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Wednesday, June 1, 2005

The Spray-On Foam guys were back for their second day of insulating. We got a chance to see the sprayer suit up and apply the expandable foam in the basement

while his partner sliced off the previous day's work even with the studs. Jeff, our audio-video-security guy, made a brief appearance to install a siren in the garage. The siders continued up the east side of the house.

Saturday, June 4, 2005

Insulators finished up Thursday and we are impressed. The house has a sealed-in feel and it sounds less echoey as we talk and move about. They'll be back after sheetrock to apply insulation to the ceilings from the upper crawlspaces. The

siders finished the east side except for the master bedroom level. A window arrived and was installed Friday to replace

the one stolen in the great-room only adding to that sealed-in feel. Expectations for the upcoming week are to pass the insulation inspection Tuesday, have sheetrock delivered midweek and maybe have installation beginning, and most important, Joy goes back in June 8th for what we hope will be the final surgery to remove cancerous breast tissue not removed during a lumpectomy on May 11.

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

How many things can you pack into a day? The surgeon made short work of revisiting Joy's lumpectomy in the afternoon, removing more tissue while Joy was put half-under in less than an hour, stitching her up, equiping her with an ice pack and some good drugs, and sending her home by 6:30. The nausea was non-existent this time, thank goodness, but half-asleep, she sensed more of the pain. We'll be waiting impatiently for lab results so she can start her radiation treatments within a few weeks. At the house, the insulation inspection passed and sheetrock was delivered.

The delivery was an impressive display of skill in itself with a long-armed crane and a wireless operator directing sheets through the front door, down the hill to the back deck, and through the third level bedroom window (yes, they temporarily removed the window). Once the delivery was wrapped up the installers wasted no time getting half the house hung. Joy, holding her ice-pack firmly

to her side, said it would be tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment if

she wasn't allowed to see the sheetrock progress, so we hit the road with the folks and marveled at the changes that happen when the skeleton grows skin. Something as simple as the kitchen pantry takes on a new dimension when you can no longer look through the two-by-fours. Mt. Hood peered over the last of some wispy cloud remnants to end our busy day.

Thursday, June 9, 2005

Joy sat around and healed. Sheet rocking and north-side siding continued. Spanish radio blared accordians.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Sheetrock hanging was completed Friday and we were happy to see protective paper spread over every inch of the floors. Not only because that signaled the start of taping and mudding for next week, but because we could skip a weekend on the cleaning inside. Instead, between rain showers we picked up piles of discarded siding scraps, empty Vulkem cartridges, some left over foam insulation, coffee cups and pop cans and those little plastic hot-sauce packs.

Monday, June 13, 2005

The first day of a week full of sheetrock mudding and taping began today. Simultaneously, the siders got closer to finishing the north side of the house. We're trying to get the garage floor concrete poured, but there's siding material sitting secure and dry in the way. And even if we moved the siding material outside,

it might be in the way of Sean, who may be planning to dig trenches to connect our sewer and water lines. This is where we need to settle down and let the people do their jobs in the time they need. Joy's been playing with paint colors, wallpaper and tile. She's afraid all her paint layers may be filling in the simulated wood grain on a couple pieces of the siding.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Joy is in the clear. No more cancerous tissue was found beyond the margin of her last surgery. Radiation treatments are on the horizon as an extra security, but you can guess we we're very pleased with the doctor's call today. Thanks again for all your well-wishing. Sheetrock tape goop dried while James got higher on the north side siding.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

We got a little surprise Thursday night when we discovered a nice, new garage door had been installed way before we expected. Our range of reactions spanned disbelief to hopping mad. The door company gave us no warning and with no concrete poured for a garage floor, no sheetrock

texturing or general painting done in the garage, it's a bit early to have a damn garage door installed. We called our respective contractors and they all said they could work with it in place, but if any one had said it would prevent them from doing their best work, we would have asked the company to remove the door.

James got the north side siding done and has nearly completed the final side, the front (west-facing) side. Sheetrock tapers put a couple more coats on over the past few days. Joy raised a few eyebrows with her threat to paint the house red, but calmed most of the neighbors' fears by settling on a green tone to go with the hillside setting. The red may still be used as an accent.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

James completed all the siding over the last few days and is close to wrapping up cedar installation over the main level deck and front entry. Trex is next for the decks. Joy met with Kurt, our sheetrocker,

to go over the areas where texture will be applied normally, lightly or not at all. She's been struggling right up to the last minute deciding where she might like wallpaper versus paint. Her solution may be to leave many walls untextured but painted

to allow for the papering someday. Since Kurt starts texturing walls Thursday morning, she doesn't have the luxury to think about it much longer. Our painter, Gary, will be cornering her soon to get color selections to start painting next week. She's got a lot on her mind. We got up to the house about 8:30 tonight and the heavy sky of spotty clouds took on the colors of the sunset.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Sunday, June 26, 2005
Kurt completely finished texture application Friday. Joy gave Gary paint color choices to prepare for Monday's interior work. So that gave her the weekend to stew. Three trips to the house over Friday evening and the weekend and a phone call to change at least one color with Gary will hopefully produce the results she's visualizing.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Gary actually showed today short-handed but managed to get all the ceilings painted along with the whole garage and

some of the walls in the rest of the house. Joy approved of her "cantaloupe" house, but said it could have been a shade lighter. I told her it will be a shade lighter when all the plastic is off the windows and the sun comes streaming in. She probably wanted to slap me at that point in our conversation. It may get slightly more melon-like at night however.

Continue on to July