Building a near free RV storage garage

Started by glenn-k, January 28, 2006, 02:27:40 AM

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glenn-k

#75
Thanks, John.  One of the more important things Kathy does is continuously clean up after me as I make messes while building.  I can trash a place quicker than anyone I know.

Always time for Countryplans - even in Napa--

I'm sure we're still under $200 total cash outlay on this project.  How it looks, even built with junk and recycled stuff is fairly important to me.  I find that the things we love about old buildings are not how straight , neat and perfectly aligned everything is.  That has it's place in modern conventonal houses.  Think of the cool places you like - old mine buildings  - crooked little shacks -fishing shanties - Disneyland rides- tree houses - then use things you find or make -odd unusual or whatever to make things look cool - not always straight and neat.  Rush the old look along a bit. :)

I'm hoping  that as the docent shows people through my estate she will tell the story of the eccentric old man who dug all of these holes in the mountainside.   Maybe somehow a bit before that time we could make a few bucks off of it. :)

glenn-k

#76
New toys slowing progress on the garage along with real work 5 days per week at this time.

I am redoing the drainage in front of the garage today after I got the new tracks mounted on the beast.  Some of the rocks go 2 or 3 feet into the ground and no matter how much horsepower you have, you  must pick them out one at a time.  Some take quite a while as they fit to each other like a jigsaw puzzle.  Now time to fix the hose on the Bobcat hydraulic jackhammer and give it a try.

105 turbocharged horsepower on an 11000 lb. machine is enough to do some pretty good damage.  This thing has the guts to spin the tracks going uphill loaded.  We have pointed rocks embedded in clay so the tracks should prevent destroying the tires.  I can now go up, down and sideways with very little fear of tipping the Bobcat over.  Seems it will take about a 30 to 40% grade sideways now that I have added 1000 lbs of tracks to the bottom.  The bucket is near a cubic yard capacity when heaped.  It will go up a nearly vertical bank a couple feet high backwards with a bit of a push from the bucket.  I added spacers to the hubs to make the tracks clear the frame and the tracks  added a few inches on each side also, greatly increasing stability.  This machine feels very stable even on a steep sidehill with rocks sticking out, unlike Bobcats without tracks.  I cleared out a couple thousand square feet of poison oak on a sidehill in about 20 minutes.

I'm so excited operating the 963 with the new tracks  that I feel I have superpowers.  Now I know how my son felt when he got his Spiderman Underoos for his 16th birthday. :)  (OKay - so he really won them on a radio station contest, but I had to get it in there that he was 16 years old and ecstatic about it.)



If you have hilly country property with brush and dirt projects, I highly recommend that you rent or buy one of these toys.  (Probably a good idea to keep your seat belt fastened along with the safety bar like I do just in case you get that unexpected "E" ticket ride.)


Daddymem

Looks like fun...I'd think I'd be a menace in that though.  ;)

glenn-k

My wife said she had to go inside the house.  She said she prayed.  Good thing she did -- probably kept me from endo-ing that thing down the hillside forward.

It's more fun than ---I was gonna say pockets in your underwear--- but I messed that saying up.  It's handier than pockets in your underwear.  There - now I got it right.  I am not sure what it's more fun than - never had anything that fun yet.

Amanda_931

I need one!

Between hills and poison ivy, I need one!


Daddymem

Have you rolled it yet? (on purpose of course...gotta test the safety equipment somehow, right?)

