My new reality

Here is one other thing I learned, or rather, relearned, while building a house with my son Dan and D-i-L Anna. If a hose or cord can get tangled or caught, it will. It’s the natural law of physics you never learned in college and it is beyond annoying. Whether a vacuum cleaner hose or electrical cord, a compressor hose or a super long extension cord or a garden hose, it WILL tangle. If pulled, it will snag on any available corner. Knots are inevitable. No amount of proper coiling will avoid eventual disaster and frustration. Just know this and accept. Move on.

Here is the latest update on construction: We have just completed a week long visit to PA applying 2 inch polyfoam insulation over each exterior wall and building extension frames around each window to accommodate the extended wall depth. The 4x8ft sheets of insulation were held in place with 1x3in or 1x4in firring strips/strapping screwed into the interior 2×6 studs. The strapping will also serve to anchor the siding and trim. How is this done? Basically, Greg stands on the manlift barking orders while I run around cutting insulation to fit, trimming window extension frames, cutting the firring strips to length, feeding him materials and screws and the level and caulk and tools as necessary. And, I’m up and down the ladder to make the handoff easier. And up and down the outer makeshift stairs to turn the generator on/off or fetch more insulation and strapping piled outside. And untangling cords. To be fair Greg was working on high for days at a time; at least I had access to the portapotty! It was an exhausting but fulfilling week and the weather was excellent. Dan and Anna worked on the lower level windows and also applied metal flashing to the sill plate. Oh, and more Zip taping. The house now looks like a shiny, silvery Tudor held together with thousands of nails, screws, and miles of Zip tape. It will also conform with very new building codes recommending increased R-value. We are now ready for window installation later this month.

Another big step forward was the application of the roof shingles. Dan and Anna hired an outside contractor for this because no sane person would want to do that job on a steep roof. No shame there as we have shingled plenty of roofs in the past. There will be other outsourced jobs in the future, work we hate or can be done better, faster, and cheaper by others. Well, we’ll see if it’ll be cheaper. Nevertheless, progress!!! The house should be weather sealed soon enough.

At week’s end we attended a local 70th birthday celebration for a friend of Anna’s family. Charlie loves music so this was a fabulous backyard concert featuring a fantastic acoustic guitar artist, Trevor Gordon Hall #trevorgordonhall, followed by a fun bluegrass band. We’re making friends down there and relaxing more (check out The Rising Sun near Quakertown for excellent bison steaks). We then returned home for another break and managed to catch peak leaf color! Lovely!