Walls

When you have four exterior walls and some interior walls that will make up two bathrooms, a utility closet, and an office, then they all should meet up and be square and level and right….NO.  We spent most of the day moving the tops of the walls to level and making sure the interior walls were level.  Nailing them together and tying the interior walls to the exterior walls with top plates connecting everything together.

The roof trusses will go up tomorrow and we have to cut each one, there are 18 of them so the angle is squared up.  Long and complicated.

So, the rental company came and got Scott’s manlift and he didn’t have time to be sad about it but he thinks that if there is any work in the future that requires a ladder, he wants a manlift incorporated into the price because they are so much darn fun and because you save lots of time going up and down the ladder.

We thought we were suppose to be under an ice storm and as it turned out, we weren’t not really.  We did get some ice on top of the couple of inches of snow but nothing that stopped Scott & I from going to work.  We did start a little later than usual on the job but I spent a few hours this morning in the C & S office catching up and making phone calls. So much for a snow day and being off.

When we got to the garden center, we had to figure out how to get the ground cover off the roof area.  This was not easy nor fun.  Finally figured out how to do it and we took 2 x 4s and pushed up in between the roof trusses and got the snow on the floor and later had to scoop it up and move it by wheelbarrow there was so much but thankfully we got it all off and didn’t have any broken trusses.

Phone guy stopped by to see if the other phone guy had done something and the other phone guy had put in the splice.  So, someday, I might have a phone.

I did get the first of 3 quotes for electrical work.  OUCH can you say ouch. Okay, I need to say it again, ouch.  over $16,000.  It is a lot less work than our house.  Not even as much wiring.  Go figure.  I hope the other two are cheaper by about half.

I am sure there is more that I need to say but who knows what it is.

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71 degrees in Alabama or not

I got a phone call today about nursery carts from Alabama.  It is about 30 degrees here and 71 degrees in Alabama.  But the snow is very pretty and you cannot sleigh ride in 71 degree weather.

It snowed today.  In preparation for the snow, we put up the ground cover on top of the office building to protect it from the snow and so we could work if necessary.  Well, it turns out it worked.

Today the interior walls went up and now it looks like two bathrooms, an office space and utility closet.  Looking a lot more like an office and the office space is actually bigger than what we have now which is a bonus and the drawing table can be moved in there and out of the dining room.

We have about 3 inches of snow on the ground now and more coming ….

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Networking

Networking tomorrow nite at the Strasburg Chamber of Commerce annual banquet will be Scott’s first official outing with the chamber. I was surprised that he wanted to go and suggested it because I thought I was going to have to go at it solo.

Hopefully he will see the importance of events like this in getting our name out there.

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Smells like a nail salon

It was 56 degrees at 11 am today.  Yippee.  Shed the layers and lets get to cutting acrylic. But first, you must find a fine toothed saw blade.  First place, the blade seemed to aggressive. (not enough teeth).  Finally found one, 150 teeth and it was for plastic.  There are two walls that look like glass but they are acrylic, like what they use at the nail salons to give the ladies the big nice, unbreakable nails.  It has glass in it too but it doesn’t break like glass and is also cheaper.

Scott got some of the little things done today that needed to be done like tighten bolts, screw down the hangers for the knee bracing.

First thing we did was get the heaters hung. That was a little scary for me because I had to run the skid steer and the heaters were on a pallet but not strapped down. So, I am trying to steady them and Scott is like, we could have lifted them up here faster. I told him, I am moving them and they are not falling on my watch, too expensive a mistake. So he just had to wait.

Got them up there in the man lift which is Scott’s new favorite toy, it is like having moving scaffolding. You can go anywhere. Then we had to block them up so the heater would be high enough to mount. There is threaded rod that gets screwed into the heaters and they are just floating in the air held up by what looks like 4 long bolts.  I hope they stay up there.  I know they will but it seems odd that they are not mounted on top of the tubing instead they hang from the bottom of the tubing.

Tomorrow the goal is to get at least one wall framed up. I know we will get that done. It is suppose to be cold again tomorrow, 36 for the high. ugh.

The office living roof will be here next week. The components got done early so, we will have plants on it by the end of February.

Only 66 more days until opening.

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Pics, lets see if I can upload them or I might have to post a link.

 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=197559&l=a758a&id=847950220

 

you will just have to clicky click b/c this blog isn’t cooperating now.

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Vent, no vent, Vent, no vent

This is how this argument has gone for the past few days. Scott will say we need the vent, then no, we don’t. See, we have two vents in the roof. Technically, the greenhouse is going to be for retail space and not all plants like a traditional greenhouse would be.

