Shingles

Today I had another excellent day of construction.

I put the shingles on (including felt paper and metal edging):

I bought a single package of shingles from the Habitat for Humanity store (at my wife's suggestion), not knowing how many I needed.  Today when I installed them, I had 1 shingle left.  Sometimes things just work out.

I also got the gravel in and the pier mounting plate cleaned off in preparation for putting the hardware in:

and installed and leveled the pier and wedge:

I have to caulk all the seams and install some foam to seal a couple of joints, but short of being pressure washed I believe it is ready to use right now. With the singles on, it also needs a couple of handles so that I have something to grab a hold of to open and close it, but that will be easy.

I've been on the fence about replacing the bearings in my telescope.  It came with nylon bearings, and there is a really decent internet tutorial on how to replace them with stainless steel bearings.  I already bought the bearings, but have been trying to decide if I should break the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" maxim.

I've decided that before I put it in and spend the time to precisely align it, I should do any maintenance that I can to prevent me from having to take it out again anytime soon. So today I bought the grease I need to do the job.  The internet guide claims that people with absolutely no mechanical skills should be able to do it in less than two hours, so I'm figuring on 4... :-)

I did have to get the telescope out of its case and walk it past the Dogservatory, so I had it stop for a photo op:

As soon as I can get to it , I'll be able to mount the scope and start aligning. I still have to figure out where all the "stuff" gets mounted, but until then I can just cable/uncable the other pieces. I think I'm going to attach it all to a piece of pegboard with wire ties, and hang the pegboard from the wall.  That will securely hold it, but allow me easy access if I need to do some maintenance. 

I lowered the pier, shut the roof and called it a day:

Finally - A good construction day

Today I put together the front and attached the rails and put the roof on.   The roof even rolls like I had hoped. I will need to put on a bit of caulk and foam to make sure it is weatherproof, but things went mostly my way, and I'm really happy with the results. Here are a couple pictures of it open. I didn't realize how much my hard slanted until I opened it up.

I also did a bit of prep work on the interior - I had put in a bunch of dirt and drenched it (twice, actually) to make it settle, and the second batch of dirt didn't settle as much as I expected, so today I got to use a shovel to take out a couple buckets full of dirt.

I'm going to put some pea gravel on the floor - it should help keep the dust down, and I've heard that mice don't like gravel because they cannot burrow, so that is a plus.  A long time ago, we had some gravel delivered for a yard project, and there was too much so I put the extra the window wells. Today I scooped a couple bucket fulls out and rinsed it (it was really dusty, and dust and telescopes are not really friends).  I expect I have about half of the gravel taken care of.

Tomorrow hopefully I'll get the shingles put on, put in the gravel and I'll be pretty much done.  I probably need to put another coat of paint on, but that can wait.

Then it will be time to install the pier and telescope and start aligning aligning things.

Real men build with oak

My life gave me a few days off from Dogservatory construction, which has given me an opportunity to think about how to proceed.

I'm not going to change the plans radically in response to my wood splitting problems.  I think it was caused by the choosing the wrong wood and I'm not sure that making a bunch of changes is a smart thing to do.

I'm rebuilding the roof rails using oak instead of pine, and I'm going to get a couple metal L-brackets to reinforce the joint that had the problems.  I'm also toying with a minor change in the design that would eliminate the bolt holes that caused the split, but I haven't decided yet.

To get back on track, today I went to the hardwood store and bought a serious hunk of red oak (it was approximately 2" x 6" x 130" - 10 board feet for those of you who know what that means). I milled it, planed it, sawed it and then glued it up. Tomorrow I'll redo the fancy woodworking.

1 Step Forwards, 2 Steps Back

I really (really, really, really) wanted to to finish the construction this weekend, but it isn't going to happen.

First, for the 1 Step Forwards part, Deb and I painted it to match the house, and I got the corner posts set in concrete, so the Dogservatory is sitting where it is going to live.  Here is a picture of in place, with the roof sitting on and the facade in place:

After the concrete has had some time to set, I need to fill in the gaps in the base with dirt and drench it a couple times to help keeping water from accumulating.

On the two Steps backwards front, I was working to attach the facade to the roof rails when both of the roof rails split.  I had made them out of 4x4s, and I think the pine is just too soft for what I want to do.  So I'm going to have to remake them out of hardwood.  I have some Oak left over from another project that I might use, or maybe I'll get some poplar.  Unfortunately, the two roof rails are the most difficult bits of woodworking on the whole Dogservatory.  They have an angled side and 5 cutouts for the wheels.

I'm also having issues with the facade.  At least one of the boards is warped, and it doesn't quite sit flat against the front.  So I'll likely end up rebuilding it as well.  And naturally it is the second most difficult bit of woodworking.

Getting close to done

My last post said I had three things left to do:
- facade
- digging/concrete
- shingles.

Since then, I've added two things to the list:
- apply primer to both sides of roof
- square up pier hole.

I've done both of the new items, and I'm done with the digging (I hate shovels), including getting everything leveled. The places where I was digging had a lot of loose dirt, so today I went out with the hose and thoroughly soaked all the dirt so that I won't get any surprises after I put the posts in concrete.  Once that is dry (hopefully tomorrow) I'll put the posts in the concrete (should only take a few minutes - it is fence post concrete and you don't have to mix it - just dump it in the post holes, and then fill with water.  It dries in less than an hour).

I have the facade also almost done, but the fit is a little snug and I need to do a little wood working to get it so it opens smoothly.  I figure a hour or two, depending upon how far I have to disassemble before I can remove wood.

That leaves just the shingles.  I have the felt paper, shingles, and drip guards so all I have to do is put them on.  I think it will take about 24 shingles, which hopefully won't be too bad.

In order to  make sure that after leveling all sides were below ground level to prevent a river from running through the Dogservatory, I put boards between the posts.  I've tried to describe it, and it was hard so I took a picture.  Adding these boards seems like it will keep it much drier inside, but required me to do a bunch more digging.

Here is the what I dug.  You can see the post holes in the corners and the trenches for the boards described above connecting them.  This picture was taken after I soaked everything, so you can see that it is still wet.  

The roof is done

Yesterday I finished the roof, as you can see in the picture below.  It is starting to look almost done, which is good given how much effort I've put into it so far.  I also bought some shingles from Habitat For Humanity for $7.50, so as soon as  I attach the roof to the rails (which shouldn't take too long  -- famous last words again :-), can start putting the shingles on.

I also unboxed the  pier last night, and am happy to report that it arrived safely, seems to work correctly, and the bolt pattern works for my wedge. 

Much progress, but not quite done yet.

I've been working some every day, and I've been making steady progress.  This was spring break week, and I took the week off of work.  At the beginning of the week, I did quite a bit of construction, but later in the week I did more spring break activities with the family.

At this point I have the structure built, and today I worked on assembly the pieces of the roof.  I have it almost done, but the wind came up later in the afternoon and I decided to wait to finish it. All I have left on the roof is to attach the plywood to the bottom of one side of the roof, and then I need to run the router with a flush trim bit around the roof to line up all the edges.

Once that is done, there are three things left to do:
- buy and put on shingles
- finish the outboard legs and facade on the pull out part of the roof
- finish digging the holes, level and set in concrete.

None of these is trivial, but none are all that difficult either.  I'm hoping that I can find some time this week after work to work on them (the changing of the clocks last weekend will help), and finish up next weekend if I need the time.

The pier arrived at the end of last week, and I have resisted opening the box because I don't want to distract myself, but I'll probably open it soon just to make sure it is alright.