Category: Construction

The weather isn’t cooperating, not in the least.  I figure if I can golf in the rain, I can stretch fence in the rain, and that’s what we did at least part of the weekend.

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.

So we’re about 2 nope, I think we’re 3 weeks behind. We’re still missing stuff.

We now have a door that doesn’t fit, but that’s OK. It’s just like building a house.

The weather hasn’t cooperated, and neither has the supplier. But we are making progress and that’s all that counts. It could be worse. We could be building a Fischer Home. Must suck to be one of those folks.

But with some luck we’ll get the barn filled, the loft and stalls built and the fence up and the horse home in the next 2-3 weeks. Sounds impossible eh?

Wanna help?

The Barn, which should be complete by now, isn’t.

It’s been a comedy of errors with material delivery.  Only we’re not laughing.  We’re still missing the corner trim, and enough siding to complete about half of the east side wall.  The 8 foot door on the east side wall isn’t right, either.  

Some how, some way, they thought we were putting in an 10 foot door or something, but that still doesn’t make up for the lack of siding material.

I hope there is enough adjustment in the door hangers to make it right or they’ll be building a new door.

Other than that things look good.  We’re only two weeks behind at the moment.

On the attic front, Home Depot delivered our wood yesterday, which coincidentally was the day I was going to take the receipt to them and well, get a little ‘Jiggly’ with them.

So all in all we’re still moving forward.  This weekend we should make some progress, they are supposed to fill the barn today and start the ground work, though the weather doesn’t look conducive if you ask me.

We still need to finish the fencing, there’s bracing to be put up, fencing to be stretched and nailed and gates to be hung.

Giddy-up.

Rounding 3rd and heading for home on the barn.

Carlie and Co, worked about 4 hours Friday and about 6 hours Saturday. Apparently we’re missing a few critical pieces of metal or they would have gotten a lot farther. They can’t put the sliding doors up or anything around the doors because they are missing some backing trim. We also don’t have our sky lights. All of the missing stuff should be here Tuesday and they *plan* to finish then or shortly thereafter.

We also plan to lay out the loft and stalls shortly and make a decision on building stalls or going with free standanding stalls, or something in between.

We finished up the perimiter fence for the first field but ran out of time and strength to get the dry lot fenced.

We knocked out over 50 posts between friday night and Saturday, and I was feeling it Sunday big time.

Pictures are below. The last photos show the barn from the field to with the back of the house in it to give you some perspective on where the barn sits.

Today Charlie and the boys got busy with the trim for the doors in preperation for the siding. Once they get the doors put together it’s all down hill from there.

Barn Gallery

We have a working man door now, and for the most part the sliders are framed in but they aren’t put together yet. We’re missing a few pieces of trim. They’ll be back tomorrow to work all day on what they can around the doors.

I left work after lunch around 1:30pm. On the way home I hit two tractor dealers and got a quick education on compact tractors. Then headed home to do more work on the fence.

I picked up the BobCat from Baker and got busy. I set 11 punched in 15 new holes, re drilled 3 others and set 11 posts before Claudine got home with dinner. I’m wiped out.

We plan to set the remaining 40+ posts tomorrow and be done with it. Woohoo!