We had to take into account the side wall vent if we put it any lower and made it longer would hit someone in the head.  So, we shrunk it down and when we made it smaller it was less than two feet wide but 18 feet long.  The wall height is 10 feet so and with 2400 square feet of space, we decided that we really didn’t need it and if necessary, we can add “windows” later for more ventilation. 

Scott’s other argument was that it is retail space and not plant space and it cannot leak.  Putting more holes in the walls will create leaky spaces.  So, no more vent. 

So, after going back and forth and no one making a decision, I said just unscrew it all and lets move forward.

Got the wall facing Route 11 completed except for the knee wall.  The second door frame is complete.  Andy and Dave got the water line trench filled in with sand.  Dave got the rocks separated from the dirt and made a nice big pile.  When the stakebody starts again (thaws out) then we can start hauling rock down the road.

Saw Archie (our neighbor at home) and he showed us where we can dump said rock. Scott thinks we can get rid of about 20 dump loads. That will be good.

Made up another ad for the garden center for the Strasburg Rams Baseball program.  I am not for sure if anyone reads them but we need to get our name out there and everywhere.

I contacted a few local farms for fresh vegetables for this year. I got a reply and they might be able to help out with bedding plants and herbs but probably not vegetables.  I need to find a source for fresh vegetables.  I got the fruit covered.

We got our first snow this week and the snow was still on the roof of the greenhouse. This will probably be the only snow that actually stays on the roof.  When it warms up tomorrow, it will melt and the gutters will be full. So, we rigged up some “downspout pipe” to move the water away from the building.  It looks funny.

Met with one of the subs that will give us an estimate and at first, he was on his phone and it kept ringing. Instead of just turning it off, he kept answering it. Please, when I am trying to give you business, please, oh, did I say please? DON”T ANSWER IT. Thank you.

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Doors and windows

We picked out doors and the final window in the greenhouse behind the sales counter.  The window will be a slide side window like at the ice cream stand but much bigger.  So, if you have a question, you can run up to the window, and ask away without having to trod through the door and finally get there.  Heck, I bet I could twitter with you about it too!!

We got 3 doors for the greenhouse. 2 are 6 foot wide with two doors. One is 42″ wide as a single door. I am not for sure if I like that.  I think we might need a double door there but we can change it later.

Andy and Dave finished the columns except one.  We talked to the brick place about bricks and hopefully they will be coming soon.  Mini-me wouldn’t start and neither would the skid steer.  And tomorrow it will be colder. Go figure.

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When are weathermen right?

Today it snowed.  27 degrees was the high. Warm enough to freeze the road surface and make it a fun day of driving.

Scott worked on the greenhouse while I had a dentist appointment. I think I would have rather been working outside.

Andy and Dave spent most of the day getting the concrete cut for the pavers.  They couldn’t work on their job because the ground is frozen and they need to dig down in the dirt.

So, we had a fun time getting home today. Scott could have been a race car driving with his skill of survival in not becoming another casualty of the tiny snow storm.  An older gentleman was coming down the hill backwards (probably hit his brakes and lost all control.) and Scott was coming up the hill, in order to avoid the gentleman, Scott slid into the ditch, made a couple of people jump out the way and run into the woods.  Scott did a 360 and scooted back down the hill to safer territory.  The gentleman ended up the wrong way against a tree.

Then, we had to walk home, up the hill, toting 4 cloth bags of groceries.  Fun.

I did taxes tonight. Joy.

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Can it get any colder?

Yesterday it was 6 below 0 when we left to work on the greenhouse. We start most days by leaving at 730 am and getting to the garden cneter by 8 am. I am usually bundled up pretty good. I need to figure out the sock thing. I have pretty much given up on the stores acutally carrying actual working out in the winter weather clothing that I can stay warm in all day long.

So, progress is being made. I have posted a bunch of photos to facebook and I need to get them over here. Will have to figure that out soon.

The roof is completely done, flashing is painted but needs to be a bit darker. Sherwin Williams “Secret Garden green. More olive tone than darker green, I think it needs to be darker, fixing that tomorrow. 2.5 sidewalls are closed in except for kneewall.  Acrylic was a bit of a challenge today but we got 12 panels up in 5 hours. That is pretty good. Acrylic is like glass -see through but not as fragile as glass. 

Part of the sidewall vent is completed. Needs to be framed together.

My fingers are raw from peeling off the paper plastic covering on the acrylic panels. Each panel is 3 feet wide 8 feet long and 8 mm thick. They have a sticky paper bag on both sides for protection.

Need sleep off to find it.

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How cold is it?

It was cold enough today that within 5 minutes of pouring cold tea in a cup, it froze in the cup. Yummy.
Scott’s beard had icecicles hanging from it.
I had two hats and ear muffs and a hood on my head and still froze.

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