All Equiped

Well, things went off without too many hitches today.  The forklift showed up later than expected but the truck from MI arrived on time and despite a few issues, all went well.

Loaded truck

Truck untarped

Jordan forklift with carder

Yup, stuck.  Well, too slippery.

Will it fit?  Eventually!

Carder and picker in place

L to R:  felter, spinner, pin drafter

Skeiner

Cone winder

Everything is not in its final resting place in the photos.  But you get the idea hopefully about the scope and scale of the equipment.  The electricians got the panel box in so hopefully the inspector can come by soon and clear us with Allegheny Power. 

The entire day of unloading and unpalleting took about 5 hours with a break or two to warm up.  Jordan is amazing on the forklift for one so young;  Bill has incredible visual skills (yes it will fit, no it won't, a little that way, etc);  Craig was everywhere at once.  Me - I was probably in the way.  But I helped with unpalleting and clean up.  And someone had to take pictures and blog!

Clean up/Prep

Yesterday was clean up from construction and prep for equipment arrival.  The adults worked outside while the teens did an excellent job selling Christmas presents in the shop.  The dogs, well, they were more on the hinderance than helpful side of things.  Ok, it was mainly Claire that was not helpful.  She gets a little overly excited if she thinks there is a car trip involved.  And she thought that about 45 mins prior to pulling out of the driveway. 

There was plenty on the agenda yesterday:  Craig was finishing the handrail.  Tim was installing deadbolts.  Bill and I were determining what lumber was useable and what needed to go.  Bill moved rocks (we had no idea there were so many rocks in that seemingly small pile!).  I shop vac'd the first floor. 

There was a lot of stuff left in the parking area that we needed to move so the semi can get in tomorrow with the equipment.  I did not get pictures of this before we started but we got what we needed to cleaned up and still have more to go.  Yes, Virginia, we need a dumpster!

Today we are going to be chalking / taping the location for the equipment.  Some of it is kind of big and heavy and it would be good if it went directly to its location while we have a forklift on site.  Now we are working with the assumption that we know where everything belongs!  As Craig would say "Oh Geez".

 

 

 

Building Done

The crew from CHA, LLC completed the building of the building yesterday afternoon!  We are so excited!  I will get really good pictures today.  It was a little dark last night when they packed up and headed back to Lancaster, PA. 

The electricians were in yesterday and will be back to day as well.  They are making good progress.  The panel box and mast should be done today.  Other wiring is occuring as well concurrently.  The next step is getting the power company to hook up to our building.

And the equipment arrives on Monday, so we need to clean up inside and out, figure out exactly where the equipment is going, etc.  Busy weekend ahead of us. 

Here are some px: 

 

All enclosed

After staying home yesterday (weaving and sewing), I made the 10 mile trek over to Craig's this morning.  It is still really cold but Tim (husband) fixed the window in the Jetta last night, so it was much, much better than the trip on Monday! 

The exterior second story walls are up and the windows in place.  It really looks nice.  And it is much warmer inside! 

The insulating is still occurring so I will not bore you with pictures of that.  The electrician is here putting in some of the outlets.  Some of the wiring is inside the walls and some will be conduit in the ceiling.  All in all, things are rolling along nicely.  The interior walls may start going up later today. 

insulating during deep freeze

The work crew made it over the mountains yesterday.  The forecasted doom and gloom (meaning lots of snow and wind and cold) did not materialize as predicted.  It is very windy and very cold but we got nowhere close to the 6" of snow they said we would get.  And mind you, I am not complaining.  Well, not about the lack of snow.  I am complaining about the wind chill!  Even the alpacas stayed in the barn yesterday, so you know it was a tad bit bitter. 

To top it off, my Subaru is in the shop so I am driving the Jetta, which is not terrific in snow to begin with.  It is even worse when the window falls off completely off the track and requires taking the entire interior door panel off to fix.  Sigh.  I put on my head scarf and sunglasses (wind and contacts), cranked up the seat heater and the defroster, and did my Thelma and Louise impersonation (minus the killing and robberies and the like). 

