Child Labor Violations

We had to babysit our grandson whilst the parents went to church this morning. (He's under the weather with his allergies)

So, of course, this highly allergic, asthmatic child was dying to go outside while Pat sawed the death wood; I'm assuming so he could better inhale the deadly dust. I wouldn't let him do that, so I made him stay inside with me while I varnished the inner trim around the doors. He then decided to pass the time jumping in the piles of sawdust which were strewn all over the place, so that he could breath those particles while simultaneously ensuring that my varnish would be all lumpy and dirty.

I had two choices, give up or put him to work. I chose the latter and he did a bang up job vacuuming. But his quest for death wasn't over. He had just put a plastic bag over his head when his mother returned. Thankfully, she knows what he is like and didn't yell at me.

Hello Dave

This is the view of our somewhat creepy laundry appliances. Since we can't stand the constant scrutiny, when we walk from the hall to the great room, until we figure out how to hide them, we'll just close the door to that bathroom.

It's hard to say goodbye

We're nearing the end of construction, Thom is moving out his tools, and all the talk has shifted from avoiding mold to getting our certificate of occupation (C.O.) Our daughter, who had Thom and his crew remodel her home, told us she went through Thom detox. They really missed having him around when it was completed. But, he's going on a mission to build outhouses in Columbia in March and we want to move in before we're ninety.

Building a house is almost the most horrific thing a couple can take on. As with raising children, you have no real idea of the final cost, either monetarily or emotionally. And, as with child rearing, you want a final product that is honest and won't nickle and dime you to death right when you go on Social Security.

We were so fortunate to have Thom, the Brians, and his younger fellow, Gabriel build this for us. They are local guys who do good work. We know where they live and they stand behind every screw in every piece of plywood.

When we started talking to Thom about this project, Pat mentioned that it was important for him that all the screws be horizontal to maintain the FLW quality. As the work has progressed, we came to understand that the positioning of the screw heads was not nearly important as the mitered joints, precision joiner work and care in choosing which piece of wood goes where.

This is a quality house from top to bottom. But, banks don't understand quality. They understand and lend money on bathrooms and square footage.

Hence the debacle of the past five years, when the houses got bigger, and I think shoddier, sold for "flipping" purposes and built by illegal workers who had no stake in the long term results. They're just trying to send money back home.

Right now we live in a hundred year old house. It is as solid now as when it was built. Hopefully someone a hundred years from now will have the same apprecation for our little house.

A tiny Lenten miracle

We took delivery of our Sear's appliances today. The delivery people were lovely. And, most impressive. They hand carried the reefer in using a strap upon which they balanced it. As I watched them navigate around the Brians' beautifully mitered corners without touching any of them, I made a note to cover the corners when we move. Our sons in law are lovely, helpful people who work hard for society - one is a high school teacher, the other the District Attorney for our county-good fathers and husbands...but I just don't trust them to not damage my corners.

The stacking laundry is a bit disconcerting though. As one walks down the hallway toward the front door, there are two oculi looking at you. I immediately thought of Hal, in 2001, A Space Odyssey. I hope we don't wake up one morning to find the furniture in charge.

A double dose of guilt

This is the post I almost didn't write because of guilt.

In the picture depicting Brian trimming the shower, you'll note a different wood.

This is the wood we ordered from a company in Florida to use on our steps that lead from our bedroom doors to the terrace. It was the cheapest wood Pat could find that fit our parameters. It had to look good, last without being finished and not overly expensive.

When the fellow delivered it, only then did we learn it was Brazilian Walnut from a 400 year old tree. We have looked upon it with reverence ever since. It is so beautiful that Thom suggested we use some of it to frame the shower and it looks lovely. However, when Pat and I were at our daily visit, immediately my nostrils started hurting and Brian mentioned the sawdust was extremely acidic. My throat hurt and we left. Pat looked it up on the internet and found out that the sawdust from this particular tree can kill you. It must be cut outdoors, you must wear a mask and you must be extremely careful because you can get brown lung disease from it. Nature's revenge.

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Working_Safely_with_Ipe.html?printfriendly

Pat was so distressed, he printed this out and ran a copy up to Thom, catching him on the way home.

Brian and I were talking about Ipe, which is the official name, and he asked what Ipe meant, I replied, "death wood," and he countered with "wood of despair," and the final theory is this wood is prevalent in one of Dante's rings of hell.

It is beautiful, but to my mind, barely worth the risk. Now you know what we didn't.

The final frontier

SPACE... is not infinite in a usonian. It is at a premium, which is why our kitchen cabinets have no raised decorative molding, there is no molding on the floors or ceilings, just trim around the windows and doors.

Thom's crew was presented with a problem. How to make the access doors to the radiant heat tubes accessible, and yet not burdened with clumsy, instrusive hinges and latches. They decided to use spring load magnets so that the door will just snap into place and a sharp pop with the knuckles release them again.

A major change, or back to the future

We want to move our fireplace. This is easier than it seems because it doesn't have a chimney. We want to put it at the end of the kitchen cabinets with the side open to the dining room. Yesterday, during our Sunday work, Pat and I moved it. As we sat on our temporary sofa made up of Thom's pile of cement bags, I realised that was exactly where the Pope-Leighey house fireplace is located.

I know in our first drawings of our house, we had it there, can't remember why we moved it,The top pic shows the old location, the bottom the new. Now if Thom will just agree it's do-able...

In other news, Pat was atop the high trellis painting the last bit of the fascia. He didn't relish the work and afterwards commented it looks higher from up there than from down below. I told him it looked pretty high to me.(I was, as usual, on the ground)

And for the final bit, here is the trellis that defines the space between the upper portion of the house to the lower great room.