Hammer in Hand

Since we can’t seem to find a contractor who wants to stick with this project, at least one who will work for peanuts, I have to take the helm once again. This means that the barn will move at a snail’s pace, but it will move, nonetheless. Truth be told, a lot of the hard and complicated stuff is done, and if I can find the time (a big fat whopping “if”), I can do a lot of the stuff. I’m talking soffit, corner thingy, siding, and insulation. If we can just get it that far by the end of summer, we’ll be in good shape, and the barn will look a lot better. Plus, it will be weather resistant. I have my work cut out for me.

I got started just as the scorching summer heat kicked in, but that’s the nature of the weather these days. Pouring rain, or scorching heat. We’ve had so much rain that I’ll take the heat, for now. No more complaining from this whiner. I will, however, say it was pretty brutal at times, but when you just bear down and do it, sometimes you just forget about the misery.

One thing that helped me a bunch was getting my hands on a nail gun. I asked HH if I could borrow hers, and she said she’d be glad to see it put to good use since she doesn’t do contracting anymore. I can’t believe how much easier it made my life. I installed the front soffit (with HH) and secured it with nails hammered in by hand. Not only is it a bear holding the darn piece of wood up, but nailing upwards is torture. My Mentor has alluded to this on many occasions. Plus, the nail gun is so much faster. I got the soffit in on the gable end in no time, even though I had to rip the boards and paint them.

The one thing that will hold up the soffit is the corner thingy, but once those are in, I can put the soffit in all around the barn, and then think about siding. Can you believe it?

Keep in mind, there’s no cause to celebrate until the job is done, because at the rate I work, it could be months. Then again, R won’t let me slide that long.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Eric Allix Rogers for the pic.