Day Fourteen: (Does he know what he's doing in there?)

Yesterday I spent three hours tangled with the shop vac, trying to suck up all the roof pucky that had rained down over the past week. It was not a pretty sight. I took all the drop cloths out for a good shake over the edge of our new patio and tried to hold my breath as they released clouds of sawdust, dirt, composite roof "sand," leaves and unknown other substances. It felt GREAT to clean up, even just a little bit, as the house was looking pretty wrecked and the sandy junk from the roof had to be no bueno for our soft-ish fir floors. Note to self: never have a roof replaced in an exposed ceiling house when you are living in said house. OK. Got it.

The roof is on and almost finished - they still need to complete a small section on the garage. Apparently there were four roofs on the garage as well - just removing the previous roofing material properly will supposedly help with the slight sag to the roof line over the workshop. Whatever. I'm shocked that the roofers didn't just reframe the whole garage roof without asking and then hand us a bill. (Sorry, still upset.) The final roof does look quite lovely on the house - I'm glad that we went with the hickory color the roofer suggested.

Matt met with the owner of the roofing company this evening; apparently they had a good talk about our concerns and their workmanship. There is no conversation that can fix the problem, but I defer to Matt's judgement and expertise on the house. (But I do have to say, I may be hormonal, but POLKA DOTS?!?! ON OUR CEILING?!?! ARGH.) OK. Moving on.

Danny and Megan came down tonight to see the new casa and lend a helping hand. I worked today and thus wasn't there to greet them graciously from the front porch (apron and pearls optional) but was able to show up with bueno Taqueria food in hand. We had a great time catching up over burritos, sitting in our fabulous flimsy folding chairs outside around a small work table. (I will miss these kinds of moments when we are fully moved in with furniture and other modern conveniences...) I do love how much we laugh when these two are around!

Danny was Matt's best man at our wedding - a total goofball and loveable party person. Those of you who where there might remember his fabulous toast ("Kadoosh!") and his date (my grandmother.) I don't know Danny's entire work history, so when I walked in to find Danny with a skill saw attacking our bathroom floor, I must admit I was slightly alarmed. I pulled Matt off his ladder where he was installing switches in the WayBack to ask, "Does Danny know what he's doing?!?" in my most positive, upbeat, neutral and quiet whisper. Turns out Daniel worked in construction for several years. Whew. My bad. Sorry to ever doubt you dude... I'm just slightly concerned when I see someone with a skil saw in one hand, a beer in the other, coming out of the bathroom to say, "I may have just hit a pipe. There were sparks."

Holy poop. ;o)

(Thanks Danny and Megan - was great to see you, and Danny did a great job removing the old bathroom floor in preparation for this weekend's big bathroom showdown!)

Day Thirteen: I am not a happy camper...

I forgot to take a picture of my concrete art the day they poured (with a giant, awesome, totally rad concrete mixing truck! Still excited!) Do you like the line of trees I scratched in? I was under a whole heap of pressure - the concrete guys were standing over me to see what I wrote. Not bueno. I could have done a Starry Night or Guernica if they weren't watching... ;o)


We're having a bit of an issue with the roofer... namely an issue with the NAILS that are coming THRU our BEAUTIFUL EXPOSED PINE ROOF. Nails on their own would be one thing, but the roofers apparently tried to cover their mistake by REPEATEDLY POUNDING THE NAILS FROM THE INSIDE WITH A HAMMER ON THE SOFT, AGED WOOD. Thus, we have polka dots on our ceiling. Don't you think that, were you to do this once on a client's ceiling, producing said marks, you would stop and find an alternative method of removing the exposed nail ends? Yeah, me too. But apparently this crew didn't seem to mind that they were giving our lovely ceiling pox scars. I'm pretty miffed. There are still nails hanging down in the bathroom... hopefully they won't continue to bash our poor wood ceiling in after Matt's discussion with the owner.

And the gutters were supposed to be pre-primed. They are not. But at least the house now has gutters.


Argh.


I met Matt up at the house tonight and made us our standard sandwiches and chips for dinner. Today I baked an apple crisp with fruit from our very own tree for our dessert. These apples are delicious! Tart, crisp and with great flavor, perfect for baking, eating raw or applesauce. A co-worker let me know about a great local homebrew supplier that has the presses and crushers to make our own apple cider! Now if only I could actually REACH all those apples!


Matt continues to kick booty rewiring the *entire* house. Have I mentioned what a stud my husband is? Yeah, he rocks. There are beautiful new light fixtures and ceiling fans in the front room, master bedroom and nursery. We now have LIGHTS in the closets! The kitchen and the WayBack are coming along, and the bathroom will be rewired this weekend after we re-frame and insulate. Crazy.


Speaking of the WayBack........ it is a total mess...... hurricane-thrashed-status-disarray. I can't wait for this to all be over so that we can clean up and enjoy our house (even more than we are enjoying it thus far!) Have I explained the name of our enclosed porch room yet? Hmmm. Preggo-brain.


When Matt was little, their family had a big ol' 1970's station wagon (the indestructible all-metal kind) and four young kids. Three sat on the back bench seat, but one lucky kid got to sit in the "way back" of the station wagon - the fun area with room to relax away from the siblings. Thus, our "fun room" has been dubbed the WayBack. Here's to years of relaxation, games, storm-watching and sleepovers to come in our own WayBack.