a family and a full time job commitment.

Stilll framing.

Another storm just dumped seven inches of snow on the frame. Still no roof but as Mike says, we are gaining on it.

Mike is back with friend Jeff who is a nice guy and pretty enthusiastic about working on a different type of structure. With two sets of hands things seem to be moving. Mike says he is starting another job soon, but will hang around to get me a roof and hopefully tied into the original house.
Simplifying my window order to put out to bid again.

What did I learn today? Thanks to the window estimate, I'll be making my own fixed windows and will save a couple grand at least.

Get your own - Open publication

Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It, v.2

This message is to my bro in the Way Far North... this North Country's callin' you back.

Think about it. You ain't gettin' any younger either.

AlaskaTracks.com

Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It?

Here's part of the reason that I'm not done with the house yet.

I don't get enough of these moments but I'm making up for that lost summer of '05 when I was away almost every day rebuilding camp in the Adirondacks with my brothers.

I took the kids up Tongue Mountain on Lake George and then to Ft. Ti and camp for two days over a spectacular Columbus day weekend.

What have I learned this month? I pledge that at age 50 I will stop building structures for the taxman to salivate about (like the hot dog on the stick) and focus on spending more time doing this and building furniture in the shop.

3x longer than your worst nightmare

Have not written in a while. Mainly because not much happened.

I worked on my posts all winter and that gave me pleasure. Most did not twist, but some did. Best to work when they are green right off the mill, but when you are doing it solo the old fashioned way, you don't have time on your side.

Mike showed up on the scene in April and helped me extend and convert the 4 bay pole structure down by the furnace into a finished two stall horse paddock and barn. Several thousand dollars later it was done and Laura brought her horses home.

Then school started again and that was all she wrote. The mega treehouse still is not done but it's still stable, up in the trees.

Mike worked through the beginning of October. He's setting a post with a buddy of his on the second story and that's about what it looks like now. Yesterday was Thanksgiving.

He got ready to set another post and cut a hole in the soffit and began another job. Six weeks later snow's about to fall but at least the chipmunks have a cozy place to move into. I ain't too worried about it. Laura's beginning "year eight" without a real home of her own but she's happy about the horse barn job. I gotta milk that for all it's worth.

Mike's a hard worker and will be here when he gets here. Won't be able to afford to send the kids to college now anyway, so if they don't get their own rooms until they are seniors in high school, no big deal...

What have I learned in the past year? I ain't getting any younger or faster.

The "it will take 3x longer than your worst nightmare" estimate still applies even when you bring on a guy who knows what he is doing, especially if you' re working with rough cut lumber and timber framing.

But then again, this ain't no McMansion. Just hope I have time to kick back and enjoy it.