The bottom line

FLW on basements:

A house should-ordinarily-not have a basement. In spite of everything you may do, a basement is a noisome, gaseous damp place .From it come damp atmospheres and unhealthful conditions. Because people rarely go there- and certainly not to live there- it is almost always sure to be an ugly place. The family tendency is to throw things into it, leave them there and forget them. It usually becomes- as it became when I began to build- a great furtive underground for the house in order to enable the occupants to live in it disreputably. Also, so many good housewives, even their lords and masters, used to tumble downstairs into the basement and go on insurance for some time, if not make it all immediately collectible.

-THE NATURAL HOUSE

We have had basements and have NOT had basements. Although we did use it as a junk room, we've also used it as a safe place to learn to roller skate, a quiet place to watch tv, an artists's studio, a workshop and at one time a horse or two made it in there to have it's mane trimmed. I like basements as a safe refuge against storms, and have never purposely fallen down the stairs in order to collect insurance.

He was spot on about the gas though, if you think about Radon. Basements are a good place to stick the stuff that makes up the physical plant for a house. Water heaters, pipes, extra fridges and freezers. In our usionion, we needed a large storage tank for the solar heated water, and so opted to build a small shed, which will also serve as a nice privacy barrier so we can have our morning coffee and not be on display before we've had a chance to comb our hair.

For storm safety, I think the best place will be to cower in the corner between the fridge and the steps

SNOW!

I was hoping for a shot we could use on Christmas Cards next year, but alas, construction vehicles ruined it!

This is no big deal to the Yankees, but down here, news of seven inches of snow ranks just below news of the Second Coming.

FINISHED with the indoor painting anyhoo

And thank goodness because our two day snow has arrived.

Here's Pat atop his new WERNER ladder. We went ahead and put two coats of finish paint on as long as the walls aren't finished. It only took about 5 hours to do that and of course, we spent the evening recuperating.

The lower picture is of a new code requirement that sort of makes sense. Whenever there is a wire near by where someone could conceivably hit it with a nail, the electricians put these metal plates on top of it. There are the square metal plates, and to the side you can see the rectangular metal plate where the wire goes through the 2x6.

Delivery Day Blues

We received our kitchen cabinets from IKEA yesterday. Sadly, the delivery people (yet again!) lived down to my expectations.

I would love for a delivery person to show up, do the job, let me do mine by making sure I receive everything I have paid for and then leave without issues. Unfortunately I honestly think in delivery school, the most important lesson taught is to have them announce 'I have alot of deliveries to make and don't have time to do this."

Due to the nature of IKEA, a complete kitchen comes in boxes no thicker than your thumb which means everything is knocked down and packed separately. We had sixty -five boxes, each with tiny tiny numbers indicating the article.

The kid handed me the inventory and while Pat and Thom helped them unload the truck, he stood by and complained about me checking off the inventory.

"If you finish this," he sez, "you'll be the first person I've ever had to do that."

"It's going to snow," he sez "and I have two more stops to make."

"even if you are missing something," he sez, "I can't do anything about it, I'm just a third party."

'Even if the numbers are correct on the boxes," he sez, "that's no guarantee the right article is in there." and so on and so on.

All the time, I have on my school marm voice as I remind him that we have paid for this, I know it's going to snow, and I realize he has nothing invested in making sure I have received everything.

Even though we had done his job by helping to unload the truck, rather than help me by looking for the numbers on the boxes, he thought it would be better to harangue me the entire time. .

A good schedule

We have had a really good schedule this week. We go paint after work for a couple hours every afternoon, and then run home. I mix the martinis while Pat gets dressed down, and then while they are chilling in the freezer, I run up to get dressed down and Pat fixes the garnish and appetizers.

Here's a good martini named for our favorite son-in law from Gretna Va.

Gretna Gimlet

3 parts Bombay Gin (not sapphire)

1 part Martini& Rossi Vermouth

Shake in a ice filled shaker, pour into glasses and set in Freezer until ready to imbibe.

Garnish with a nicely pickled OKRA pod....(this is the south y'all)

A correction and an injury

I was wrong about the ladder. It is a WERNER ladder from the Home Depot.

Sorry about that, but I must say, I prefer the name Little Giant....

Anyway, we have our first real injury. I don't think we can count the various illnesses we have all had. No, Young Brian ripped his bicep.

I was talking to the Brians yesterday and said, "it sounds Horrible."

Not So Young Brian said, "It sounded horrible when it happened. It was a large popping noise. We both knew something had happened."

