The Roof is On!

Well, since it rained all last weekend, we had to wait until Tuesday night before we could take the tarp off. After I got home from work, we were able to get the tar paper tacked down and the drip edge finished. Then, my parents went to visit my aunt in San Diego for a couple days. They came back to our house Friday night and dad and I installed the shingles on Saturday. It took us most of the day to get all the components cut and installed. After we were done, we installed the door and cleaned up for a couple hours. I still have some trim to install and caulk all the joints before painting it to match the house. After that I'll have to run the electric too. My parents left for home this morning after spending 3 weeks down here visiting and building the shed.

Trip to Cabela's

Since it was raining, we loaded up in the Jeep and headed to Cabela's in Glendale. I took a bunch of pictures of all the animals.

It's Not Supposed to Rain in Phoenix!!!

We got up on Friday morning and before we could even start work, it was raining. It was bad enough fighting the record cold temperatures all week, but RAIN??? The rain continued all day Friday and into Saturday morning. By noon the rain stopped, but it was damp enough that we were not able to get any work done. Sunday morning we got up and installed the trim around the edge of the roof in about an hour. Then, the skies began to turn dark and before we knew it, the rain was coming down again. We got soaked trying to get the tarp pulled up and covering the roof. We placed blocks up top and bungee corded sacks with firewood to hold the corners down. So much for finishing up the shed this weekend.

Continuing Work on the Shed

On Thursday we made quite a bit of progress. In the morning I started with installing blocking between the rafters while my dad added some framing for installing z-flashing and siding on the ends of the shed.





From there, we installed the z-flashing and finished with getting the rest of the siding installed on the ends.







As we finished with this step, the "inspector" came out and put her stamp of approval on what we were doing.



Now we were ready to mark the ends of the rafters with a chalk line and cut them off so they were all even. In the next two pictures you can see my dad drawing the vertical lines after we marked them and I follwed him with the saw and cut them off.





At this point, we were ready to start putting up the sheating on the roof. We got this installed fairly fast as I cut and handed the pieces up and my dad screwed them down.







We managed to finish all the roof sheating just before dark.

Rock Shopping and Canal Walk

My dad wanted some Arizona rocks for making a flower garden on the farm in Iowa. We took a day off from building the shed on Wednesday and took a road trip. We were able to find a few places to get a good assortment of rocks. For lunch we stopped at Long John Silvers and ate a bunch of fish.



In the afternoon, we went for a walk from our house over to the canal that runs past our backyard. My dad has been wanting to go over there and check things out.



Once we crossed the canal over the walkway by the SR51, we walked on the top of the dam on the other side. As we went along, there were tons of quail hustling around between the bushes. I got a good picture of 5-6 of them, but we must have seen over 100.



As we got up behind our house, you can see our backyard and the rafters from the shed.



My dad was having fun and I could barely keep up with him.



Here's a view down 40th street.



Here is a picture of the exit signs and one of looking back across the walkway.

Siding and Roof Go Up

Tuesday morning we continued working on finishing the siding. After that, we spent the rest of the day getting the rafters cut and put into place.

The Walls Go Up

We took a day off on Sunday and with Marcia and my parents went and did a little sight seeing and shopping around Phoenix. First we went to a Mexican crafts place at 32nd Street and Bell. They had everything from pottery to furniture to metal pieces. My parents bought a octagonal mirror made of tin and a pottery vase. After that we met up with Dave and Kathy and had lunch together. After lunch we headed up to Cave Creek and took Cave Creek Road all the way north until it turned to gravel. You can see for miles up there and the scenery is very pretty. On the way back we ate at Dairy Queen in Cave Creek and visited a few shops there before heading home.

Monday morning dad and I began working on getting the walls assembled. Brett was able to come up and help us again. In the first picture, you can see him celebrating after getting the first wall up.



From there with Brett's help, we were able to get the rest of the walls up really fast. The next pictures are of my dad and I after the second wall was assembled.



Just as we were finishing the fourth wall, Brett had to leave, but my dad and I were able to get that up by ourselves. Here's a couple pictures of him checking out our work.





It took us almost 2 hours with the levels, square, and tape measures to go around and make sure everything was lining up. We used temporary braces to get things where we wanted them.



By the time Marcia got home from work, we were able to hang 3 sheets of siding on the back wall and called it quits there for the day. Marcia even tried to help out some, but was just pretending to be working with the hammer. haha.

Work on the New Shed Begins

My parents arrived on Thursday night from Iowa and Brett came up to help us start work. The first thing we had to do was anchor down the pressure treated boards that would be the base of the shed. This proved to be way more time consuming and difficult than I had planned. Marcia's dad had loaned me his drill, but it just wasn't big enough to bore holes in the concrete. We had to stop once to go buy another concrete bit and stopped the second time to go buy a bigger hammer drill to finish the job. By the end of the day, we were able to finish getting everything anchored down. Too bad I had planned on getting the walls constructed too.

Getting the Old Shed Out of the Way

I've been planning on building a new shed at our house since we bought it last year. First thing I had to do was get the old tin shed out of the way. I broke loose the anchors fairly easily, but had to grind a few off. After that, the old shed slid out of the way. I was originally planning on leaving it where you see it in the pictures, but it ended up being bigger than I thought. I took a picture and posted it on Craig's List at 9:30am. I got a crazy number of calls and someone came and disassembled and hauled it away by 1pm.

W.E. Rock

Today we went for the second year in a row to the W.E. Rock competition in Congress. It's amazing what they can do. Check out the pictures below.

http://we-rock.cc/

New Year's Weekend Camping

Woo hoo, it's a 3-day weekend!!! We hitched up the camper and headed towards Tucson on Saturday morning. Just north of town near Oracle is Catalina State Park where we found a nice camp site and got everything setup.



After lunch we looked at the page of attractions I had printed out and decided to go to the Titan Missile Museum south of town.

Sunday we slept in and took our time getting going. For lunch we went to the Desert Diamond Casino and ate at their buffet. Then we each played about $5 in the slot machines to test our luck. With nobody hitting it big, we then headed to the Saguaro National Park on the east side of Tucson. Since moving to Arizona, Marcia and I have been to the one out west a handful of times, but never visited the east park. After entering the park and going to the visitor center, you begin an 8 mile loop trail with pullouts along the way.

We stopped at a few to take pictures and even hiked out a little ways at Javelina Flats. Marcia climbed the trail up to the rock cliff.

Along the way, Dave got into trouble. Did you know if you touch a cholla plant that you will get stuck to it? Good thing Kathy was able to help him get loose.

Monday morning we got up and spent the morning sitting around our camp site before packing up and heading back home.