We started finishing the attic a while ago. The roof is now completely enclosed, and we cleaned, and cleaned, and painted this weekend. It’s almost ready to move in. This past weekend Claudine too Maria to Vermont to visit relatives. Maggie, Molly, Michael and I attacked the attic ‘trading-spaces’ style.

This was the perfect opportunity. On that show you turn over a room someone who you trust (hopefully). While they are totally changing your room, you have no say in what stays or goes, what they toss, or how things are done. That was the logic behind last weekend. With Claudine out of town, she wouldn’t have any say on what we tossed during the clean out phase or what we painted either.

The photos below don’t do it justice. I didn’t take good photos of all the crap we has stored up there. While we all like the ‘natural’ wood look, the attic isn’t as bright as we wanted, and since we’ll be moving two girls up there, it wasn’t very ‘girly’ either. It turned out really well.

Now we need to tackle the air-conditioning or lack-there-of problem. We’re looking at installing a stand alone PACT unit up there.

More on that later.

Photos:

About two weeks ago Michael and I kicked butt and took names for one day and wrapped up the north side (except for the trim). But we did finish the bulk of that side.

Photos in the Original Gallery Here.

So far we’re really happy with the results

We framed out the supports for the mighty fine pine 4×8 tongue and groove pattern 166 siding.

All summer long something else has been happening, like the barn, or finding a horse, or getting a new motorcycle. Always something!

This weekend I found some time to get up there and make some progress. It’s coming together nicely. No I have no idea yet what I’m going to do with the skylights. But I’ll work something out. Having a complete plan is never a prerequisite, nor is it usually possible with this old house. You’re going to run into something any way.

Larger images in the Gallery here.

Yesterday I battled the Paslode. My favorite TOOL in the world. It jammed up and until I broke down and read the directions, was nearly impossible to un-jam. But if you simply follow the directions, it’s a piece of cake. So that’s one jam in about 2000 nails when you consider it was used quite a bit on the barn too.

See: Attic Part 1 off ??? & Progress in the Attic, as well as: Home Depot and Customer Service

With some luck we’ll wrap up the north side in the next couple weeks. (Hey! It’s possible )

We’re going to come up short on the siding because it sat outside in the driveway too long and even though we had it covered well (or so we thought) a significant portion of the wood is now stained from water damage. However, if we decide to paint it as opposed to stain it we should be alright.

Cisco is home as of today.

Sorry for the poor picture quality, we weren’t thinking ahead, this came off my phone.

But he’s home, and he’s happy and so is Claudine. There’s still lots of work to do including finding a pasture pal or stable mate for Cisco.

But we’ve accomplished what we set out to do this spring.

It’s really happening, really it is.

Photos on this page of the Gallery here.Charlie and Co. started Monday, set the posts, returned yesterday and got a LOT done. The stalls are all but done and the bulk of the loft. Today they need to put the walk way between them in, finish the stall doors and we’re set.

Claudine picked up the stall mats so we have some sand leveling to do.

Then some electrical work for outlets and lighting (still waiting on the final though).

Right now we’re leaving the stalls half height until we get a 2nd horse, then we’ll put up wire mesh in the upper half between them to keep them separated. But they will be able to stick their heads over so the stalls will feel larger to them.

Right now the plan is to bring the horse home Friday.

There is clean up to be done and one more gate for the mud lot to buy. Then all the interior fun stuff begins. Giddy-up.

Tags: barn, stalls, loft, horse

While punching the holes for these posts, Rick dropped off the two dump truck loads of sand for the stall beds.

We spread those too. This was the final step keeping us from putting the loft and stalls in place.

We called Charlie and that work begins on Monday (tomorrow). Now we’re rounding 3rd and heading for home with the bulk of the work.

Still to do is:

Electrical, the lighting (after the loft and stalls are in) Gravel for lot and driveway, additional down spout plumbing, a well dug at some point and plumbing therein. Of course the tack room, goat have one of those.

But we should be able to get the horse home soon.

Saturday morning they were still sitting there un-touched. While mowing Saturday I had left a call to the Anders, some neighbors down the road to see if I could borrow or rent one of their tractors. I needed to back fill the trench where they ran the electric out to the barn. It didn’t seem as though the electricians were going to do that. Being as this was a holiday weekend I wasn’t holding my hopes too high.

Sunday morning Mr. Baker came to cut the hay, who is also coincidently the person who’s supposed to spread all this dirt. So we flagged him down.

We chatted for a while and I offered to get started, the least I could do was start moving the dirt and spreading it around for him. He agreed and so it began.

BobCat’s are cool. If you recall we used his bobcat to punch the fence post holes. I used the bobcat to back fill the trench, work on the end of the driveway, and fill in a sink hole that just appeared in the yard.

Grading ground with a bobcat is an art, much like doing drywall is an art. It looks easier than it is. There is a lot of technique to it, and working with wet muddy dirt is no fun. But I managed. I got the 5 truck loads of dirt spread over the last two days. We still need the sand for the stalls and maybe 2 more loads of dirt. But no more critters can get in the barn.

It’s going to take time to settle, and there’s plenty of raking to be done. So if you feel bored, or need some exercise, grab a rake and head on out.

Photos are in the Gallery here.

No our barn isn’t crooked, the wide angle lens makes it look like that.

Outside of filling this sucker up and grading the ground around it, we’re done with the shell.

[Sorry photos removed, Gallery Installation ran amuk and all the links went fubar, the link to the Barn gallery is good above]
The Sky lights really let a lot of light in
The electric trenched up the driveway, and across the yard.

Our new “Dual” service, single meter. 300 hundred amps of goodness to the house, all updated. The meter is now outside so we no longer have to be awoken, or bothered by the meter reader. (woohoo).

(For larger images click the link up top and view the images in the Gallery)

(Pictures soon)

We also almost finished the fencing this weekend. We have about an 8 foot section left. Even the gates are up. Woohoo.

So once the barn gets filled and the groundwork is done, the stall and loft building can commence. As soon as that is done we’ll finally be ready. We’re only a month behind or so it feels like it. Yeah, it feels like it because we are

Hopefully in two weeks or so we’ll have Cisco Home.

Our barn is still stuck at a stand-still.  We’re still missing parts, trim and what-not.  It’s supposed to be here today (Monday).

On Saturday we did get the electric service in the house upgraded and switched out which is the first step to getting service to the barn.  The trenching to the barn should happen tonight.  If it’s not raining that is.

We did learn two things; one, stretching fence in the cold rain is miserable and two, you can stretch the hell out fence with the Excursion.

During brief periods we did some work in the attic putting up the infamous 1x8x8 tongue and groove boards.  The first 8 when up pretty good, but crooked.  So a trip to the depot to buy a laser level took care of that.  They came off about as easy as they went up which was a huge bonus.  It helps to have the right ‘Reverse’ tools as Charlie calls them.

In the end we got through the first roll of 200ft of fence with another roll ready to go, we’re going to need at least one more if not two. 

Did I mention stretching fence isn’t any fun? Because as much as you might think it is, it’s not.