The poles were put in place Sunday, 08-Dec-24 20:55:54 CET

The barn build Sunday, 22-Dec-24 19:44:47 CET

Sunday, 15-Dec-24 21:14:32 CET

The sheds foundation finished

This week, we had people working on the foundation of the shed. The builders brought sand, concrete, etc. They came in vehicles of various colors: green, red, cyan blue, yellow, and red. In that order.

Monday 9 December

It is Monday, and I am working from home. DW worked from the office today. This week, I will not start blogging on Thursday. I start blogging on Monday evening. At the start of last week, I hoped to remember what happened and could blog about it later. It does not work that way. A couple of days later, all memories are fuzzy. The sharp and fresh ideas about what to write about are long gone.

The building company arrived in red cars before I finished my breakfast. DW was just about to leave for work. They swiftly put out the mold for the foundation. Put a plastic sheet at the bottom of the mold. Then, they put distance stones on the plastic and steel rebar reinforcement at the bottom of the mold. They called the rebar cages since they look like cages. They drilled holes in the poles and mounted rebars in the holes with chemically bonded pasta to hold everything together. Over the molds, they put metal brackets to keep the mold together. Then, the concrete came in a green truck.

	Green concrete truck.
	Red bus from the building company.

The men were pleased with the preparations done at the location. They had no comments on the pipe buried in the sand, on the contrary. This was easier for them because running a pipe through the concrete had been more work.

While they cleaned up the concrete, I had a bucket filled as well, and in that bucket, I embedded the feet of a construction for scraping off the boots from clay. We can put this device near our entrance so getting into the house is easier without bringing in so much dirt.

Tuesday 10 December

Today, DW worked from home, and I went to the office. I greeted the shed-building workers in the morning. They needed water, so I ran a hose to their work location. They were going to mix cement at that point. Their task today was to arrange a masonry ridge on top of the concrete foundation. The wood elements will be mounted on this ridge. It has to do with the fact that the stones do not bring moisture from the foundation into the wood.

I brought the car to the MOT test this morning. Then I walked to the office. The bridge over a canal at the previous office was closed. I had to walk to the next bridge along the canal.

The car has 169674 kilometers on the odometer. The car was in sufficiently good condition to pass the test, but there was an issue with the suspension. To fix that, I must return the car to the garage in two or three months.

It was warm in the office. It was almost too warm, and you hear that from me, who always has it too cold no matter what. I told my colleagues they must be boiling if I am too warm. Sure, I was correct, but somehow, they didn’t dare say it. I don’t know what it is.

Wednesday 11 December

Today, I worked from home in the morning. It was completely gray and overcast. DW had a day off and went to a wool event with a friend. There was no activity today on the building site in the morning. That was nice; I could concentrate very well.

It is interesting to see the structure of the building emerge from the openings in the building. I showed the general design on 6 April here on the blog. The shed company has changed that design a little, but in general terms, it is the same design.

	From the south side. A door on the left side of the south wall.
	A door from the hall to the canopy.
	From the east side of the building. No doors. Small openings for metal support beams.
	From the northeast side. Partial wall at the canopy.
	From the northwest side. The little block will hold a pillar at the hook of the canopy. We will also have a double door on the west side of the hall.

 

The bucket with the boot-cleaning ridge is still unpacked. I leave it like that for a while to properly harden the concrete.

After lunch, we got a delivery of roof plates. There were way more packages than I had expected. I asked for permission from the neighbors to have the plates unloaded partly on their ground. That was okay. I will need to restore their lawn, that is for sure.

	This delivery truck came with an auxiliary forklift truck. It is the world-famous Kooiaap.
	The forklift is released and can be driven to our packages.
	The forklift could reach into the truck's platform.
	The driver put the first package a couple of centimeters from a fruit tree. I will be devastated if that tree is hurt.
	Then he picks up the next package.
	He put the second package in front of the first.
	Ooh, he leaves tracks after him on the lawn of the neighbor. I will have to fix those.
	Then, he inspects the integrity of the package. Take photos and have me sign them to show that the packages arrived correctly.

 

We had a trespasser in the garden today. Every step he took had to be monitored by Merida.

The trespasser is Hunter—the cat of the neighbors.

Would you think I was done today? Nope. I had an idea to resurrect our driveway from its current dire state. How could I scrape it with a tool? I got a multipurpose machine in the sea container waiting for the task. So this is the idea. If I just had a 10-millimeter-thick steel beam, I could make this bar and put it behind the tiller machine. Instead of the rotating knives, I would put wheels on the tiller machine, and with that, I could drag the beam behind the machine, scraping the driveway.

