For the Birds

When we left off with the woodshed, it was a mere platform on the ground. It was still a platform a couple of weeks ago, when Erin's brother Pat and his family visited for the weekend. We woke up at 6:00am on Sunday morning (there were four small children present), and it was pouring rain. A few hours later, though, the weather had cleared, and Pat offered to help do a bit of work on the shed. So we went and got some lumber for the walls and got started.

First we built the back wall, hoisted it up, braced it into position, and nailed it in place. We realized we didn't have enough 2x4s for the header, so we borrowed the crossbeam from one of my sawhorses (no, not those sawhorses).

sorry, guy!

Next we put up the front wall.

Here's me sneaking up on the miter saw, while Pat steadies the end of what appears to be a 30-foot board. Damn you, optical illusions!

Next we built the side walls, and made the two end rafters.

Before I started this woodshed, I had a pretty good idea of how to do most of it, except for one part--I didn't understand how the roof attached to the walls, or wherever? I spent a whole Saturday night looking up different plans online, but rejected all of them, because they required "birds-mouth cuts," a term I didn't understand and refused to look up.

Next I called my dad, who has been advising me on this project all along, giving me direction and encouragement. He promised to send me a diagram showing how I should do the roof and the walls. He did, but sure enough:

At first I though, "ahh, well, 'birdsmouth' is in quotes, so maybe it's just a figure of speech." But then I also thought "hmm, what I just thought makes no sense." So I gave in and looked it up.  Good news: a birds-mouth cut is just a triangular cut to allow the rafter to fit over the front and back headers. You know, like all those birds you see flying around with their beaks open at really wide angles!

This weekend I'm planning to cut the rest of the rafters and get as much done on the roof as I can. Thanks for the help, Pat. I wouldn't be nearly so far along without it.