construction, part 1

for a long time my dad and i have talked about how it would be cool to build a shed in my backyard. ive always thought that i could use the extra space, and my dad is always interested in another excuse to use his tools. now with the reality that diana will be moving in soon, i really need to get some of my junk out of the house. a bunch of it im going through to throw away, but i sure could use a shed for the rest of it! well, it just so happened that dad and i finally found a time that would work for us to build that shed we had always talked about. so this past saturday my dad came down and we started building it! he knew that it would take a couple days, so he came down saturday to get started on it, and will be coming this weekend to finish it.

he came around 8:00am, so it was an early start. we got right to it and unloaded the truck. first on the agenda was to go and get the wood we would need to make the floor of the shed. off we went to home depot. we carefully selected some good lumber and packed it into the back of the truck. we got back and made a decision about where it should be located in the backyard. then it was time to get to work: i grabbed the shovel and dug out the grass in the places where we needed the cement bricks for its foundation. after a lot of careful leveling and placement, we moved onto the next brick. finally, all 12 bricks were in place. dad took time to measure each one carefully, and took special joy in using the pythagorean theorem in figuring out the angles.

once we finished leveling the bricks, we decided to take a break and get some food. we went to eat over at schoops, an old school burger joint that my dad really loves. we got a few more things from menards, and then the fun stuff started: using the tools! dad cut up the 2x4s and 4x4s to get them just right. once we had everything square, then it was time for the nail gun! dad has a compressor and nail gun, so the assembly of the floor was a breeze! to be honest, my dad did all the work, i just tried to be as usefull as i could, and stay out of his way. even though i didnt do much, i watched like a hawk, trying to pick up as many tips and tricks as i could. i figured someday, when i'm the man of my own family, i can be mr. fix-it and be as cool as him.

(more pics: 1, 2, 3, 4)