We lost two working weekdays last week after we got five inches of snow on Thursday. It didn’t (mostly) melt until late Friday and the yard was such a muddy mess! But we can work in mud. The project must go on!
We did a lot of prep work this weekend, and don’t have too much visual progress, but there’s a little!
On Saturday, we got another shipment of wood and trim pieces from Menards*. I spent time organizing those, while Steven cut all the rafter tails to the right length.
We used a borrowed table saw to rip* the sub fascia pieces. The sub fascia is the piece that is attached to the end of the rafter tail, and it has to have the same angles on both ends as the rafter tail.
During this time, I broke the stand we’ve been using to level wood when we cut it. During this project, I have also run over the air compressor hose (three times in a row) and backed in to the leaf blower. This is the first thing I actually broke. Sigh.
So yeah, it was tricky to cut the long 12′ boards without a stand for it to glide on to and over. Too bad someone broke it.
We also cut the OSB for the east gable end. We put the OSB on top of the end truss (that we haven’t installed yet) for the west end, which has the same design, and snapped chalk lines over the peak slope, and cut away.
I painted the exposed edges of the OSB while Steven started building the mysterious gable soffit ladders. Mysterious as in he’s explained them a few times and I still don’t get it. I think they stick out from the east and west end of the garage and support the roof? I’ll post a picture when they’re installed and I’ve figured it out.
I moved a bunch of long boards in to the house on Saturday (and Friday afternoon), so we can paint them inside, where it’s warmer and they’ll dry faster. We began priming the sub fascia boards on Saturday.
Not primed yet
Sunday, Steven continued working on the ladder things, and I taped the wrap to the top plates. That was super frustrating – the tape was so sticky, and each rafter was in the way of making it a continuous piece of tape. Then I looked back at my work and realized it was not sticking well to the wrap. Sigh.
Jen and Troy came over to help on Sunday, yay! Troy helped Steven install the OSB on the east gable end,
and Jen primed a ton of the boards in the basement. She finished priming the sub fascia (and we brought them upstairs to use later this week) and started priming the actual fascia, which will eventually be painted black. (The fascia is cedar.)
Troy and I cut a piece of wrap for the east gable end, and he and Steven installed it. That’s the biggest difference you can see right now – that that end is now closed in.
It looks really different to not be able to see through that part of the garage anymore!
And that was our weekend – lots of prep work to get the fascia/soffit ready to install. As a reminder, it looks like this:
I got really discouraged this weekend, thinking about how almost everything I do (except carrying heavy things around), I am doing for the first time, and therefore not good at it at first, if ever. I am trying my hardest, but it’s discouraging for things to go so freaking sh*tty at first. It just is.
Happily, we have awesome helpers lined up for this weekend, so while there will be hiccups, it will be with people (besides Steven) who actually know what the eff they are doing.
As with many things in life, we just need to ask for help (and have been). I was reminded of that at work again this week, too.
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*aka Mendards, aka R.I.P., ahh, autocorrect
I can’t help but read about the fascia stuff and think of the plantar fascia, ha. Hopefully your garage doesn’t encounter any heel pain 😛
And man, I can’t even begin to THINK about how hard it would be to assist on any construction project for the first time! Most things in life are hard the first time, but construction is on a whole other level in my opinion, since it’s both physically and logistically challenging. Even though a garage might be small compared to, like, a skyscraper, the garage you’re building certainly isn’t small, which I would think would only magnify the difficulty of doing something like that for the first time. I think you’re doing great 🙂
Ha ha ha! Funny thing, when I was googling to make sure I had the terms right, body fascia things kept coming up. I had to google “house” or “garage” with it.
Thanks for saying that. I appreciate it! 🙂 And you’re right – it’s physically hard, but there is a lot of planning and problem solving (which Steven mostly does). What is interesting is that because of it’s size we do get better at some tasks as we go – that is why we always start a new task in the BACK of the garage. Ha.
“Too bad someone broke it” – I can’t help but think this needs to be filed under sh*t happens. This is a hard project. You guys are not in construction. You’re doing really good – don’t get down on yourself.
That is how it should be filed! I just feel so bad in the moment when it made cutting those boards MUCH harder.
But you are right. And thank you! I am trying not to, but it’s hard.
You are doing a great job, Kim! Construction work is SO very different than anything else, and I give you major props for helping out in whatever way you can because… I would have been like, “You’re on your own, dude.” ha.
Thank you! It is so different from my desk job! I am not handy… or do I enjoy trying to be handy too much 😉
I giggled at the “mysterious” soffit ladder explanation. (I don’t understand it either.)
This is a really tough project, so be kind to yourself. You’re really committing to helping out and learning as you go, and that’s the best thing you can do it!
I would say “Next time, it’ll be easier because you’ve done it once before!” but I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to make another garage any time soon…right??
We installed them yesterday! I get it now! They stick out on two ends of the garage to support the roof overhang.
Thanks for saying that. I am trying to be kind to myself, but I get so mad, LIKE WHEN TAPE IS STUCK TO MY FINGERS AND NOT STICKING GAHHHHHHHH. But we’re happy with how it’s turning out, and that is all that matters.
Ha, we keep saying that too! We don’t plan to build another building for a long time. We want a shop with a guest house but $$$$