Well, I haven't been too good about documenting the progress building our workshop in Idaho these past few years. Nevertheless, we have continued to work, though work has slowed substantially. In 2018, Dad shut down his business and we moved much of his heavy equipment from his shop in Seattle to the shop in Idaho. The move involved dozens of trips and consumed most of that summer. Also, in August of 2018, Mom fell and broke her hip. That setback, combined with her continued deterioration due to dementia, has substantially changed our family's lifestyle (especially Dad's -- as he's basically now a full-time caregiver) and obviously limited our abilities to devote time to the Idaho Shop.
As of now (November 2019), the building is more or less complete, though both Dad and I would like to do a bit more work on a few items. For me in particular, I would like to finish the upstairs space better. Specifically, I'd like to finish and paint the walls and ceiling. I'd also like to install some kind of finished flooring. For Dad, he'd like to insulate and enclose the inner bay of the shop, so that he can heat it and work there in the winter.
Time will tell if we get to this work or not.
In any case, it's been a blast working with Dad. For the sake of posterity, here are some additional pictures showing some of the additional work we completed.
Building the Bridge:
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| Excavating holes for bridge support footers. |
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| Pouring bridge support footers. |
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| We used some scrap metal beams that Dad had for the bridge joists. |
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| Prepping joists for assembly. |
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| Installing the ledger. |
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| A break for a snack from the garden. |
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| Dad has some scrap metal posts that we used to support the bridge. |
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| I cleaned and painted them. |
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| Installing the support posts. |
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| Installing the first bridge joists. |
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| Putting the pieces together. |
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| We used some scrap form boards to form the bridge ramp. |
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| In the end, the bridge turned out pretty good. It's certainly very functional. |
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| I also installed a screen door, which came in handy on hot afternoons and evenings. |
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| We had a nice crop of cherries that summer. |
Finishing the upstairs:
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| Then we turned to the interior of the 2nd floor, and installed insulation ... |
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| ...and wallboard. |
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| The bobcat saved us time and energy...as usual. |
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| The lift came in handy, especially for the ceiling. |
Pouring the shop floor:
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| Once we had roughed in the upstairs it was time to focus on the shop floor. |
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| We poured the floor in roughly 10'x10' sections. |
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| Because we were mixing, hauling and pouring by hand, it took a while. |
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| We averaged about one section per day. It took much of the summer to finish 50% of the 3500 sq foot floor. |
Rebuilding the Lean-to:
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| During the winter a tree fell on the lean-to protecting the old trailer, so we had to rebuild it. |
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| We used logs from cut from the surrounding forest and mostly scrap 2x4s. |
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| In the end, it turned out OK, considering we used scrap material. It should last another 20 years, assuming it avoids falling trees. |
Putting it to good use:
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| In 2018, Dad closed his shop in Seattle and retired. We spent a good bit of that summer hauling equipment and supplies from the old shop in Seattle to the new shop in Idaho. By now all three bays of the shop are almost completely full. |
Miscellaneous other chores:
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| Cleaning up a few trees that were threatening the neighbors house. Limbing and cutting into logs. |
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| Plenty of firewood for Aunt Eva and a good sized brush pile to boot. |
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| Finished up the summer of 2019 visit by installing metal siding on the shed, painting, and rehanging the shed doors. The new siding should help the shed last another 20 years. |
