The shed project is coming along very slowly, but some definite progress has been made. This is a heck of a lot of work, compared with conventional shed building!
In my last shed related post, I was preparing poles for the loft in the shed. We'll continue where I left off.
I finished prepping and sanding the poles, then covered them with roofing tar and let them set out overnight. I saved the ends of the poles to cut up for the wall.
Then I dug out holes directly underneath where my loft corners are, using a plumb bob. I backfilled the holes to get the posts set to exactly the right height and set straight, with the loft above them level.
Then I used cement and packed it into the holes tightly for stability.
I had cut notches into the posts before setting them in their holes. The shelf of the notches support the loft framing.
These are my very first notches of any kind, and were cut myself (yep....a girl did this!). Using an old handsaw with the broken handle held together with Gorilla tape was not the least bit helpful... but now the job is done, and it looks 'rustic'. Hand hewn for sure.
I purposefully left the lip of the 2x6 the posts support proud of the pole, as sort of a reminder of where the edge of the loft is while I am up there.
Nice and level on the lip of the 2x6. The side edges of the loft have been set level too, but the level and my eye disagree. It looks crooked to me somehow!
A better look at the new, smaller loft.
Here are before and after photos of the loft renovation.
The section I cut out of the loft fit almost perfectly within the poles on one end. It's not siding, but why not? The framing was almost perfect for this temporary wall! have definite plans to expand this wall out later, but am trying not to get too far ahead of myself on this.
The gap at the bottom will be fixed with cinder blocks and pinned into the ground with rebar, then filled with cement. Just like the foundation of my two cordwood walls are done, but for this wall also.
Then I used the last part of a bag of mortar that was open, and made some small progress on the cordwood wall. My pointing skills need definite help!
Notice the cracks that developed already in the mortar at the bottom where I started the wall this last week. Definitely not going to do cordwood again, at this point.
My mortar mix may need to be fine tuned, instead of mixing my own mortar I have been buying it bagged and adding wet sawdust. I am torn on whether to go through the bother of mixing my own for 16' of total wall I have planned with this buildng method.
Log cabin style next? Stockade walls? I have plenty of small posts already cut and drying, and some nice size knobcone timbers, and an Alaska sawmill that is one heck of a workout to mill logs with. We will see!
That's about it for shed progress this week.
I have a table saw available and set up at the site for use now, and plan on cutting more wood pieces to length before working on this more. Tomorrow I have another project to do some work on and I will return to this labor of love next week!
To be continued, of course.
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