Love, Life and Everything

So, remember when I said the siding on the front wasn't quite even and that it wouldn't be noticeable when the trim went up?  Tada!  No evidence of crooked or uneven siding.  For me, when the trim went up, I couldn't stop smiling.  It was finally starting to look like something other than some wood cobbled together with our blood, sweat, and tears. Everything looks even After putting up the trim, we had to caulk all the edges places where we misnailed, places where parts of wood splintered off, etc., so there were no gaps and everything looked seamless before we could paint.  But, it was well worth the effort. And it turned out beautiful.  I can't stress how much I love this tiny little building and the pride I have from knowing we built this ourselves.  Stay tuned for finishing the interior and getting the electric and internet installed. 

The roof... let me just start by saying this was by far the hardest part of the whole build, and we had to call in reinforcements because at this point, Brandon wasn't feeling very well, and couldn't be up on a ladder.  And while I had experience hammering shingles on roofs (thank you grandpa for making your grandchildren climb up on the garage roof and hammer in shingles until we couldn't anymore), metal roofs are a whole different ballgame.  For some reason, Brandon decided to put the ceiling in before we were ready to put the roof on.  This wouldn't have been an issue, except that it rained, and it rained a lot before we had anything on the roof.  So, some of those really nice pieces of the ceiling got ruined from the rain.  Fortunately, we were able to get more, and replace them AFTER we got the roof on.  When we were ready to start putting the roof on, we packed foam block insulation into the attic area.  Oh, we also had reflective paper on the ceiling.  I should n

After we got the trusses up, we started putting up the siding.  We wrapped the side of the shed we were working on with house wrap first to create a vapor barrier, then we put up the paneling.  The winds of northern New Mexico don't make this easy, that's why we chose to only put wrap up on one side at a time so that the winds didn't rip a hole through it.  Putting up the siding was a lot of fun, it was hard, but the way those pieces fit together with the tongue and groove system was so satisfying. Chris found every opportunity to rest in the shade. Being a teenager is hardwork. I love this shed The windows have to go in before the siding goes on, so after we put the house wrap on, we had to cut out a hole for the window and carefully insert it. This ended up being tricky because we had to get the window just right, and then get the cut out on the siding just right. We did end up using more than one panel due to an error on our part.  Fortunately, we had extras.  We also ha

 After getting the walls up, we started the monumental task of putting up the roof trusses.  This was not an easy task at all.  And unfortunately, other commitments prevented us from having a lot of help and Brandon ended up doing a lot of this on his own.  He managed to smash his thumb more than once during this.  He had to put up a supporting beam on each side of the shed to help him center the trusses on the end.  Then, he used a beam across the top to make sure they each aligned perfectly when he put them up.  Once it was finished, we had to make sure everything was still square so that we could prepare to put up the siding.  Putting up a truss isn't just put it up and nail it in with a few nails.  You have to use special metal brackets that act as nail guides, those go on each side of the truss, so each truss has 4 of those.  That's where Brandon started smashing his thumb, because if you just happen to hit a knot, the nail doesn't want to go in correctly.  But, before