Young Brian says it doesn't hurt at all. And then they both related a fairly gruesome story of one injury where the muscle actually severed all the way through and it curled up inside the fellow's arm.

I went back to painting after that.

Painting

We spent the afternoon painting the ceiling of the house. We had been batting around the idea of renting scaffolding to help Pat reach the 12.5 foot ceiling, but for the cost of that Pat bought an articulating Wagner ladder for $200.00 which we can use for longer than three days.

This was one of those purchases that worked out, he loves his ladder.

I think the name is The Little Giant..

http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Materials-Ladders/Little-Giant-Ladder-Systems/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xr5ZaqnpZ3z6/R-100430057/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

And, this will work on the outside too, for when he needs to finish the high areas of the soffit and fasica he's not been able to paint due to cold weather. Of course, I only stand back and admire the engineering. The steps up to the communion rail at church are almost beyond me and my lack of balance.

Our plywood, which we have been anticipating being delivered this week has been delayed a week. We are getting our IKEA cabinets on Friday and we'd hoped to have at least the kitchen area finished so that Pat could assemble the cabinets next week, which he had taken off from work. Instead, it will be a week of no work, either on the house or at the office...I hope he doesn't get into trouble. Idle hands are the Devil's playthings.

Hard Headed People Wearing Hard Hats

The Fountainhead was on Turner Classic Movies this week. We dvr'd it so that we could look at it during cocktail hour. As with many novels of ideas, it didn't translate well to the talkies. Too much speechifying, but Patricia Neal's outfits were pretty cool.

This is the book which was based on Frank Lloyd Wright and his work. I know that at some point he distanced himself from the movie, I think he wanted credit for the drawings or something, don't hold me to that.

I like the book and may in fact re-read it while my granddaughter and I take a break from Harry Potter, she's on her first reading, and I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've read about that kid.

Anyway, The Fountainhead is about sticking to your guns, in the face of adversity, or as the Polonius told Laertes,, "to thine own self be true." And don't forget, Polonius ends up dead shortly after saying that.

If you want to read another book about builders having problems with authority and the ruling mob, The Pillars of the Earth, and World Without End both by Ken Follett are very good too.

But be aware, Ms Rand's writings while dissed by some, are considered among the most influential in the world, based on surveys that rank her Atlas Shrugged up there with the Bible. Our own Alan Greenspan was a follower of hers and was at her deathbed.

Once more with Sanding

Today was a do-over. The painting that was done on the carport ceiling was just a big fat mess due to the use of crummy rollers from Lowes. I went to Sherwin Williams and bought good quality woven rollers. We spent the morning sanding all the paint encased lint and then repainting. The carport needs to be as well done as possible because this is the point of entry for the rest of the house. If it looks shoddy, then the whole thing looks shoddy, and we know it's not.

That big mudhole with the machinery is our future driveway, right now we have to "walk the plank" to get to the house or else our shoes will be sucked into the bowels of the earth. The lower picture is our house from the street behind it.

not quite geo thermal

We're moving all the paint to the new house. Now that it's insulated, Pat says it won't get below freezing because the slab is gaining heat from the earth. As he says, "the system is already working." I'm wondering that if that is true, will the opposite also be true, our heat will leak out somewhere? I thought that was what all the fuss about the blue board around the foundation slab was about.

Stiltman

Here's the plaster guy. We ran over to see what was going on after watching Young Victoria (the best movie this season, other than The Princess and the Frog. ) We had a conversation with him, and told him the house in which we are currently living, has all the original plaster, we think it may even have some horsehair in it.

He mentioned that at Glencoe Village, a very nicely restored mill village, the plaster went right up to the bricks in one of the houses he looked at. There was no lathe to hold it.

http://www.ci.burlington.nc.us/index.aspx?NID=653

This was the only link I could find to Glencoe. If you're driving in this area, it is definitely worth a peek.

Our plaster guy, very nicely, even stopped for a mo, so I could get a good picture. Not only is he interesting to watch ramble around the house on these stilts, he has a very nice speaking voice. As we drove away, we mentioned that everyone associated with this house has been a pleasure to watch work and speak to. They are all craftsmen, who do their jobs well. And, Thom, our builder is the one who has brought them all to this project.

Watching him on stilts made me think of that awful Charlie Sheen movie about aliens. Let me see if I can find the link.. It was The Arrival.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115571/

It's a marshmallow world

The insulated hallway and great room.

