# The pavilion



## sprucegum

I have mentioned this project in a couple of other treads and thought it might be time to give it a home for the building season. One of my sons and a business partner have purchased most of a old Vt. hill farm and are turning it into a campground and event venue. They spent last fall and the winter working on permitting and now have the go ahead to break ground. I am working on getting the timbers sawed for a 40' x 80' pavilion that we hope to have ready for fall events. We have already done enough renovations in the farm house to make it livable and that will be rented by the week and weekend through the summer. So here are a few pictures of the start, some of which I have posted in other threads.

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## barry richardson

looking forward to seeing it progress!

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## Nature Man

Awesome! I've signed on to watch the continuing efforts through to completion. Chuck

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## woodtickgreg

Subscribed.

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## sprucegum

View from the building site &

lumber piles a finally starting to grow

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## sprucegum

Pine slabs for the bar top, we will need to send these to the kiln to get them dry for late summer

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## ironman123

Looking good there Dave.

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## Tony




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## ripjack13

Subscriber here too....so that when it's done, the wife n I might have to make a road trip up....

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## Mike1950

Dave, how far are you from the Gap that goes from 2 lanes to 1 lane to get around the big rocks. Used to have a friend in Burlington. He took me all over state- Pretty country..


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## sprucegum

ripjack13 said:


> Subscriber here too....so that when it's done, the wife n I might have to make a road trip up....


Should be done before fall foliage season, I think they already have a maybe for a fall wedding event and two with deposits for summer 2017

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## sprucegum

Mike1950 said:


> Dave, how far are you from the Gap that goes from 2 lanes to 1 lane to get around the big rocks. Used to have a friend in Burlington. He took me all over state- Pretty country..


That is over on the west side of the state in Bernie Sanders country, not really that far as the crow flies but because you can't get there from here it is about 2 hours away.

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## Kevin

Dave, please refrain from posting any more pictures until your White Death is all melted away. Some of us are allergic to even the sight of it. This was me in 1959 when my evil mom took me outside in it . . .

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## sprucegum

Jeez not even any mittens no wonder you hate the stuff, we would never take a kid out half dressed. It is really looking like an early spring, that little storm has completely melted and nothing in the forecast looks like winter. We really did not have a winter this year lowest snow fall on record and really pretty warm. We heated the house mostly with fuel oil this winter because it was just too warm most of the time to burn wood and the oil prices were pretty low.


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## Mike1950

sprucegum said:


> Jeez not even any mittens no wonder you hate the stuff, we would never take a kid out half dressed. It is really looking like an early spring, that little storm has completely melted and nothing in the forecast looks like winter. We really did not have a winter this year lowest snow fall on record and really pretty warm. We heated the house mostly with fuel oil this winter because it was just too warm most of the time to burn wood and the oil prices were pretty low.



That was us last winter- dry- this winter wet.


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## sprucegum

Sawed the last log yesterday. Seems like it has taken forever but in reality it was just a drawn out process with a lot of bad weather and a couple of relatively minor mill problems. For some reason all of the days that I was waiting for parts were nice days and when the mill was running like a top it was raining. I scaled the logs with a international 1/4" rule and came up with just over 15,000 board feet so I am sure we have over 20,000 of lumber. I estimated the timbers alone at over 5000. Some of the pine was really nice so on those logs I saved short boards down to about 4' in length, I don't know if many of the shorty's will find a use on this job but given the price of premium pine I couldn't put them in the slab pile. Relaxing a little today probably get the mill moved and cleaned up. We still need to rearrange some lumber stacks and do some cleanup. Hope to get a few pictures later today.

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## sprucegum

New phone is a real PATA but I finally got a few new pictures posted.

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## sprucegum

for any of you facebook junkies here is a link to a facebook page the girls put up for the project. https://www.facebook.com/Tempson-Barn-513961402122444/

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## ironman123

Pretty nice looking wood and beautiful country.

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## sprucegum

Finally after months of permit holdups and other problems we are making a little progress. I worked most of the holiday weekend getting setup to start cutting the frame. I am using my mill as a work table and tendon cutter. We are also skim cutting all of the timbers to remove any warp and twist and because the state dep. of labor and industry is requiring a splinter free surface I am using a fine tooth blade. After the mortises and tendons are cut the timbers move to a pair of saw horses and my HS kid helper belt sands them. eighty grit is doing a quick and passable job. I expect we will do more sanding after they are in place and the roof is on. The timber on the mill is #1 with my prototype arched brace in place to check the mortise for fit.1

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## Kevin

I didn't realize the scale of this thing. That's gonna be a big one!


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## Don Ratcliff




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## sprucegum

Kevin said:


> I didn't realize the scale of this thing. That's gonna be a big one!


