Why is it that there are only "Soft" and "Medium" bristle toothbrushes at the supermarket? Where are all the "Hard" or "Stiff" toothbrushes? And how can you have a "Medium" bristle when there is no other extreme? What is it in the middle of, exactly?
These are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night.
Some heavy hitting has been going on the past two days.
First, the last of the second floor walls went up, even though the sheathing wasn't yet finished.
Much work was also finished on Jo's bedroom. She got the two interior walls and the beginnings of her bathroom walls.
Then came the scaffolding.
Why the scaffolding? To get to the third floor joists!
How cool is this? We're very close to being able to crawl up on the third floor.
The guys also finished the joists over Jo's room. She has the beginnings of a roof!
There won't be any updates tomorrow, or Monday for that matter. We're headed for Dragon*Con! We'll have lots of pictures of stormtroopers and Justice Leaguers, but pics of the progress on the house will have to wait. I don't know how much the guys will get done tomorrow anyway - half of them are going to be driving eleven hours north to Ann Arbor, Michigan Friday for Saturday's I-AA Appalachian State Mountaineers opener against the I-A Michigan Wolverines.
The ASU Mountaineers are the high country kings of football, with a following as rabid as Michigan's or Tennessee's just without the numbers to back it up. They're the two-time defending NCAA I-AA champs, and are working on a fourteen game win streak (dating back to their opening game loss last season against another I-A team - NC State.) I hate to say it, but I think the streak is about to end. Still, it'll be a heck of an ASU tailgate party up at the Big House, and I can't blame any of them for making the trip.
See you next week!
Two walls went up today before heavy rains shut things down.
First the guys made a homemade scaffold so they could raise the second half of the long wall that crosses the expanse of the two-story library/dining room.
Then they walked the big wall into place with much crying and squeaking. From the wall, that is:
And here it is from across the pit, from where Wendi's studio will be.
One open wall to go. They had already prepared to move their scaffold when the rains came.
Before that though, they also raised this short half-wall on the front of the house.
Et voila! One half-wall to go, and the second story exterior walls will be finished! Holy smokes. There are still interior walls on this floor to be built, so that will presumably have to be done before the third story work begins . . .
Much happy progress to report! See, even the scraps are smiling.
THREE second story walls went up today!
It started on Friday, when the guys built two walls but didn't raise them. Here Jo shows off one of the walls that will become her bedroom.
Monday morning, that wall went up. Jo and I spent the day in Boone where, among other errands, I checked out a bunch of books to research one of the stories I'm rewriting in The Brooklyn Nine. When we got back, the house looked, well, taller.
That wall went up along with a newly built one which will be half Jo's bedroom and half Jo's playroom. (THis will make sense later when some interior walls are built.) The larger window in the corner was going to be identical to the one on its left, but code forced us to make it big enough for a giant to escape in case there's a fire. One of the third floor windows will have to be changed too.
Jo looks lout the windows in Wendi's studio. Wait, how did Jo get up the ladder!? I hope somebody is watching her.
A closer look out the windows. The plastic wrap hasn't been removed from one of the windows, and those diagonal boards are of course only there to keep things up for right now.
It was a hazy day, but you could still see the mountains in the distance. We're still looking forward to the view from the third story, but this is nice.
It's kind of crazy to see this thing from a bit of a distance. Wendi asked today if it was going to be a bit ostentatious to have a three story home. Seriously, who has a three story home? Still, not counting the porches, we're just talking about a little more than 2,000 square feet. It just goes up, not out.
A peek inside that will soon be closed up . . .
. . . and a rare view of the BACK corner, the one pointed back toward the woods.
Tomorrow . . . the last of the second story walls? We shall see.
The second floor is almost finished! The actual floor itself, that is. Or the first story roof, whichever way you want to look at it. Above, you can see the cross braces they've installed that will help secure the joists. They're as yet unattached, of course.
Here it's clearly the first story roof, over our patio.
And here it's the second story floor.
The joists you see are all that is left to cover of the second story floor. Ah, does this remind me of the second floor addition Wendi and I built in Atlanta! The open space to the left is the quarter of the floor that will be open to the first story, making that section two stories tall.
Here's a view down into what will be the entranceway/library/dining room. Just pretend all those scrap pieces of wood are bookshelves climbing two stories up the wall and you'll get the picture.
And above, a view down into what will be the kitchen.
The floor was attached using a really cool drill that was as long as your leg. The guys loaded it with screws on plastic cartridges like the one above, and could then screw the floor to the joists without having to scoot around and do it with a regular power drill. They packed this gizmo up and took it with them when they left, so I couldn't get a picture of it. I suppose they were smart - I would have tried to play with it.
And now for what my friend Paul would perhaps call "the money shot":
Aha! Yes, Virginia, there is a view. And this is just the view from the second floor. I can't wait to see what it will look like from the third floor porch. That's where I plan to put a hammock, and then never come back inside.
And just for fun, a shot off the back side of the house, into the woods. Pretty as this is, we don't have a ton of windows facing it, since this will be the cold wind side of the house in the winter. We own another acre or so of land in this direction though, so once the house is finished and we're more established we plan on getting in there and tending to the forest a bit, perhaps creating some trails and a tree fort.
Yesterday's guess was good - we got floors! - so here's another bold prediction: tomorrow we'll get second story walls. Or the first floor stairs . . .
Ah, the second floor joists. What a wonderfully visual advancement on the home!
In one day, the guys managed to get the entire second floor joisted. If that's a word. Here you can see the joists over the kitchen.
And here over the living room.
That empty space you can see off to the right is the open space from one floor to the other. Both the first and second floors have one quadrant that's open to the floor above. They'll have walls, of course, so Jo and her clumsy daddy won't go wandering off to our dooms, but they will be low walls that will allow light and air to filter up and down.
The porch got its corner pole as well, replacing those temporary posts from before.
Tomorrow . . . who knows? The plywood flooring for level two? That seems logical. Updates to come . . .
I returned on Monday from a writer's retreat to find a great deal of progress on the house, as you can see. In addition to the back wall where the kitchen will be, the guys have built the mechanicals closet, which sits outside on the porch, have framed out the first floor bathroom, and added the large special order boards that carry the weight of the second floor above the first floor porch.
Here's a good shot of the mechanical closet, which will hold our hot water heater and Heatpex heating system. The tubes that feed the system are already there in the concrete - the black and red pipes you see sticking up.
And here is the first floor bathroom. That's probably all the work these guys will do to it. We're going to add the toilet, sink, and walls.
A nice view from the kitchen window, where you can see our temporary woodpile.
And the junction of the weight-bearing beams on the porch. That white board is temporary.
Next up - the second floor!
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