Sacre le Bleu

Perhaps the most persistent conversation involved in this construction process, other than the money one, is that about mold.

Everything is based on whether or not mold will form. Even our electrical inspection failed the first time because the electrician used a ribbed plastic tube to encase the condensate from the air conditioning unit. The ribs could conceivably hold minute droplets of water which could then turn into mold. It had to be removed and the lines encased in a smooth sheath.

At the end of the installing the wall insulation, Pat asked Jim if he were going to put the plastic sheeting over it as he did in our home twenty years earlier. Nope, that is old thinking. Water may get trapped in there and create mold. The big debate over whether or not to use cellulose was if it would eventually compress, creating pockets in which mold could form.

A house needs to be seen as a living organism. And I think I means it needs to breathe. This modern craze of ,creating a thermal envelope to my way of thinking, seems to simultaneously be creating perfect places for these tiny mold spores to hide, breed, create bacteria and eventually do some sort of cross-species contamination and eventually kill the creator who is also the mortgagee.

And then where would we be?

Big Paint day

Spent the day with one of our daughters and her lovely family painting. Of all the children to offer to help they were our first pick because they are both tall and can reach nooks and crannies out of my reach. (Due to a ridiculous fear of heights and basic balance issues, ladders and I do not get along.)

Everything went well, until the end of the day when we couldn't find the key to lock the house and I remembered BOB playing in the truck. Once I made that connection it was easy to trace a two year old's steps..

One thing I noticed. It was our first day of really being there when big trucks came through blocking traffic to offload the bulldozer to do some grading for the driveway. This followed the water main bursting earlier this week with the attendant fire trucks and before that the Piedmont Gas fellows and all their mighty machines. It occured to me that this sort of thing is a true nuisance to the neighborhood. When we built our first house, we were out in the country on a cul-de-sac at the end of a cul-de-sac. It meant that not only did we get no trick or treaters, we also never disturbed anyone with our building noise.

the Sound of Silence

The insulation is completed. The house now looks like the inside of some freakish stuffed animal. And, it is quiet, very very quiet. Everyone comments on it as they walk around talking in hushed tones. It is like being in a church. The quiet is especially noticeable because while the insulation was being blown in, there were backhoes, bulldozers and ditch witches digging into our yard, destroying our one little magnolia tree so that we could have our electricity and gas. So when the insulation men stopped their annoying whiney blower it was almost at the same time as the trucks leaving and we were left in the blissful peace, no more destruction, no more noise- just us, Thom, and our thoughts.

Of course, next week, after we pass the insulation inspection, the sheetrock and interior plywood will start to go up and then all those vibrations will, again, have something to bounce off of. It won't be until our carpets, sofa and mattresses are installed before they'll start to be re-absorbed.

This is pretty small potatoes compared to what happened in Haiti, but we had a break in the water line when the heavy Piedmont gas trucks crushed the asphalt the city poured over the new line. It caused a very nice little spring right in front of our house.

We were mainly concerned because the temps are so low that unsuspecting drivers might have hit a sheet of ice on the way to work. But, I was told the road was dry for the morning commute.

The sun ain't gonna shine anymore...

Due to the late appearance of Mr. Sun.. the temps didn't rise in time for us to paint. Which was just as well. We were out of food and used the afternoon to go to the grocery store.

"Food, glorious Food,

That's what we all live for."

What would I ever do without Wikipedia!

Back to Work- painting, not shooting

The cold snap is over, the house is completely dried in and so Thom and his crew are taking a couple of days off to work on another project while we get inspected and the insulation crews take over and we're going to paint every afternoon. Will post pics when things are painted. What was that army phrase?

"If it moves, shoot it. If not, paint it."

big box stores

Survived IKEA, barely.

We were sitting there amongst the big boxes waiting for Pat to collect something from the desk. The grandchildren were draped all over the place like those persistent watches. Tater commented it was like COSTCO. I replied that at COSTCO, at least, you got free food all over the place and a good hotdog at the end.

We did get a good deal in the clearance room on a kitchen island that will fit and we know we're going to have to go back at least once and probably twice. I think it would be worth it to take a day off in the middle of the week for the next trip. The Saturday crowds truly make me ooey.

I lied

Didn't make it to Ikea yesterday, but we are going today because it is TOO DAMN COLD to do anything else. In fact, a quick inspection of the house yesterday afternoon revealed that the painting in the cold created some issues. We will have to do a second coat later on in the spring after we've moved in.

