groeneaj's instant shed - well not quite - an idea borrowed from the Amish

[FenceFurniture]

I have long been an admirer of the community spirit of the Amish "Barn Raising in a day". Recently I watched an SBS series about the Amish, and it reinforced what an excellent idea this is.

And so I got to thinking..........there are stacks of people who have a task that is too much for them, will take too long, maybe they don't have all the skills required, etc. I sent an email out to some colleagues and many of them expressed interest in a "labour exchange" kind of idea. I was also catalysed by Barterbuilt up at Coff's Harbour who has a large machinery shed to erect, and was somewhat staggered at the quotes he was given for labour only ($1000 a week just for the "boy", and there were a couple of adults along for it as well).

I had had several discussions with groeneaj (Andy) about his new and far from complete workshop over the preceding months, and I can easily recognise WWS (Woodwork Withdrawal Syndrome). Andy needs his woodwork to chill out, and has to come up the hill to my barn to smell timber.

On Sunday 2nd March we had the GTG here, and while Andy was distracted talking to Pac Man and shanesmith80 I slipped around to those who were within striking distance and gave them a quick brief of the situation:
"Andy has moved into his new home some months ago, and getting his workshop happening is becoming a problem - too big a task for one person to execute in good time. Are you in?"

Eight "yesses" later I had a good sized posse rounded up, and strolled over to Andy to break the news. "We'll be there on the 14/15th March - better get ready". He looked a bit thunderstruck, actually.

So, today was the start. Mainly preparation in clearing the shop of all the irrelevant stuff for the job at hand (and which was preventing the whole job from being seen and digested). Just a couple of chaps today, but Skew wrapped his head around building a long time ago, and so after clearing we were able to get a bit of a head start for the 8 man posse showing up tomorrow.

First task was to remove the irrelevant stuff up to the covered back porch:




There are three walls that have to be sound insulated, studded, and then ply sheets attached to them. Andy had already made a start in the previous weeks, and was up to here (this is the biggest wall):





We'll be doing some slightly fancy stuff to the front doors:




And then there is the third wall:





So that was where Andy had gotten up to. Silly me forgot to take a pic of the state of play at stumps (it doesn't actually look all that different), but I'll take one first up tomorrow morning.

In that last pic you can see the ply sheets that Andy sourced from ebay. The quality of this ply for the asking price is ridiculously good. At $25 a sheet it is cheaper than MDF and half of it has Birds Eye and some really nice grain. At least one piece even has a bit of fiddleback!

I would say that by stumps on Day 2 Andy will have the makings of a stunning looking workshop.

More news tomorrow night.....

[Simplicity]

Bret
Well done
I take my hat of to you and take a long bow.
It's a community sprit like that I which we saw my off in this country.
Yes I know it does happen but more would be nice.
Well done

[Bushmiller]

Brett

Looks like you're making it happen. Will follow with interest.

Regards
Paul

[FenceFurniture]

Not me Matt - the posse. They know far more about what they're doing than I do.

[Uncle Al]

What a great idea to get a workshop up and running in a much quicker time frame.
I'm sure he will appreciate the helping hands for many a long year. I particularly like the polished wooden floor, should be easy to keep clean.

Alan...

[wheelinround]

Bret and pose well done top idea

[Barterbuilt]

Yep Gotta love the good old aussie working bee...astounding what can be achieved in a couple of days.

Reminds me of my backyard blitz on our last house in Sydney. When the builders had finished we moved in for the kill.
12 of my rello's and friends arrived at 6am on the Saturday. To say it was a well oiled machine would be an understatement.
They consisted of builders, landscapers, demolition workers, toolmakers, bobcat operators and a few others I can't even remember now.
We removed 45T of dirt, brought in 40T of topsoil, 30 l/m of rock retaining walls, 20 l/m of coppers log retaining walls, 80 l/m of colourbond fencing, garden beds with plants and bark chip, extensive paving and finally on Sunday arvo 300 sq/m of turf. I remember one of the neighbors that walked her dog in the arfternoon stopping out the front on the Sunday with a look of bewilderment on her face. All she said was " inspirational "
I calculated that, had we paid for the tradies that showed up for the 2 day marathon it would have cost approx $12,000 just in labour.
And the girls had the inside completely fitted out and fed and watered the boys on demand.
Off course, organisation is the key and to have materials arrive at precisely the right time.