So where in the city can I buy a 10-millimeter thick steel bar? I had to have two bolts, so I first went to one of the most well-equipped tool shops in the city. They said I had to go to Schrijver BV. So I did, and when I came inside the door, I entered a hall with metal machines and metal parts. Everything was metal brown. There were men in dark blue overalls. I asked the nearest if I could buy a steel beam. He referred me to the bald man. The bald man was Lars. He was willing to sell me a beam, but preferably, it had to be sold in one piece because they were close to closing, so only a few workers were willing to chop up anything for me. They had a sufficiently long beam and, indeed, 10 millimeters thick. I got it for 50 euros.

So, it was joyful to set out on a plan and see that it would work. The less joyful part was that I broke a button on the stereo with the metal beam when I loaded it into the car. I was not amused. I am sure I will buy more metal from this shop in the future. This is just the beginning.

But Jens, how will you put this together like you are saying? I'm glad you asked. I will cut pieces from the beam, weld them, and drill the necessary holes. I got an angle grinder, a stick welder, and a drilling machine. So it should be possible. I will not do it today but may do it on Friday. We will see. Doing things like this in the shed will be far more straightforward, but that still needs to be finished.

Thursday 12 December

Today, we had no activities at the building site. Both DW and I went to the city. I brought DW to the train station and went to the office. It was not that hot in the office today. It was enjoyable for me.

I could concentrate well on my tasks, and I made good progress. My manager was enthusiastic, which is always good.

The building company called me; there was a mishap on their side. They had ordered the wrong planks for the shed. We had decided and paid for 13-centimeter wide planks, but they had ordered 17-centimeter wide planks. I agreed that they use the planks anyway, and they were delighted because it meant no delay and issues with planning. We chose 13 centimeters initially because it was cheaper but not necessarily more beautiful. Seventeen centimeters match our house better in terms of appearance.

While talking to the company, I mentioned the two doors at the front of the building, and I would like to be able to open these doors wide open. He would fix that for us. He would order other hinges for the doors.

I could not be more happy. I got the doors to open like I want, and the shed will match our house better for no extra charge. Happy accidents are pleasant.

In the evening, I called DF to celebrate him on his 90th birthday. He was doing fine. I called him in the middle of a birthday party with friends. He will have another birthday party this weekend, and his sister will be coming. It was minus 7 degrees in Zweden, but no snow.

Friday 13 December

This morning, I jumped out of bed immediately after the alarm clock had gone off. I had to be early because the digger machine would return today. This time, it will fill the shed's foundation with sand. DW worked from home; I had a day off.

The truck arrived with the digger, and the same lady drove it. They also brought a tiny little digger machine in a matching color: cyan blue. Today, she had an even younger helper. He was from school, just doing an internship as a digger driver. I cannot imagine a more cool internship. The kid was already better at turning a small digger machine without damaging the surface than I am. I wish I had known his trick. He put down the shovel and turned on the tip of the caterpillar tracks—no damage to the ground. The small machine was a thousand kilos, and the big machine was ten tons.

The lady filled up the canopy part of the shed. That was about as much sand as she had access to. Then she ordered another truck of sand. She put the small digger machine inside the foundation. The kid sat in the small digger machine while she did that. Funny.

	Blue digger

 

I talked to the lady about the chunk of concrete I had uncovered in the garden, and she agreed to move it to the foundation and bury it under the shed. That was fantastic. I had depicted myself standing there with a sledgehammer, breaking the thing into pieces and bringing them to the recycling station. It had not been a pleasant task. She tried to break it in half, but that did not work. The ground shook while she hammered on the concrete. It did not budge or crack. She balanced the block and got it into the foundation without dropping it. I was so happy about that.

 

Then I brought coffee to the kid and the lady. They finished the foundation under the canopy and then had a break. The truck with sand had a flat tire, so it took a little longer for the sand to be delivered.

I asked for an additional service from the lady. Would it be possible to order a truckload of gravel for the driveway? That was possible. She would do it from her company. She had no access to a vibratory plate compactor, but I was okay with having gravel distributed. I could reserve a compactor from a rental service for tomorrow. I will pick up the machine and fix the driveway tomorrow. That means I will need the small trailer, but I had it parked at the end of the driveway. In a moment, there will be a soft layer of gravel there. I dragged the trailer to the road and parked it on the other side. I thought that she would leave the driveway a bit loose.

Then, I removed some of the metal grid in front of the front door. When doing so, I bruised my left ring finger. So dumb. I dropped the grid on my nail. It hurt a lot. I will have a black spot on my nail that slowly moves out to the tip. It hurts a little while blogging.

