This is Page 2 of the construction journal.   I will continue changing and adding pictures as things continue! If you've already seen this page, you can move on to the page for the fun AFTER January 28th by clicking here. Update, Thursday, January 9, 2003:   Just to let people with slower modems know, this page is getting rather long.  While I'm trying to keep each image around 100k in size, they're adding up and I just had a friend time the load for me on her 56k connection.   This page takes around or 3 minutes to load, but with the text to read, she said it's not too bad.   The page with More Pictures is taking up to 15 minutes for slower modems.

MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 2003 Today was a uneventful day as far as the building of the studio went.   Everything is getting too big and heavy for one person anyway.   I went out and finally found a drift pin (if you don't know what that is, it's okay, only ONE hardware store in a 40 radius did.  It's a slightly tapered 9" long steel pin that is used to guide two pieces of steel together so their holes line up.   VERY needed here.

Today's accomplishments: Drift Pins, Scaffolding, and Promises of SIX HELPERS!!!

After finally finding the drift pins I swung by the post office and sent off the last two valuable books in my book collection.  I've been selling it off since December so I could afford this building.   I'm selling the rest still to help me finance my welding machines. On the way back to the house, I picked up the scaffolding from the local rental shop and came home.   It was already getting dark (3:00 pm), so I didn't have much time.   I somehow managed to set up the 13' scaffolding by myself.   It was a bit precarious getting the top sections on, but felt good doing it.   I still had daylight and decided to move a lot of the arch pieces out of the way for the next day's Barn Raising. Misty had called me during the day letting me know that Daria, one of her work partners, wanted to help us on Tuesday!  Then, I got a message that Jillian, a friend living in Ocean Shores, was driving over and going to help out!   Things were definitely looking up, and I hadn't even checked telephone messages yet. So there I was, moving heavy arch pieces as the sun was going down. Misty was supposed to be home in a couple hours, and what happens?   Jillian shows up!   She jumped out of her car and lends a hand until all the pieces are moved, it's dark, and Misty's driving up the driveway.   Jill is so damn cool....   too bad everyone reading this doesn't know her. Misty and I went inside and sat down. . .   She said to me that she knew I was tired, but if I had the energy, we should go up the road and drop in on some neighbors which had introduced themselves to us a couple of days before.   We're trying to widen our circle of friends.) . . .   Very long, wonderful visit with Sam and Renee edited so we don't Bore you to death, THEY SAID THEY TOO WOULD LOVE TO COME HELP US TOMORROW!   (all the while feeding us tasty snacks and Pike Street Tea!) By the time we got to bed, we had EIGHT people coming!  There were phone messages for us from Abdel and Danny awaiting our return from Sam and Renee's.   Such relief!   We slept very well.

JANUARY 7, 2003 Shhhh, don't tell anyone this, but Misty and I got up at 4:30 this morning to clean the house before all the helpers arrived at 9:00.  We have been neglecting such chores while the studio was progressing, but enough was enough.   Even the cats were starting to complain about the mess. A picture says a thousand words, so I think I'll say 5000 or so.   Please check out the additional pictures of all the WONDERFUL friends who came over to help.

Photo by Dave Sundburg	Photo by Dave Sundburg
Photo by Dave Sundburg	Photo by Dave Sundburg
Photo by Dave Sundburg	The result of a long day of Barn Raising!!!!!

We didn't get nearly as far as we had hoped today, but everyone had fun and we are all very proud of what IS up!   I wish the photos could convey the true size of this Studio!!!   We took everyone out for dinner afterwards to a nice place and are now home.   My arms are exhausted and all this typing is finishing them off. Tomorrow's another day and I'm sure it will be great!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2003 I spent the morning today getting some much needed house cleaning done and hit the post office to send off a few more books I sold on eBay.   I'm hoping by the time this studio is up, I'll have the money for the machines I need to make sculpture.  (Okay everyone! This is the time anyone contemplating buying one of my sculptures should REALLY come forward!) [smile] WEATHER REPORT:   It is supposed to rain Saturday with possible winds.  Lots of wind is bad since the building isn't secured down yet.

My first true complaint about the company who sold me this building:  The say that I MUST put these angle iron spacers around the studio during construction to keep each 2' section exactly at 24 1/2", then they don't include enough to do the building.  I went out price-checking at some local metal fabrication shops and it would cost me around $300!  This, for something I'll be throwing away by Sunday. I just couldn't do it. After many painful brainstorms, I hit upon the solution!   I'm now using thin wooden strips.  I drilled holes through the wood, and they work perfectly fine (and only $40).   I'm also thinking I can recycle them when I add an office in the building. I got home just in time for some friends to show up.   Jillian actually pulled into my driveway right behind me.  She's such a super hero. We had a much smaller crew than Tuesday, but we made it work.   We simply broke the arches into two sections and erected them 1/2 at a time.  We only got two up since we started so late, but the building is nearly halfway done and each arch is now going faster!

