Chapter 2:The Pumpkin Changes to a Carriage

Now that the plumbing is signed off, Ed took the last steps to hook the sewer lines to the live septic system. Once that was done he shoveled all that dirt back into the trench. And take it from me...well actually from Ed since he did the work... when it rains hard for two days, that dirt is really heavy!

He had so much fun shoveling all that dirt he went right down to the pasture and started digging out rootballs for cucumber vines. For those of you not familiar, cucumber vines are Washington's version of kudzu vine. They have rootballs as big as a Gold's Gym Exercise ball. He dug some of them with the backhoe on the tractor, but some of them were in inaccessible areas, so he dug them up with a shovel. Needless to say, at the end of the day his back was pretty sore. I volunteered to walk on his back, but he declined saying that probably wouldn't be a good idea. Whatever could he mean!?

In the meantime, I was having fun pretending to be the Fairy Godmother, trying to turn the Cinderella garage doors into carriage doors.

I bought Valspar Ultra Premium exterior paint. It's thick, high quality paint with very good coverage. I chose Pale Cordovan for the base coat, and Natural Cork for the contrast (rails and stiles). I also got a quart of black to mix in with the tint and glaze for the wood grain definition, and for detail painting later. First I painted the base coat. We wanted it to look like cedar. After the base coat dried, I mixed 1 qt glaze with 2 oz of the Pale Cordovan, 2 oz of the Natural Cork, and a splash of black . I rolled that mixture over the base coat, in 3' sections, and wiped it with a damp rag. Once that was dry, the pumpkin effect was toned down a little, and there was a little definition to the grain.

Sunday after church, I got my grid and my pencil and started drawing the design. Once I had all three doors drawn out I spent the last hour putting tape on the first door so that Monday I could get up bright and early and start painting. I was stoked!

I got up Monday, went out to start painting, and almost every single piece of tape had come right off and was in a heap at the foot of the garage door. Between the rough surface of the door and the humidity, the tape had just floated to the ground. That turned out to be a good thing because had I tried to roll the paint with the rough surface, the paint would have bled under the tape and been a horrible mess. I just got out a brush and followed my little pencil lines, and painted the first coat of contrast. I was pretty happy with how the first coat came out...a little light on the color, but I was thinking that when I put the glaze coat over it, it would be fine. So I did all three doors, and went to bed dreaming of an equally charming Tuesday.

The next morning, I got up, did some household chores, and went out to paint. I mixed one qt of glaze and 1 cup of black, the recommended ratio, and began to paint. For the glaze, you paint on a small section, say 3', and texture, in this case, wipe with a slightly damp rag. Well the darned stuff was really really black. So I wiped some off, and then wiped some more off. I finally got it to where it didn't look like an old tire, and went to the next section. By the time I had half of one door done, Ed and I agreed this was not what we wanted. Now what? Do I just put on another coat of the contrast coat? Do I drive two hours to go get a different color? Do I fiddle with the paint I have to see if I can make it work? Yeah! Let's try that! There was about 3/4 of the gallon of the contrast color, Natural Cork left. I stirred in about 1 c. of the black, and started to re-paint. Well, that worked out just fine! So I went ahead and painted all three doors with that mixture, and we're pretty happy with the result. As you can see, the sun came out to bless the doors, which is pretty amazing since we have had over three inches of rain in the last four days. Rains here all the time.

Cinderella's Door

Ed worked on window and door trim this weekend. The side trim is narrower at the top and wider at the bottom. This line echos the front columns and overhang, and will tie everything together nicely. Ed cut the trim pieces from the cedar boards that we painted a week ago, then I primed the cut sides. After they were dry, up they went. It is a little tough to see here up against the felt paper, but the green trim will stand out well once the shingles are up.

The same theme is carried through the windows on the back. These were existing windows to the original garage. I primed the sill today.

We decided to wait to replace the existing plain garage doors until the entire construction project is done and we can re-evaluate finances. The existing doors are well-built and functional. They just don't look like craftsman doors. So I thought I would try to paint them with some detail. The worst that can happen is that it can look horrible and we repaint them a solid color.

After searching the internet for different ideas, I came up with my own. I wanted it to have the rail and stile look, but reflect the eyebrow dormer detail over the window on the second story.

If Cinderella had a garage door, this is what it would look like. Plain but functional, hardworking but not very pretty...and needing a bath.

