Today is our day, Happy Anniversary to us! Twelve great years and hopefully many more to follow. We're actually taking a day or two off to have some fun. We've been pretty busy so we deserve a nice break. After our usual morning we packed an overnight bag and jumped in the car to drive to Ryan & Ashtyn's place for a birthday/anniversary party. We're looking forward to meeting more of Ashtyn's family. We got just outside Edmonton and the black clouds greeted us. Another brief Alberta downpour to drive through. Great.
Hmm looks like rain...
Luckily the storm was moving northeast and we were headed southeast so we kind of skirted around it, not too bad at all. We arrived at Ryan's and everyone was gathered around the kitchen island due to the storm going through. That made it much easier for introductions as we were all in the one room. It quickly got nice enough to go out in the back yard again. So nice with the fence up and Ryan & Ashtyn have have planted more grass at the edges of the yard and cleaned up all the build stuff. Great space for us all to relax and enjoy.
L to R: Jane, Rusty & Chris (others are hard to see)
Chris, Tiffany, Sam (peace) Ashtyn (crouching?)
We all enjoyed a nice afternoon and then we dug into a birthday favourite; hot dogs and hamburgers on the barbecue with salads and all the fixin's. Then of course we had cake !! Two different kinds of cake and cupcakes.... perfect!
Tiffany, Sam, Chris, Russ, Ashtyn, Joana
Birthday girl with champagne and sparklers
We stayed up fairly late and had a great time. Leslie and Jane (Ashtyn's mom) joined the gang outside for a quick game of flip-cup. Just a short game to try it wink, wink :) . That's how it starts.
No emoji smily faces
July 22
We got up a little later than usual today... not unexpected. Jane and Russ also stayed over last night so we all met up in the kitchen for coffee. Ryan and Ashtyn made us all a fantastic big breakfast! Just what the body needs after a night of fun, right? Absolutely. By about noon we said good bye with hugs and handshakes until next time.
The rest of our day was pretty boring really. We stopped in Stony Plain for groceries and back to PGR for some house cleaning and relax time.
July 23
The big day is here!! The official start to the often mentioned garage build! The truck is scheduled to arrive this morning. I have been emailing Dwayne at Woodland Lumber. He's been great to work with by the way, and it's all coming together today. Yes, I'm excited.
Piggyback forklift, thank you
Right where I want it
Tuck the siding and tin under the rig for a while until we need them
My build partner already working
The rain stopped after a little while so we had a chance to get things organized. We stacked all the lumber in piles according to size and close to the order we need them. Of course the plywood for the roof is on top of the wall sheathing so we get to do some lifting and sorting It's a good warmup for things to come. I set out the sill plates for the two long walls and marked where the wall studs will go. Leslie laid out the boards and that's where we stopped for today. We'll get a fresh start tomorrow and the weather is supposed to be warm and dry for 5 days, perfect.
Even Margaret is tired, only day 1
July 24
After a hearty breakfast we went out and got going. Paul and Di lent us their air compressor and nailer and we're about to put that bad boy to work. I double checked my marks and with Les holding boards together we nailed walls together.
Paul did the same pose last year on our shed
2 walls almost complete, 8 foot studs leaves a gap in the middle
It took us longer than expected to get the first 2 done. I am trying for perfectly square and properly done so moving slow and thinking about each step. The weather is getting crazy warm too, 27C/80F today and going over 30C/86F for the rest of the week. Gets really damp at night and we have had a couple of showers overnight so we have to cover everything at night. We're feeling pretty good about the day so we stopped and made a good supper. BBQ steak with salad and we're going to try the wine that Ailsa bought Leslie for her birthday. Great day!
Great wine, thanks Ailsa!!
