Sometimes It's Good to Put Up Walls

I just stumbled upon an old email from my speech class professor from last semester. In his farewell to us students he said, encouraging us to pursue further education, "Yes, you'll get sleepy, yes you'll be short of money, yes you'd sometimes rather be doing something else. However, you get one crack at this thing called "Life". Gotta push yourself."

I've been sleepy (even slept in today), I'm short of money, and though I love what I'm doing, sometimes I'd rather relax than work all day every day. His words are timely, and in my opinion, good advice for anyone, anytime! I think I'll rise early tomorrow and get me some walls built!! It's time to push myself, indeed.

Sid and Joel helped me raise my first wall yesterday. I had hoped to get more people to help, but we were able to get the job done. It was a little scary for me to lift so much weight above my entire body. In the middle of the job, I was thinking to myself, "Why am I not wearing my hardhat?? I hope I don't get squished!" Despite my nervousness, the wall went up and with a bunch of advice from Joel and Sid, we got it pretty close to being plumb (perfectly vertical). I did the design and layout for the next wall, and then worked on framing that today as well.

Saturday night, I bought more windows, so yesterday, I was still planning their locations, and thus still designing my wall frames. I think I have it all figured out now, and I'm getting a lot faster at making wall frame plans. I realized I don't need a full blueprint style drawing for each wall, just the dimensions and locations of the windows and doors. The rest of the plan is just studs every 16 inches so I'm not even bothering to draw them now. Almost all my lumber is cut for the next 24 foot wall, so I'm ready to do a lot of nailing tomorrow.

Today after sleeping in, I went to Sid's and picked up all the lumber we milled for my headers. That took longer than expected; I forgot how many boards we cut from those logs Bryan gave me! Then I unloaded and stacked them at my cabin and had to go to Bemidji to get more materials from Home Depot. I was annoyed they had my order in four days ago and never called me, but once I got there, they were so nice to me I couldn't stay mad.

In addition to lumber, I also picked up a really nice looking bathroom vanity with a sink. It was on sale for half-off. I already have the one bathroom sink I bought from the guy who sold me the kitchen cabinets, but recently I've been thinking it would be so nice to have a half bath in the loft, so I'll need two sinks. Plus, Lynea says I can only have one funky fixture per room in order for it to look cool, not junky. So this new, modern, stylish sink/cabinet will look great with that retro light fixture I got a while back.

I shored up some lose ends on my floor and cut a bunch of lumber for headers and trimmer studs. I placed one header (of three in the current wall project) before it started to get dark.

I also had another surprise visitor today! Her name is Alliyah and she lives at the next house to the north of my cabin site. She brought her friend Curt down with her on bicycles and came over to check out my project. I think she was around 9 or 10 years old and reminded me very much of Ellie from the movie Up. She had short bobbed hair and I liked her right away because some of it was purple. She wanted to know, "Are you building a garage or a house for someone? Because it's kind of small for a house." I told her she was right, it is small for a house, but that it was just that and that I was building it for myself. Then she explained about how her goats might come over to my place because their fence is broken and her dad is a fishing guide so he doesn't have time in the summer to fix it and then in winter the ground is frozen. She says he'll have to get to it in spring or fall. I told her, "Well, your goats are welcome here any time," and she replied, "No they are not! If they came over here, they would probably go right in your basement and on your house! They might even try to climb that ladder." Then she told me all about their horses and Guinea birds and invited me over to meet her parents whenever I want. She said, "We're usually there. My mom is the kind of person who stays at home. You should come meet her because my whole family is really nice." If they are anything like her, I believe her.


Here's my first wall, standing tall! I don't think this picture portrays the magnitude very well, but in person it looks really enormous! Normal walls are 8 feet tall, but I'm building mine with 12 foot studs to provide more head clearance in the loft, so these walls will be 12 feet, four and a half inches including the bottom sill and two top plates.


After raising the wall, I drove Sid to get his car from the mechanic. Along the way, he showed me one of his favorite hunting spots, Rice Lake. It was so beautiful there! To access the lake, one must cross a long swamp. Lucky for me, an Eagle Scout built this boardwalk last summer spanning over three hundred feet of marshland! It was a very impressive construction.


Rice Lake in all its glory.


After I dropped Sid off at his car, I saw a guy walking his horse. Apparently, I need to start a photo album entitled, "Things I've Only Seen In Minnesota." I'm pretty sure Jeff Foxworthy would have something to say about this. You may be wondering, "Is that a mustang that guy has?" But no, I'm pretty sure it's a Shetland Pony...

If you don't like the weather in Becida, just wait ten minutes.


Land of firey sunsets


One more anecdote, if you're not bored to tears yet. I had a funny conversation while loading lumber in my truck today. CJ was the young man helping me and as we loaded two-by-fours, he asked, "What are you doing with all this lumber?" At first I was surprised there is still someone at Home Depot who doesn't know all about me and my cabin. Usually when they see me in there it's, "Hey Jon, how's the cabin coming?" Or, "Did you get that mud all cleaned out of your basement all right?"

So I told CJ I'm building my dream house. And his response came, "Oh, like in that movie the Notebook?"

I said jokingly, "Yeah, pretty much, only my life is much more romantic than that."

Then he asked, "Why, do you already have the girl?"

And I said, "Yeah, actually, I do." Then I asked him if that was the one where the guy had a terminal illness and he reminded me it's the one where he's poor and the girl is rich. I felt all super lucky and stuff.

Yep, just one crack at this thing!