It is going to be 40 X 80 just the side walls are timber framed, the roof will be clear span scissor (cathedral) trusses. We have also stated on the 24 x 24 potty building which will have a mens and ladys room and a brides dressing room. There will be parking for 100 cars and within the next couple years a 24 site campground and office.

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## ripjack13

What!? No monkey/leprachaun gender bathrooms?


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## sprucegum

ripjack13 said:


> What!? No monkey/leprachaun gender bathrooms?


We will get them one of the blue plastic jobs.

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## HomeBody

Great project, and I really like the view. You can see for miles across that valley. Gary

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## TimR

Dang...that's some gorgeous views from the plateau. Looking forward to this one progressing...love that you guys are apparently using mostly wood you harvested.

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## sprucegum

TimR said:


> Dang...that's some gorgeous views from the plateau. Looking forward to this one progressing...love that you guys are apparently using mostly wood you harvested.


It is a fun project because of all of the timber framing. Our new Makita chain mortiser is making quick work of the mortises. We had a assembly line going yesterday, I was skim cutting the timbers to help smooth them and fine tune the size. While I had them on the mill I was end squaring them and using the mill to cut the tendons on top of the posts. Finally got a excellent carpenter to help. A fellow that I had worked with about five years ago. He was cutting the mortises and the high school kid was belt sanding them and chamfering the tops of the tendons with a block plane. Timing was almost perfect with each of the jobs taking almost equal time. My carpenter Tom commented that this is a nice change of pace and way more fun than regular framing.

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## sprucegum

Using the bandmill to cut out bladed scarf joints in the top plate.

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## HomeBody

That's one heck of a joint. You guys look like you know what you are doing. Gary

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## sprucegum

HomeBody said:


> That's one heck of a joint. You guys look like you know what you are doing. Gary


I would have liked to have used a different style joint but the building was engineered and we had a difference of opinion, He actually wanted us to butt them on the tops of the posts and uses steel plates and thru bolts. Steel is not the look we are after and he finally agreed to the bladed scarf over the posts with 10" lags screwed in from the top. The whole building is way over engineered, not a bad thing considering it will have seating for 300. As far as knowing what we are doing that joint is nothing either of us has any experience with, however having plenty of cool tools to work with has made it pretty easy. It took us about a day and a half to do the 80' top plate for one side complete with all of the mortises cut. We are hoping to have one whole side assembled and ready to go up for Sat. Morning.

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## sprucegum

The Foreman seems to approve of our work

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## woodtickgreg

I like the arches on that, if you think of it some more pics of the structure would be cool. I don't get to see timber framed stuff very often and I find it to be very cool.

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## sprucegum

Big day tomorrow lots of help coming .

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## sprucegum

woodtickgreg said:


> I like the arches on that, if you think of it some more pics of the structure would be cool. I don't get to see timber framed stuff very often and I find it to be very cool.


I cut the arch in all of the braces on my 1930's vintage craftsman 12" bandsaw. They are 3" thick white pine. The job went surprisingly fast.

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## Mike1950

Cute kid!! Nice work and view Dave.

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## Kevin

I'm jealous. Very jealous. I would even travel north of the Red (this time of year) to come help you if I could. "Help" by just being a gopher . . . it looks like you Yanks know what the heck you're doing. Keep it coming Dave . . . . . . .

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## Kevin

And GAWD that is some beautiful country when it isn't covered in the deadly white stuff . . . .

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## sprucegum

Kevin said:


> And GAWD that is some beautiful country when it isn't covered in the deadly white stuff . . . .


No white stuff for sure lately, been pretty hot for around here and the humidity has been wicked.


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## woodtickgreg

Great pics Dave! I love to see that kind of stuff. I have never done any timber framing but it sure does interest me, always wanted too. 
Wicked hot and humid here too! I can't work in that stuff anymore. Come on fall! Keep the pics coming, really enjoy this stuff. 
P.S. syrup is great in baked beans and BBQ sauce!


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## Mike1950

sprucegum said:


> No white stuff for sure lately, been pretty hot for around here and the humidity has been wicked.





woodtickgreg said:


> Great pics Dave! I love to see that kind of stuff. I have never done any timber framing but it sure does interest me, always wanted too.
> Wicked hot and humid here too! I can't work in that stuff anymore. Come on fall! Keep the pics coming, really enjoy this stuff.
> P.S. syrup is great in baked beans and BBQ sauce!



Been pretty humid here also- 20% until the thunderstorm and got all the way up to 60% yikes.....


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## sprucegum

Had a successful raising, nothing broke, no one got killed or injured. It did however pour down rain rite wen we could not stop, so dam hot and humid the rain did not feel too bad.

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## woodtickgreg

Awesome! Looks great! So very cool to watch the progress of this. Thanks for the pics!

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## sprucegum

Mike1950 said:


> Been pretty humid here also- 20% until the thunderstorm and got all the way up to 60% yikes.....


