Is what I'll be doing for a little while longer.
No deadline considerations, just quality ones.I've had a few enquiries as to why the long time 'light blogging'. I hope to come out from under a rock someday and hit some of the big topics anyway, but here's what I've been spending my off-work hours doing since the weather was still cold (for Texas).
I designed what we call 'the shed' (~500sq ft) for construction at the secret location of stately Mac Manor somewhere in the wilds of Parker County Texas. I have played general contractor for the heavy stuff, am but doing the insulation, drywall, trim and paint, and also building the large bay barn doors myself. The foundation slab is twice typical thickness with 2ft deep perimeter and cross 'rails' with up-sized rebar so it isn't going anywhere. Believe it or not, the most time consuming part of the project (so far) was finding a concrete contractor who would take the job. Couldn't find one forever. Seems the job was too small for the guys who do real house foundations and too complex for the guys who pour patios and driveways.
I would have done the electrical, but my main breaker box at home was so full I needed a new panel and the wiring had to be dragged all the way from the other side of the house AND a buried cable run was needed to get 110v/220v to the shed. Better to pay someone who does this kind of stuff all the time, I say.
Framing the roof. If I had known how complicated a cathedral ceiling, and storage area over the side room, would make the insulation and drywall job I may have simplified it some. Live and learn.
Have you ever tried to finish drywall joints when the air AND the wall is about 100 degrees F? Fugeddaboutit!
Is NG sending a B-21 subcontract to your cottage industry? Looks impressive.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marauder. I hope to studiously avoid government contracts! The entire time I'm building this, I'm thinking about my next door neighbor when I was stationed at Hill AFB. He was a GS-XX acquisition poohbah for the Ogden depot and was a general contractor who built houses as a side business. He once said to me (paraphrasing from memory)"Well you know why I build houses don't you? I like the feeling of actually getting something done".
ReplyDeleteThe redacted GAO protest for LRS-B had an interesting section:
ReplyDelete(page 46)
"Briefly, Boeing's crosscheck substantially downwardly adjusted the [DELETED]
labor hours on the basis of its own analysis. This analysis led Boeing to ·
conclude that because the [DELETED] program included [DELETED , and because
sigficant re-design was required following completion of the
-· the [DELETED] - labor hours actually represent the effort
required to develop [DELETED] new aircraft design. The Air Force
reviewed Boeing's analysis and concluded the analysis gave insufficient weight to the commonality of the [DELETED] in adjusting the [DELETED] labor hours, which weakened the credibility of the crosscheck"
My instinctve reaction to this was that there's a derivative of the B-2 out there. Would really appreciate your insight.