The Final and Say on Raising Walls.

This is the grand finale of Krista and I raising the four walls for our 40 x 50 foot shop by ourselves. The time it took us was thirty-six days from the wood delivered to our property, June 19th to the final wall finished and in place on July 25th. That also includes the 10 …

Breaking through the 4th Wall

This is it the last of the 4 walls for the 40 x 50 ft shop build.  We faced many challenges raising it from a wall getting stuck and a storm blowing through with heavy rains. We surpassed both challenges as you will see in the video. As we close this final phase, we will …

The Secrets of Raising a Wall with only 2 People

This is a behind the scenes view of the raising of the 3rd wall. I show how the crane works and why my wife and I are overly cautious around it. In the following video, you will learn why we didn’t sheath the wall before raising it, and how we lowered the crane after the …

Taking a break before we do

A simple inexpensive way to celebrate an achievement is dinner and a movie. We started our marriage in poverty; two college students with student loans that equaled a house payment. We would rent a movie for 99 cents, cook dinner, and have an intermission to make popcorn. See "Vacation Destination the Last BlockBuster?" for further …

Epic Build Continues… 40 x 50 foot shop build

This is the second installment of the shop build. The feat of raising these walls is incredible. We had to return one wench, and the new wench just ate the cable after raising this second wall.  As a couple in our fifties, we realize how extensive this build has become. We have enjoyed working in …

Married Couple Lifts 16 foot by 40 foot Wall by Themselves

When building a barn, shop or home, the do-it yourselfer can practically do everything themselves, except for lifting the walls. As Krista and I began construction on the shop this year, the question was in the back of my head. How am I going to lift these walls?  I did research, looked at wall jacks …

Living a Sustainable Nightmare 2019 -2023

So many changes and not enough time to process them all. At Living a Sustainable Dream, I sometimes use this post as a journal entry to point myself back to the events that shape my life and how those life changes like falling dominoes effect the present and the future. This Blog was started March …

This Post was Written by a Human

Domo arigato Mr. Roboto. A classic line from Styx 1983 song “Mr. Roboto.” If you look at the lyrics, the song seems to be prophetic as to where society is heading or even on the edge of the precipice. At Living a Sustainable Dream we have been spammed at an exponential rate to consider letting …

Ending 2022. Times of Change.

2022 is coming to an end and much has changed over the past year, which will lead to more changes in 2023. Living a Sustainable Dream has been lying dormant since the end of summer this year. This past autumn was one of the most difficult in my 22 years of teaching. Losing a fellow …

Want to visit a cool 1980’s retro arcade?

Want to visit a cool 1980's retro arcade? While visiting Sunriver, Oregon, we discovered a retro arcade called Riverscape Arcade, that specialized in restored 1980s arcade games. For the past several years our family has dreamed of building a shop on the property that would house our business, art studio, automotive shop, radio shack, tools …