Category: Building

theworkshop.ca – Home Page

By , July 1, 2008 1:01 pm

theworkshop.ca – Home Page

This is a link that Steve sent me some time back that I went and looked at (for a long time) and then forgot to post. Lots of good how-to stuff of all kinds!

Lucas Kuys’ Ark

By , May 26, 2008 10:38 am

Shedworking: Beach Hut Tuesday – Lucas Kuys’ Ark

Interesting design for a beach side hut/building. I like the concept and execution. Well built, compact and looks like it was built with mostly recycled materials.

Shedworking: Children Need Sheds Too – Rainmac

By , April 9, 2008 9:21 pm

Shedworking: Children Need Sheds Too – Rainmac


Rainmac is run by wife and husband team Raie Macdonnell and Colin who build child-friendly shepherds’ hut-like playhouses for children (although they also recognise the potential for small office use). Each measures 10’ by 5’ by 8’ high, is built of marine plywood and pine, has a roof light and two opening windows (with curtains and pelments) plus a seat/small pullout bed.

These are just too cool! 😎 And give me too many ideas… 🙄 😉

A Low Impact Woodland Home

By , April 6, 2008 8:12 pm

A Low Impact Woodland Home

I know I’ve posted about this house before but I think he’s got a new site, and I know that some of the stuff on the site is new. Good stuff! And I still want to build one!

Hanging Stair by Blencowe Levine : TreeHugger

By , April 4, 2008 9:01 pm

Hanging Stair by Blencowe Levine : TreeHugger

Interesting concept and one I rather like.

Shedworking: Cody Studio

By , April 4, 2008 4:21 pm

Shedworking: Cody Studio

Rather interesting design. I like the green roof and chains directing the water runoff from the gutters. Simple and effective.

Brunel cement find is world first

By , April 3, 2008 1:28 pm

Brunel cement find is world first

Interesting archaeological find pushes back the date of the first major usage of Portland Cement.

Shelving Monday

By , February 4, 2008 9:48 pm

Figured out what I would need to do the 28 feet of shelves. Found the bits and cut the long pieces in half. Cleaned (kinda, sorta) and dried the steel and started the installation. After a couple of tries decided on 6 shelves and a 12 inch high area at floor level for large and reference books. There is also a shelf a foot from the ceiling so we will figure on 8 shelves per section. As of a few minutes ago I now have all but one shelf in place and that one needs a blue cross piece that is over at the other trailer and I don’t feel like braving the elements (dark) tonight. 🙄

Anyway that figures up to 224 feet of liner shelf space. I counted the books in 4 feet earlier tonight and it came out to 54. Didn’t take an average. But that figures to 13.5 books per foot. So the shelves we have on that wall will hold about 3024 books. Guess that would round off to 3000 or so.

Have decided to move the 10 x 55 trailer with the tin roof up here and butt the back end up to the east most door of the trailer here now. That should give us enough sq footage to house all the books that are in the q-hut now. That way I can move the machine tools into the q-hut and have a real work area with cement floor, instead of fighting the dirt in the barn. Much work remains but it seems to make more sense than any other idea I have had so far.

Doing some rough figuring it seems that using the cross walls and all the long walls we should be able to house 16000+ books in the 10 x 55 trailer. Should be enough for now. 😯 🙄 😎

About had enough for the day so am gonna call it a night. Till I type again… 😎

Sunday Redux, Monday Tired

By , February 4, 2008 11:05 am

Or something.

For those (most of you reading this) that haven’t been in the compound here that we call home, the bit I wrote yesterday about shelving and nicknack’s most likely didn’t make a lot of sense. For those that have been here, no further explanation is necessary.

Starting at the beginning, the reason I call it a compound is that it’s not just one dwelling even though there are only the two of us living here. There is the original building which I put up 20+ years ago that is the quonset hut. I then built a greenhouse onto the back of it of which half is still here (though not for long) and houses the bathroom and laundry facilities. The next addition was a 12 by 60 mobile home/office building that I moved in at a right angle to the back of the q-hut and is offset to the east by about 4 feet. We then removed half the greenhouse and built a 2 story room that joined the greenhouse half that was left, the q-hut and the mobile home. An additional room 12 x 16 was added to the back of the 2 story part to house the plants, heater, and firewood storage.

The mobile home part is used mainly for storage. The main room is about 24 by 11 and has floor to ceiling shelves around most of it. The bit we moved yesterday was a 12 by 3 foot wooden shelf from a school building that we had on the floor along the south wall under the windows. This was filled with assorted glassware and stuff that we both collect, rocks, old turtle shells, feathers, and ceramic pieces to name a few of the many items. Hundreds of pieces. All of which had to be moved off the shelves, and put elsewhere so we could move the shelf across the room and screw it to the opposite wall above the couch and chair on that wall. Which we did. I went looking for a support for one corner and found a beaver stick that was just right, trimmed to fit and screwed into place. That’s one that they won’t use in their damn dams again! Then every piece had to be dusted, cleaned if necessary and put back on the shelves. After I made a few more shelves that is. Still got to cut two more, and am procrastinating by typing this out. 🙄 But we are much closer than we were.

After getting the last of the stuff back on the relocated shelves will start on an additional 16 feet of floor to ceiling shelves for more of our books. Then we can move the books off the 12 feet of shelves now on that wall (which have to be moved 7 inches to allow for the full 16 feet of new shelves). So much moving and rearranging fun, so little energy. 🙁

And that’s what yesterday was all about. Other than splitting half a truckload of wild cherry to keep the home fire burning. And loading it, then unloading it. And cooking the 12 inch dutch oven full of chicken and veggies. I am quite tired today for some reason, but would like to get at least 3 sections of the new shelves up so we can start moving the books off the existing units so we can dismantle and move them. Multiple sequential vortices anyone?

And I am off to find shelving steel and cut the same. Stuff I have is 12 feet tall so am cutting it in half and making 6 foot shelving units. Then adding another shelf attached to the wall about a foot under the ceiling. Doesn’t look the best but works and has the least waste of anything I could come up with. 😎

Is it a Prefab or is it a Boat? : TreeHugger

By , January 25, 2008 9:38 pm

Is it a Prefab or is it a Boat? : TreeHugger

Now this is a WAY COOL prefab! For really cold places.

Shepherds Hut , Living Van , Summerhouse , Caravan – Ashwood Timber

By , January 25, 2008 9:02 pm

Shepherds Hut , Living Van , Summerhouse , Caravan – Ashwood Timber

Shepherds hut and log mobile homes. Interesting company and some good looking products.

takasugi-an, terunobu fujimori at materialicious

By , January 20, 2008 10:55 am

takasugi-an, terunobu fujimori at materialicious

Way cool Tea/Tree house! Check out the links at the end of the article and in the comments too. Good stuff!

Tea house on stilts

Home | Art Shanty Projects

By , January 19, 2008 3:12 pm

Home | Art Shanty Projects

Neat stuff but makes me COLD just looking at it. Course some of my cold may be cause there is snow on the ground here and it IS cold in here but not near as cold as there. 😯 😉

Below The Clouds » Trappa av TAF Arkitektkontor

By , January 19, 2008 1:33 pm

Below The Clouds » Trappa av TAF Arkitektkontor

Interesting out of the box stair tread design. Cool stuff! 😎

Del’s jelly bean build blog

By , December 7, 2007 10:46 am

Del’s jelly bean build blog

Whole lotta building and bending going on!

Eighth wonder of the world? The stunning temples secretly carved out below ground by ‘paranormal’ eccentric | the Daily Mail

By , November 26, 2007 4:50 pm

Eighth wonder of the world? The stunning temples secretly carved out below ground by ‘paranormal’ eccentric | the Daily Mail

Wild stuff! Would like to see more of this place.

Kitchen counter is almost done

By , November 1, 2007 7:51 pm

Got the kitchen counter done today. Tile that I had to cut got ground down a bit for a better/cleaner fit. Used the belt sander to clean the edges and ends up. Worked fine. Another couple of days work and I think we are ready to go camping. 😉
Continue reading 'Kitchen counter is almost done'»

Kitchen Plans for Patches

By , October 24, 2007 10:36 am

Got to the part that I have been dreading, the kitchen wall. Sat and thunk most of the day yesterday. With the rain it was hard to do much wood cutting so did what I could and spent the rest of the time trying out different bits in my head. The following rough drawing is what Cat and I came up with:
Continue reading 'Kitchen Plans for Patches'»

Camper Inside Going In Slowly…

By , October 15, 2007 8:10 pm

Getting closer. Got almost all the ceiling panels bent and in place. One more on top and the front wall to go. Hope to get that done tomorrow weather permitting.

Continue reading 'Camper Inside Going In Slowly…'»

Camper as of October 10, 2007

By , October 10, 2007 7:56 pm

Got the windows in (and yes, Steve, they ARE the only type of Windows that I do) as well as the door. Still got a lot of the inside to finish but getting a LOT closer every day.

Continue reading 'Camper as of October 10, 2007'»

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