However, our carport has been soffited and it looks marvy.

At Ikea we're going to purchase our wardrobes for the bedrooms as well as the new bathroom sink cabinetry for my bathroom. And I may get some more towels too. we'll see how tired we are with it all.

That is Pat wearing his Hogwart's scarf in Gryffindor's colors. He is always distressed when people ask him if he's a graduate of Elon, the local university because they share the same colors.

On the Road Again

Back to Ikea today. I think that maybe the sink we bought for my bathroom isn't going to work and we're triple measuring today and maybe getting a smaller version for my bath. This, so far, has been the biggest glitch of the process. I don't know what happened, but I think maybe the pocket doors on either side of the room eliminated too much wall space. Whatever, I can live with it, worse things will happen, I'm sure.

ROLL TIDE.

A relative sent this in the family email. I have no idea of the origin of it.

We're havin' a heat wave..

The temperature made it up to a balmy 36 today and it was a slow day at the office so Pat took off and decided to paint on the house. He said it was trying to paint with paste but enjoyed being out in the sunshine.

He said it was interesting being there for the whole day, because there was so much foot traffic he didn't understand.

People come and go all day long, wandering around, checking things out. He was pretty sure he knew who the electrical inspector was. He thought he looked like someone who might attend our church, but he was puzzled by the three guys who wandered in, looked around the house and talked about farts before leaving.

Everyone seems to accept this grand central station approach and it reminded me of when I had my children. There were so many people in and out that I often thought that Joe Blow could wander in, don a surgical mask and no one would know the difference.

Now Tom, our contractor, is sick.

January

Happy New Year! We will be taking a break from working on the new house at the new house until it gets above freezing. The paint won't stick to a frozen piece of hardie board.

For the next week we'll be varnishing doors and their trim pieces in the basement of our present house, so the blogs won't be all that interesting...if they ever were.

Sweating in the Cold

There is another type of sweat equity that homeowners can contribute to lower costs. We can do the not pleasant, dusty job of cleaning up the workspace.

We went over in the freezing cold today to do just that. The paint would have frozen on the brushes and we needed to sweep, clean and place cardboard over the worn Tyvek wrap that has done a pretty good job protecting our concrete floor up to now.

It was not fun, it was not nice and we froze to death, but we would rather do this and save our skilled labor wages for making those difficult cuts and precise nailing that makes for our beautiful framing work.

A friend who knows building came by and admired the craftsmanship that has gone into this home. He was most impressed by how much care has gone into every cut and placement of the wood. We are most grateful to our workers for this.

Hotty Toddy AGAIN!

My dear friend came over last night to help us watch the Cotton Bowl (Ole Miss 21-OSU 7) and exchange Christmas presents.

As usual, the talk turned to books and she informed us she was reading The Fellowship - which has nothing to do with hobbits or Gandalf. It is about the Taliesan fellowship of architects formed by FLW.

http://www.amazon.com/Fellowship-Untold-Story-Wright-Taliesin/dp/0060988665/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262520484&sr=8-1

She mentioned Victor Hugo (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables)

"Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book."

THANKS BRAINYQUOTE.COM

And, of course, the conversation wound up with The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. This is the bestselling novel based on Frank Lloyd Wright written in English by a Russian refugee from the Bolshevik revolution. (more about this later.)

I just wanted to get this down now, mainly to brag about Ole Miss and Dexter McCluster.

O,and before my brother notes it, the above picture is not from the Cotton Bowl where Mr. M. made a flying leap into the endzone, but from another game. I couldn't find the picture from yesterday's game on the web.

Painting preparation

We have spent the last week painting soffits, fascia as well as siding. The siding and the fascia needs to be in place before it can be painted. The builders are amused by Pat's painting style. Usually, the painting is one of the last things to be done on the exterior. As soon as our builders put a board up, Pat has it painted.

The soffits present a little different problem, they are on the underside of the overhang. It is very difficult to paint upside down. We considered Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel, and the very thought of doing that made us leery. So, while Pat has been climbing the scaffolding to paint the boards that are in place, I've been pre-priming and putting the finish coat on plywood in the hallway. That means, instead of doing ALL the work upside down, Pat can just touch up the high areas, while I-the height-o-phobic person, handles the lower level soffits.

We are also varnishing the interior, pocket doors in our basement. This is much more pleasant because it isn't so dang cold as the new house although the fumes are a bit much.

There's a picture of our sons-in-law who came over to help Pat move the scaffolding around so he could finish the trellis painting.