Watch It Grow

(For progress, look at "LIVE PHOTO'S", on the sidebar of this blog. The field-of-view will change as we progress.)

We're doing a major addition to the barn, by adding a shed on the west side. Basically it's a DIY project, with help from Patrick, next Wednesday. (We have some 18' 4 x 12 rafters to install and we need a little muscle. Thank you, Patrick!)

Today, Jacquie and I removed some of the metal siding and started construction of one of two shear walls. (A shear wall supports the structure laterally and prevents it from collapsing, domino style, in case of earthquake (not likely here) or very strong winds.

The shear wall consists of six sheets of 4' x 8' 3/4" plywood (very heavy) pancaking two support columns and internally braced at joints with a lamination of four 8' 2 x 4's. Then the whole structure will bolted together for strength. We were short one sheet of plywood, so we'll finish the wall Monday. (Tuesday is an off day, as we both have other other things to do.)