the commons

Thanks for all your help, Dad.

And thanks to Mom too!

Thanks to our friend, Kelly, for dropping in and helping us lift one of the beams into place—crossfit actually applies to real-world applications of lifting heavy things!

Today dad and I finished welding on the post bottoms and top plates and erected three of them. The posts weigh just over 200lbs each and were a bit unwieldy to lift into place, especially considering that we needed to get them over the threaded rod that has not yet been cut to length, adding an extra foot of needed lifting power. But we’ve placed the three hardest ones (each ~10′ long) and the remaining two are less than five feet each. We’ll place those two and begin lifting the adjoining beams into place tomorrow. Stay tuned…

Today we finally received the steel order for the catwalk and began welding the posts up in earnest. Below is a little video on the extreme heat involved with welding 3/8″ to 1/2″ steel.

All the catwalk pictures can be seen here.

Over the weekend Garrett, Dad and I made up the seat for the street-side bench out of 2″x lumber reclaimed from the old house. Yesterday and today dad and I made the backrest and the mounting brackets. In the photo below are our wonderful and lovely parents testing it out.

The drywall is done and tomorrow we’ll start the painting process (well, we won’t actually do the painting, as with the drywall we’ve hired Lo’s Contracting to do it).

For the paint and interior finishes (on the wood and concrete) we’ll be using entirely non-toxic and VOC free products made by Ecos Paints. They specialize in paints and finishes for people who are chemically sensitive or otherwise concerned about the environment. The company is located in South Carolina, but was started in the UK. Apparently the government agency in the UK, that requires truth in advertising, paid them a visit one day to check on their claims of “non-toxic.” And the owner, who’s also the head chemist, said, “Pick any barrel and I’ll eat a spoonful.” They did and so did he… While I wouldn’t recommending eating the paint chips, at least it won’t kill ya.

Today Dad and I also welded up the brackets for our street-side bench that is built into the retaining wall that surrounds our (~10,000GAL) rainwater cistern. We plan on using recycled pallet wood for the sitting surface.

A catwalk with a bridge of course! Today Dad and I did some initial tack welding of the catwalk posts to their top plates.

This is what we’ll be working on in the coming days – as the painters are painting and the wood floors are installed. Stay tuned for more pictures…

Among the numerous daily tasks of keeping the house project running, my dad and I have begun to construct the railings for the main stairway in the house.

We chose to use pre-made glass table tops for the upper rail:

The rest of the photos (and more to come) can be found here.