day two: monday, november 20th

Day two! the project day started around noon again. This time, I had laid out all the lumber and was marking it to cut. However, the overhang section, with all its angles, was proving difficult. I knew I had a right triangle, and I knew the lengths of the a and b sides, but figuring out which angles to cut which peices of lumber at and where was when I got stuck on my own. Then my friend Avi came over to help out with the project. I was glad he arrived when he did because help with the angles was really useful. We spent another hour or so laying the lumber peices across each other, using phone calculators, looking at drawings we made, tilting the speed square, and laughing at how long this was taking us. We eventually decided to just lay out the lumber as if it were on my wall, and draw the angles on based on that. it worked. (horray!)

After that, we went outside to cut the lumber. I taught Avi how to use the circular saw on some straight cuts, and after watching me make some angled ones, he did those too. Our first angled cut, we messed up the angle of the sawblade, and eventually realized we didn't even need to chnge the balde angle, just the side of the lumber we were cutting from. the first one from that endeavor was a little janky but we cleaned it up with a pullsaw and the other two cuts didn't look nearly as sketchy. When it was time for him to go home, I finished the last few lumber cuts and moved onto the plywood. By now, it was getting darker out, so I had to move quick. However, moving a 4x8 sheet of inch-thick plywood across gravel, as it turns out, is not quick when I try to do it alone. Rather, moving it's not horrible, but orienting it was. I say no more, but I will say that the cut was eventually executed, to mediocre quality. I also cut some gussets.

Plywood cut, I brought my lumber upstaits to assemble. I won't deal with the plywood until tomorrow, but wanted to get all the cuts done at once so that I don't have to go between my room and the cutting area so often. I assembled the right angle of the overhang, but still haven't attached it to the wall yet. However, it was a good stopping point because I ran out of screws. Tomorrow's mission: get more screws, attach all framing parts to the wall, set a route on the plywood, attach plywood!