Yesterday was first floor interior insulating and installing the first floor ceiling / attic floor.  It is still not terribly cozy in the building, as the second story exterior walls are still non-existent.  I believe that will be rectified today.  Some sort of lift was delivered yesterday afternoon. 

The Office space

Length view.  Concrete is still sweating.

The word we are hearing is that they hope to be done by the end of the day on Thursday.  We shall see how it pans out but even so, the worst case scenario is the end of the week.  Then it is onto electrical.

Garage door

 
They did come install the garge door today, which is nice.  We have owned it forever and it just laid there in the yard, waiting, waiting....

The concrete is dry enough to walk on (although Craig claims to have left a footprint somewhere last night or this morning).  Craig is contemplating keeping the huge torpedo heater, as I am never warm.  This might just get our 8 x 8' or 8 x 10' office warm enough for me to enjoy!

Things are quiet on site until Mon, Dec 13 I believe.

Swirly electric trowel thingy

I have a weird fascination with watching construction / demolition.  I am fascinated watching people do very specific jobs and doing them, well, well.  There is nothing as cool as watching someone run a bulldozer like it is an extension of their body or move 27 cubic yards of concrete with two wheelbarrows.  Yes, yes I do like Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs show.  Hard to guess, eh?

I am not sure how long the work crew was on site yesterday as I had to leave.  But around 2 pm or so the surface of te concrete had dried to a point where they were walking on it and leaving minimal footprints.  Why walk on it?  To run the electric swirly trowel thingy.  Another neat machine in the arsenal of the concrete worker. 

Today the garage door is supposed to be installed.  Although it will no keep the building much warmer, it will cut down on the wind through the first floor as well as the snow.  When the building crew comes back next week, it should make it a bit nicer in there.

21 degree cncrete pour

 

It is finally concrete day!  And concrete day goes pretty quickly.  They had the interior "done" in about 2 hours.  I think they are going back in and smoothing out later.  They ran a torpedo heater inside all night to keep things warm.  They are going to put plastic out around the porch and plan on opening the doors to try and let a little heat out there.  More px later.  Need to warm up!  

Rocks and concrete

Despite the cold (26 F not including wind chill) and the flurries, the concrete prep work did go on today.  The first thing the new work crew did was put plastic over the 2nd story exposed framing and start heating the place up with a torpedo heater.  Then they leveled out the clay and spread and tamped the rocks.  It really makes a difference in there, to not be up to your knees in mud and muck.  They are supposed to put plastic over the rocks, then a 1 1/2" foam board insulator then some type of mesh fabric.  Not sure I got that order right!  Concrete truck is supposed to arrive at 8:00 am tomorrow am.  The garage door installer is scheduled to arrive tomorrow or Wed (I can not remember...).  Hopefully, the electric panel board will go in this week as well.  The building crew is supposed to be back next Mon to finish the building.  Yeah!

Roof and walls

We have roof and lower story walls, as well as windows and doors.  Next step, concrete.  Monday and Tues. 

 

 

Siding

Yes, folks, progress.  Take that Barb's skepticism!  The work crew arrived late this morning and started with siding.  Views are of the back and the view of the window is the parking lot side.  The whole flipping area is a mud bog and they are pumping water out of the interior (so much for the skating rink idea...).  I made the mistake of taking my dogs out to visit.  Claire, the doxie, does not like mud!  That might be because her belly drags through hit!  Riley on the other hand cares not.  And she also doesn;tcare about wiping her feet before walking through Craig's store.....I will get more pictures up hopefully at the end of the day.  If not, first thing tomorrow.

Sick or Festive?

OK.  There were some political things occurring that had nothing to do with us that affected our project but in a positive way.  No details but there was no wild 180 spin back to problematic.

We were hoping for the work crew on Monday but apparently they like to hunt. And the beginning of gun season was Monday.  How serious is it around here?  The kids just went back to school today, having gotten out last Wed noonish for the holiday.   Pretty damn serious.  The season is known as "If it is brown, it is down".  That refers to bucks and does alike but not to UPS workers.  So no crews Mon or Tues.  Tues (yesterday) was a miserable rainy day anyway so no biggy there.  We were talking of converting the shell to an ark (it rained over an inch).

