The real purpose of the visit was to review a change that came about by the simple fact that words do not always mean the same thing to the speaker as they do to the listener. In this case it was the garage door (aka the overhead door). I had requested a 12′x14′ door - meaning 12 feet high and 14 feet wide. The contractor took it to mean a door 12 feed wide by 14 feet high. It seems the steel building manufacturer took my interpretation for the width. At some point later, the contractor verified the building was being manufactured for a 14 foot high door. If you are keeping track, you an now see that the manufacturer fabricated the steel for a 14 foot wide opening and then adjusted for a 14 foot high opening.

Thus, the contractor wanted me to inspect the site and if I approved, would install a 14′x14′ door. They were ahead of the game and said no additional charge would come of this misunderstanding. I suspect the difference was only $200-$300 but I was glad it was not another one for me to “absorb”.

The steel crew has been busy (despite all the rain). By the end of today, all of the pillars will be in place and they have already installed all of the perlins across the roof beams.

The big task today is installing all of the drop beams and adjustable supports. In the second picture, you will see seven short beams extending down from the roof line. These are braced by tubular steel supports.

The supports are actually a tube within a tube. Once the building is squared and plum, they will check the drop beams for plum and then weld the inner tube to the outer tube to create a custom length support beam. In a few weeks, the large one-piece door will arrive and fill in the end of the building.

Anyone who has followed my musings, knows that fingerprint readers are not for everyone. NPR’s Scott Simon gave an essay on the subject. Some of my family suffer from “light fingerprints” - which is estimated to be a problem for about 2% of the population. So, for the moment, a biometric fingerprint reader integrated into the locks was out of the question.

I will continue my search - looking at proximity readers, iButtons, and the sort. In the end, odds are high I will end up with your plain and basic keys.

Still, there was some humor in the research process. An Australian website selling home and office security had the included graphic on the home page of their online presence. I guess the Aussies know something about “security”.

I truly believe the marketing guys were either having way too much fun making the instructional video or they were cursing there branding department. Just listen to video for the first 15 seconds ! <ouch>

I kept hearing this song run through my head as the roof line of the farmhouse takes shape. To use the imagery of Mary in Brazil; “replaying in my head, slowing down, looping, sampling the really bothersome parts and putting it all into a mix that stays in my head” (now I know what a real writer sounds like). Still, the lyrics and the looping all work as a literary image for the real picture that came into focus when I stopped by the farmhouse site on a break today …

I stood for a short while and just looked at it. A strange calm settled in. A lot was still to be done - more than I might even be able to really comprehend. And yet, there, before me was the shape of a building - my farmhouse. It was pretty cool - at least for me. Perhaps I am easily amused. It doesn’t much matter.

There was a moment of “concern” just short of panic when the foreman and I tried to reconcile the placement of the girts (those horizontal steel beams between the piers) for the second floor windows. Then he realized my error and explained that the first floor windows and doors hang down from the lower girts whereas the second floor windows sit on top of the upper girts. That made everything fall into place.

This will all make more sense in another 5 or 6 weeks when the skin is applied to the steel skeleton and the windows and doors are cut in. Until then, just trust me on this one. In the mean time, just remember that the vertical columns are 16 feet tall and the roof peak tops out at almost 25 feet.

There is still a huge amount of work before I can even start my subcontracting responsibilities - wetroom tiling, full kitchen construction, paint, trim, all the hardwood flooring, appliances, and the home office (plus more). Still, the anticipation is building. I hope to watch next spring’s crop grow tall from my kitchen window <wow>.