Building The Exterior Walls and a New Toy For Lisa

11-19-17

It's time to get serious.  We need to build the exterior walls for our 18x56 building.

Each morning we have to take all of the tools out of the trailer and open up all of the wrapped wood:

After we measure and cut the 2x4's we lay them out for a 10 foot wall section:

Mike adding a jack stud for a window:

We had a lot of measuring today for the walls.  There are four windows and a door on the front of the building.

Each afternoon is a big clean up round.  All tools have to be put back into the trailer, all lumber has to be wrapped and we clean the ground where we worked.

Mike using the blower to clean all the dirt and saw dust off:

Everything wrapped up:

Mike using a clamp to secure the top plate to the top of the wall.  We bought #1 lumber but it is still bowed and some of it very bad:

Nailing the top plate:

Mike measuring to cut the holes in the wood for the slab anchors to go through:

Making sure all of the base plates fit over the anchors.  Now we can build those walls:

Only one more section for the front of the building.

From the inside:

Looking at the front:

Ooh today I got a new toy.  We knew that boondocking here would present some adjustments for us.  One of them is laundry.  Our friend's told us we could go to their house and do any laundry that we needed to do which was very nice of them.  But Mike and I like to stay on site as much as possible while we build so we came up with a solution so we could do laundry and not leave.  I found a portable washer that can be hooked up to a hose.


How cute:

First load of laundry being done in the small trailer.  We connected it to the well hose and used a bucket for the draining.  This will do for today:

Since this was a few months ago I can tell you that my little Magic Chef washer is awesome.  It does a great job, is easy to use, and has a 10 minute cycle which larger machines lack.  I hate that the big machines in houses take no less than 30-40 minutes for a load of laundry.  Sometimes you have gentle clothes or just a few items that don't need to be in for that long.  Anyway here is the link for my washer.  I paid $218.00 for mine but they have gone up in price.  Portable Washer







Nailing in a top plate on the back side:

Finished for the day and all cleaned up:

Mike cutting down more 2x4's:

Moving right along:

Working on the header for a future door:

A little assistance for some bowed boards:

Nailing them together:

The back wall is up.  Now to tie in the corner wall:

Almost finished with the side wall:

Yay...we are almost finished with 3 walls.  We need to keep the one end open to be able to work on the trusses.

Time for a little break.

Taking a walk thought the woods on the property.  One big tree down:

Mike being a ham.  King of the woods, lol.

That took us one week to do.  Next up the septic and siding.