After the thunder storm hit yesterday and the sun came back out hot the humidity was 98%, took all of the fun out of the job but the beer tasted good when we were done. Today is like the nicest day all summer a cool air mass has moved in lots of sunshine and a nice breeze. Perfect for a little garden tending and porch sitting.

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## sprucegum

Trusses went up today, 12 hour day is too long for a old fart. Too tired to hold up a camera I will get some more pictures tomorrow.

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## Mike1950

sprucegum said:


> Trusses went up today, 12 hour day is too long for a old fart. Too tired to hold up a camera I will get some pictures tomorrow.


Damn, i know what you mean. Spent most of the day on the tractor. 95. To damn old for this. Sure makes cold water and a beer taste good though.

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## sprucegum

Hot and humid here too I think my fluid intake for the day is around 1.5 gallons water, a quart of gatoraid and just now starting on a couple quarts of beer. Although that may be optimistic probably fall asleep after a pint.

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## ironman123

Nitey-nite Dave.

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## Nature Man

Love the progress. What a gorgeous setting. Chuck


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## ripjack13

sprucegum said:


> Hot and humid here too I think my fluid intake for the day is around 1.5 gallons water, a quart of gatoraid and just now starting on a couple quarts of beer. Although that may be optimistic probably fall asleep after a pint.



You need to get one of those hats that hold a beer on each side. Then all you do is sip it....no lifting required....

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## Kevin

For a brief second when I first looked at that last pic I was trying to figure out what kind of crane attachment you were using on your bandmill to install the trusses. I thought damn that Yankee ingenuity is something to behold.

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## sprucegum

Here are a couple my wife took yesterday. 

 

 The maze of cranes looks a little confusing so I will explane. The trusses were stacked too far from the building to reach with the log loader so my sons business partner brought his concrete form truck to move them from the stack to a position that the log loader could reach them.

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## NYWoodturner

Wow - just look at the view you will get from the pavilion.

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## sprucegum

NYWoodturner said:


> Wow - just look at the view you will get from the pavilion.


Guess they are hoping plenty of brides to be will think so also. I guess if a guy is going to do something stupid he may as well do it at a pretty location.

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## rocky1

You'd be surprised Dave; niece just got married in similar type facility, was an old barn next to a lake out in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Valdosta, GA that had been remodeled. Lot of the outdoor furnishings, chairs, benches, flower pot and ashtray holders were built out of the hardwood stakes used to hang tobacco. Much of the cabinetry was faced with used lumber. Old doors, antique fixtures had been used on all the restrooms and dressing rooms. Alter was the end out of an old out building on the farm, moved over an outdoor stage.

It wasn't fancy by any means, actually quite rustic looking in all respects. Weekends were booked for several months in advance. They had one opening on a Sunday, and that was it for the entire summer, 6 - 7 months in advance.


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## sprucegum

rocky1 said:


> You'd be surprised Dave; niece just got married in similar type facility, was an old barn next to a lake out in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Valdosta, GA that had been remodeled. Lot of the outdoor furnishings, chairs, benches, flower pot and ashtray holders were built out of the hardwood stakes used to hang tobacco. Much of the cabinetry was faced with used lumber. Old doors, antique fixtures had been used on all the restrooms and dressing rooms. Alter was the end out of an old out building on the farm, moved over an outdoor stage.
> 
> It wasn't fancy by any means, actually quite rustic looking in all respects. Weekends were booked for several months in advance. They had one opening on a Sunday, and that was it for the entire summer, 6 - 7 months in advance.



This part of the state is fast becoming a tourist recreation destination with miles of hiking and mt. bike trails. There are a couple of so called wedding barns that are doing well and one large open air chapel, all are booked well into next year. This one even in its current state is attracting a lot of attention and already has 4 Saturdays booked for 2017. I long for the old days when there was a dairy farm every couple of miles on every back road but the cows won't pay the rent anymore .

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## sprucegum

Making some steady progress

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## sprucegum

Still making decent progress, most of the time there are 3 of us working sometimes more sometimes just me. The pavilion will get the two big cupulas and the little one goes on the potty house. Both buildings will get standing seam metal roofing, the roofer is coming Saturday to roof the cupula's before they go on the roof. We are using the interior as a shop and as you can see it is just as easy to mess up a big shop, sure is nice to have shade and a dry place to work on rainy days.















 View attachment 111992

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## woodtickgreg

Looking very nice! I'm still enjoying watching this build.

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## NYWoodturner

Super impressive Dave. I just love it!