Moved to Coffs 18 months ago and now I have no network at all

The sense of achievement at the end when you are sitting around having a beer and BBQ just can't be beaten.

Good on ya FF, way to go. Crack the whip and remember, no beer till the jobs done.

Pics Pics

[BobL]

A big on'ya to all who helped with this.

That "community action feeling" is some of what I get when I go to my men's shed. There's a heap of tools and machines that "needs some work" and we are slowly working our way through them to get setup.

[Christos]

Ah ha a quick work in progress.

It would be just like being there but I am actually sitting on butt at work.

So I am there in spirit.

[FenceFurniture]

Yep Gotta love the good old aussie working bee...

Pics Pics

Pics are coming. Only just home and have to edit, photoshop etc.

A working bee it was indeed! Lemme see, we had 3 proper worker bees (2 builders and a sparky) and 5 Drones. Nobody wanted to be the Queen though.

[groeneaj]

Well... What a day! I've sent an email to those involved today but wanted to publicly thank you all. I'm sure more will be discussed about what we did but I first up would like to say a huge thankyou to Brett for organising today, and to Tony, Skew and his partner, Ray, Shane, Crowie, Paul and Fletty. I'm very grateful to all for coming around on their weekend and for volunteering their time and tools. We had a great day and got some serious work done. It would have easily taken me months of weekends to do what we did today.
I'd also like to thank the guys for the generous gifts that I received today. It certainly was not expected and I'm very grateful for them.

I look forward to returning the favour soon and to meet some new friends.
Andy.

[FenceFurniture]

Pac Man verses the Paslode


By the time I got out there I think it was Paslode 5, Pac Man Nil





"There's no bullets in this thing."




"Maaaate!. Stand over there and watch an expert do it. Fletty - you need your right hand on your hip, and point your toe up a little - yep, that's it."





Hmmm. Better make it Paslode victorious, Pac Man out of it.






"Ah, that's better. Yep, the tape reaches from one side to the other." Aided and abetted by Shane Smith (who needed ear muffs to chill down the noise of Pac Man's blistering speed with a tape rule).




Fletty and his built in dust mask (aka Nose Broom)





Just as well.





A grand team effort if ever I've seen one. Just as well we had 8 blokes.





Now these two fellas really did know what they were doing. rwbuild front, NCArcher rear.




Earlier in the day I gave Pac Man his Philip Marcou plane hammer that arrived a week or so ago and Andy was all over it - "Really? How did I miss out on that?" (read yer emails mate). All was not lost however, as there was one spare, and Fletty and I cooked up a plan. A little mounting device was made a few days ago, and mounted on the wall just before arvo smoko while Andy was preparing the coffees etc (Pac Man was the cockatoo). A hat was hung over it, and during smoko he was pointed towards the hat.





Here's a Pie-eatin' grin when he realised he hadn't missed the hammers after all.




I need to clarify something to those who were present. There were lots of "how good a fluke was that, getting those two sheets damn near book matched" to which I say "Ahem! No fluke whatsoever - all planned"

[FenceFurniture]

Some booty from the ever-generous Fletty - same peg board, small parts bins & mounting sheets, and 2x1 to lift the peg boards off the wall with. Oh, and a pile of dust from me.





And so we come the the fruits of the bees.




which, as you may recall, looked like this yesterday:





The opposite wall looks the same as the finished wall (but a different shape, and with lots of cutting in), but it was covered with leftover sheets etc, so no pic.

I didn't take any pics of Skew attending to the pool-pump shed, as I was on detail there with him. Perhaps somebody else took some? I mean, I need to prove that I didn't just take pics all day.....

Tell you what though, Skew absolutely knows what he is doing (which I knew from my Barn Floor installation - he had my help ). The pump shed came together in double quick time (o'course I was helping again). Ok, ok, we did have one panel round the wrong way, but technically that wasn't Skew's fault at all. I say nothing else.

[Sir Stinkalot]

That's a damn fine looking finish to the walls

[FenceFurniture]

25 bucks a sheet Stinky - cheaper than MDF - go figure....