Sassy

Daddymem!  Quit egging Glenn on!!  :o

glenn-k

#82
I'm trying to keep from rolling it, Daddymem.  Sometimes the 200 lbs of fresh meat pulling the levers doesn't fare well in a multiple rollover situation.  Reminds me - I better check the ROPS fastening nuts -- had them loose the other day.  Not many things worse than loose nuts.  :-/  Slid sideways on the sidehill rocks and did a track wheely coming up the hill Sunday- gotta love that turbo.  After all that prayer in the Underground Cabin I thought I was invinceable.  I think this thing is near impossible to roll---yeah ---sure.

glenn-k

Finally weather is cooperating and I am taking a work break.  Played with the Bobcat enough to be able to get out of the seat for at least a few minutes.  Yesterday I was feeling tired and needed rest so I jumped into the Bobcat and made fire trails around my and my neighbors property.  Talk about waking up!!  Did you know if you put about a 4000 lb boulder in the bucket of one of these things with tracks you can go up hills forward that are so steep you don't even want to walk up them? Got a bit more roof done this morning -- way too much coffee.



glenn-k

#84
Well - I finally built the 20 foot loft door.  

No -- it's not 20 feet tall ---- It's just that if you stand 20 feet away and look at it, it looks pretty good. :)

I'm not quite done yet.  As Mark Chenail says--- the trim will cover it.  I just had to nail it up temporarily --for a while---- for my viewing pleasure. :-/

I know, PEG --- the floor is a disaster area.  Sassy wanted me to save it for her, or I would have picked it up. ::)




peg_688

Quote


I know, PEG --- the floor is a disaster area.  Sassy wanted me to save it for her, or I would have picked it up. ::)




  [size=12]

 :o Jees ya think :o  :o  ;D  Maybe the goat broke her leg in there, then the coyotes got her :o :o

 BTW your door looks pretty good by truck light ;)



 [/size]


glenn-k

It's all in the lighting, PEG.

You know my style--
Rustic Functional :)

glenn-k

#87
Finally a break from work and a bit of time to get back onto this project.

I wanted to get started on the walkway on the driveway side as it would make things look more finished --- something I have a problem doing around here.

Framing was added on the 4'6" long 3x6 beams attached to the foundation.  I want a no cost walkway so chose rammed earth over salvage timbers and rock walls.



I put landscape netting over the timbers to tie the bottom of the clay together.  The clay rammed is good for about 100 lbs per square inch or more so will support walking and other loads just fine - the foundation under it is creosoted salvage 3x6's laid flat, rock or other rammed earth.  Later I will put a coating on the clay such as linseed oil or Henry's 107 in one of the formulations from Dirtcheap builder.



A load of fairly non-expansive mineral clay with some claystone and rock as dug saved from the excavation process is brought up in the Bobcat to put over the walkway to make the rammed earth walk.



I brought a few rocks from various places with the Bobcat  It has a 6000 lb tipping load and was tipping.  Rocks were out the front a bit so probably were at least 4000 to 5000 lbs each.  They were also permanent forms for the rammed earth as well as retaining walls to make the walk more level.  There is a small French drain made out of rocks under the walk at the  front of the building to help keep the timbers dry even though they are treated.



Here's about all that is going to get done for today.  At least it's more than was done yesterday.

deertracks

Lookin good Glenn, and free is great. Now that's what I call ROCKS!! Our new neighbors just brought in some of those fake rocks. I have a little problem with them. Certain things just shouldn't be faux!!
deertracks


peg_688

#89
 Nice Rocks Glenn :) Boy one of those mothers rolls a guy could smash a finger ;)

Nice Bob cat  :)  Sassy's sez you like it better than C/Plans  :o

PEG

glenn-k

Thanks, Deertracks.  

I forgot to mention that I got the idea of rammed earth over wood from the Anasazi Indians of the Southwest.  Their dwellings use dirt over tree limb framing which is covered over with smaller limbs.  This makes a solid floor  or roof after clay is rammed on top.  The limbs are exposed below in their dwellings.  Many still standing after 400 to 800 years or better.

glenn-k

#91
Jigs up I guess, huh PEG.  Yep --I smashed it - I still haven't figured out how - I was throwing about a 200 lb rock behind the left big rock - I readjusted it to make it set better and --dang it --didn't pull that finger out quick enough.  Got about a 1 1/2 inch long gash filleted about to the bone on the side of my left index finger.  

Made it hard to do that work today ---no-- I didn't go to the doctor -- they scare me.  I'm a wuss.



