Build journal – The garage trusses go up

So now we have the beginnings of garage…


Looks kinda naked, doesn’t it? Well, topless anyway ;-) The next step is the roof trusses. The trusses were delivered on November 28th. Brian was stubborn at first and insisted that the two of us could get the 20 foot wide by 10 foot high and really heavy trusses up off the ground and onto the tops of the walls ourselves. But after taking two days to get two trusses up onto the walls with a not-so-great winching system, he realized this wasn’t the best plan of action. So on Decembr 4th, in came the calavary – or crane company ;-)





The crane operator asked if we had more people to help. Brian told him nope, it was just the two of us. The crane operator said a job like this would take at least three or four people. Brian told him too bad, this is all we’ve got! We must have looked like a pretty sad truss crew – I thought the guy was going to give up and leave, but we forged ahead with our little crew. We may have been small, but we were mighty!
Here goes the first truss…


And the first truss is in place!



The first truss was a challenge, mainly because there was really nothing to attach it to and because there wasn’t really anywhere for Brian to walk around up there. At one point I thought he was going to have a heart attack and plunge to his death, but he survived :-)

There goes truss number two…




And then there were four trusses…



From this point, things started to move faster and smoother.  My job was to tie a rope to each truss and then hold the end of the rope and walk along the side of the garage to help guide the truss into place. Then I climbed up a ladder to undo the rope and put in pieces of wood as spacers between each truss. No pics of this part of the process, we were on a roll! Meanwhile, Brian was getting the trusses into place and bracing together.


We all got into a groove, with the crane operator hooking the cable to the truss, me doing my rope thing, the crane lifting the truss up onto the walls, and Brian doing the bracing. Eventually we were doing one truss every 5-1/2 minutes. I think the crane operator was impressed – and surprised!
Go Brian!



Last truss, woooohoooo!


Four hours after we started, we were all done :-) The trusses still need to be leveled and properly positioned and permanently braced, but they’re all off the ground and on the walls and relatively secure. And no catastrophes or injuries :-)






Some artsy truss shots….





A garage with a view :-)


Now it’s starting to look like a real garage! Except the roof isn’t quite finished, the peaks still have to go on top of the trusses. But before we can put on the peaks, we have to get some sheathing done…



Click the links below to check out the rest of the garage progress…
Build journal – The garage begins (a little late!)
Build journal – The garage foundation
Build journal – Garage framing

Technorati Tags: Build journal,garage,trusses

Guest bathroom beautification – Let’s take a tour

I can’t stop myself , I just can’t ignore empty white walls that are screaming out for colour! Exhibit D (I think we’re up to D now, or maybe it’s C) – the guest bathroom in our rental house. I had nothing to do with this before picture, it’s from the real estate listing for the house…

I mean seriously, could it be any more BLAH? As you can see, it’s a really oddly shaped room. With all the different angles, there are twelve walls. Yes, TWELVE WALLS in one small room. Crazy! Plus that annoying toilet to paint around. So I was really NOT happy after I finished painting two coats and realized that the bright green that I thougt would make the room bright and happy and fun really just made it glow. Like, a full-on neon green radioactive glow that made everything in the room look green and even the hallway had a green glow to it. It doesn’t look too bad in the pictures, but trust me, it was super-glowy green.

So, back to the drawing board. And this time, I went in the completely opposite direction – Benjamin Moore Van Deusen Blue.

And wow, it was a huge difference! At first I wasn’t entirely sure that I should keep it. But after lots of positive feedback from my friends on Facebook, I decided to stick with it. My original thought was to go for a nautical theme with white and red accents. But everyone who commented on the picture I posted liked the bright green towel against the dark blue walls. I thought orange would go well with the green and blue. And, well, then all hell broke loose when I decided to make some bunting for a window treatment  (thank you Rita at The Lunenburg Makery for your guidance!) – orange, green, turquoise, purple….

Our landloard agreed to buy a new faucet, which is a big improvement from the old one :-) Faucet is from Canadian Tire, soap dispenser and flowers are from Walmart, and the blue bottle is from an antique shop in Mahone Bay.

The glow-in-the-dark green makes a comeback in a smaller way – I used it to paint the white melamine shelving unit.

I found the wood stump on the beach, and the green towel and basket are from Winners.

I’m plant-sitting this guy for a friend :-) The planter is from the Dollar Store.

The driftwood wreath was made by my friend Kim at Wavewood Designs. I love how the weathered wood looks against the dark blue.

Kim also made this sailboat from a piece of an old lobster trap. The starfish and ceramic buoy are from Down Home Living in Lunenburg, my friend Donna gave me the bowl, the jar with the sea glass is from the Dollar Store, and I found the sea glass and snail shell on the beach. The wood shelf is from the same shop in Mahone Bay where I bought the blue glass bottle.




My dad’s girlfriend gave me this seahorse she bought for me in Florida. Or maybe it was Cuba. Well, wherever he’s from, he’s cute :-)

One end of the room… all those crazy angles!

And the other end where most of the action is happening :-)

 

It’s pretty bold, and you might love it or you might hate it. but either way, it’s a big improvement over the boring blah white, right? :-)

Before…

 

After…

Next up – more garage build updates and another room makeover…

Check out my other rental house makeovers (more coming soon!)

Master bathroom makeover

Master bedroom makeover

Linking up to…

   

Technorati Tags: bathroom,makeover,budget,Benjamin Moore,Van Deusen Blue,Wavewood Designs

Build journal – Garage framing

So now we have a garage foundation – well, we had it back in November, I just was delinquent about blogging about it! Next step – putting up the framing for the walls. Kind of like an Amish barn raising, but with two no-Amish people and it’s a garage ;-) Oh, but before we get to the framing, we have a proper address now :-)


On November 13th, the wood for the garage arrived…





And a few days later, we started the framing for the walls.


Last one for the day!





Not too bad for a day’s work! And the next day, the rest of the framing went up…


All done!


Hey, this building thing isn’t so hard! Ummmm… spoke too soon – next up, the roof trusses….

Technorati Tags: Build journal,garage,framing

Build journal – The garage foundation

Time for more catching up on the garage progress. Going back to October… once the excavation was done, it was time to pour the footings & foundation. I was a bit delinquest about taking pictures of this part of the progress, but these three pics pretty much tell the story :-)
Footings…


Foundation…


Fill…


Standing in the garage :-)


Ever seen a smartie excavator? ;-)


Next up – framing!

Technorati Tags: Build journal,garage,foundation