The crew is supposed to show tomorrow (yeah, I have heard that before but I am going to believe this to the full extent my little skeptical self will let me!).  They have Thurs - Sat to put on the roof, put up the exterior siding and maybe even doors and windows.  Very doable.  Concrete is supposed to be prepped and poured Mon and Tues, with a curing day on Wed.  I think (and I could be wrong) that interior insulation and walls go up next Thurs - Sat.  The electrical box goes in soon and we are working with an electrician to bang out the wiring starting Dec 13.  We are hoping to schedule the arrival of the equipment for the 16th or 17th. 

At some point, this does have to be completed, no?  Please.  Pretty please.  And by that I mean in 2010.  Soon.  Real soon. 

Craig strung a single strand of Christmas lights on the mill porch.  I thought he would wrap the supports but no.  I said something to Brigid about the lights being a sign of something sick (meaning too much holiday spirit).  She said, "Sick, or festive?"  You all know where I stand on that issue.  Oh, some of you may not.  I am a bit of a grinch - the pre-heart swelling grinch.  But Craig, he is a frickin' eternal optimist!  As is Brigid.  Ho ho ho.

here's the px of the lights! 

As the world turns 180 degrees this morning

Hi there.  The rain has finally stopped (well, it stopped yesterday).  It is supposed to be sunny for a few days. 

Things have changed once again.  Now we are told we can continue with our building as planned.  Which would be a lot better if the construction crew was actually still in town!  We are working with them to plan a return date.  That could be later today, it could be tomorrow, it could be Monday could be in a week.  We are not sure. 

My mom told me on Wed to wait two days and they would call and all would be well.  So at the moment she is 1 for 1 on this project.  I am sure she has kept a much more updated tally over the years (and if she is willing, she can fill us all in).  If she goes into the business of predictions or whatnot, I will let you all know.  But I am advising her to start that business in her existing home, not trying to build a new space!

Let's all hope that what we are hearing today is good in perpetuity and that mom doesn't create a reversal of things two days from now.

Rain sets in

Well, it is supposed to rain for a couple of more days.  Which is probably ok at this point.

Remember we were discussing the disconnect between lawyers, insurance brokers, accountant and bankers earlier in the blog?  If not, well,  there you have it.  The type of business the lawyers want you to set up may not be what the accountants think is best and so forth.  We have dealt with a lot of that type of stuff. 

Now we are onto a new set of disconnects.  As my friend Ed says, "Sometimes you get all the gov't you pay for."  So work is still progressing a head of a line of rain clouds but once it stops today, we are not sure when it will start again. 

If you are thinking of starting a business or doing new construction, please make sure that the people you are dealing with know what you are doing.  We are now going to be halted for a week or two because after explaining what we were doing extensively, supplying drawings, write ups, forms, etc, someone did not get the message.  And that miscommunication is unfortunately pivotal to everything.  Yes, people make mistakes.  But if you want to know that things are going the way you need them to, those people really should be willing to talk to you, listen to you and answer your questions. 

We will keep you updated but do us a favor and keep your fingers crossed.

If you are not familiar with Office Max's Elf Yourself program, let me tell you, it has been a great stress reliever the last couple of days!  Google it and enjoy!

Fun stuff from framing day

Fri and Sat were absolutely beautiful days.  And none of us were inclined to do much other than sit in the sun and watch construction.  There is a lot of goofiness when we all get together (bodes well for work ethics, eh??).  Here are some random shots from yesterday.

 

 

Trussed Up

Well, the last truss went up about 12:50 pm.  The work crew says they have about 1 hour left of work then they are heading back to Lancaster, PA.  New crew (which includes some of the old crew) will be back on Monday.  It has been a beautiful day to be out watching all the excitement.  As you can see, it got to some of us....But when the pizza arrived, they both perked right up again!

Day 2 construction

 The work crew stayed until 9:30 last night (it gets dark about 5:30 / 6:00 these days) and were back at it by 7:30 this morning.  I do not know why but I was really surprised to see a crane here.  How did I think the four man crwe was going to hoist the trusses up there??  I have no idea! 


Claire is having a great time exploring the machinery and Brigid is having some nice paca moments!