Note - the rest are there -just folded over.  I'm not that careless. :-/

Sassy

I tried to make him get it stitched up but he wouldn't go!  :-/ It closed up pretty good so figured if he didn't use it much it would be ok - but of course, he's not very cooperative, so now its been bleeding - just want to make sure he doesn't get it infected... he could still move the finger, so no tendons/ligaments cut.  I could have borrowed the suture stapler from my brother & stapled it up... my sister got it for him because he won't go to the doctor either - would sew up his cuts himself so she figured it was better for him to staple it!   :o  Men!  

glenn-k

Forgot to mention the Bobcat.

Walking down the road today I looked back at it tenderly and told it I loved it.  It's engine purred. :-[

It is the most exciting thing I've found since Sassy went on that first airplane ride to Mexico with me.

peg_688

Well you got that nurse right there so who needs a stinkin doctor , nurse's are much nicer they say :-/ :-/

 Photos even, you must have been planning ahead ta fess up as the photo is a day time shot  ;D

 Ya know I'm not sure the nurse nice thing is true . My sister is a nurse.

  My brother in law fell off his bike , peddle type ,  < he's a phy. putz , computer design engineer wiz,  but don't ask him for a screw driver you might get a butter knife , but that's another story. >  

  He falls off his bike and breaks his elbow, ::)

     < it's still not right and this was 3 years ago >  
 
 , anyway he calls my sister on his cell phone he's like 100 yards from home , she drives down and loads him in the car , drives back home , tells him " If your going to pass out toot the horn . I'm going to get dressed!"  :o :o :o
   She was in her house coat and P- Jays . She goes in the house changes , quickly , then drives him to the hospital . ::)

I'm thinkin lets head right to the hospital :o :o , poor David was in so much pain he couldn't say much of anything he said , so he just layed still. :'(

 My sister the nurse ;D kind / compassionate, stylish ;)


Sassy

#95
Well, PEG, there really wasn't any hurry... I woulda gotten dressed too.  You know how emergency depts are--everyone that goes there thinks they have an emergency  ::)  ;) they probably sat there for a few hours anyway  :-/

(BTW, wasn't that a professional job I did with the yellow & red bandaids? )

glenn-k

I thought about it and took the picture but the picture was so good I didn't really want to put that beat up hand on there.  Figured I could if I shrunk it.  Time for the smooth skin cream.

There used to be a guy at work when I worked in the diesel shop -- Claude --- whenever he grabbed a heavy tool or hammer I was advised to run the other way.  He didn't have fingers ---he had spatulas --- flattened out stubbs of bone sticking out of the palms of his hands with battered skin over them.  He didn't worry about his own hands or anyone elses.  Hope I don't get that bad. :-/

peg_688

QuoteWell, PEG, there really wasn't any hurry... I woulda gotten dressed too.  You know how emergency depts are--everyone that goes there thinks they have an emergency  ::)  ;) they probably sat there for a few hours anyway  :-/

(BTW, wasn't that a professional job I did with the yellow & red bandaids? )


Like I said it's a myth the kind nurse. :o :o
 
 I could tell Glenn didn't do it , he'd have used duct tape  ;) I like the blue painters tape myself , the blue looks nicer than gray ;)

Sassy

#98
Good ole duct tape - I've seen a few patients come into the ER with that... I always have to laugh cuz it reminds me of Glenn & my brother - sometimes it's electrical tape...

if we made too much of a fuss over every little thing, our patients would freak out... we just have to make them think it isn't a big deal  ;)

Amanda_931

My local pharmacy has Gen-U-Wine duct tape adhesive bandages!

I've had it brought home to me too many times (recently--once with me, once with C.B. Barker) that if you don't get things stitched up they take about four times longer to heal.

My chopping onions one that did get a couple of stitches is still a bit numb.  C.B.'s cut actually cost more, and I was paying full retail price for mine, but the doctor's office was still open when I went, so no emergency room surcharge.

I do love the bandaids.