The Big Guns

Thom has been pondering our white spots on the floor, Pat has been scraping at them, and I've been using all sorts of solvents from Murphy's Oil soap to WD40 to lighter fluid.

Thom, as usual, thinks before he acts unlike we, the A.D.D. twins. He called in the experts and went to the source, Chandler Concrete, who sent out their engineer. He looked at it and decided to send to Raleigh for the bigshot to come and look at it. This is their product and they are taking our leopard floor seriously.

So, we have abandoned serious floor cleaning and waxing until this gets resolved. We still have tons of work to do, I have to paint the utility shed, and Pat has to climb the high ladder, (which Not So Young Brian attempted to steal when they were clearing out their things-you'd think a minister of the Lord wouldn't even contemplate such chicanery).

And, I can wash down the walls with Murphy's oil soap and clean kitchen cabinets so that as soon as our open house is completed, we can start moving in that night.

Getting toward the End

That bottle of Windex under the FLW art glass indicates that we are in the clean up stage of the project. Thom and the Brians have finished the inside work and have turned their eyes toward the steps that will lead down from the bedroom to the interior courtyard.

The window in the picture is, indeed, square. It is the photographer that is off balance, hence the odd angle.

The fireplace has been set in place with Thom's cabinetry work encasing it, and Pat's sanctuary/head/laundry room is finished. We're getting our concrete slab under the carport today, and once the heating guy is done, we should be facing Thom's final exams which will hopefully end with the passing grade of the Certificate of Occupancy. One glitch in the matrix involves the floor. We have random tiny white spots in the sealant coat. We can't figure out what it is. Chili's which has the same exact floor, put in by the same exact company doesn't have them. We have googled this issue and will try some of their suggestions, which vary from re-applying the sealant to waiting 15 years for the issue to resolve itself. By then our cataracts will be so bad, we won't see it at all.

We will host e a neighborhood open house on March 20th 2-4pm, before we move our stuff in. The story is the house, not my banged up furniture. ( No snacks, we're out of dough)

Plywood

When the Pope-Leighey was built back in the late 30's early 40's plywood was the new kid on the block in terms of construction. FLW made great use of it. He was using a basic sort of plywood, that is seen in the old summer camp cabinetry we remember from our youth. He used it for the kitchen cabinets, the cut out windows and the furniture.

Here is the best link to interior shots of the house and you can see how ubiquitous plywood is therein.

http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/flw_rt/Virginia/Pope_Leighey_03/pope_leighey_03.htm

We're using much more plywood than that. Plywood is encasing our house, both on the outside as well as the in. However, plywood has come into its own, and it can be beautiful. We're using a very pale domestic birch plywood on the interior walls, cherry plywood in the cabinets that Thom and the Brians are building and the brown/black stained cabinets from Ikea are birch (known for it's strength).

The combinations of the wood are beautiful indeed and I believe right in line with what FLW would have liked.

Here's a history of plywood copied from city soup. What about those Pharaohs?

The 1993 Hardwood Plywood Reference Guide, a publication of the Hardwood Plywood & Veneer Association states that, "in 1830, the piano industry became the first North American industry to use plywood. Wood & Wood Products Magazine's Centennial issue (1996) says that, "in 1890, the rotary cutting process was invented," and as a result of mechanization, plywood became increasingly affordable.

In 1929 a pamphlet published by the National Committee on Wood Utilization noted, "Plywood is a modern term describing an old product which did not receive serious technical and economic consideration until its adaptability to airplane and marine consideration was developed during exhaustive tests at the Forest Products Laboratory."

The word "plywood" which was created in America, received official sanction in dictionaries printed a few years later. That's plywood... veneers on the other hand, dated back to the early Egyptians in the times of the Pharaohs... about 4,000 years ago.

-citysoup.ca

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.