Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[mcjaco]

Going through a run of home repairs this past six weeks, I feel like a General Contractor myself, so I have thoroughly enjoyed this thread.  Construction/home remodeling has always fascinated me.

I'm just at a stage where my time is more important than money spent.  And some of this stuff is beyond my skill set (tuckpointing, for instance).

[C855B]

It's been a few good days around the layout building. Got some electrical done that had been nagging at me for a while, so the half-wall between the studio and the layout room finally has power.

Studio flooring hasn't arrived yet, but LTL company says midday Thursday, so we'll be standing by for that. Just as well since there was a joint line between the original slab in the old building office area and our expansion of the space, and the joint gap needed a bit of floor leveler to really be "right". Discovered almost the hard way (Adam queries: "Didn't you read the instructions?") that there was only a 10-minute window with the floor compound, and I had mixed too big a batch. Oops... a panicked bit of work with the trowel ensued, attempting to pry the soon-to-be-too-hard compound out of the mixing bucket.

Work the past couple of days has centered around getting "the big wall" ready to erect. There was a lot of math and sketching to make everything match up - I had sort of boxed myself in with too many critical dimensional dependencies. Then eventually it dawned on me that 14-foot 2x6's are bloomin' heavy, and if I were to build the wall in one big piece the two of us would never be able to raise the thing. So, here's the first half of the wall, rigged-up and ready to raise into position:



The top bits of the door opening have been omitted to save weight since they can be installed after it's up. I was hoping to leave these for much later to give me an extra 6" of headroom to get the scissor lift (far left in pic) in and out, but that's not to be because of bracing concerns. The lift is designed to go through a "normal" door opening, it's simply more aggravation to detach the control box to drive it from the ground instead of just ducking.

In the background you'll notice the slatwall we put up in the workshop, recovered from the basement of the local history museum. The hanging hooks and shelf brackets for this stuff are insanely cheap - pennies - from a local store fixtures wholesaler. I took most of the tools down from the slatwall out of view on the left just before this shot because many were within "fall range" should there have been a mishap lifting the wall frame during the dry fit.

Of course I need to point out the "train bulletin" on the right - that's the real deal. You can't quite read the train name in the picture, "City of Los Angeles". It is the schedule board from the long-gone art-deco UP station in Las Vegas. It will get a more prominent spot in the layout room once that space is closer to ready.

At the top is the new attic space, "Phase I", mentioned last week. Once the new wall is up, the joists for "Phase II" tie between it and the fat beam seen above. Gotta get this big stuff done NOW, Adam leaves for school in two weeks.

[Scottl]

I am really enjoying watching this project unfold.  Keep these updates coming!

[C855B]

Studio flooring arrived this morning! It went down very fast, 'cept the trim cuts... probably a decent afternoon's work to wrap it up:





Didn't get a chance to work on the second half of the big wall. The flooring moved along so fast it was hard to stop.

[GaryHinshaw]

Very cheerful.  You could start a really nice hobby shop there!

[MichaelWinicki]

Very cheerful.  You could start a really nice hobby shop there!

This. 

[C855B]

Art studio. Art studio. (Keep focused, Mike.)

[tappertrainman]

Very cheerful.  You could start a really nice hobby shop there!

Would the hobby store also sell online?  I'm a little far away to make in person visits.   

James

[C855B]

Yet more meaningful progress today:



We should be able to start on the joists for the attic expansion tomorrow, although I have some electrical work to do in that space that may be easier to do beforehand. Maybe tonight.

Trim-outs on the floor in the studio are almost but not quite done. One of the walls is not square where I need to make precision cuts, so much head-scratching to do there. Floor looks great, however, and we have moved the cabinets and sink into their places in the craft area to finalize countertop measurements (and get them out of my way! ).

[C855B]

Red-letter day today: the last of the joists under the decommissioned mezzanine have been removed. They are now in a stack waiting to be resized for the new attic space. New plywood for the second half of the new attic has been hefted into place, ready for the new joists. First two joists were installed today mostly to proof the measurements I was wringing my hands about a few posts back, and, yes, I missed something by 3/4". NOT coincidence that it was half a 2-by width, it was a missed offset. Fortunately it was in a location that could be easily compensated, so we adjusted what had to be adjusted and are ready to install the remaining joists tomorrow.

With the old joists gone, the center wall dividing the layout room is ready to come down. Provided we're OK tomorrow on the attic, I will set Adam loose on moving stored supplies around that are in the way and he can have the satisfaction of tearing out what little remains of old construction. I guess he can do that while I handle a couple of electrical runs that need to be wrapped-up before finishing the attic subfloor.

Incredible progress over the past six weeks. The space is shaping-up nicely, and the reality is inching closer to the vision.

[C855B]

Measure once, cut twice:

[Scottl]

At least it is not too short. 

[C855B]

Exactly a foot too long, hence the "cut twice". They were all supposed to be 16'3" and a fraction, and after moving the stock for the cut, I didn't notice that I was reading the 3" after 17'. Both of us were huffing and puffing to get these up, and I was up on the lift hoisting into position and driving the bolts in. Climbed off the lift, looked up, and all I could do was laugh. Easy 'nuff to fix cleanly.

[C855B]

Another big day today. The center wall has been deconstructed, and for the first time we can see the entire layout area, roughly 45' x 45' of clear space. I was wanting to be at this point two years ago, but it is what it is.

[Scottl]

Wow, that is a lot of space, and not a support column in sight.  I would not worry about the time it has taken, there was a lot to do and many unexpected issues emerged.  The finished work you have posted is very nice.