We have a plan to depart Swan Valley this Friday October 30th. We like to pull out around 9:30 AM. This is because most of the morning rush hour with everyone trying to get to work is over. By 9:30 AM most everyone is already at work, and the other good thing is they haven't left work for lunch yet and that makes for less traffic and ease of pulling our behemoth trailer Penelope. We call ourselves 9:30 People. That's the plan and we will soon see how it pans out.
The Shop build is not complete, but we haven't missed seeing it completed by much. This week has been very eventful on the job site after the last week and a half of nothing but crickets there. Monday morning we arrived fairly early and the temperature was still in the low 20s. Gari keeps warm by the job site fire.
The crew got most of the house wrap applied to the walls. It's not real pretty, but it will suffice for a Shop.
Red up on the lift staples more house wrap on the back of the Shop.
Derrick the crew lead installed the second and last personnel door.
We even got the deadbolts and lever handles installed and Derrick turned the four keys over to us.
Lots of steel parts arrived on site Monday, so this was very encouraging. Because it was so cold Monday morning we didn't think anyone would be out there as we rode out to check our project site. So this was a great surprise. The steel you see below is wall, J-Channel, Ridge Cap/Vent, door wraps, and various flashing. We are told the Standing Seam Roof steel will be roll formed onsite this Thursday, the day before we depart. We were very close to getting this build completed before we left the area. We think we have missed the end by a week or so. We think that was pretty good and are happy; however it sure would have been nice to lock the door then leave. We will have our agents do that for us in our absence.
Then there is the story of the Z-Channel. An interesting feature of this design is that the 6" concrete slab had a 1.5" notch formed all around the exterior wall areas of the build. They did this by tacking a 2"x2" to the top of the perimeter concrete form boards. The idea is that the wall steel will extend down past the top of the slab and seat at the bottom of the concrete notch. After we thought about this a bit, we realized that the OSB sheathing did the same thing and also became in contact with concrete. This is not a good situation; untreated wood should NEVER be in contact with the ground or concrete. We asked about this, and were told they would block the OSB up off of the bottom of the notch by an inch or so; the notch being about 1.5" high. We thought that would be better and was acceptable to us.... but that didn't happen, so we asked the foreman to trim the bottom of the OSB after it was in place. They did that without complaint. The next strategy we employed to their design was to add a Z-Channel to the bottom of the wall OSB sheathing, underneath the house wrap. We were given this idea by a new friend and former builder here in the area. We thought it was a great idea and would prevent most all of the moisture from getting back into the bottom of the wall. The Shop builder was very receptive to the idea and ordered the Z-Channel flashing; below Red and Paul install the first section.
That is not the end of the Z-Channel flashing saga... It turns out the flashing was bent with a top flange of only 1" high, but the concrete notch is every bit of 1.5" high, plus the flashing would have to be attached precariously low on the OSB. To make it work, the foreman directed that the crew lift the flashing up off the seat of the concrete notch so they could get a nail into the OSB and be above the top of the concrete slab. After we thought about this for an hour, we went to the foreman and told him we didn't like it; that the Z-Channel design was just wrong. The foreman agreed that the existing design was not viable and that the top flange should have been taller than the concrete notch; we settled on re-bending the Z-flashing with a 3" top flange. We are advised that the new Z-flashing should be back on site this Thursday. Once the Z-flashing is back in, they can begin installing the wall steel. Problem solved? We shall see.
Derrick and Paul up on the lift install J-Channel trim around one of the 7 windows.
While all the building was going on, our across the road rancher neighbor moved his herd of cattle to the pasture to the east. The brave black lead cow knows just where to go. And just like the neighbor cows we will soon head to our winter pasture in Arizona. 
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