We finally broke ground this week!

Kyle’s dad Keith came out this week and helped us start on our ‘temporary’ studio shed shelter. It’s just a little 10 x 10 that we will be living in until the cabin is built, which probably means it will be home for at least a year. We really went small with the temporary shelter to save money, and it will certainly be interesting squeezing ourselves into that space after living in our average-sized house in Washington.

First the guys widened our driveway so we could get all the materials to the little clearing we had picked to build the studio in. It gets plenty of sunshine which will be great for our solar plans (Amazon).

There are a few trees we will take out to get more sunlight. But it was nice to start with a space that was already mostly set and open!

We thought it would take us hours to clear the moss and rotted logs out before we could start building, but Keith told us to use our little Craftsman chainsaw (Amazon) as a sod cutter to make things easier for us.

It made things go so much faster, and we finished clearing the ground in under 2 hours! Then we were on to the foundation and leveling of the area. I promise I did actually help with this project. I’m just always taking pictures so I never end up in any!

Then onto the actual floor and insulation!

And of course, because we don’t have any electricity Kyle used the chain saw to cut all the floorboards that needed it! Tomorrow we’ll be working on framing out the rest of the studio, then adding insulation and the roof over the next week. We expect rain late next week so hopefully we will finish it all by then!

Our week wasn’t all work and no play, Keith and Kyle went for a paddle around the lake and Kyle tried fishing (Amazon) a little. Got a few bites but didn’t catch anything, unfortunately.

 

And here’s a bonus picture of Ronan looking very suspicious about our chainsaw use: