Chapter 128...How To Build A Shed Part 1

Off Grid...Chapter 128 Mike and I have been working on building a shed on and off and in between landscaping since March. We finally have it finished so now it's time to start the story This is an unusual shed but hey did you expect anything else from us, lol? As you know we have metal shipping containers for storage. And the one in the very back is really....really ugly and it has a lot of dents. At first Mike and I thought we should just buy another shipping container and put it next to the other one....until we went to VA and looked at the containers and the prices New plan. Now we decided to build a new wood shed and incorporate the old metal shipping container under the same new roof. This would give us a building for "clean" storage, cover up the ugly old building, and cost a lot less than a new container. This is going to take a lot of trips to Lowe's. Lumber is heavy Our first load of wood. Next we have to move the old fence that runs behind the old shipping container. Mike taking out the old t-posts. You can see by the green 4x4 where the new shed will be. Once we get all of the old t-posts out, we roll up the barbed wire, and start to place the old t-posts in a location to make room for the new part of the shed Mike banging in one of the t-posts. Good enough. The fence posts are moved and the barbed wire is back on. The 4x4 in the back is where our new shed will be. Next we have to get the green(old) building as level as we can. It has sunk a bit over the years. First we try jacking it up. Unfortunately the jack isn't strong enough to do the job. So we bring in the tractor to help us. With using the tractor and the jack we got it as level as possible without calling in for big machinery. It is level enough at least it is within the level lines Back to Lowe's for another load of material OK..time to get started building We are going to use cement blocks on the ground, then add 4x4 pressure treated posts, and then build the deck for the new shed on top. We start off by laying things out to make the base level. The size of the new shed will be 8x20 which is the same size as the green building. We start to build the deck in two pieces using pressure treated wood. The first deck is done but we need to dig out some dirt to level it up. We move the cement blocks and 4x4's so Mike can dig out a little of the dirt. Mike uses the nail gun to nail in the second deck. Now it's time to put the floor on top of the deck. Since it is only a shed, we are using OSB and we never use OSB. We used 3/4" tongue and groove OSB for the floor. Installing the floor. The floor is on the deck It looks pretty ugly right now but we have a vision Next we mix all of the sample floor paint we had from last year. We decided to use it as a 1st coat on the floor. Hey....why waste anything? Mike starts to roll the floor with paint. It is all painted. Now we can start on the walls. Mike and I use 2x4 studs to make the walls. We build them on the floor and then we will stand them up and nail them in place. Mike working on the wall studs. We get the back and side of the wall studs done and stand them up. Niki is a prisoner, lol. And the front wall stud is done with an opening for a door. It's time to start closing it up. We used and exterior composite wood called barn board for the new shed. Here is the first exterior board nailed to the studs. Mike nailing the sides on. And the exterior walls are done with the cutout for the new door. It's starting to look better already...especially if you ignore the big ugly metal door, lol. Now we have to wait for the trusses. That will be the next chapter for our customized shed. I hope you all enjoyed the story and the pictures. Lisa

Chapter 121...Driveway Sealing Down Steep Part and Cool Machine:)

Off Grid...Chapter 121 Finally....I am here because I owe you our last story from 2011. So let me take you back and I will show you what we did. 9-25-11 I have to start off by showing you a picture that I think is pretty cool. We get so many great pictures here. 9-26-11 It is a beautiful morning the next day!!! 9-30-11 Ok...today is a big day for us. Mike and I are going to seal the whole driveway that was paved our first year here. It is about 600 feet plus the curbs. We start off by doing the curbs first. We finally have a system for that. Mike and I work together. One of us pours some of the sealer onto the tops of the curbs in a 5 foot section. Then we both brush the sealer onto the curbs. We worked our way down one side of the driveway and then back up the other. Now it's time for the driveway. We have a total of 12 five gallon buckets of sealer. We are ready to go. We have to line the buckets going down the drive. Once we put the sealer on, we cannot walk back up it for a few days. Today is a much cooler day than when we tried to do the sealing at the top. It is making this job much easier. Mike and I work together the whole way down. He takes the left side and I take the right side. Mike coming around our curve. We are involved now...and no time for any breaks. We just have to keep rolling until we have no more buckets left. Almost done Woo hoo...we have no more sealer for the year. We are done Wow..it looks so clean. Now if we can just keep the cows off, lol. Here ae some pictures of the finished job. The top portion with the new electric fence in place.  The new fence going our gate. I miss this view right now. 10-3-11 We have one small section of the old white electric fence that goes around the rock. Mike wants to replace that with the silver wire so the fence is less noticeable. We have to take out the old white fence first so we can fix it. Here is Mike cutting a piece of rebar down. We can't get it out of the ground. I go down and use the remover to take to old T-posts. We are going to use up the smaller rebar for the new fence. At some point we will fence off the whole driveway and the steepest rock section to keep the cows off Mike is painting the rebar. Of course we have to make everything match We made it down one side and back around the curved rock area with the new wire. Now we have to splice the two wires together. Mike holds the two wires together while I pull for him. Then he puts the splice on. Then he uses the crimper to squeeze it tight. We are done with the first section of driveway. Hopefully the cows will not get through and make a mess of it. That was our last planned job of the year. Now we are on cleaning up mode. The machines have to be emptied, cleaned and then stored. We won't be using the tractor, mower, weed eater, or any other equipment until next year when we get back from FL. 10-7-11 Today we took a ride over to Jimmy's property. He rented a really cool machine and Mike and I want to see if we might be able to use it. It's a spreader used for grass seed and also hay. We followed his guys up to the top of a hill and watched the new machine. Very cool. You load up your hay, the machine chops it up and then it spits it out. It makes seeding a rough hill much easier to do. Check it out. I love seeing things like that. Machinery is so amazing. Mike and I picked up some more rebar. He wants us to get a jump on next year's sealing job. We add the poles 25 feet apart on both sides of the driveway. Then we paint them green. We won't put the wire up until next spring. We want the cows to get used to going around the driveway in small doses. Here is Mike pounding in a pole for next year's fence. And of course, our supervisor Niki is making sure we do our jobs right, lol. Once all of the rebar is on and painted we have to add the clips that will hold the electric wire. That is it. We are done with the work for the year. Now it's just time for us to prep to go to FL to work on some real estate there. 10-12-11 Our last picture for the Fall. I hope you all enjoyed our last story of the year.  Just dreaming and planning some more for 2012.