DAY 8

Hey Friends! Well, today proved to be another very productive day. It was just the three of us again (Jeff, Nate, and me). We managed to accomplish much, but yearned for one extra pair of hands. There was a lot of down time in between tasks, waiting for each other to mobilize. But we made it work! The weather turned on us today. Still no rain, although I did see a few very small drops! But it turned cold and windy. It was in the high 40's when we were wrapping up at the end of the day! And the wind blew ALL DAY LONG!

We have been trying to focus on the exterior work that requires use of the boom lift, because it is due back at the rental company tomorrow (Friday morning). So we worked on the North and South faces, the areas that we can't reach with a ladder. Managed to wrap the exterior in tar paper, hang 3/4" furring strips for the siding, and work on the fascia board and trim details.

I had to run out to the Depot to grab some supplies, so I put Nate and Jeff on a very important task. I had them repair the holes in the ceiling from the bodies that fell thru during demolition and framing days. This was important because Kat and I have been living with pink insulation hanging down in our bedroom and dining room areas, coupled with nasty, old, dark gray insulation that kept "drizzling" down thru these openings.

So a big THANK YOU to both Jeff and Nate for helping bandage up the wounds!

By the way, just to give you a glipse of what we are living in:

Here's a shot looking into our living room. The dresser on the bottom right will go into Jade's room (our current bedroom) when our space is ready to be occupied. Everything else you see is our clothes and storage from our closets (which were demo-ed out last weekend). Basically Kathy and I are living with about 4 changes of clothes. The rest are delicately balanced above our coffee table! And our power is disconnected in our bedroom: no lights or outlets. See that nice piece of wire hanging from our former closet light? Now if you went and stood at the blue dresser and turned around to face our bedroom, you would see this:

Well, except for Nate. I think he's still busy holding a 2x4 somewhere? :-)

This wall was opened to make room for the new stairs up to our 2nd floor. Consequently Kathy and I are sleeping (and dressing) in very little privacy, but plenty of construction dust! Our bed is just beyond the plastic drop cloth you can see in the distance. "Just one month of hell for 12 years of heaven!"

Both of these shots were taken AFTER Jeff and Nate patched, repaired, and cleaned up the ceiling mess!

We did manage to get 2 windows hung today: the north window over the fireplace and the east window at the bed wall. PELLA WINDOWS ROCK! When I was a framer, I loved hanging Pella windows because they always fit like they were suppose to and they were incredibly square. This was true today! The big bed window fit like a glove. Once we set it in the rough opening, it was dead-on square: bottom, sides, and plumb. Plus the interior space was noticibly warmer! Most of that was because the wind could no longer howl thru the space, but truth is the window is amazing! THANK YOU PELLA!

I'm sorry but I don't have any picture updates of the exterior of the house. We didn't get off of the lift until 8:15pm tonight. Hey, I lose track of time out there and it's still so light! But we had a great dinner (thanks Kat!) and rootbeer floats for desert (thanks Sonic!)

In closing I would like to share with you a kind email I received from my mentor, Bob Perrin. For those of you who do not know Bob, he was my neighbor growing up, an architect, and now a great friend. He is one of the biggest influences in my career path and why/how I chose to become an architect.

(picture taken May 19, 2007)

"History does repeat itself: you could have just used my notes from 30 years ago .

So on that light..... want to know what you will be doing, thinking and feeling tomorrow?

- Fortunately you are paying attention and will be a better architect because of it

- Some tasks are better left to those with muscles developed for that specific tasks

- Weather luck has a lot to do with how well things go.
- Something will go wrong, measuring twice isn't enough sometimes.

- Tradesmen will not follow the plans somewhere along the line, but the good ones will figure it out on their own.

- Living through remodeling is very uncomfortable. Wives, kids, and neighbors are affected. That's why I seriously joke to clients to include a psychiatrist or marriage counselor on their project team. :-))

and finally:
- Moving is lots easier than remodeling.

For a peek into the near future drywall phase, the dust will get inside your pants pockets, even if they are sealed in plastic bags in a locked closet.

And for peace in the family, Kathy should make all the color selections.......

Bob

Thank you, Bob. You make me laugh and cry at your words of truth and wisdom!



Ciao my friends!
a.Z. + fam