Caboose Work Party 11

Well, this time of year, you can’t trust the weatherman. On Sunday, it said Wednesday would be raining all day long, so I moved the workday to Tuesday. Today, not a drop. Anyway, Tuesday was a good workday too. We had five on the crew: Matt and his Dad Randy, John, Jay, and me. 

So, in mid-October, I got a call from the Code Compliance Officer with the City. He had heard that we are working on a caboose. He was friendly, and we had a nice conversation. I told him it never occurred to me that we might need a permit to work on a caboose; the board approved it, and none of them thought of it either. I asked what codes would apply, and he said they were looking into that, and he would need to talk to his supervisor. I sent them the email and pictures from our eighth work party. He sent an email in reply that I found entertaining. 

Thank you for your email. I reviewed this with the Assistant Building Official with all the helpful information you provided. No permit is required for the repairs because it is a caboose. In the future, prior to allowing tours of the interior, please contact the permit center as there would likely be permit requirements for this kind of use. I cannot explain entirely what the process looks like or what requirements there may be. So if it is being considered, you may want to reach out via this email.

Last night, I was reporting on the progress we are making on the caboose at the JWA Board meeting when Brian Currier, our VP on the board, said, "Hey, I want to give you $1,000 today right now for that caboose for all the work you've done.” Wow! This is great! We need to buy OSB decking for the roof, and other expenses are coming. Thank you so much, Brian; this is really appreciated and needed, but you still need to get down here on a workday with your hammer!

Jay and John installed the bay window header. That might be the wrong term, as it actually hung from the top plate with lag bolts. Next we can mark the position metal bay window roof and screw holes with a Sharpie. It will be taken off site to clean it up and paint it.

Matt and Randy built a knee wall to lift and support the south end of the caboose while rotten beams are being removed.

A board was screwed to the west wall and two farm jacks lifted and supported the wall while the rotten beam was removed. Note the piles of sawdust that the termites left. The Weber had installed a shower, and that caused much of this rot.

The bottom of the beam was sound, so we are going to make a lap joint with the new beam. The second picture is looking down at the beam though a hole in the floor where the icebox used to be.

The top of the second beam in was rotted out from the shower. The short beams between the long ones are morticed and tendoned together. Bigger tie rods then above are used to pull the joints tight. 

Jay worked on exposing the rotten beams under the west bay. We don’t want to take too much off so we can use this bay window a a pattern to rebuild the east bay window.

Well, the weatherman says next Wednesday is going to have a half inch of rain, while Tuesday is clear. I’ll wait until Sunday see what the forecast is then.

We have been adding people to the email list. We could always use more volunteers, if you would like to help, let us know from the volunteer page.