So why am I going through all of this past history, you ask? I didn’t want to spring any of the projects I am going to do on the blog-0-sphere without explaining how this shop I am doing them in magically appeared in my world. The shop will be a multi-use shop with woodworking, automotive repair and any other function that might be carried out in such a facility.

On July 27th, 2021 the foundation was finished. We had already contacted the company that was going to put up the building itself once we were sure the foundation would be built. When the dust had all settled, they were going to send their crew down to the wilds of the Hill Country on the 12th of August. In the meantime, I had to remove limbs from trees to give a clear space for the building to go up in. So out came the tape measures, chain saw, pole saw and ladders. In a couple of days I had what I hoped was a cleared volume for the building to go in.

On the morning of Thursday the 12th, we called and made sure the crew was on its way. They showed up just after 12 PM with a trailer load of materials and 3 men.

The trailer was loaded with lengths of 2 1/2 inch square galvanized tubing, roof trusses of the same material, premade bottom wall plates, yards and yards of metal siding and roofing, a roll up door, five windows, a couple of man doors and boxes of screws and other fittings. The guys set to unloading stuff from the trailer. And boy, did they move fast. By 12:57, the crew had the sidewall wall plates positioned, screwed to the foundation and the first “bent” erected.

Just 20 minutes later, all the “bents” were up. I was totally amazed at the speed they were moving at. I didn’t take any more pictures that day because I felt I might be interfering with them. By sunset, which was their quitting time, they had built the front and back frames out with all vertical and horizontal frame pieces, put in all the purlins in the walls and roof, and had started putting the siding on the building.

When they came back the next morning, Friday, August 13th (I wanted to point out the auspicious date), the crew charged right back into the building. By 10 AM they had the building almost complete. The roll-up door trim, roll-up door and the trim around the roof were still to be done. You can see the frame structure through the door opening

By 12 Noon the building was complete. The crew drove away about 12:15 PM. And I took this picture at 12:19. I just have to say that was fast. The crew put up the building in 24 hours including taking an overnight break.

There was still more to do. We needed to epoxy the floor, get electric power to the shop, wire the shop and start filling it with tools. More in the next installment of “The Shop”.

BillB

The post on April 1st was the first post in over a year. I don’t know why. I guess life got in the way. So many people’s blogs that I read have a good grip on doing it that I didn’t want to replicate their blogs. Commenting there just seemed easier. Sometimes what I wanted to blog about was more a rant than anything else and did not provide anything more than my view of a subject without adding information to the pool. Anyway, I am still here and wanted to celebrate the latest addition to The Last Frontier.

Three years ago, just before the COVID panic, I went to work for Lowe’s Home Improvement. I lasted about 8 months before that particular retail environment just wore on my nerves, having been an Air Force pilot, an Engineer in the Air Force and done engineering work in aerospace and defense. I left their employment amicably. The goal of working there was to earn some money for goals around our property and a new radio for me. In June 2020, I got the new radio, an ICOM IC-9700 VHF/UHF 3 Band transceiver. It’s a sweet rig! In the early months of 2021, Mrs. BillB and I decided to go ahead and build a shop, partially funded by the proceeds from my employment.

We settled on a 30 x 30 foot metal building with 12 foot walls from a company in Grandview, Texas. The company was founded by some of the Old Mennonite community that live in that area of Texas. We had dealt with that community before and found that they were in general fair dealing folks. On May 7th we bought the building with a 50% down payment, the rest due on completion of the building. Since we are self-contracting this project, the ride had just begun.

We sited the building about 50 feet west of our garage. This was where the previous owners had a garden area that was about the same size as the building. Half of this garden area had Century Plants (Agave Americana) in it. They were mature and large. Winter Storm Uri had killed or severely damaged most of them. So I got the tractor with front-end loader and took them out after taking down the fence around the area. I put the remnants in our burn pit and that is another story. We did a “rough” stake out of the building. The difficulty here is that the Last Frontier is on a slope; where we determined the shop would go there is about an 18″ drop from the high corner to the low corner.

Now we had to find a concrete contractor to put in a slab foundation. We got names from THE local lumber yard to be able to get multiple quotes on the job. The first quote we got was high. The next quote we got was in the ballpark of what we had estimated it would cost. So we went with him. He came and surveyed the area then texted us a quote. He was supposed to show up on June 10th. But he never appeared and didn’t answer the phone when I called. We kept trying and finally got someone who showed up. They came on the 16th of July 2021 to put in the forms. Here is the end of the first day’s work.

The next day they came and put in the steel/rebar. They also completed the forms so that was a little step for the siding to sit in to keep water out, and a step-down for the roll-up door.

It was about a week later that they came to pour the foundation. Always love the sound of them doing that. Here is the first concrete going in.

They came back a week later and pulled the forms. Here is the bare foundation in all of its glory.

The next installment will be the shop going up.

BillB