Catch up post, part 1

It’s been a busy few weeks, keeping me off the wagon in terms of returning to regular Sunday posts.

 Last weekend we had a visit from cousins Lydia and Robert. They are the same pair that helped us early in the project, cleaning up my design and helping tremendously with decisions about how to situate the house on the land.  

Time has come to assess the site again, in order to establish some plan for how we will restore the contours of the land around the house . Although a lot of this is “landscaping,” there are connections to systems work that needs to be done fairly soon – like bringing a water line into the house from the well.  

 

Again it was time to use the compass and transit/level to establish the levels of the surrounding terrain.  And once again we're lucky to have Lydia and Robert helping us with this challenging but important part of the project!   

As you’ve surely gathered from the pictures throughout, we have quite a bit of slope. Still,  its always surprising  HOW MUCH the drop is (that's the well under the plastic bag and inuslation)

The house  pic will look like all the others,  but if you can see them,  there are gutters now, in anticipation of you know what in the fall! 

There's been a lot going on inside and I haven't had the patience to take inside pictures,  but I will try to do so tomorrow and then post .  THen it's a shor work week and VACATION until labor day. 

Back to the slog and the blog

Hard to believe that I've missed over four weeks of posts,  but so it is.  There are a number of reasons -- not to say "excuses," as you'll read.  

First,  I guess the completion of the exterior and the need to move to a completely different part of the project brought on a kind of retrospective exhaustion,  or even mild panic.  It's kind of typical of me not to fear at the point that most intelligent people would be completely overwhelmed,  and then to have a bout of paralysis about the enormity of what I've bitten off when the scariest part of it is behind me.  

So it went for a bit,  while I postponed taking time off until the date of a planned visit by my dear mother.  

She can be seen here studying a proposed color sample for the stucco part of the house.  

I took advantage of her visit to stop work and chill a little for about a week.  Really that's the wrong term as the unusually hot weather arrived about then.  

Of course, we did visit some local hot spots together -- like the scrap steel yard,  where I unloaded about 250 lbs of metal waste and collected a whopping $13.  More valuable was the clear conscience I got.  I literally pick up broken screw, waste staple,  strapping etc and salvage it from the trash so it can be recycled.  This is how we've kept the landfill waste on this project to very near zero. 

Before the break (about middle of July) my new helper became my ex-helper by injuring his knee quite badly -- on the stairs in his own home,  I hasten to add.  My first day unexpectedly alone was the day we received delivery of the wood flooring that is to cover most of our floor.  Getting it off the truck and stacked properly for acclimation to humidity levels in our space was a big job.    

Unfortunately,  there are problems with the wood and it will all need to go back and be replaced.... a lot more labor.  That's all I'll say about it here,  but I'm sure you can imagine the agony,  hassle and anxiety that went into arriving at this decision and getting the supplier on board.   We can only hope that the replacement material will arrive here to standard.   

Shortly after Ilse's visit came one from Jenks and Sukie (Jennifer's father and his companion).   That was when the relentless heat was here, and the mobile home is a pretty hot tin can in such conditions,   so we had our first sit down meal in the house -- complete with table cloth thrown over plywood on saw horses.  

The visits provided me with a much needed excuse for a break and a chance to let percolate my thoughts about how to organize myself from here forward.  In addition,  though,  I got recharged by all the thoughtful support the visitors offered.  My mother wandered up the lumpy hill often -- sometimes all on her own -- and took her time getting the feel for the place.   Obviously it gave me great pleasure when she proclaimed that her feel for and appreciation of the place grew with familarity.   Sukie and Jenks  -- who say they follow the blog faithfully-- also agreed with what I always say:  pictures don't capture the magic of the spot or the whole of the spyhow project.   

OK,  on to business because I need to get to work this morning.   It's not like NOTHING got done since I wrote last:  

We (for as long as I had a helper) have been laying the pieces that will make up the highly efficient underfloor radiant sandwich:  What you see here are the snaking channels that will have aluminum plates and tubing for hot water dropped in just befoer the final wood floor is nailed on top.  

On the second floor I've gone to the trouble of adding a layer of cork underneath -- I think you can see it in these pics -- to dull the sound of upstairs footfalls in the downstairs space. 

Framing is hard to photograph,  but in addition to putting up the few wals that there are in the first floor plan,  there were a considerable number of details that took some work and planning  -- like the details around the concrete headers and over open doorways.  Lots of things you take for granted once you're in a space,  but they need to be figured and done here!

I also took what I hope will be one of my last trips up onto the scary and now slippery metal roof,  to cut the hole for the  tube thatwill light the master  closet when the walls cut of f most of its access to window light. 

I'm working now on window jambs and trim (interior) which I'm making from cherry wood that was once a tree in someone's yard...  So far it's gorgeous.  

As I keep saying,  interior work is hard to portray... but I'll try to return to regular posts now that I see the light at the end of the (master closet light)tunnel: