Seeing as how so many people in the city were concerned about me worrying my pretty little head with the manly things like building supplies, Gungnir and I decided that we'd have to make the trip into Fairbanks together so he could fake that he was the designer and engineer of our cabin. Gosh, don't you just love the sticks?!?
Anyway, for both of us to be gone from the tent, it meant that we had to take Ripley and Charlie with us. Imagine, for a moment, how fun a 4 hour drive (each way) on back roads can be in a standard cab pickup with two adults, an adult-sized dog and cat who really hates traveling. All that after we had to secure the site and button up the tent so no critters ransacked it while we were gone for 3 days. Good thing I had the foresight to build kick-away stairs on our tent platform, or I'm sure some beastie would have had a field day.
So after being on the road for what seemed like an eternity, we ended up staying at a friend's house who was out of town. They have 3 dogs themselves, an poor Ripley really isn't used to other animals, or other people, or walls, or doors, or small yards. And she certainly wasn't used to being left alone while Mom & Dad went out shopping... poor baby has never been left alone since we got her as a puppy since you really can't lock a dog in a tent and it's been too cold to just stake her out somewhere. All-in-all she handled it pretty well, but she was a nervous wreck most of the time.
We managed to get the bulk of our building materials ordered and the lumber yard will be delivering them in a couple weeks. With good fortune, we should have the trail finished and the gravel pad laid before they dump our stuff at the side of the highway... no way are you getting a big rig down our muddy forest trail! The delivery fee was a little steep, but a last minute redesign saved us enough money that we could stay in budget. Plus, it's only half of what it would have cost us in gas making 8 trips back and forth to Fairbanks.
So, our trip was fruitful, if a little nerve wracking. Everyone survived at least. We're all totally exhausted and happy to be home in our little tent in the woods again. Time for the mad push to the "finish line" with the bush whacking so we can finally set hammer to nail and get to building.
2 comments:
So what is you decision on how to secure board to board? Nail gun? Screw gun, Hammer?
Good old-fashioned hammer and nails. Really couldn't justify paying twice as much for screws or strip nails and a nail gun. The only thing we're using srews on is the drywall because I already have the screws and gun for that and have lots of experience with drywall nails coming out... never really had any problems with framing nails backing out.
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