Eventually, the sand truck arrived. He unloaded the truck between the shed and the road. Then, they started the filling of the main hall of the shed.

	Yellow sand truck.

They started filling the hall part of the shed with sand. It is the same procedure as with the canopy part. The little digger was lifted into the foundation, and the large digger provided the sand.

Today's official part of the work was finished with the foundation filled with sand. Had the lady not promised to put gravel on our driveway, she could have gone home at this point. Now, she had to wait for the delivery of gravel. I thought it would be delivered swiftly. I was wrong. Waiting for the gravel while wondering if the lady would give up was unbearable. She did not give up. The gravel arrived in a red truck!

I had not provided any strict instructions on the width of the driveway. The lady made the driveway a meter broader than we were used to. Negotiating new instructions with a person in full action of a 10-ton digger is a challenge. I was happy with the result, nevertheless. I decided to defer the question about the width to a later stage.

While the lady was working on making our driveway, I talked to the kid. He told me he was the current motocross champion for men up to 15 years old. A cool kid! He thought it was cool that I was a DJ.

When the digger machine left, I would have been happy to sit down and relax, but that was not the plan for the evening. Unfortunately, I had to go to work. It was not to work but to attend a company outing. I admit that my head was not especially into relaxation, so it took some time to land into the joyful feeling. After some time, I left all the building stuff behind and enjoyed the evening very much. I parked the car at the office.

The team went to an entertainment hall where we played glow-in-the-dark minigolf. When people smiled, their teeth lit up. That was hilarious. I did not win, and that was fine. After glow-in-the-dark minigolf, we went to a restaurant and had a three-course dinner. Delicious and nice. That was it. I walked back to the office. It was near the freezing point, and there were no people around. A little spooky.

Saturday 14 December

Today, I wanted to rearrange the driveway to take back some of the grass our sheep will be eating. It was hard work, so hard that I had no time to take photos. I made one photo, however.

First, we went to the rental shop to pick up the vibratory plate compactor. That turned out to become an enormous fiasco. The machine we had rented could only run for short periods. Running at full throttle, it choked on itself. I tried different settings, but it was always the same result until I gave up.

We manually shoveled gravel up on the driveway to move back the edge. It was surprisingly hard to do. I asked DS to help, and he did! For a little while, anyway.

I realized that my plan for leveling the driveway with the tiller machine was even more important now when we used shovels to put gravel on the driveway. First, I had to cut pieces from the steel beam. I did that with the angle grinder. It was one large piece for the blade, two triangles, and a holder in the tiller machine.

Then, I drilled two holes in the holder beam. I got a cheap boar stand with a small old second-hand drill. A proper pillar drilling machine would have been nice, but I don’t have that. Yet. I had to drill a 10.5-millimeter hole in this application, but the chuck could hold a maximum of a ten-millimeter drill. I drilled the hole anyway. The steel is mild, so I could wiggle with the drill to make a bigger hole.

I started welding the blade and made ugly welding blobs. I got used to it gradually, and I almost produced nicely looking welds. The weather got worse while I welded. At first, I had a drizzle. This slowly changed into regular rain. I just continued to weld. It was not easy, but I enjoyed doing it. The pieces became one thing eventually. As the last thing, I repaired the neighbor's lawnmower. One wheel had fallen off the axis. I could weld it back together again.

It had become dark when I finished welding. I made a couple of passes with the tiller machine, and the plan will work. The welds held together this time. We will see how it works tomorrow.

Sunday 15 December

When I woke up this morning, I was not feeling like I was about to jump out of bed and continue working on the driveway. That feeling stayed throughout the day. Am I getting a cold? It does not feel like it, but I felt I had to relax today. We had tea in bed, and I blogged. We had a slow morning.

We went to the grocery store to restock necessary items.

In the afternoon, SIL and BIL arrived. They were curious about the progress of the shed. We showed them around, and they were impressed by the progress made. We discussed little things and caught up on all the progress. SIL and BIL had been to New York, and we heard about that. Impressive stories. I did not remove the vibration compactor from the sea container when SIL and BIL left. It stayed there. I will take it out when I return it to the rental shop tomorrow morning.

The most tangible activity of today was assembling the lawn mover for the neighbor. I had welded it yesterday. On the left side of the mover, a handle adjusts the height of the front wheels. The handle adjusts a shaft that pushes an axis forward and backward, bringing the wheels up or down. That mechanism was broken. The neighbor was delighted that I repaired the mover.

Here ends this week's blog. This week, I wrote 3227 words. That is about right. I have become much better at taking photos, and many things have happened. The foundation is finished. The concrete slab at the southeast corner of the house is removed. We got a new layer of gravel on our driveway. It was an active week!