Wednesday's Crew (from top left): Misty, Renee, James, Sam, and the camera-shy JILLIAN!!!

and Misty had a Dream. . . It took eight of us to erect the full arch (I don't care how many cute pictures the MANUAL shows with 5 doing it; it can't be done safely.)  Today, it took Five to erect the 1/2 arch system (and possibly 4 could have done it, but then, Misty had her dream.   What if we put the side and first curve panels up from the ground, and then TWO people lifted the top three sections as one unit and placed it on the side pieces? In her dream things went perfect.   In reality, we may end up falling 14' to certain death, but, what the heck!   We're going to throw caution to the wind and give it a try when Misty comes home from work tomorrow!!! Now MOTHER.... before you race over here to stop us, don't worry (I'll have clean underwear on just in case.)   Kidding, mum... I'm a kidder, you know that.   We're actually going to rehearse the lift on the GROUND before we go for the aerial performance. Um... just in case there's no further entries in this journal, please, will someone call 911 in the near future?   There are raccoons and coyotes out there and we don't want our eye balls eaten.   It makes for very gross open casket funerals.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2003 Misty had to work today so it was slow going.   It would have been pretty much NO-going if Jillian hadn't once again saved the day and come over in the morning.

We cleaned up and rearranged everything that was under the building and started moving some of the panels under cover so there would be room for the ever-expanding arches. I told Jillian about Misty's dream and she thought it was a good idea too, so we set up some partial arches that only needed the 'tops' put on them later.  At the 3rd one, they started getting wobbly, so we could only wait for Misty to get home so we could see if it would work without killing anyone. Misty ended up having to work extra late, so we're going to have to wait until tomorrow to try it, since she's off Friday and Saturday.

The side arches awaiting Misty.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2003 Misty and I got an early start! Sam and Renee said they were going to come over around noon, and Jillian showed up around 10:00 to help us out yet again.  The first two roof sections we put up with very little problem.   The hardest part was all the extra bolt holes we needed to line up. Jillian showed up just in time to take some photos of the actual process. While we proved Misty's dream TRUE and no one got hurt doing it, it ended up being pretty inefficient if there were more than two people.   Jillian could only stand around and watch us from the ground

200 pound roof section magically rising to James and Misty's awaiting hands.           (photo by Jillian)

Setting the section in place. (photo by Jillian)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 2003 The weather forecast was for partial sun with rain later in the day, but it rained at 9:00 am for a while, held off for most of the day, and then seriously kicked in for the last two arches.   That's right, you heard correctly, the LAST two arches.   The main studio building is UP!

It was Great to put up that last arch today!  The major physical work is now accomplished, but there's much to go.  First, I have to go through the entire building again adding about 2/3 MORE bolts, and taking them from 'finger tight' to the properly torqued tightness.   To do this, I need to BUILD a rope ladder since none are available for sale or rent these days, and find a partner to hold a wrench on the inside bolts as I climb around on the outside.

The Studio Stands!!!

From Left: Kim, Richelle, Misty, Renee, and Sam (I'm the token male in the back.)

Jillian, who had been helping since Tuesday had to go home to Ocean Shores to take care of her snake and Grandmother (not necessarily in THAT order) yesterday.   She was an incredible part of the 'barn raising' team and today others were sad that they all didn't get to say goodbye to her. On the last day of the main build, we got TWO new people helping!   One, Richelle, is a long-time friend, the other, Kim, is a good friend of Sam & Renee and hopefully will be a friend of ours too!  Kim is also a patination expert and hopefully we'll be working together in the future. Once the building is tightened up, I need to put up the end walls.   In the instruction manual for this building, the arches take up 10 pages while the end walls take up 70.  Hopefully it's not really THAT much more difficult!

