I had another productive construction weekend again this week. A good friend came by to help me finish up the roof on my building and frame up a couple of the walls.

Even though the building keeps moving toward completion, it always seems like progress is going too slowly. It wouldn't matter how quickly it progressed; it could never be fast enough to suit me.

Sometimes I think I would be better suited to enjoying the journey rather than always looking toward the destination, but that isn't the way I'm programmed. I do enjoy doing this kind of work most of the time, but my eyes are on the finish line if I'm in the race.

Now I have only one wall left to frame and then I can start putting on the wood to which I will attach the metal on the outside of the building. I decided to go with metal after pondering my options. Since metal requires almost no maintenance for at least 20 years, it surely is a better choice than wood products (my other choice) for siding. I'm not one who works with vinyl siding much, so it wasn't an option.

With the metal, all I will need to do is put on some strips of wood and screw the siding to the wood strips. If that sounds overly simplified, that's because it probably is. There are also little attachment pieces for the window and door trim, corners and other places I probably don't even know about. But I'm confident that I can muddle my way through and come up with a suitable end result. In other words, I spent a little time looking at a metal-sided building the other day and I think I understand the steps necessary to install it, at least in premise. It couldn't be all that different from a roof.

Now my next decision comes down to whether I build the 'lean-to' side of the building for my lawnmowers, tiller and outdoor equipment now or wait until after I've sided the rest of the building. On one hand, it would be easier to get the thing sided and then have it in a useable condition sooner, but on the other, I'd like to be able to do all the siding at once and not have to come back later for a 're-do' of the work.

One thing's for sure, no matter what I decide, there's still a good bit of work left to do before I complete this project. Earlier this week I traveled to my home place to look for items I stored long ago in preparation for the building that is now being built. Foremost on my mind was scrap lumber, which will be used behind the metal siding. I found pile of it that I had stored in the barn and more in the loft of another building. At the price things cost these days, I'm trying to purchase as little lumber as possible.

In looking around for the lumber, I noticed something about the buildings: they're nearly filled with items ranging from classic treasures to mere worthless junk.

Even those items I would qualify as valuable are either out of order or are improperly stored. It's hard to even move around in some of the places.

While there, I decided that I would take a day soon to sort through my stuff there, straighten it all up and discard at least one truckload and possibly more. The rest I hope to move into my new building soon.

As I looked through the things stored hither and yon, many of them were put away for a project like the one I'm working on now. I've always put things away for future use, some of which have found their way into projects and others that have simply waited patiently for years without seeing any results.

However, with the cost of materials rising by the week, it's clear that the things I stored long ago will definitely save me a good deal of money. I had the aforementioned scrap lumber, an assortment of interior and exterior doors, trim and other wood pieces, light fixtures, shop lights, shelving boards and supports, sheets of peg board and scraps of plywood.

However, other things were put away because they were too nice to throw away or because there was nowhere else to put them at the time. I have my old bedroom suite, my old table and chairs, my grandmother's old wooden table, a big stack of beaded ceiling planks, about 500 canning jars and boxes filled with lots of 'mystery' junk.

In the bottom of the old barn, the air is so dusty that I can only stand to be in there for about 30 minutes or so at a time. There haven't been any animals in there in years. By the time I got out of there, my nose was running, my eyes were watering and I was sneezing at least every minute or so.

Normal dust, like I encounter in the air while mowing the grass these days or driving down a gravel road, doesn't really bother me. But there's just something in that barn that really makes it hard for me to breath. It's inundated with the musty smell of stale air, of really old things covered with dust, complemented with spider webs, scraps of hay and ancient manure. The top of the barn has become a bird sanctuary as well as a storage place, with nests in nearly every available nook and cranny. Birds inside aren't known for aiding air quality either. However, with its open air flow, the top of the barn's air is much easier to breath.

It's always hard to not get distracted while looking through a lifetime's collected junk. But one thing will make it easier for sure- to discard the worthless and gather and organize the rest. But first I'll need a place to put everything....

Get more tongue in cheek commentary this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

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