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 140...Finishing Our Solar Panel Mounts

Finally we are finishing installing the solar panel mounts for our new off grid system.  Woo hoo.  It has been a tough winter/spring, weather wise, to get this job done.

So on to the pictures for this chapter:)


April 1
This morning starts out good so Mike and I decide to go for another pole.  It's a little muddy but we are tired of being cooped up in the house.  Mike starts off by shoveling and clearing some of the ground before we move the pole over.  

What a muddy mess.  I hope we are able to pull the trailer with the pole over there without sinking it or having a mud bath.

We unwrap the tarp and get another one of these awkward poles onto the trailer.  From there we start to work.  Since our land goes higher at this point we have to cut down the pole so it will match the others that are in the ground.

Mike cuts the pole down:

Then he wraps painters tape on the bottom and sprays the portion of the pole that will be in the ground with a rubber undercoating:

This one has a lot of rust so we have to sand it off.  Here I am sanding some of the solar mount.

Now the fun part...sorry no pictures of this.  We are a little busy:)  Mike and I push the trailer closer to the hole.  We push, pull. shove and do whatever is necessary to get the pole into the hole.  It is in and of course it isn't stable until we get the concrete in the ground.

Mike uses a post hole digger to keep it in place:

Next we mix the multiple bags of quikrete and get it in the hole around the pole.  We have to hurry.  The weather is not looking good and we still have to get this painted before any rain comes.

Using a jack and the post hole digger we lift the pole a little to get it level with the other solar panel mounts:

Our temporary set up until the concrete hardens.  Another creative idea, lol:

Uh oh...it looks like rain.  Mike tells me to grab a tarp and wrap up this last mount.  Here is our handy work:

We went down to the house and hoped for a break.  We really have to get this pole painted.  Mike is getting antsy and pacing.  Finally he says "let's go"

We get up top and I pull the tarp off while Mike mixes the paint.  We don't like how the silver paint looked on the poles and mounts.  It had a very rough finish and really stood out so we are going back to our old standby using the same green that is on the shipping container.  We hate when things don;t blend, lol.

Mike mixing the paint:

Instead of using the big sprayer and making a huge cleanup mess, Mike bought a new little gadget.  Oh yeah...boys and their toys but hey if it gets the job done faster I'm in:)  He bought a handheld Graco sprayer from Lowe's.  Our New Paint Sprayer


Testing out the new sprayer:

Looks like fun if it wasn't so windy:

It looks great and Mike is very happy with his new tool:

Woo hoo.  We beat the rain and got the 3rd solar panel mount in the ground and painted.  Time to take a break.  It may not seem like a lot of work but when you really do it all it takes a long time.

I will be so happy when all five solar mounts are in the ground:)


April 2
Oh look....digging another hole for the 4th pole, lol.  Seriously though we "are" getting there and it is going to be awesome:)

Here I am using the bar to help break up the rock in the hole.  Just once I would like to be able to dig a hole with just a shovel.  Of course Niki has to help,  For some reason she has an obsession with holes.  Some day I fear something will jump out of a hole and bite her.  Thankfully nothing is living in this hole since we dug it:

Mike uses the tractor to try and get the spot more level and lower:

We had to stop work here and meet with our grader.  Mike and I go over to our lot and talk about getting a rock delivery in for the concrete man.  While we are there the concrete guys show up and put the form boards in for our slab:)


The next few days we couldn't work on poles.  We watched our granddaughter one day and then we had bad weather.



April 6
Yay....it's warm and sunny.  What a great combo.  It's time to get some work done.


This 4th hole is giving us grief.  Mike takes the electric chisel to try and help us break up the rock:

We do the same thing.  Get the solar panel mount on the trailer, Mike paints the bottom of the pole, we drop it into our hole and add the quikrete:

Nik is enjoying the weather while we work.  What else is new:)

I'm finally digging with a shovel:

It's a good day.  We also got the 5th and last solar panel mount in the ground.  Only 2120 pounds hand mixed concrete later:

This last mount is set apart from the others.  The solar panels on this one will be on their own electric breaker.  It will catch more of the winter sun for us.

Mike painting:

The first four solar panel mounts lined up:

Mike digging out the ground the add some 4x4's.  He wants to make a small garden of rock around the poles to keep the area clean:

While he does that I work on my garden a little.  I am getting really anxious for some plants to start growing but I have a long wait for that.  Here is my garden and the square foot grids:

That's all for now.  Mike and I are very happy to have the poles in the ground.  Next we will have to paint the first poles green and also re paint the side of the shipping container.  Then we can get the new solar panels on:)

My stories for the next few months will go back and forth from our "off grid" home and our new store that we are building.

I hope you enjoyed this story and I will write again on Monday:)

Chapter 133...The Stairs

Off Grid...Chapter 133

Hello everyone.  This is a story I forgot to tell.  I know.  How terrible of me, lol.

Mike and I decided to build a set of stairs going from the back of our house and down the side drive.  The pavement just gets to icy in the winter.

I will share some pictures with you:)

First we start out by digging holes and putting posts into the ground.  We leave one side high for the railing and cut the other side down.   Then we screwed in 2x8's for the sides of the steps.

We also add some weed cloth and landscape rock underneath the steps so we won't have to maintain them.

Two thirds of the way to the top.

Looking up the stairs from the bottom.

The stairs are done, the railing is up and the rocks are in place.

Looking down.

The stairs are painted the same color as the house and the decorative patio blocks are in place.

The rocks underneath.

And the stairs are finished.

These steps will really come in handy when it gets too icy to walk up our drive.   At least we won't bust our bottoms in the winter:)

Next I will tell you about my 2012 garden.