First, Build a Shed
March 9, 2016 was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I had placed an order for as S7 kit. The deposit had been paid and funds were set aside for the balance. The tentative delivery date was towards the end of April. On this day I had to send an email to Debra McBean admitting my garage to workshop conversion would not be completed and I needed to postpone delivery by a month. Of course, Mary took it all in stride, gave me a late May estimate, and some lucky builder received their kit earlier than expected.
I determinedly mow my own lawn and we maintain our own landscaping. Equipment, bags and jugs of chemicals, and assorted junk built up over the years so the first step was to build a shed to de-clutter the garage. The simple shed turned into four weeks of wheel barrowing two yards of crushed limestone, framing, roofing, bending nails, and hanging sturdy doors. Completed, the 8 x 12 shed was quickly filled leaving a nice empty space in the garage.
It gets hot here in the Piney Woods of north east Texas and, with triple garage doors facing West and no hint of insulation in the attic above the garage, it would be miserable working in the garage in the summer and not too comfortable in the winter. So the next project started. First tear down perfectly good sheetrock, rip up the attic floor decking above the garage, hang new lights, insulate the garage doors, and install new electrical outlets. Then hand the project over to trusted contractors to insulate the walls and ceiling with closed cell foam, sheetrock and paint (including the new foot sized hole I put in the ceiling), and install a mini-split A/C unit. As they worked I build a few rolling shop tables and re-decked the attic floor.
After almost three months of work I now have a comfortable place to build. The pile of left over lumber will be used for wing and fuselage rotisseries. This simple task will be the official start of the build and I'll start tracking hours. Once completed, I'll be anxiously waiting for the trailer!
These forums are great for both information and motivation. I'll try to maintain this build thread through the project.
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