Once the walls were standing, I was able to start putting on the sheathing (plywood). This make-shift scaffolding was a little shaky at times.
The guy that I hired to help me quit in the middle of the job. The entire time he was there he kept asking me when it was break time. I guess he was not cut out for this type of work. Anyway, I had to do the rest on my own. Actually, I was relieved, as I was able to focus 100% on my goals, and the physical shape I was getting in was incredible. Again, this looks a lot harder than it really is.
Each sheer board required 68 nails. Thank God for the nail gun! The nail gun made the job easy, but because it is a little heavy, it had my arm aching at the end of the day. Holding myself up and balancing on that narrow board made it even more challenging. I tip my hat to construction workers. This is hard work!
After experiencing, at times, severe back aches, three smashed fingers, a badly bruised shin, which felt broken, my right arm swollen from more than 8,000 swings of the hammer and countless other minor ailments, at last, the framing is FINISHED!!!
With the roof trusses not due for another month, I decided to work on the outside electrical, which required trenches 18" deep. I rented a trenching machine to help. Because it only had three wheels, it kept falling back in the holes. What should have taken an hour to complete ended up taking three hard hours!
After the trenches were complete, I went to our local building supply center to purchase some conduit. This went rather smoothly.
With the trenches dug, I was able to lay the pipes down. The electric conduits are laid in the ground; here again, the job looks harder than it really is. It's pretty much like a jigsaw puzzle, you just need to know where to put the pieces.
Taking the conduit around this corner was rather tricky. It was a tight squeeze. This is where the main breaker box for the studio will be located. I originally designed the pipe to go under the foundation, but the prepipe I installed for size turned out to be way too small, leaving me no choice but to come from the back instead.
Since my electrical conduit ended up crossing the lawn sprinklers, I had to take the conduit under the sprinklers. At one point I thought of just cutting right through them. Instead, I was able to tunnel underneath.
Chapter 3 The Studio Roof
