Shadow of the Mountain Observatory

Shadow of the Mountain Observatory - The Build

July 8-10, 2011: Door, Trim & Paint

7/8/11: It was raining cats and dogs by the time I got half way up the mountain Friday evening. I did, however, manage to get unloaded and get the door up on hinges, but it was too dark to get a good pic.

7/9/11: I got up early Saturday and started painting some trim. My wife and her mother drove up and brought a nice picnic lunch. I rolled the roof off and we had a nice cool picnic area.

7/9/11: With the door knob and dead bolt in place I can now go ahead and add the trim.

7/9/11: In my "spare time" I filled the pier with sand to minimize vibration. I started out using a funnel, but it kept getting clogged and progress was really slow. I found that if you poured it directly into the hole it wound mound up and then form a crater like the one in this pic. If you pour at a rate that doesn't overflow the crater, the mound doesn't get any bigger and most of the sand goes right in the hole. Notice the small hole on the left? That was added to let air out and help increase the flow into the hole. Without this it would periodically "blow"...kinda looked like a small volcanic eruption. With this approach I could empty a 50 lb. bag of Quikrete Premium Sand in about 20 minutes. It took 4 1/2 bags to fill bringing the total pier weight to just over 500 lbs.

7/10/11: I spent most of Sunday painting the facias and touching up all the nails in the trim work. I'll paint the gantry on another trip and probably add a step or a small porch. There's quite a bit of interior work to do as well, but for all intents and purposes, she is done.

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Shadow of the Mountain Observatory - The Build

July 8-10, 2011: Door, Trim & Paint

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