Chapter 151...Painting The Store And Getting Ready For The Trusses

Mike and I almost have the store walls up.  All we have left today is getting the front door on and adding the remainder of the siding:

Mike putting in the header for the door:

And nailing in the siding along the side of the door:

The store walls and doors are done:

And:

Now we are ready for the trusses.  Mike calls the truss company to see when they will be delivering and it is not for a few more days.  Since Mike and I don't like to waste time and wait for people we decide to paint the store even though it is not the normal order of things, lol.  Why wait around when you can accomplish something:)

We get everything ready for painting and pack up the trailer.  The first thing I do is sweep the T1-11(siding).  There is a lot of saw dust and small wood particles on this wood.  If you don't sweep it off it will come off after the paint is on and take some of the paint with it.  We don't want that.

Since we don't have water at the site yet we decide to use the small spray gun for painting.  It is less messy and much easier to clean even though it will take longer.  Mike starts spraying what he can without my help.  I need to move along with him and hold the cardboard at the top and also the bottom of the building so we don't make a green mess everywhere.  Mike spraying:

As a lot of you know Mike and I are terrible at picking paint colors.  For us it is much easier to go with what we know and what we like.  The color of the building is the same as our house.  It will also blend in nicely with the surroundings:)

Almost done with one long side:

While Mike does the spraying I start cutting paint in around the door.  T1-11 is terrible on a paint brush.  It takes forever to fill in the rough cut wood:

We went through one five gallon bucket of paint and we only got the front done, the two sides done and part of the back.  It's looking good but funny to see a building shell painted and no roof, lol.  Yeah...that sounds like Mike and I.  Get 'R Done!!!

While I was cutting in the doors, Mike sprayed out the remainder of the paint on the back wall:

The next day is raining so we go to town to pick up more paint.


The next nice day we are ready to go:)  Mike goes back to spraying the back of the building:

Almsot done.  Now I hope that the first batch of paint and this one blend in:

The first coat is on and the building is now protected from the bad weather.  Once we get the whole building enclosed Mike and I will paint a second coat on the whole building using the roller.



We heard back from the truss company and we are scheduled for delivery...yes!!!!  We have a few things left to do before the trusses get there that will make our lives easier once the trusses arrive.  So back to the store and Mike caulks the door frames in:

This is the part that will make our lives easier.  The trusses will sit on the front and back wall every two feet.  Since we have the time we decide to measure and mark off the 2 foot sections before the trusses get here.  This will save us so much time.


Mike started at one end and I held the tape ruler at the other end.  Mike moves along the wall and marks off the 2 foot on center.  Then he draws two lines to show where the truss will sit.  Our marks on the top of the wall:

Mike uses the ruler to measure the location for each truss and then draws the lines using a speed square:

Mike working his way to me:

We got the tops of the walls measured and we are almost ready to go.  The last thing we have to do is put up some temporary 2x4's to keep the first end truss from falling off the walls.



Mike screwing in the first temporary 2x4:

The 2x4's up and we are now ready for the trusses:

That's all for today.  I hope you all enjoyed this story and the next one you will get to see how Mike and I get the trusses on the store.

Have a great weekend:)

Chapter 142...Our New Solar Panels Being Installed

I love not having any electric bills:)  Finally the day we have been waiting for.  Time to get our new solar panels in the mounts and get hooked up.  It's so nice to not have to worry about power outages.

So back to our story and back to the second week of April.

April 8
Today I spent the day working on the garden of rocks around the solar panel mounts and Mike did the drilling for the solar panels.

On a cute note...here are some updated cow and calf pictures:)
Our big girl "Red" and in the background our unsociable cow and her light colored calf:

Mama and her baby.

And the one with the white face, like a mask:

Mike and I took a ride down to our pond and got to see some of the fish.  It's good to see the babies after the winter months.

And:

Enough animals...now it's time to work.

We have a couple of bags of concrete left so Mike and I decided to use them up and fill up all of the holes.

Mike is spraying the bottom of a pole with the rubber paint for protection:

All the concrete is used:)

Next Mike works on leveling the 4x4's so I can start filling the gardens with rock:

Mike is pounding rebar into our 4x4's and into the ground the make the garden more solid:

Now I can start filling them with rock.  First I put the weed cloth down, then I take the shovel and the 5 gallon buckets back to our rock pile.  I use the hand truck to bring the full buckets of rock back to the garden:

While I do that, Mike works on drilling holes into the solar panel mounts.  This is so we can install the solar panels.  He needs to drill a total of 50 holes, ten holes in each rack:

Finally after thirty 5-gallon buckets I get the garden finished and we have no more rocks.

Mike is hosing them down to make it nice and clean:

It was a good day and it feels so nice to have nice weather.


April 9
More blue skies.  It's time to paint.

We are going to paint all of the solar panels mounts green to match the building and while we are at it we will paint the side of the shipping container.

Laying out cardboard to protect the rocks:

Mike using his new paint spray gun:

All the solar panel mounts are done:

Once the mounts are done we start on the side of the building.  We might as well while we have the chance.  Once the new solar panels go up we won't be touching this side of the building ever again.

We start at the front top corner of the building.  While I hold cardboard up to protect the driveway, Mike starts spraying.  He also sprays my hands but at least the driveway isn't green, lol.

Almost done with the building:

The painting is done:)

We have to let everything dry before we can install the solar panels.


April 10
Today is the day we have been waiting for.  It's time to get our new bigger solar panels on the new mounts that Mike designed:)

The solar panels are big so Mike and I will have to work together to get them on the racks.  The first one is the hardest as we don;t have much land to stand on.  I really hope we don't drop one.

The first one is in the rack:

And presto...eight of them are in.  We work so fast, lol.  Since Mike and I had to work hard to get them in I couldn't take pictures.  You can see how much bigger these are compared to the old panels which are on top of the shipping container.

We also got the two panels installed that stand alone to catch a different angle of the sun.  After all the panels are screwed in, Mike wants to clean up the ground.  Here he is grading out underneath the panels:

Next I raked it all out and Mike starts seeding:

And:

I put the hay over the seed and Mike waters it:

Now it's time for the really important part and since I can't do any electrical, Mike is on his own.  Mike has to get all of the wires hooked up so we can make our own electric.


Mike installed two combiner boxes on the outside of the shipping container and under the solar panels.  A combiner box takes all the wires from the solar panels, combines them into one, and then sends them to the charge controller inside the shipping container.

Mike has 5 panels going into each combiner box.  Each solar panel has it's own circuit breaker.


Mike uses the torch to seal the shrink wrap over the connectors to make them weathertight.

Skip to April 16 as we had other work going on at the "store" property:)

Mike is getting getting ready to put the wire from the combiner boxes into the charge controller.  This is a really thick wire and you need strength in your hands to do this kind of work:

Peeling back and clipping the strands that aren't needed:

Mike hooking up one of  the charge controllers:

And the finishing touches:

Here are the circuit breakers onside the combiner box:

Our wire mess.  Mike will clean this up soon:

Now we are set to go.  Next I will help Mike take down our old panels and he will hook up our new system:)

I hope you all enjoyed this story and I will write again soon:)