Stone Chicken
Every morning when I plan to spend the day working on the studio I take this set of pics. I think I should have 4, maybe 5 days a week to focus on this build and I invite you to come along on this journey with me.
After some trial and error yesterday I managed to level the stone about 2/3 0f the way down. It was tough because the framing is 18 ft wide. At first I tried using a 16 ft 2x4 and working from the corners but that didn't seem efficient. So I built one of the 24 ft skids that will run the length of the studio and used that to great effect.
Unfortunately, by the time I got that figured out the day had gotten hot and the site was in direct sun. I don't handle those conditions well, so I spent the afternoon in the house, prepping and freezing vegetables in my new chest freezer. Soooo much easier and faster than canning! Then, when the sun got low enough went back out to work on the stone.
Today, I will finish leveling and set the skids. Still have some kitchen work to do and then 2 days of photography work, but I will be back at it Wednesday. I'm thinking I should have it dried in by mid September. And the interior ready by mid October. Have a wonderful and peaceful Sunday my friends.
Later that day...
Stone chicken - fail.
Any of my friends who knit or crochet know what yarn chicken is. It's when you're near the end of skein of yarn and you're hoping it's enough to finish the project. Sometimes you win sometimes you lose, lol.
I guess I really did need that 2 ton they shorted me. No worries, I'll call Monday and work something out.
Luckily, the studio won't be on top of this corner. This is where the rain barrels for the garden are going. So I can keep on building.
Additional Thoughts
The landscape timber framing I built is larger than the cottage footprint and includes a 4-foot-wide strip at the west end that I planned to use for water barrels and garden storage. Estimating how much stone I needed to fill the framing, provide adequate drainage and support the cottage was a difficult challenge. The ground was very uneven, and there was no straightforward way to calculate what I needed. I multiplied the width and length of the landscape timber framing, then the depth of the ditch it sat on. The ditch didn't take up the entire space; it was a V-shaped depression running through the middle on a diagonal. So I divided the volume I just calculated in half.
(Width of Framing x Length of Framing x Depth of Ditch) x 0.5 = Estimated Volume
That gave me a best guesstimate of the volume. Then I called the supplier and asked how many tons of stone I'd need to fill that volume. We decided on 20 tons. But the quarry shorted the driver 2 tons, so I only received 18 that day.
If I'd received all the stone I ordered, I would have had enough for the foundation and some to spare, but sometimes things don't work out as planned. I called the delivery service and ordered 3 more tons to finish off filling the foundation bed and have some extra for paths. They gave me a discount on my delivery charge, and we were all satisfied with the outcome. And I was pleased to know my original estimate was accurate.
After four years, the cottage hasn't shifted much. Though the gravel has settled, it has done so fairly evenly. In hindsight, I should have rented a compactor and gone over it a few times. But overall, I'm still happy with how it worked out.
In the end, it would be early October before I had it all dried in. The roof really dragged on with its challenging 12/12 pitch. And I didn't finish the interior work until the next spring. After the big push to get the studio dried in, my work pace slowed down and became more detail-oriented. Looking back, I'm glad it took longer than I anticipated because it gave me the studio I always wanted.