John Deere 125

In the last post I shared our relief at overcoming the “real estate hell” and finally settling down here in our new home in Phoenix.  The house was built in 1951 and has been beautifully remodeled but there are still things to do/repair or bring up to our specifications.  Had the A/C checked, discovered some obstruction in a sewer line that Mr. Rooter took care of, and in the process of replacing some ceiling fans discovered that an existing fan in another part of the house has the same code for the remote!  Most importantly though, here we are in the most urban area we’ve lived in and a big purchase was this; a John Deere riding lawn tractor.

As for the shop, I’ve focused a lot of energy there so I’ll share the progress with you.  It started out having a porch area that is about 80 square feet.  The initial plan was to simply remove the single door and replace it with a double door so that larger material could be taken in and larger projects could be taken out.  Diane suggested enclosing that porch area which is what we ended up doing.

Original Design

Open Concept

To span the complete opening required a substantial 4″x 12″ beam of about 12′ length.  Hard to find a good, straight piece like that anymore so after calling the city planners learned that a GlueLam would support the roof load at only 7 1/2″ wide rather than the 12″ beam.  Ordered one from Ponderosa Lumber at 10′ and it was delivered the next day.  Installation was relatively easy with Diane’s help until it rolled on me and allowed me to add my blood to the project!

10′ Glue Lam in Place

Gotta put your blood into it!!

The GlueLam rolled on me when I set it up on two ladders.  Head wounds like to bleed a lot so once that was under control Diane was able to set it on one of the cripples at one end while I did the same on the opposite end.  Once in place an additional cripple was nailed on either side for good support.  You can see in the left hand picture the temporary supports placed under the rafter tails on the outside — this is a load bearing wall.

The west and east side walls were framed on the porch then slid outside and stood up.  The west side has a window while the east side is solid wall.

Going up ……

….. lifted onto slab

Top plate cut to span freeze block

In place!

Steel gussets were screwed to the top plate and existing facia board.  The south side wall was a bit more of a challenge since it had to be framed up on the dirt/mud!  Luckily, the previous owner left all of the form boards used for the shop stacked up behind.  They became the platform for framing that wall.  It will have a six foot pair of French Doors to allow plenty of light into the shop.  They will look better than a garage type door too.  This wall sits on the outside of the 4″x4″ posts that support the porch roof.  Great effort was taken to make sure the door opening is square!

Framed up outside

Carefully squared

In place — yeah!

The slab is about 7″ above the grade so after Diane and I set the wall up against the posts I’d lift one end, she’d stick a couple of 2×4’s under it then repeat that on the opposite end.  Now, we could lift it to the slab level, square it up and secure it in place — Nice!

Wrapped, Wired, and Windowed

There was some new wiring that needed to be done, boxes added for exterior light and outlet and then the entire structure was wrapped prior to installing the window.  Home Depot is just a few blocks away so next up is buying the siding to match and get this addition closed up.  The door should be here in 2 weeks and if the salesman was right, should just slip into my perfectly square, 72″ x 80″ opening.  At this point the addition is completely wrapped and the window has been installed.