Floor and Walls

We took the trailer to Menards to pick up the framing lumber. Road restrictions are in force now so it can't be delivered, oh well, saved me $40. I followed the guys in the Tuscon to run interference in case the trailer lights quit working, which they did. Then the Tuscon died. Just up and died on the way home. I got it restarted but WTHeck! So my car's in the shop, they think it's the fuel pump.Anyway, didn't slow us down!

Next day we get the trailer into the barn to weld some floor supports on it. The floor will extend 6 inches off either side. Roughly the width of the fender.
While dad was working on that I started staining the siding. Pittsburgh paints Dark Mahogany was was overpriced and not the color I want.

Second coat I used Thompson's water sealant in Russet. Better but still not exactly what I want. I'm ok with it though.

Floor is framed!

We used these big honking screws to attach the floor frame to the trailer deck.

I caulked the seams between the boards. The plan is to use spray foam insulation for the whole house so it wasn't important to seal the planking, the insulation will do that.

But we did need to put down some roll aluminum to cover the overhang.

Hey, now we have walls! The end wall is on the right. The one on the floor is my kitchen wall.

The sheeting on the floor is just tacked on. We need to remove it to install plumbing and insulation. There is a 4 inch strip of floor that is permanently attached to the framing along the sides so that we can put the walls up.

Also if you look at the last pic you can see the floor doesn't extend all the way to the end of the trailer. We have 2 feet open. That's where the porch will be. I haven't done any planning on porch materials yet. Just focusing on the house itself.

My First Mortgage...Sort of.

Went to Menard's with mom & dad on Friday, I was expecting that we would just price things out so we'd have an idea of when we could start building.

Well, we got a quote on framing materials, steel roofing (emerald green!), exterior siding (board and batten) and cedar shakes for the dormers and front loft. This would allow us to have it sealed up and give us time to work on the interior whenever we feel like it.

Total $1,762.79. They would give us a $100 discount if we ordered that day. I was feeling kinda bad about that, thinking there's no way I can afford that now, and crap, we just missed out on a good deal.

So we head over to windows and get an estimate on those. Eight windows total $822.97. They're cute colonial windows, low E, vinyl, that will last forever.

I was especially excited that I could get the colonial look for only $3. extra per window. I picked 4 panes, top only. So the top half of the window will have what looks like 4 panes of glass, but the divider is actually set in between the layers of glass so it's easy to clean. I'm thinking, ok, I can do $822. next week.

Mom and dad didn't want to wait. They ordered them for me, put it on their Menard's card. No interest for a year. So I figure, ok I'll just pay them back next week, instead of paying Menard's directly. Then they start discussing going back to order the rest of the materials. Don't know how I feel about that. Even though I will pay them within the year, they still have to make payments on it and I don't want to owe them anymore.

But mom has the brilliant idea of heading over to Home Depot to see if they could beat Menard's price. We spend almost an hour there. The guy could not figure out how to put together a quote and wanted us to come back the next day. In the meantime mom is applying for a Home Depot credit card, which took forever.

By the time we got out of there it was too late to go back to Menard's so we just went home.

Fast forward to the next day. Late in the day we go back to Home Depot to see if we can finally get a quote. No luck again! New guy, but he can't figure out how to put together a quote either.

So we head back to Menard's to order the stuff. The guy gives us a new quote, $1,428.02. WHAAAAT?? That's over $300. less than the quote yesterday! Did he miss something? Nope! Three different sales are going on, one just started that day. Holy cow, I'm glad we didn't order the day before!

So despite odd circumstances and stalling, my complete house exterior is ordered and going to be delivered sometime after the 20th. Grand total (with tax and delivery) of $2,572. I figure I'll have them payed off by June 30th at the latest. Then we can start work on the interior. YESSSSS!