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## sprucegum

My cousin and his wife stopped by to look at the project. Nancy is a photographer and asked to take some pictures of my framing tools in use so I got out the fancy Makita chain mortise. A look of bewilderment came over her face "don't you have some old tools" she asked. I replied "yes but I only use them to make small adjustments and cleanup work". She insisted on a picture of me using them, I finally agreed to a shot of my hands. If you think they are ugly you should see the rest of me. Makes me feel like a politician all smoke , mirrors and lies

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## sprucegum

Cupulas went up today wish I had gotten a picture of them dangling on the crane but I was pretty busy and my phone was in the truck.

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## Mike1950

Very nice

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## woodtickgreg



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## ripjack13

I see experienced hands holding experienced tools....

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## Nature Man

Almost finished! Yea!!! Looks magnificent! Chuck

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## sprucegum

Nature Man said:


> Almost finished! Yea!!! Looks magnificent! Chuck


More left to do than it looks like. 4500 board feet of pine to go on the ceiling still to do 18 more doors to hang and of course the dreaded punch list.

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## Lou Currier



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## sprucegum

although they do not look it in the picture the doors are 12' high and the opening is 14' wide . A local welder made the hinges for us the strap is 30" long.

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## Schroedc

sprucegum said:


> although they do not look it in the picture the doors are 12' high and the opening is 14' wide . A local welder made the hinges for us the strap is 30" long.
> 
> View attachment 113838



That there is a good sized door!

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## sprucegum

Schroedc said:


> That there is a good sized door!


Can't you just visualize them hanging open on a warm summer night, a good honkytonk band playing and 300 folks having a absolute blast.

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## Kevin

Schroedc said:


> That there is a good sized door!



That's 168 ft.² of hole.

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## Schroedc

Kevin said:


> That's 168 ft.² of hole.



That there's a big hole! Explains the big door.

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## sprucegum

Got half of the sliders hung today also.

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## Schroedc

sprucegum said:


> Got half of the sliders hung today also.View attachment 113839



The bottom half huh?

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## sprucegum

Schroedc said:


> The bottom half huh?


Glass guy coming next week to fill in the top.

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## sprucegum

Creaters came yesterday looks like a nice job. Now it needs to cure for 3 weeks then it gets a acid stain job to turn it mahogany color.

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## sprucegum

Getting there slow but sure, I think the plan is to tie up some loose ends then quit until spring. Everyone is pretty well used up and has fall chores to get done.

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## woodtickgreg

That is such a beautiful building! And on a great spot too.

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## David Van Asperen

Such an awesome project. Thanks so much for sharing the process with us. I really like the timber framing and have never done any, but man you sure do make it look like it is all worth it. Love your corner of the world and you just made that corner a lot more appealing.

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## NeilYeag

Great building and a beautiful view. You surely will have an awesome venue once completed. Cogratulations!

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## HomeBody

Yankees. There's still some good ones up there in VT. Super nice building. Gary

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## Kevin

That's one beautiful building.

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## sprucegum

Kevin said:


> That's one beautiful building.


Thanks to everyone for all of the positive feedback. Everyone is pretty happy with the way it came out. Too bad we could not have gotten it done for fall foliage season as there were a couple of groups interested in renting it for Oct. events. My son and his partner decided that it was better to loose the rental than have it turn into a cluster because of loose ends not being done. As they say first impression is everything. All of the tee's will be crossed and the I's dotted for a spring opening. Progress will be a little slow now but I will continue to post updates as they happen. I am really looking forward to adding some of the finishing touches especially the wide pine slab bar top.

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## TimR

Outstanding!


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## NYWoodturner

Absolutely gorgeous building with excellent craftsmanship. I can't see the punch list being too long.

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## sprucegum

First event tonight. Private school benefit auction and dance, I'm already getting primed hope to have some pictures tomorrow not too early though perhaps by noon on the left coast.

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## sprucegum

A fine time was had by all, and by the way they are now booking weddings and other events. Plenty of openings left for this summer and fall. https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=tempson barn

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## woodtickgreg

A thing of beauty and something to have been proud to be a part of.

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## Nature Man

Congrats on absolute success! Chuck

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## NYWoodturner

Thats a beautiful building on a fantastic lot with an even better view. That seriously has to be a source of pride for you. Hell I'm proud of it and have only seen pictures!  Thanks for taking us along the journey.

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## sprucegum

Saturday night was one of those times I wish I was about 30 years younger, I'm sure I could have drummed up some work. I really want to kick back and do my own thing now and have no real interest in paying jobs. I am reminded of what my dad always said when we kept a good hunting dog around, " about the time a dog gets so he is good for something he is too old to hunt".

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## barry richardson

That's a real nice set-up Dave! Seems like it will be a lot of fun for you to drop in on all those events. you know, just to see how things are going


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## sprucegum

barry richardson said:


> That's a real nice set-up Dave! Seems like it will be a lot of fun for you to drop in on all those events. you know, just to see how things are going


I suppose I could apply for a job as security and car parker but they probably wouldn't let me in the bar. Oh wait I got it bartender!

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