Welding the shop

 Finally, we were starting on the actual building of the shop. This slab was poured 2 1/2 years ago and has been patiently waiting. We gathered our troops along with the welding apparatus which consisted of a 220 V Stick Welder and a torch for cutting.

The building started with welding the posts to the weld plates cemented into the slab. This was accomplished by one person making sure the post was true plumb and square and the other person welding.

 The next step was putting on the side purlins on 4 foot center. The north side of the building is 14 feet tall and the south side is 11 feet tall.

 Here is the first bar joist to be put into place.

 Then the roof purlins were welded to the bar joists at 4 foot centers.

 The picture below is all of the bar joists in place, somehow it got out of order.

One important aspect of building we learned at the beginning of this project was to have good safety equipment. We realized the scaffolding we bought was only for inside on level ground. So this was as far as we could go on this building without purchasing scaffolding that could be erected on the outside of the building in on uneven ground.We also learned that it takes a minimum of three people to build a building like this,two people to hold the object up securely and the third person to do the welding.

Road Base

 One thing we have realized along the way is you can not always get what you want when you need it. So when we found out that limestone base was in short supply, we decided to go ahead and get this part of our project done sooner than we had expected. We originally had hoped that we would finish all the buildings then get the road done.

We now have limestone base on all of the roads on our property that we would need to drive the vehicle. We will never get stuck in the deep sand again.

More work on the greenhouse

 For me,the start to every project begins with mathematical sketches to map out the scope of the project. Here I calculated where each length of tin was to be placed, keeping in mind the least amount of waste.

I also needed to calculate the needed 2X4 support framing boards to be added to support the tin.

 So the first step was to add the 2 x 4 lumber for the framing support.

 We received this fiberglass insulation for free, it is 6 inches thick for a 19 R-value. I hung it by stapling the fiberglass bats at the top and sides, then sewing the bats together to hold one bat to another. This worked really well !

 Then came the vapor barrier, we used clear plastic and stapled it at each support 2 x 4.

 There was a space of time before we could install the interior tin so I hooked up the outside sink.

 Finally  the inside walls go up. There is always a lot of measuring, more measuring, cutting (by hand), holding the tin up to make sure it will fit, sometimes more cutting, then screwing it on to the support frames.

A moment to relax in front of the almost complete greenhouse!

Running The grey water line

 We are installing a water filter in the well house which will be automatically back flushing the sediment that it filters. So we are installing a drain line that connects to the gray water system.

You can see here how I marked the joints with a magic marker and am now going to glue them together.

 The drain pipe is placed in the ditch that connects it to the main line.

 we actually had to go under the electric conduit that I just installed due to the fact that there was not enough drop in the drain line to make sure it would drain away from the building.I used 2 inch drain pipe

 The line you see here is a four inch sewer pipe with holes at about 4:30 and 7:30,  to which all the other two inch PVC lines meet. So this one sewer line is servicing the shop, the bathhouse and the studio.

First I pulled a string with a level on it from the start of the drain here to determine that it was enough of a slope to drain the water adequately. I then dug a ditch about 1 foot wide and about 22 inches deep. I then placed 1 inch gravel about 4 inches deep underneath the pipe. I laid the pipe on the gravel and made sure it was at a good slope, then glued it in place.

 I placed gravel around the sides of the pipe and covered this with garden weed barrier material so the soil/sand would not clog the gravel.

 At the end I anchored it in the ground with a cinderblock and will dig a large enough hole covered by a grate so as to keep animals out of the hole. I will put some sort of screen at the end of the pipe to keep creatures from crawling up into the buildings.