A building-shaped object!

Things are looking up! A wonderful crew came and help raise the rafters.

There was a bit more to do on the back 4, like build a loft. But Max managed it single-handedly!

This week: sheathing. It's looking more and more like a building!

And the work goes on...

Time marches on. Thanks to Max, our able-bodied worker/friend, we're making great progress! The lumber arrived around June 1.

Building the floor took about a week.

Max tests one vertical in a mortice. Yup. Works just fine.

Because we have plans for a loft at one end, six of the rafters will rise tomorrow, thanks to the crew of friends who will show up at 8:30 am. There will be more work to do over the weekend, and the rest of the rafters will go up next week some time.

We couldn't do it without Max.

Hole in the Ground

And the work progresses. Last week we had our old friends from Brendan's Concrete build forms and pour concrete to create walls for our foundation. We'll have "frost walls" and a crawl space.

It was a big day when the cement truck came. The men were real pros- it was like watching a well-executed, complex dance as they spread the concrete and leveled it off.

Yesterday "Mike Mulligan" returned and backfilled it all, poured gravel inside and out, and leveled it.

Next week we will have the first load of lumber delivered, and we hope to start the actual building. These are exciting times, and we are filled with gratitude and joyful anticipation that this beautiful shop is under way.

Breaking Ground

For the past three years Hunt has been making fine violins and violas in a garden shed on our property. The time has come to build a new, proper workshop. We've arranged financing, lined up the excavator, concrete guys, electrician and labor, gotten a building permit, and today's the day! Our favorite site contractor, aka Mike Mulliagan, who dug up our land and made it ready for the house we now live in, is arriving today!

We are eager to welcome him. The land is well situated for a violin workshop, near the entrance to our property and in a clearing. By the end of the summer, it will be a First Day Cottage single-story building, ready for Hunt to create beauty within.