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.