Operating at about 1/3 Speed

Going to keep this short because frankly I am tired and want to go to sleep.

I fell far short of my goal for today.  I am operating at about half speed (which for me is about 1/3 impulse!)

The heat is kicking me in the butt and sucking the energy out of me.  Today was the first time I even got burned. AT only 80F, it was no where near the last week’s high of 86F at our property, but I guess the repeated days of elevated temps are starting to get me.

Eric came today and was kind enough to strip all of the electrical switches and plugs from the boxes I had stripped out of the house.  As these were all modern Decora that I had installed a few years back, I wanted to save and reuse them.  He also polished off a pile of lumber that needed to be de-nailed.  I continue to be very grateful  for his assistance.

Bahman (my landlord and neighbour across street) also came later in the day and separated some built-up lumber pieces, cleaned up and organized some lumber, and then helped me on the roof by cleaning off the heavy moss layer and then peeling back the roofing paper under the shingles I had removed.

I managed to get the shingles off the north annex and about 50% off the south before accepting that my trailer was full and should not be loaded any further.  I only have the garage roof to still strip so it is a shame I will need to make two trips.

I also removed the ship-lap from the west side of the north annex roof before calling it a day at 7:00 Pm.

As you can see, this is well below my goal of having the entire roof and ceiling structure gone.  Guess that will be tomorrow.

My 60ft x 80ft tarp also arrived today.  Man is that going to be a brute to get up.  I would estimate it at 400 lbs.  My arborist gave me some ideas on hoisting it up so we’ll have to see how it goes.

Speaking of weight, I have not mentioned what an awesome weight reduction this building your own house is.  I have struggled with being somewhat overweight most of my adult life.  I would typically hover 20-30 over my ideal weight but over the last 5 or so years have been more like 50 over my goal.  Well, over the last 3 months I have lost 32 lbs to date.  The beauty is I have not changed anything about what I am eating (OK not entirely true – I am getting wonderful lunches from my neighbour and also my mother-in-law, where before I would often just snack).  Just the activity of being constantly active is shedding it off.  I love this and had hoped it would be a by-product of the build because I HATE exercising with passionate conviction!  Lets hope the shed continues as easily and I will reach my goal that I have not been since 1991!

Finally, an update on the eastern orders freight situation.  I am still trying to find an affordable freight option for the floor trusses.  I still would like to move these by rail and asked my new broker about options. As I do not need on site till mid September earliest, I have some time to figure this out.

The second part of this shipment is the 37,000 lbs of ICF block I have ordered from Durisol.   This IS coming by train (a full 53′ intermodal container).  I decided to go out for quotes because I really was not happy with the original broker who screwed me.  I was able to find someone with a competitive quote and booked the freight with them this afternoon (www.cdlogistics.ca). The train has a transit time of 6-8 days, so they will easily arrive by my middle of August installation.

Well that it.  Tomorrow I will continue to take down the roof structure and Friday Eric will be back and we will load the top of the storage container with the salvaged siding and 2x material to get it out of the way.  I will spend the rest of Friday hopefully gutting the bedroom (last room left) and taking down some of the final walls.  By Monday, I hope to have a majority of the walls taken down to make room for the tree limbing on Tuesday AM.

Thanks for the visit.