Today was a Beautiful Sunday

Today was Sunday.

Sun day fun day

twinkling lawn blinking

beckoning come on!

Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy (in sing song).  

Sunshine is why the tarp had to come down even though it creates such gorgeous little moments like these.  It has a great noise too, bright and crisp like a smurf rice cracker.  I can't say enough good things about the tarp and feel it is a pretty awesome thing to own.

Today I got out to a late start again, but amen to that.

Some time after noon I took the tarp down and drank from a 40 with the sun on my face while Bob Dylan played on the cassette player.  It was time to put up the beam on the brick wall.  This would end up taking the rest of the daylight hours.

I had to go to Home Depot again because i couldn't find a 9/16'' socket and needed a larger drill bit to make holes for the bolts I was driving into the bricks.  I also bought some washers.  Emily had advised me to go to a nicer small hardware store around the corner, but they were closed.  

Today marks the first pangs of frustration.  Getting the anchors to do their job was tough.  It was probably because i was just using skinny carriage bolts, not real anchors.   They worked really well when building the last loft, so (I figured), as they say, "if it ain't broke"...

Two posts on brick.  ladder.  i put two anchors in the middle post, because it will be holding a brace that is going to straighten out the opposite wall.

Aforementioned brace.  The 2 x 4 in the image was screwed into the crossbrace to prop it up.  I needed Emily's help to get it in place.  We tried forcing the wall in by hand, her pushing outside, me pulling inside, but couldn't get the last inch.  Since being brutish didn't work, I used a ratcheting tie down to pull to wall in from the 2 x 4 prop.

Here I'm using the same ratchet trick to straighten out the side wall.  This method worked really well and I'll probably use it a lot when securing the outer walls to the new framework.

Good News- It was a beautiful fall day- warm, sunny and generally full of good vibes.  I listened to Lou Reed, Echo and the Bunnymen, Nirvana, and Emily worked on a variety of iTunes playlists I could hear in between tape flipping.  Sophie and I chilled in the hammock for a while and Will made me bow tie noodles.

Both crossbeams are up and there is a brace straightening out the far long wall.  Moving forward.  Next issue: Wes tries to hastily notch and hang a beam without assistance!