$2 Trunk before

I got this trunk for, you guessed it, $2. I needed the storage but it obviously needs a makeover. Which will come in a different post because im not done but thought talking about it would help motivate me to finish!
Till next time

Insulation, wiring, sheetrock, oh my

A lot has been going on over here at the lakeside homestead.  we finished all the wall framing. Next, we put in all the insulation. Regular R-13 is standard for wall insulation. for the floor and the ceiling we used R 30. Then we put in all of the wiring for outlets and light switches and the lights themselves. Next up was putting the actual wall up for that you use sheetrock. So many hours of measuring and cutting reader almost all of the sheetrock is done.

Diy Sud Shack/Wash House Roof Tutorial

So, last project suds I shared with y'all our experience of framing the walls. Today I will show with you how we framed out the roof/ceiling. There isn't a pitch, it's an angled roof, so no attic or anything. I'm just going to paint it and call it done. This is just an outdoor laundry restroom combo, so I'm not putting up any sheetrock. Which means I also get to avoid the tape and float and texture process :) 

Every trip out to the homestead we bring with us a load of wood. We aren't getting anywhere close to the mini lumber yard status that I want, but that's because we keep using up the wood on projects. Checking off items on the To Do list feels great. 

Mr's shadow is rectangular because he is carrying a sheet of plywood...it looks kind of funny with seeing the plywood.

These logs serve as our cutting station. With all the projects we work on you would think that we would have a complete set up, but our money goes towards our build not our tools..... To my dad, thanks for letting us burrow so many tools and lending a helping hand when our motivation runs low. 

We started by extending the frame. 

Notice this paint. We have been multitasking to the max on this project. When I'm not helping lift or carry things, I would jump on the ladder and paint. We also have plumbing and electrical projects in the mix, it's basically a construction mess. They say it gets worse before it gets better:)

This is the view from inside the sud shack. I plan on planting even more trees :) 

This view is a future window site above where the washer will go. 

I took this picture from inside the suds looking straight up at the "roof".... Roof is quoted because it's just the roof frame not the actual roof, duh:) 

Now, there's the roof/ceiling. Just needs to be painted and I'm calling that baby done. I'm not even sanding the wood down, because honestly I'm never going to touch the ceiling so why bother... I'm wearing my lazy pants.

You can't really understand how tiring it is to work in 105 degrees from these photos. The roof was ready for metal but we just didn't have it left in us. Playing things on the safe side we covered the plywood roof with a large sheet of plastic.  To secure it we screwed a few scrap pieces up.

There's probably a million steps I'm not going over, but you get the gist of it. 

Till next time y'all keep it green, clean, and classy.

Shalimar

Project Homestead - Sud Shack /Wash House

Ok back to the sud shack/ wash house. The project started with the frame work for the floor. We built the frame first to use as a guide for our support post. Both my Mr. and myself are fans of pier and beam foundations..that's what we used for our studio. There are both advantages and disadvantages (more pros than cons) to going with pier and beam but for us the answer was obvious. So, on ward to the foundation. 

Once, we had our lovely frame we put it on the ground and moved it around until we both agreed on the perfect spot...we do a lot of our decision making on the fly:) this particular spot was chosen for the shade tree and it's close proximity to the studio.

Small beginnings, this project started as a pile of lumber..and a Yeti  full of drinks and lunch:) 

Now, fast forward past the hours of digging. We have our post holes dug, then posted, level of course, and finally have the frame attached to the post. Stud boards running the width of the sud shack are supported with smaller pieces running the length. This will eventually house our washer, dryer (that is only used in emergencies or hazardous weather), and a three piece bathroom so the floor needed to be supported all over. No creaks for this floor. 

Its 6' x 8'3" and originally the design was 6 x 8 but the extra three inches turned out to be a miracle. Some mistakes are like that, just an unplanned miracle. 

Till next time keep it green, clean, and classy.

-Shalimar

Project studio - DIY replacing Pier and Beam Foundation

After the studio made it's journey to our homestead, we let out a sigh of relief "yes, we made it!". With every single project so far we have encountered delays. This was no different. The studio sat sad and neglected for several days on a trailer. During this time my brain came up with images of someone hooking up the trailer and taking off with my hard work. This didn't happen:) Instead my number one fan, aka momma, came for a visit. We took the trip out to the homestead, just to see it on the trailer, and surprise surprise the studio stood proudly on some bricks.

Maybe some of the studio magic came from the posts, because without them on those cheap bricks it looks kind of bleak. Especially because our magic wall of windows still had boards across it. 

Oh the horror of damage control / repair. All the random boards that were used as "support" had to be removed, which left deep screw holes. Our floors are insulated and the insulation barrier, just a sheet of construction plastic, was damaged; the exposed insulation was damage as well. 

I'm not the type to speak negatively about someone else....... I will just say that this was not the work of me or my Mr. 

We did have to remove the trim pieces to put in the new post, but before we could do that we had to dig holes for every post (6 in total). 

This project was mind blowing for me. We used a heavy duty jack and literally lifted the studio to put the post underneath. Crazy, right? We had to rig things a bit because the jack couldn't lift it up high enough so we added post remnant and bricks, haha a little getto but it worked so I guess that's all that mattered.

The jack was supporting the weight of an entire side of the studio so we also had to place boards under the jack to keep it from sinking. 

We restablized the studio using the bricks again. That way the posts wouldn't be under any pressure and filled the holes holding the posts with concrete. Then, we danced the dance of people that just completed something we had never even attempted before. After our dance festival we went home and left the concrete to cure for 24 hours. 

Look at all that mess. That's a sure fire sign that something's getting done:) we still have a million things to do but one by one we are taking these tasks down. 

A quick note on recylcing aluminum, for those die hard Mountain Dew fans

• The amount of energy saved differs by material, but almost all recycling processes achieve significant energy savings compared to virgin material production. For example, recycling of aluminum cans saves 95 percent of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from virgin sources. For each can recycled, this is enough energy to run a television or computer for three hours.
• Sourced from EPA.gov 

Till next time y'all keep it clean, green, and classy.

-Shalimar