Worker Bees!

Fredley's two fence builders -- Mr. Ed and the Brad Guy.

Moving our New Screen Along Toward Finished...

Some familar faces are back on the Fredley project -- much missed and very welcomed back -- working on our new screen.

Travis

Erin

Brad (dbBrad)

Our Crew Moves On.

Josh, Brad and Travis load up the table saw, saw horses, planer and a multitude of other tools for moving to a new job. Our barn is emptying out and we'll soon have both our car and our little tent trailer under cover. But, boy will we miss these guys.

Look at that grain.

Just yesterday, Josh said, "If I had a nickel for every time Brad's said, 'look at that grain', I'd be a rich man." It's true. Brad loves wood -- the smell and grain patterns -- and is always holding up another piece for exclamation. In this picture he is sorting, examining and exclaiming over the recycled wood that will be the trim on the guesthouse windows.

Old Roofing

Brad and Josh are putting in place the metal, from the Island County Fairground's old barn roof, reworked and cleaned up for interior use.

Tim's Metal Shop

Brad and Josh, in the background, are using the folding tool to straighten first and then fold the edges of more siding for the main living building, both inside and out. They were also planning on making the guesthouse bath's steel countertop, plus, the third task, was to cut the metal for the inside paneling on the greenhouse. Busy day! Perhaps the list was a little too long and ambitious.

Climbing High

to fix a nail...

After Work Play

Dan, Josh & Brad work at fixing the helicopter.

Carey & Dan

Onward and upward with the rafters

Dan, Travis, Josh and Brad still working at 6:30 this evening.

Guesthouse and main living connection from the west

Guesthouse and main living connection from the east

A complicated mass of steel and wood angles

Bridge handrail prototype

Using the old, rusty, but beautiful iron Brad found at Skagit Steel, here is the prototype for the bridge railing. Today five workers (Tim, Brad, Josh, Dan & Travis) are pouring on the effort to begin and finish the project. Looks to me, in these early stages, that Brad has once again brought us a creative work of art.

Rock Crusher

Travis, Dan, Josh and Brad are having a big day of lifting. Here they're unloading our new (old) rock crusher part from Brad's truck. As with the stream boulders leverage from the roof helps ease the load.

Pond Edges

Travis created very neat edges for securing the edges of the pond liner.

Stream Boulders

Josh, Dianne, Bill, Mike, Travis, Dan and Brad do some heavy stream boulder lifting. Leverage help from up on the roof; ropes, knots, muscles and team work moved some pretty heavy boulders.

Lots going on...

Josh is focused on flashing details, insulation and more sheet rock, Erin cleans the steel posts, while Dan works on the flooring for the guesthouse. Travis and Brad, not in the line of the camera, stayed busy with miscellaneous tasks of clean up, payroll, and a million other details of construction.

Mr. Ed returned from ND this a.m.! Brad and Erin departed for Bellingham this p.m., the crew is off until Monday, and Ed and I have a good movie for the evening.

It's raining, started right after I watered the vegetable garden. Temperature is 61.

"Are you in your home yet?"

This is the most common question I'm asked on the streets these days. My answer, of course, is: "Not yet, but we're closing in on it. I'd guess we're about two-thirds finished."

So why is our project taking longer than the average home?

Many answers to the question but, like so many folks working without a huge crew, it just takes longer. Our modern homes are complex and the ones we see pop up like pimples on teenagers' faces have huge crews. Contractors and subcontractors come out like lemmings to get the job done quickly. There are the crews for sheet rock, plumbing, electrical, roofing, painting, foundation, framing, cabinet work and so forth. Our project is, for the most part, being completed with only two or three skilled workers plus a bunch of unskilled helpers. Brad is our full time leader and guru. Ed and Fran fill in the cracks with part time assistance. Josh and Travis are lifting heavy loads as Brad's key workers. Plus there are others from time-to-time providing expertise, labor, advice, skill, support and friendship. But mostly the crew is small!

The complexity of our project is stunning. The solar heating and solar domestic hot water systems alone have taken a great deal of extra thinking, studying and time-consuming implementation. Brad wants our systems to be as simple as possible. Many of the solar systems being installed are very complex and intimidating for the users. In Brad's effort to achieve reliability and simplicity he, his dad, Paul, and various consultants have been madly drawing, planning and e-mailing back and forth with a million ideas and solutions.

And then there's recycling. We are not doing this the easy way by calling the building supply store and asking for a delivery. We are searching for reused materials. We are pulling nails. We are putting old recycled lumber into a usable form. We are finding old doors and sanding and repainting them. We are landscaping along the way which has included building a greenhouse entirely out of recycled materials; installing a recycled fence and growing a vegetable garden; and building a pond and stream for handling our surface water, with Brad driving the huge monster of a machine to set the rock. All of these "extras" take design and labor time.

We are building small but that does not translate into simple. Our three buildings are very complex. There are angles and structural considerations times three since we're not putting our entire 860 square feet into one building. Each building must have all the building code requirements such as whole house fan, heating, ventilation, insulation, roof with drainage, and so forth. Although each of the three buildings is small, there are still three buildings requiring design, engineering, and inspection. The systems for each building must stand along and yet all three buildings must be coordinated and linked.

The crew's individual skills are varied and complex. One moment they will be sanding wood the next driving a tractor. Then they will be cutting on the table saw, installing a roof, seating a toilet or digging a hole. It is awesome to see the skills that come to the job and that get developed along the way. In a time when it seems people can't fix a leaky toilet or change the oil in their car, it is encouraging to see the young men and women working on our project display such competence.

Would we do our home more quickly, leaving it to others? Nope. We are thoroughly enjoying our personal involvement; learning new skills; working together as a family; tackling new technology; reusing materials that would otherwise go to the landfill; and being intimately familiar with every board, tile and stone used to create our new home.

Once our buildings are completed each will appear very simple. The complexity is so carefully integrated it will be hidden from view. I can imagine the question once we're moved in, "Why did it take so long?"

We'll just grin knowingly.

Siding Complete

Josh is putting up the last piece of siding. This one last piece needed to wait until the new swallow babies fledged.

And, here is the old roofing...

Unloading the truck

A stack of rusted roofing

Brad's truck fully loaded

Guesthouse Sheetrock

Travis nailing up first sheet of sheetrock in guesthouse!

Seeing our vision take shape

Brad checking out the addition of another main living beam; Josh putting the finishing touches on the guesthouse siding.