But then....the Fairy Garage Door Opener appeared....and...poof!

And the Handsome Prince drove his Jeep inside and they lived happily every after....oh..sorry..got carried away. And no, it doesn't turn back into a grungy door if somebody's not home before midnight.

But yeah, I can paint that. Dark brown for the rails and stiles and light brown for the panels, black for the wrought iron hinges and door handles.

So I TSP'd the garage doors today, and first thing tomorrow, I'll drive into town for some paint. I went outside and drew it on the garage door itself to make sure it wasn't going to look silly, and it looked darned good! Unfortunately most of the pencil came off during the TSP process. Yes, Mom, I wore safety glasses, and it's a good thing too, cause I splashed that stuff all over!

Hopefully by tomorrow night, I'll have the base coat on and dry, and can get out my grid and start plotting the contrast color.

April Come She Will

April has definitely had a mind of her own. The first breath of spring was felt three weeks ago, with stunning weather,with high 70s and beautiful sunshine. Wahoo! Get the paint! So we broke out the rollers, the sunscreen and the hats and got to work.

The trick is to paint these trim pieces before putting them up, thus significantly reducing time and risk on scaffold that is very high. Remember when Every Mom said "Get out of that tree, you're gonna fall and break your neck!" This is way beyond that.

After we made this stack, we made another just like it. It was so warm that by the end of the day, the paint was sufficiently dry that we could bring the boards in and stack them in the garage.

But spring can be a bit capricious, and Easter weekend was cold and wet. The Monday after Easter, it hailed and rained all day...mostly hail. Tuesday wasn't much better. Ed managed to get some of his seedlings planted though. Every year we get several hundred seedling native trees from the conservation district and plant them. We like the cedars but the elk eat them like I eat sunflower seeds. Spruce are also native, but are very stickery. The good news is that most of the animals leave them alone, so Ed has planted a lot of spruce.

This last weekend it was stunningly beautiful all weekend. Sunny...warm...green...it would have been easy to just laze about and soak it in, but the list of things to do is growing exponentially. Ed put in the furring strips..is that the right term?..for the flare at the bottom of the wall. You can see the TV satellite dish right behind Ed. What you don't see is the old satellite dish for the internet that he had to take down. Who would have ever guessed that this year's wasps had decided that the hollow insides was a good place to start a nest... fortunately for Ed they aren't ravenously vicious this time of year. I hate wasps and stood far far away.

After the furring strips went up, we put plywood sheathing over it. Once we put the shingles on, it will give the exterior walls a nice soft flare.

I will be the shingler (shinglette.. shinglee..) at least for the first 15' or so, depending on how comfortable I get on the scaffolding. Between shingles, insulation and sheetrock, our spring and summer is pretty much full. I don't see myself getting much stained glass done any time soon.

But I also know this is the part where things start moving faster. Friday I drive to Portland to Lumber Liquidators pick up hardwood flooring. Soon, I'll need to find tile. Blink, and it'll be September and we'll be moving in.

Electrical Is Done!

After a month of mundane electrical work, the rough electrical and plumbing has passed inspection. The Jennair range is here, the downdraft vent is installed. All of the can lights are wired in. There are 220 heaters in the bathroom and the living room. There is a dedicated circuit for the microwave and one for the fridge. Ed changed out the main electrical panel. Outside lights are wired in, even out on the tiny patio. The State inspector said it all looks good. The County inspector signed off on the rough plumbing.

Now the fun stuff starts. This is where a week-end's work really shows some visual results. Once we start with the insulation and the sheetrock, we can get that last window in and ..EEEEEKKK

aaah.. the sound of brakes!

Ed has already planted over 50 spruce seedlings this year, and has about 100 more trees to go..hemlock, cedar and pines. I ordered 50 maple seedlings, so that's my project. Those all need to go in before warm weather hits..I think we're covered there. Yesterday Ed spent most of the day with Darin and his assistants from the Water Conservation District, while they surveyed our creekbed, for some bank restoration work.

I'm pretty sure Ed said he wanted to do some of the outside trim work..soffits? ..before he started with the insulation and sheetrock.

One step at a time, and all in the right order. It's hard to visualize actually moving into the studio apartment, much less the finished house. All in due time.

