Will Work for Lobstah

Too busy to blog these days, but at least that means that things are getting done. The stairs are being formed before our very eyes, and so far they look great. We're still in the town's work order queue to switch out our water valve, but we hear Wednesday could be our lucky day. The concrete basement floor staining and sealing is still a bit of a question mark, but we're hopeful that will be resolved this week as well. We're thinking Sandlot Gray for a color, but more importantly we're hoping it'll happen quickly.

Stairs being formed- note the picture printed out and taped up as a guide.

There are some tall places to paint in our house. Good thing Anthony is tall.

We brought in our personal labor force again this week. My parents arrived on Tuesday and the only times I've seen them put down their paintbrushes so far were to help me with school tasks (grading papers and packing up my classroom) and for Natalie's baptism and our Father's Day dinner. Anthony and the two of them have been working non-stop painting the walls, trim and interior doors.

My mom finishing painting the kitchen.

My dad: painting doors is back-breaking work.

The paint decision has been a bit scary, which it shouldn't be since it's probably the easiest thing in our house that we can change. I've been collecting and staring at paint chips for months now, and finally had to commit. Of course, just when you've made a decision someone (like the paint store guy, Ken) has to step in and tell you their dissenting opinion, like that your yellow is too bright. So far I'm really happy with most of the colors. However, I did end up back at the paint store on Saturday to let Ken know that he was right about my yellow and could he please help me lighten it? (He tried his best.) All in all though the paint is making the place feel more put-together.

Natalie in her first-try yellow room.

Anthony's family came in on Friday and his dad joined in the fun on Saturday while Mali, Jeanie, Natalie and I drove up to Ikea to pick up the final piece of countertop, which Anthony and my dad then cut and placed on Sunday.

Anthony's dad filling in nail holes. For the record I did offer him knee pads.

Full speed ahead!

-J

Hurricanes Shmurricanes

The extra hardware going into the house is amazing. Someone made a comment to make sure we get hurricane clips on the roof. Well, we've got you beat. We have 1" diameter threaded rods that are anchored in the foundation, that are connected to wood beams via ginormous plates, that are connected all the way up to those hurricane clips with metal strapping.

These brackets (~2' long) screw into the 1" diameter threaded rods in the cement wall and connect to the vertical beams with a 'large' number of nails.

And this is after we removed a window from the back wall so we wouldn't have to put structural steel in.

Speaking of nails, they are going through nails like crazy. The new Mass building codes require nails (a certain kind of funky ring and spiral shank nail) every 3" on all sheathing edges as well as additional nails every 6" (I think) on the interior of the pieces.

A view of the exterior wall at the junction of two pieces of plywood. Got nails...?

Thus, there are corners of the house where multiple lines of silver dot-like 'coins' (the nail heads have a coin-like pattern on the head so the inspectors can see, from the outside, what nail was used) all come together.

...We do. Lines of nails mark the corners of the house where plywood pieces meet. I'm not going to dare a hurricane to show up... but I don't expect the walls to fly apart all 'Florida-style' either.

And our mortgage appraiser didn't think a new house was worth anything more than a 50 year old one...at least we have more metal.

-A