I received a wonderful e-mail from a British ex patriot now living in L.A. the other day about this web site and the studio / barn raising.   His name is Richard and he noticed that WOMEN are the only reason my studio got built as quickly as it did, and he's correct.  Other than the first day, it IS a fact that women built this studio!   I wish they had done it simply because of my dashing good looks and animal magnetism, but, alas, I highly doubt that either is the case.   They did it because they are good people!   Maybe they did it because coming out to help a neighbor was more important than what football team was playing or who wanted to marry a millionaire this week. Whatever their reasons, I'm incredibly grateful to them all and will drop everything to help THEM if they ever need it in the future.   Thank you All!   (did I mention to any of you that I need help putting in a few thousand bolts yet?)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2003 Today marked the one week milestone of the actual construction of the giant erector set fondly referred around here as "the studio". Work is progressing slowly on the construction now.   Misty can't afford any more additional vacation time to help me (yes, she took days of vacation to help with the construction.), and it is most definitely a two person job putting in the bolts (only 3,500 of them to go). This journal will be slowing down from the frantic entry every day mode of the first week, but as there are new pictures and things progress, I'll still post them here.

My Home-made rope ladder. (it's much scarier than it looks.)

.  .  . If I were a Rich Man, la dee da la da dee dum dee dum dee da lam do dee do-dee dumb. . .

Just to make sure the week wasn't a total wash out due to rain, Misty and I made this fancy rope ladder while watching an old Doris Day movie one night.  The rungs are a bit far apart, especially when the rope stretches under James' enormous weight, but it holds. The second test was if the roof itself would hold;   other than being wet and slippery, it held up just fine.   We actually were able to place and tighten a couple hundred bolts before it got dark.   In the picture, James is performing one of the many song & dance routines from "Fiddler On The Roof".

Bryan up on the New-fangled scaffold.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2003 The bolting process continues.  It's not a difficult thing, but definitely requires TWO people.   Today a new person came over to help out, Bryan.   Misty had to work, so I was looking at doing nothing on it until Sunday.  Then Bryan saved the day!!  I rented an electric lift for the weekend because the large scaffolding was simply too unwieldy for one person to move around while I hung out on the rope ladder.  Bryan was so nice as to even leave us his drill when ours started smoking and smelling funny.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2003 Misty had off today!   We got an early start after the traditional coffee and cartoons.  (We actually got up EARLY just for the cartoon, because anyone can tell you that watching cartoons will keep you young forever!) Oh! And I can't forget to mention the EGGS!   Sam and Renee brought us some eggs fresh from their chicken's butts (or whatever part of the anatomy eggs come out of.)  The were VERY good and kept us going all morning! So, as I was saying, we got an early start and things went without a hitch for the most part.   Another complaint about this steel building though. . .  The directions should say to put in ALL the bolts in the seams as the arches are erected.   Lining up 4 pieces of sheet metal on the finished building was nearly impossible a few times and it was MUCH easier going lining holes as we went.

Doesn't Misty look TOUGH with her leather holster for the drill?

DANGERMAN!   James needed to reach that last bolt.

DANGERWOMAN!  Misty needed to, well, no one knows exactly WHY Misty did this as Bryan descended.

As the end came to SUNDAY, we can say we've nearly finished the bolting!!!!   We have finished all of the work above 6', so the rest can be done from the ground.  In the next couple of days, Misty has to work (again), and I'll do what I can unless I find some help.   We sure are blowing through all of our friends' good will! (joke!)   I'll begin on the end walls tomorrow with my goal being to have both end walls done by FRIDAY and the 14' sliding door done by next Sunday.   I'll post here again when there's news to report.   Thanks for all the encouragement everyone!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2003 Dearest Readers, Please forgive us.  There's been no updates here for 9 days.   Progress HAS happened, albeit slowly.   The rope ladder held, and all of the Bolts are IN and torqued as per the "erection guide" specifications;  I moved a few tons of dirt and clay to help water shed away from the foundation;  a path has been made through the blackberry bramble from the studio to the electric pole for power access; and I brought in 3 tons of gravel with the ol' 1/2 ton truck fondly referred to as the "porn mobile" (no, not all of the gravel in one load and no, I did not name my truck that, friends did.) All in all, quite boring progress for picture taking opportunities. Nine days of work and it looks nearly identical, but it was all all very needed work.   Today Jillian came back from her Pacific Ocean hide-away to help me again!  We checked out electrical supplies (she couldn't stop yawning over THAT one) and then picked up a few tons of gravel.   (Oh, how she LOVES shoveling gravel!  She jumps at the chance anytime anyone needs to move gravel.  She simply can't get enough of the stuff.) Oh, one other thing we did while we were out.   We stopped by the only other building like this in town to take a look at how they put up the end walls.   Jillian and I decided it was MUCH easier than the nightmarish instruction manual makes it out to be, so she's going to come over tomorrow and help me put up one of the walls!   We want to surprise Misty with it. That means..... PICTURES!   Tomorrow there should be a picture of a 1/2 way finished end wall! (or a picture of an end wall laying on top of two crushed fools.) To move on to the next page of adventure, click here.

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