Asthetics vs Mechanics

Isn't it fun to to browse through the latest design idea magazines, come up with what you think you want, and insist someone else put the pieces together? Reality check, folks! Those lofty ideas remind me of congress..who needs to read the directions? And the magazine designers have budgets riviling the stimulus package.

Our apartment is just under 700 sq feet, and the kitchen area has an island with a breakfast bar.

Dream: Let's put the the cooktop in the island and I won't have my back to the room when I'm cooking.

Reality: It has to be vented somehow.

Dream: I didn't want a vent hood over the island...it would take up so much room visually.

Reality: That, boys and girls, means downdraft venting.

Dream: I can store stuff in the island cabinet.

More Reality: The motor and stuff for the vent eat up the entire cabinet space.

Nightmare: I'll need an oven..somewhere..

Reality: Better start doing your homework.

After a foray into the internet world of appliances, I figured out that the only folks that make a slide-in downdraft glass topped electrical unit with an oven is.....Jenn-air.

I show Ed all the stuff I found out and he says, "Great. Jenn-air it is. Where do I put the cutout for the vent?" Um..... I dunno. Can't find a schematic on the website to tell me, and finally we realize they provide a template in the box, which means we have to buy the unit before we make the cutout.

So after another bit of searching, and printouts in hand, off I went to Lowe's.

Now we could have ordered this unit from a company in New York and saved $300. and that's nothing to sneeze at. Shipping was free, and the website didn't look fly-by-night, although the weird thing about the internet is...you never can tell. So being the cautious creature that I am, I decided to go down to Lowe's and see what they would do. I took my printouts from Home Depot (a $100. less than Lowe's) and from the east coast internet place ( a lot less) to see if they would bargain. Well, they did! They didn't match the east coast price, but they did go about halfway between the Home Depot price and the east coast price. I was pretty happy, and ordered the range unit. We'll pick it up in about two weeks.

He's My Big Cat Daddy

Sunday, Ed and I took the dog for her usual walk..down the tractor road, through the pasture, and back up by the barn. As we walked by the creek, right by where the garden had been, Ed noticed some animal prints in the sand. Really big animal prints. From a really big animal.

In a state of I-can't-believe-it, I made a plaster cast of the prints. The internet says most mountain lions have prints that are 3-31/2" wide. These are almost 5". He must be finding lots to eat because he's a big boy.

Mittens couldn't believe it either. It was like a cat Holy Grail! We all decided to go walking on the buddy system, and never at night!

Monday, Ed got up on the roof, filled the lines with water, bled out the air, and pressurized the lines. Perfect....until...we heard a horrible whoosh. Luckily it was only the temporary plug at the end of the lines that blew. All the important stuff was tight and leak free.

Can It!

This winter has been a doozy. We've had to step back and assess winter weather damage, and move the garden away from the creek. Ed had a nasty and lingering head cold, and was finishing plumbing in bitter temperatures. Spring will be a welcome sight this year!

We now have the garden completely moved up near the house and have the fence installed. We cut a chicken-door through the fence from the original hen yard. The girls have discovered how to go through with no problem and are busy destroying the grass in the new area. I did have to enclose the blueberry bushes so they wouldn't dig around those, since they have very shallow roots. I figure they'll have it all gone in about 8 weeks, just in time to re-enclose my little feathered rototillers in their summer pen and plant spring vegetables in the new garden. They can stay in the summer condo until the growing season is over, then tour the garden in the winter and clean up for the next spring.

In spite of being pulled off for this project and that chore, Ed has finally finished the water supply lines! He pressure tested it on Tuesday without a hitch. Unfortunately the sleet we had on Tuesday prevented him from getting up on the roof to fill ...whatever it is he fills... with water for the final test.

He spent the rest of Tuesday installing can lights in the ceiling. Here's a little building hint for non-builders like myself. I was the one going to the store to buy can lights. They had some in kits, but not enough kits to do all our lights, so for the rest of them, I just bought all the various components, making sure they all matched. Ed installed the component lights first. Parts were missing, bent..whatever. The ones in the kits, which is what he did this weekend, were much easier. They were all the same, all the stuff was there. So my rule for building the house will be..... buy the kits, the price works out to the same, and if they don't have enough kits, order them and wait. It's worth it in irritation factor. Who knew?

Once he gets the water test done and the rest of the electrical in, we can call for an inspection and start..drumroll please... insulation and sheetrock!