July 25
Ran into a minor snag this morning. Part of my building permit from Parkland County states I have to have a fire retardant material on the wall close to our neighbour, June. We set the building 42 inches from the property line, if we had gone to 48 inches we wouldn't have needed as much burn protection. The lumber yard sent us fire retardant OSB plywood but unfortunately we need 5/8 inch type X drywall on the outside of the wall. I expected this but thought the OSB would work. Nope, it won't. So we load the 7 sheets of OSB and off to Woodland for 7 sheets of type X drywall. Holy geezus is that heavy! We picked up some other items as well and stopped for lunch at Subway on the way back. Won't get much done today. When we got back we built the easy end wall, no windows or anything, easy. We also cut the 3 inch strips to fill in all the gaps on the walls. Cover everything up again, especially the drywall on the truck and call it a day.
July 26
We need groceries and some other stuff done in Spruce Grove today so Leslie is going to do those chores and I am staying to frame the wall with the garage door in it. Yay a big beam to lift!
The beam is ready and just nailing the wall together
Les got back just after noon with a bag of A&W burgers! OMG, I am hungry and so glad she's back. We took a quick lunch break and resumed framing the front wall. We decided to put on house wrap while the walls were laying down, easier to roll out.
Like wrapping really big Christmas presents !
So all 4 walls are built and we need to wait for Ryan & Ashtyn to supply some much needed muscle. They're coming tomorrow after work and staying over to help us out and we really appreciate their help.
July 27
We get to take our time this morning and take care of other stuff, bills and appointments etc. The muscle can't get here until after 6 pm so we can do little stuff but then just wait. Of course my patience got the best of me and we took a shot at it. Les and I lifted the far end wall up and propped it out of the way off the back of the pad. Ahhh that feels better, we did something and a wall is standing.
That's one!
Around 6'ish Ryan & Ashtyn got here and we got straight to work. We started on the long solid wall on the east side. It was actually easier than we all thought? Next we did the other long wall and then the standing one that Les and I had done earlier. I had thought we might only get 2 walls up tonight but it's going good so we're going for it.
3 up by 8:10 pm
All 4 walls up and nailed together! 8:50 pm. Awesome!
I am super happy! We got them all standing and nailed together in one shot. Time for a well deserved supper and a beverage. We were in bed shortly after dinner. Long day but feeling great.
July 28
After a good breakfast we got back on the build. The kids (not really but ya know what I mean) need to leave around 2 pm. They have other plans for this evening they need to get ready for. They're going to come back tomorrow and help some more. Thanks guys. We got the sheathing on the gable ends and installed the one end. We braced it up and decided to call it a day early. The kids left for Edmonton and Leslie and I went for a late lunch at RV Pub & Grill here in Seba Beach. It's a great place and has great food. When we got back we took Margaret on a walk. She has been sitting either in the trailer or the truck watching us work a lot!
July 29
Les and I started putting trusses on the walls and before long our team was back from Edmonton. We split up the tasks and the girls moved trusses while Ryan & I stand up the trusses.
So strong, my girl
The day went great and we got all the trusses up and the front gable on and braced. We were all hot and tired. It's been pretty hot out all week. After we got the trusses up Ryan & Ashtyn had to leave right away. They needed to do some shopping for food for the week and Ashtyn's mom was going to be at their place for the night.
Another super exciting thing we were doing all day was monitoring the progress of our buddy Ailsa in the Whistler Ironman. Barry has a lingering flu bug bothering him so he had to pull out of the race himself. Best support captain ever! Ailsa is trying for a fast time so she can qualify for Kona Ironman in October. It's one of the hottest weekends on record for Vancouver and the lower mainland. Not great for racing but I will let the next picture speak for itself.
1st place finish! Way to go Ailsa !!
What a fantastic effort on a smokin' hot day, she's a champ! It was a close finish and we were messaging Barry and watching the tracker to see how she did. Great stuff! It was really exciting.
I'm super happy with our progress so far. I have a rough schedule in my head of what needs to be done and by when. I'm going to look for a roofer to put on the shingles. I hate doing shingles and a pro will be done in half the time. We have my niece's wedding on the 25th of August in Victoria and we are taking a full week to enjoy that. Then as soon as we get back from Victoria we have to get the rig ready to move to Ross Lake for the September long weekend with family and friends from Bonnyville. I have to get back to running too so I can finish the half marathon in Golden, September 23rd. Stay busy when you retire is what we heard, I think we're doing a good job!
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