Constructive de-construction

 

My sister and brother-in-law want to build a greenhouse adjacent to their house. Their plan is to retrofit an existing building on the acreage to make the structure. With so many extra hands on site for an extended time it seemed like the perfect time to begin the process. 

The large shed - maybe 32' x 16' - sits about 50 metres from the spot where the greenhouse will rise. Our job yesterday was to begin the de-construction process. 

First, we spent the morning removing all the material from inside the shed. It was mostly lengths of dimensional lumber that might be usable down the road. We made piles of 2 by 4s, 2 by 8s and 2 by 10s on the back side of the other large storage building on that side of the acreage. It took several hours and all three of us working hard to clear things out.

Next, I climbed up on the roof and started removing the screws that held the metal sheeting in place. Once the full 4 by 8 panels were freed, I passed them down to Heather who piled them on the ground. After lunch, the sheets of OSB (Oriented Strand Board) came off. Instead of passing them down - they were too heavy - I slid them down using the step ladder as a slide.

Heather and Corinne spent hours removing staples that were holding the fabric in place that had been used to enclose the building. It was a complete team effort.

Chris, a field officer with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, had spent much of the day helping out at the emergency operations centre that was set up to manage the thousands of evacuees from fires in the NWT. Once he was back, we jumped into removing the 2 by 4s serving as roof trusses on the building.  

It was a full day of work and a full team effort. All of us were feeling some level of soreness by day's end. 

Even though I did not do a walk, per se, I still did over 10,000 steps going back and forth to the garage grabbing tools and moving wood. 

It felt good to be useful and productive. This project allowed us to expend some pent up energy from several weeks of killing time waiting for our home to get built. While we were deconstructing, Stephen and the team at SEED Homes were doing the opposite.