Umm...Can We Build Stuff Yet?

A couple of quick announcements: first, Jessie taught me how to do HTML, so now all my pictures in previous posts are clickable links to see the full-size ones...so, enjoy that. Second, I apologize if our first day of blog creation/posting got everyone all hyped for a 6-post-per-day average, forever. Clearly, we don't keep up that kind of pace (we'll try harder). I feel like we've been running nonstop since we both got sick last week. This weekend, we'll get some serious progress made.

One of the reasons for that, is that in theory we will be able to figure out building permits for our lovely town. Unfortunately, in a town of around 2,000 people there isn't much for online support for such questions. By that, I mean there is zero online information about building permits, but that doesn't change the fact that we apparently need one to build a fence.

Of course, this doesn't stop us from picking up materials and starting it. My dad finally got a chance to come see the house and took a run to Home Depot so we could get more lumber with both cars at once. Along the way, I prodded his brain for handy rules of thumb for building things, as I often do. For example, common measurement for stair dimensions is 2 x rise + run = 27", meaning for our stair case we would have an 8" rise with an 11" tread width (2 x 8 + 11 = 27!).

At this point, you may be thinking, "wait, I thought he said they were building a fence...I think he's doing it wrong." Well, YOU'RE wrong. Turns out, our deck staircase wraps around down to the place where cars are supposed to park, which makes sense for that, but not for where we wanted to fence in an area for Optimus. So naturally we decided it made the most sense to add an identical staircase going out the other side of the current one and just build the fence straight off of that. This way, Optimus can walk right down into the yard, while the other staircase will have a spring-closed gate. There will be more detail on all this when we get more done on it this weekend.

We only spent an hour or two (me cutting the stringers while Jessie cut the decking boards for the treads) and got all the stair pieces cut and ready. At this point, we had to stop, because we don't have a building permit and we really need to dig two postholes to put the 4x4s in at the bottom to actually secure the stairs. Then, we have to dig another 18 postholes for the fence. Great. Looking forward to that. Hey, maybe the 96-degree heat and humidity can come back too. Can't wait...

The rest of the fence will come together really quickly once the posts are set because it is a cost-optimized fence, thus, it is way cheaper than any pre-made fence and while it won't be fancy, it will be effective, cheap, and easy, plus it will match the house reasonably well. Soon enough, we'll be able to let Optimus loose without literally letting him loose in the neighborhood. That will be a good thing.

Tom

Currently listening to "Ebon Coast" by Andy McKee