Scott: The GNC project now the “Garden Shed” part 6

Thursday night 7:30PM we are at the lake again and are in a bit off a rush to fix the pump down at the lake, so we can use lake water to fill the hot tub instead of well water. The well water contains a lot of iron and tends to turn the water rust colored. We have to get the hot tub filled tonight, because it will take 24 hours to heat it up to usable temperatures and it sure would be nice to have it Friday night. We got the pump and filter working and we had a glass of wine while we waited for the tub to fill.

Another early Friday morning in July brings us to Home Depot in Bemidji for the umpteenth time this summer. The good new is I think that this is the last time to bring a trailer full of building material from Bemidji. You see the major building has been completed on the Great Northern Casita, now the “Garden House”.

The last part of the building on the Garden House is the “Farmers Porch” over the deck. The plan is a couple more 11 hour days working from 7:00 until 6:00 and it should be mostly done. Well all but some part time monkeying around a few hours here and there. The original shed still needs to be re-stained, and there is still some caulking and bits and pieces left.

The first part of the porch is to plant the poles in the ground that go through the deck. I had to remove a few deck boards ( I never did screwed them down completely.) then I could use a post hole digger to dig holes that the posts set in.

Once all the posts are in, deck boards put back and the header is placed across the post we now have a frame to set the roof on.

Putting a roof on anything takes a couple of hours to get the angles right on the roof ,then cut a master pattern board for the rafters. Once you have the master pattern, the first couple of rafters up and squared with the building, (squaring them is the hard part) you can fly. It doesn't take long after that. So by the end of Friday night at 6:00PM this is what it looked like.

The recently filled hot tub managed to make it to 100 degrees by 6:00pm just as we knocked off for the night . It sure felt good after working hard all day.

Saturday morning required a trip to the building center at Park Rapids, because they stock Hunters Green aluminum drip edge and fascia covering.

Once we had the drip edge, shingling can start. Back on the roof by 9:00 (After tea of course. No civilized husband of an Irish woman can miss tea!) shingling goes fast with an air gun and by noon the shingles are almost on.

At 6:00PM we knocked off for the day with everything but the staining of the ceiling inside the porch done.

Sunday morning was for staining. I masked off the deck put down cardboard and stained all the posts and beams. When that was done there was a couple of hours before lunch so I replaced the old screen door with a new one and stained that as well.