Luke and I drove up to Monteagle this morning. We saw my parents and Lauren and then got to work. Unfortunately it was freezing cold, but we prevailed. We were able to get a bit done, even though the picture wouldn’t indicate it. We installed corner trim and the last two roof purlins. We also cut all of the roof boards. Hopefully we will return in about three weeks to finish.

This past weekend Luke, my dad, and I started building a treehouse behind the cottage in Monteagle. I was able to spring Luke from school about an hour early and we drove up. Both my parents and Lauren were there. All we did then was back the trailer as close as we could to the treehouse spot, and unstrapped the boards. We all went over to campus to see the goats and the Templeton Library to see a bunch of fog. My mother prepared a wonderful dinner afterwards.

The next morning I started work about 7:30 while the others went to breakfast. I was able to get the beam between the two trees set and the band mostly installed before my helpers arrived. We then worked together and installed some joists and dug holes for the posts. Just before lunch we went to the lumberyard for screws and concrete. Back at the jobsite we installed posts and joist hangers. I then cut the deck boards to length and started installing them. The wood was in pretty good shape for being from our old deck. We knocked off around four and relaxed a bit before going over to campus for dinner, which was great.

On Sunday morning we started at about 6:45 due to the time change. We finished installing the deck boards, cleaned up the job site, and loaded up our tools and leftover materials. We cleaned up the cottage and hit the road about 9:30. It was a very productive and fun weekend. Hopefully we will be able to return soon for the next stage of construction.