Trex or Treat

   Here's one of those questions smug college professors like to ask second year philosophy students. If complete chaos already exists, and things get even more crazy, what do you have?
     The answer, grasshopper, is simple. You have a construction site.

     Ed was all set to go like gangbusters on the Trex deck so that it would be all installed before the windows came this week. He and Rick began sorting out lengths only to discover that there was a huge variance in color between the 16' and the 20' lengths.
    Ed calls Probuild Lumber, who calls Trex, who calls Laura The Rep, who calls us. She says she'll be out the next day to take a look.
    Ed does a re-count and realizes he has enough of the rest to do the balcony deck, and he and Rick start hauling Trex up the stairs completed in the last episode.

 They are using the hidden clips. The clips require a bit of a learning curve, but once they're in the groove (pardon the pun) they move right along. Ed was repeatedly interrupted by several games of speed phone tag with the lumber folks and the Trex people, but by the end of the day they finished the balcony. It's a thing of beauty.

We took a few minutes at the end of the day to go up and just sit. I can tell this will be one of our favorite places in the house. The elk and the turkeys in the pasture don't seem to see us, and view is stunning.







    The next day Laura The Trex Rep showed up, as promised, and agreed that the color and texture of the 20' pieces was unacceptable. She calls Probuild who then calls every supplier west of the Rockies to find replacements. We need 84 of them, and they're not to be had. They can get them in three weeks....
    Construction is kind of like Anatomy 101 only different. The knee bone is connected to the thigh bone. So the Trex needs to go down before the windows go in. The windows have to go in before the trim, which is flared out at the bottom, goes in. The trim has to go on before the exterior wall shingles go on. The shingles need to go up before winter, which is RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!
     Nick and Jim at Probuild made a lot of phone calls ,did some arm twisting, and I'll guess, some pleading,  then called with the very good news that the replacement Trex would be here in three days. Thanks guys!
     It all looks good. What could go wrong? Enter the dumbwaiter. We are installing a dumbwaiter that will go from the basement where wood is stored, to the first and second floors adjacent to the wood stoves. The delivery guy calls from someplace south of Portland.
   "You gonna be home today? We got some kinda elevator for you." , he says.
   "Yes!" I said excitedly, "Do you need directions?"
   "Nope, got it covered." he hangs up without a word of impending doom.
    I take off for the store, and Ed is left to deal with ...The Crate.
   It's smashed big-time. Ed has to call the maker, who has him note the damage on the invoice, then try to make some evaluation of said damage. Will it effect function? Is it just cosmetic? Who knows?
   Monday I sent pictures, with closeups to their service rep, who said there should be no problem and to go ahead with the installation. Fingers crossed, I save the e-mails.

The HVAC guys showed up exactly on time, with everything they needed. Entek Systems out of Longview is a very nice company to deal with. They began to fill the basement with enough stuff to build a battleship. How they build the systems they do and still keep their work area as neat as they do is a mystery to me. I wonder if they do housekeeping...

 The basement is starting to look like a frozen food plant. There are chutes and sheet metal up in the ceiling, and there are still plumbing, electrical, phones and central vac to go. There will be bulkheads that will cover it all, but right now it looks pretty industrial.

 In the meantime, Ed and Rick have been jumping from job to job waiting for the replacement Trex. Monday, they worked on installing the doors. There are six sets of French doors and the laundry door. The front door won't be here for several weeks.

 The PLAN is to train the pets (and their people) to use the laundry door for the daily in and out stuff. The laundry room will probably have tile flooring, or something similarly easy to clean. It's amazing how much sand can stick to wet cat feet!

Tuesday, as promised, the replacement Trex arrived on a Probuild truck. Ed and Rick had already stacked it for loading, and Ed used the forklift tines on the tractor to pick it up. It's a bit more flexible than wood, so picking up this stuff is like getting linguine to stay on a fork. You have to be dead center. Ed got the old Trex on the truck and the new Trex off  without a hitch, so everybody was happy.

Now the priority is to get the decks finished, front and back, before the windows get here. They are scheduled to be delivered Friday, so next week is dedicated to mounting the windows. The back deck is pretty much straight runs. The front deck will be a little trickier because of the curve. That will probably be Saturday, so as they say, film at 11.

  Ed had a pile of cut-offs and by chance noticed some little visitors. They are little iridescent blue-black beetles of some kind. They don't seem to be trying to eat the Trex as much as use it for a lawn chair. It's nice and warm, and it's been a cold overcast summer.

   By yesterday's end, the back deck was pretty much done, with the exception of the portion off the dining room doors. I got pretty excited about setting up a pair of chairs and sharing the new porch with Ed. Soon the sunshine was gone, the overcast was back, but we savored the moment anyway.

   By midmorning most of the dining room portion of the deck was finished. By this afternoon Ed will be starting on the front deck. Saturday is supposed to be warm (we'll see) and we can bend the sections for the front steps.